+ In Memoriam: Buddy Allison - January 13, 1938 – July 15, 2021 +
July 28, 2021
Job 19:21-27; Revelation 21:1-7; John 11:17-27
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior + Jesus Christ. Amen.
Some people joke about what they’d put on their tombstone. Something clever, witty, or funny. But not Buddy. No, he possessed that rare and wonderful quality of a man who would simply tell you like it is. To say what you mean and mean what you say. That’s one of the things that made conversations with him such a delight.
During one of our more recent conversations he told me, “On my tombstone I am going to have it written “all better”.
And he said it with such confidence knowing that his hope and comfort rested in the hands of our Lord Jesus. Buddy’s hope that one day things will truly be “all better” echoes the comforting promise of Jesus in Revelation 21.
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
That’s quite the remarkable statement if you think about it. I am making all things new, Jesus declares. Not just some. Not just a few. All things. You, me, Buddy, and all the baptized in Christ. And not just a little remodel, or refurbishment. But new. In fact, better than new. Redeemed. Rescued. Restored. Resurrected. Raised from the dead to live eternally with Jesus.
It almost sounds too good to be true. After all, when in life does anything really stay new for very long before it breaks down. What things in life truly seem to last, to be permanent. To endure. All too often it appears as if our own sin, disease, and death win the day.
Buddy, however, would be the first to remind us that there’s more to the story. That there is a Savior who died on the cross and stretched out his arms wide enough to swallow the whole mess of this broken, disease ridden, sinful, fallen, dying world in order to make all things new. That there is Jesus’ word, promise, life, death, and resurrection. And that Jesus came to overcome all that overwhelms us.
That in Jesus’ dying and rising - we, along with Buddy - will truly and eternally be all better. When Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished” he could have just as easily cried out those words from Revelation 21. Behold I am making all things new. For that is what he was doing on the cross, for Buddy, and for you.
You see, our Lord is also one who says what he means and means what he says. He truly tells us like it is. He declares his word and promise with utter certainty. Like the time he visited his close friends Mary and Marth at the death of their brother Lazarus.
“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.
That is the promise our Lord declared to Buddy in his baptism. This is what Buddy believed in. These words and promises of our Lord anchored and kept him rooted to Christ throughout his life. Whether he was stationed in North Korea or tending the backyard garden. Whether times were good and especially when times were tough.
Buddy and Job have that in common. A confession of faith. A promise to hold onto in dark days.
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.
The same is true for you as well. Job’s redeemer and Buddy’s redeemer is also your redeemer. Jesus died that we might live. Jesus rose from the grave so that on the day he returns, Job and Buddy and you and me and all the baptized will rise from the dead as easily and as quickly as Lazarus rose from his grave when our Lord called him out. When Jesus says I make all things new he’s telling us like it is. He means what he says. Jesus’ promise to raise us from the dead is as real and concrete as he is. It is as flesh and blood as our Lord’s own resurrection was. A real, glorified, risen body that dwells forever with Jesus who died and rose for us.
Buddy knew that one day - maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow - but one day, Jesus would return to take us to be with him forever. And that on that day. The day we confess and long for. The great day of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. On that day, we, along with Buddy and all the faithful departed, will truly be all better. Not just for a bit. Not a little while. But forever. All better in Jesus.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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