Sermon – Mickie Schmidt,
March 6, 2014
(Winchester Gardens)
During the last week of His Life on
earth, Jesus repeatedly told the disciples that He was going away – that He was
leaving and they could not go with Him.
They were confused. They were
sad. They didn’t know how they could go on without Him being right there with
them – teaching and ministering to the crowd. And
Jesus knew, so He reached out to comfort them.
We come this afternoon with heavy
hearts, sad, perhaps confused: Mickie has left this earth; she has died, and we
can’t go with her.
Mickie loved her friends and her
God. She loved to be in the midst of
people and to be in the “know.”
I didn’t know it until I began
preparing for today, but Mickie had loved dancing – and she was even part of a
dance group at one point.
Mickie worked for the American Can
Company in Newark for 34 years as a secretary, and I’m sure that, as secretary,
she, as the stereotype goes, knew more about everything going on than anyone
else in the company did.
Since meeting Mickie over fifteen
years ago, I heard about her love for visiting friends in Kentucky and
attending the Kentucky Derby – and her love for sports – and the Mets in
particular.
I knew Mickie from her work at
Frank’s, where I occasionally had lunch with her and her friend, Ruth. Mickie was enthusiastic about taking care of
all her customers. And some of us would
even get a kiss and be left wearing lipstick.
I best knew Mickie from Second
Reformed Church where she was an active member and sang in the choir, served at
coffee hour, managed a table at our flea markets, and stayed up on the news of
everyone. Many was the time that I would
call her to tell her about someone or something going on in the church, and she
would say, “I know.”
Mickie was a self-confessed news
hound – many here have experienced her at trivia and in her skill at recounting
all that was happening around the world.
When I would come to visit her, she would offer me soda and candy, and
she would ask, “Do you want to watch some news?” and on would go the set.
Eventually, Mickie slowed down, and
she came to a point where she just wanted to go home. She just wanted to be at peace. And God took her home.
Jesus said to believe in Him and
God. Believe in Jesus, the Son of God,
the Savior, and believe in God the Father; take Them at Their Word. What Word is that? It is that this life is not the end – there
are many rooms in God’s house, and everyone who leaves this earth, believing in
God and Jesus, will have a room in that house.
Jesus went to prepare that place for everyone who will believe, and now
He is waiting as we go from this life to the next.
Jesus said He wasn’t lying – He
can’t lie. And when each of our days are
done, He comes and takes us home. If we
believe, He will come, and He will take us to Himself, so He will also be with
us.
That sustains us – that hope
sustains and comforts us – that there is another life to come, and everyone who
believes will join Jesus in His Father’s House for all of eternity. And Jesus told the disciples, and He tells
us, we know the way to where He went.
Still, like Thomas we ask, “How can
we know the way? Where are you going?”
Jesus said, “I am the Way, and the
Truth, and the Life.”
Jesus is the Path; He is the Way to
go – the One to believe in. It is He Who
the prophet Isaiah said would make the paths straight (Isaiah 35:8). It is He Who, by His Own Blood, makes us able
to come before the very presence of God and live (Hebrews 9:12).
Jesus is the Truth; He puts the
facts before us, all that we need to know and understand – the True Truth. In Jesus we find all the Truth that there is,
and there is no truth apart from Him.
And He is the Life – He is the Giver
of Life and the Restorer of Life. He
makes our lives worth living and renews our life and gives us life in the world
to come.
He is the Mediator that makes peace
between God and us.
If we believe that, then we can have
hope, knowing that this is not the end, but Life waits for us still. And those who have left before us, wait in
that Life for us to come.
Mickie is home now. She is healed, well, whole, waiting for us.
The Day of Resurrection is coming,
and there are many rooms in our Father’s House.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, grant us Your Peace,
surround us in Your Comfort, and enlighten us with Your Truth. Let us mourn Mickie and then remember her
with joy. And make us a people of hope
who wait for Your Call. In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
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