Thursday, March 06, 2014

Mickie Schmidt Sermon -- John 14:1-6

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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