+ In Memoriam - Ruth Holmquist +
Psalm 121; Job 19:23-27; Romans 8:18-30; John 11:25–27
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
“The Musician”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
There’s a hymn in our Lutheran Service Book that ends this way…
O Spirit, who didst once restore
Thy Church that it might be again the bringer of good news to men,
Breath on Thy cloven Church once more,
That in these gray and latter days
There may be those whose life is praise,
Each life a high doxology
To Father, Son, and unto Thee.
As I thought about our dear sister in Christ, Ruth, this week, her life, her faith in Christ our Savior, his gifts of music through her, I thought of that last phrase…”each life a high doxology.”
That’s a fitting description of Ruth’s life and faith in Christ: By God’s grace, Ruth’s life was a high doxology, a hymn of praise to God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Whether you knew Ruth for only a few measures of life, or over the course of many pages, all of us have been blessed by her love and care in Christ, a card or phone call, a prayer in bible study, a beautiful church garden, and especially God’s gift of music that shared with us.
It was God, the musician who filled her heart, soul, ears, and mind with his mercy, grace, and redemption in Jesus. And it was through God’s gift of music, that Ruth filled our lives with the joy and praises of Christ crucified and risen.
Ruth lived her life like a good Lutheran hymn. Now, a good Lutheran hymn has a few necessary ingredients. A good, strong beginning, a closing doxology, and in between that first and final verse, a good Lutheran hymn is full of the joy and peace and salvation that comes to us in Christ crucified and risen. And all throughout, it points you to Jesus.
That’s the way it was for Ruth. She had a good, strong and blessed beginning when our Lord, on the day of her Baptism, spoke his saving words, poured his saving water over her, and placed his holy name upon her. Ruth lived in the words of the psalmist, David. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
As life went on, each bar, measure, and turn of the page…Ruth continued to sing the praises of the Lord who called her, as he calls you, out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
She sang God’s praises with children and grandchildren. But of course, Ruth would be the first to tell you though that her love of music and love for her family came from the love of God the Father for her. Christ’s love in giving his life for her on the cross and rising again three days later was the source; by his grace and love, she was pleased to be one of his instruments.
After all, Ruth knew and confessed that it was our gracious Lord who composed her life, like a master musician, as Paul says in Romans 8, that for those who love God all things work together for good. for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Ruth lived as we live by our Lord’s gracious, saving, justifying calling. God calls us, as he did Ruth to faith in Christ Jesus. To rejoice in his life given, laid down, and raised up again for you. We’re also given various callings in life. Here in our Lord’s house, some are called to play, the rest of us are called to sing. God called Ruth to bless her church family, here at Beautiful Savior, with her love of Jesus and his gift of music.
Ruth sang and played God’s praises with countless children in Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and Christmas programs. Whether she was in the church garden, leading ladies bible study, or sitting behind the organ, God’s praises surrounded her service to our Lord and his people here these past 50 years. Ruth took to heart Paul’s words in Colossians 3. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Again, Ruth would be quick to tell you it was not me, but Christ who lives in me. That’s exactly what makes Ruth’s life like a good Lutheran hymn. Her life was one full of verse after verse after verse pointing to Christ’s gracious love for her and for you. Verse after verse of thanks and praise to Jesus who is the resurrection and the life, and through his death and resurrection promises and gives eternal life to Ruth and to you.
Every good hymn, though, has an end. And sadly for us, so did our time together with Ruth in this life. But even there in the last days of her life, there was doxology, praise to God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
How can that be, we wonder? How can someone suffering with cancer, losing strength before our eyes, and growing weaker by the day…how can there be praise to God in moments like that?
Do you know the answer? Ruth sure did. Ruth prayed and heard the Scriptures and her favorite hymns and psalms. Why? Ruth knew the answer wasn’t found within her, but in Christ our savior. Ruth knew what Job knew so long ago in his suffering. And so she sang and confessed with Job…
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.
These words are what gave Ruth hope in the midst of her illness, suffering, and death. That her death and sin and disease don’t get the last verse of the hymn of her life, nor of yours. Ruth knew and believed and sang the good news that Jesus, her Redeemer and yours, has already conquered death for her and for you. Jesus paid for all her sins and yours on the cross. Jesus rose again victorious three days later for her and for you.
Ruth knew that Jesus did all of this so that one day when the prayer that she prayed so often - come quickly, Lord Jesus - when that prayer would come true, Jesus would call her home to be with him. And that our Lord Jesus would be with her as he is with all the saints, until that day when He returns to her grave and raise her from the dead as surely as he rose from the dead.
Ruth believed and sang the good news that she too will stand in a new, risen, glorified body. A physically resurrected, new creation with lungs full of eternal Easter air. With resurrected lips and mouth that joins the saints in perfect harmony, singing God’s praises to the Lamb who was slain and yet rules and reigns victoriously.
Ruth believed and sang and rejoiced in the good news that cancer does not get the final verse in her hymn, Christ does. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
When our Lord spoke those words, he was near the grave of Lazarus, his sisters Mary and Martha mourned for him. Our Lord speaks those words to us again today, as we mourn the death of our dear sister in Christ. And once again, our Lord comforts us. He makes a promise, the same promise he made to Ruth, he makes to you and to all who believe in him. That your life that began by God’s grace, continues each day in his grace, will one day, by his grace be raised from the dead to new life forever.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Today, even in our grief we are thankful to our Lord for Ruth, whose life was one of praise, a high doxology to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Today, mindful of the end of life and the sorrow it brings, even in tears we have hope. We sing one doxology after another to our Lord Jesus who died that we will live, and who lives that we will never die forever.
Today, we end one hymn and continue on with another, as together, with Ruth, we look to the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.
Until that day when our Lord returns and calls us out of our graves and raises us to new life…
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
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