+ In Memoriam – Irene Feller +
Psalm 139:1-14; Job 19:23-27; Revelation 22:1-5; John 20:11-18
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
When I look at a skein of yarn and some crocheting hooks or knitting needles, all I see is a few sticks and ball of yarn just waiting to get tied up into something worse than a Gordian knot. But not Irene. She looked at those knitting supplies with the eyes of a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother; with the eyes of faith in Jesus and love for others. “I could cover the world with knitted blankets,” Irene once told me. And she did her best to make that a reality, one blanket, one act of love at a time.
When she pulled a new skein of yarn out of the bag and reached for those old familiar crocheting hooks, she saw a hat or a scarf for a friend out in the cold. She saw a blanket for an elderly brother or sister in Christ stuck at home or in the hospital; she saw a way to wrap her newborn granddaughter or great grandson in warmth and to let them know they are loved. Irene saw, what St. Paul saw when he talks about the church in Colossians. That in God’s tapestry of the church, we are knitted together by the love of Christ.
Irene’s famous blankets, pot holders, and Christmas ornaments are works of art to be sure – especially knowing that the ones she made in recent years she did without really being able to see what she was doing. Years of muscle memory and even more years of love guided those hands stitch after stitch and row after row.
But those knitted creations are more than works of art; they’re works of love made by one who is knit together into God’s family in the love of Jesus. After all, we may not know how to crochet, but we do know that blankets and scarves don’t knit themselves. Behind every blanket are the loving hands of a knitter. And behind (and above and below and surrounding) every saint – like Irene – there are the loving hands of our Lord who… like a chain of stitches, hooks us together in Christ, just as he did for Irene, knitting her whole life together in his love and grace.
Our love for others, just like Irene’s love for you all and for all who got to know her, didn’t come from her own private stash. It came from the love of Jesus who laid down his life for her and for you and for all. It comes from the hands of our Savior who was pierced, not with knitting needles, but with Roman nails on the cross that he would wrap you in his grace and love.
It was this same grace and love of God that gave Irene – as he gives us all – the gift of life. We are formed and fashioned by God who is a loving, creative, and gracious Craftsman. Only, God doesn’t follow a pattern when creating you and giving you life. Each of us, like Irene, is unique and precious and lovingly made by our Heavenly Father. Who, as the Psalmist says…
“You formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.”
As Irene’s life continued, our Lord’s work of love continued as well. Our Lord continued to stitch Irene’s life together, adding more rows of his goodness and mercy to her life. She was knit together into God’s family not with yarn or thread, but with water and word by the Holy Spirit. In holy Baptism, Irene was wrapped and robed in the righteousness of Christ that covers all her sin. Irene was made, as all who are baptized are made, a child of God, blanketed by his blessing and grace and saving love. Irene was given faith, which the Holy Spirit continued to weave and thread throughout her life in so many ways.
Back when this congregation was being knit together by God’s word and work, Irene was one of the original members – or first threads you might say – here at Beautiful Savior.
As she raised a family and was blessed with children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, all the while our Lord was busy stitching more rows of his lovingkindness in her heart and mind and out into her hands and life. Whether she was at home caring for her family, or with her church family, Irene was knitted together in the love of Jesus.
For Irene knew that the cross of Christ was the key stitch in her life and ours. The one that held everything and everyone in her life and our lives together. Without Jesus crucified and risen, Irene knew that the whole blanket comes undone. Apart from Christ life comes apart at the seams.
Grief can feel that way too. Like God has left us alone, dangling like loose threads, frayed and knotted and tangled in a mess.
On days we feel that way – perhaps like today, or tomorrow or any day – it’s good to know what Irene knew and believed and confessed. That this life, our love for others, and all we say and do, isn’t really in our hands. Irene’s hands were held by someone whose hands are far greater. Hands who knitted us together in love as they were outstretched on the cross, stitching us together as he was nailed to the cross. The hands of him who formed and shaped us in our mother’s womb, who baptized us in the font, are the same hands who were hooked on the cross to redeem and rescue Irene and you. The hands that were open in love and mercy for you and Irene, so that you and Irene will never be cast off or left alone. Not in life. And not in death.
Towards the end of her life, I remember Irene telling me, “I figure God will call me home when the yarn is out.” In this life, yarn may run out. Stitches may come undone. Threads may come loose. Loved ones, like Irene, fall ill and die.
And yet, our Lord still has another row to add for Irene’s life and yours. The body he knit together in the womb, the little girl who was baptized into God’s family, the mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and sister in Christ who we love and who now rests with Jesus, will one day stand like Job says, in the flesh, with eyes wide open, standing face to face with Jesus her savior and ours.
God’s final row on the life of his baptized believers – Irene, you, and me – is yet to be stitched, but it is as good as done. We await that day of the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting knowing what our Lord promises will be completed. We look forward with Irene and all the saints, for the day when our Lord calls us out of the grave, takes our flesh and bones from the dust of the earth and once again knits us together in the flesh, only this time with a risen, glorified, and holy body.
And what a sight that will be. And until that day, we live and die, as Irene lived and died and lives forever…knitted together in the love of Jesus our Savior.
And 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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