Let us pray! Gracious Heavenly Father, this afternoon we
gather to mourn, but also celebrate Your gathering into Your Holy Arms Your
redeemed child Daniel Jacob Dorn, Sr..
As we gather, we ask You to comfort us and give us a special measure of
Your Holy Spirit in order that Your Gospel message he heard and believed may be
the salve for our hearts. For Your
Gospel of salvation offered him in the font of Holy Baptism is the same faith
he used to pray the prayer that Your Son taught us. Enable us to lay claim to the promises offered,
and remember how You offered him forgiveness, life and salvation, not by his
merit, but because of Your love shown through Your Son and our Savior, Jesus
Christ. AMEN.
The passages we have heard today
from Holy Scripture not only make promises to us, but remind us that with Solomon,
David, Jude and Mark, God not only inspired them, but used them and their words
to minister unto the needs of the people of God for centuries. These passages speak of time, a shepherd, a
promise of mercy and not knowing the day nor the hour of Jesus return, but
their message is rooted in the bed rock of a faith that not only points to
Jesus Christ, but clearly and emphatically finds its roots in the offer of
grace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So clear and profound is this connection it hits pay dirt not in dirt
but in water.
We know here on the high plains,
whether in Colorado where Dan first lived as a married man with his betrothed
Laura or in Western Kansas, without the water we pump from the ground we would
not have a crop or feed our cattle. But
water in and of itself can give life to plants.
Yet when water is connected to God’s Word in Holy Baptism, the promise
of eternity and eternal life is made. And
this is the promise that we lay claim to today.
A promise of mercy, a promise of eternal life, a promise that is laid
claim to in a prayer taught to Jesus disciples that I prayed with Dan every
time I would visit Dan at Good Samaritan.
Yes it is the Lord’s Prayer. That simple prayer that Jesus taught His disciples
speaks volumes to us today of the faith of Dan.
But it wasn’t that Dan was perfect, because we know different. He felt trapped with his condition. Dan wasn’t able to do what he thought he should
be able to for many years. He could be heard
down the hall at Good Sam with his booming voice, his television blaring or
what was just a man trapped by circumstance and inability to move or do what he
wanted. But the resolve he felt that was
clear was he was here for his kids to take care of them. Daily he would go visit Danny and sit with
him. Sometimes talking, sometimes watching
television, but ever vigilant of being there. A ministry of presence that spoke volumes. This same presence he beamed of as he proudly
showed the pictures in his room of the apple of his eye, his grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. Yet, no matter what
happened, through it all, including the loss of his wife and daughter one thing
remained true. Dan believed in the power
of God and that God loved him unconditionally and this is why he wanted to pray
with me the Lord’s Prayer with every visit.
The Lord’s Prayer was a salve and a personal confession of his heart.
For the Lord’s Prayer that I would
pray with every visit with Dan, is a prayer of love, trust and seeking for God’s
Will to be done. It is a prayer of
thanks and praise for God’s gifts. It is
a prayer asking for those who pray it to be forgiven and to forgive
others. For us to not be led into
temptation, but to be delivered from evil. And today Dan is being delivered from the
physical bondage that has held him for so many years. Today God in fulfillment of God’s promise in
Holy Baptism sets free Dan and fulfills the promise of eternal life made to him
in his Holy Baptism. It is this promise
that we hold onto, lay claim to and believe with a faith given to us by our
Lord and Savior in simple water connected with God’s Word.
You see the Lord’s Prayer looked to
the fulfillment that we find today as we gather. Yes, we gather with our hearts broken with loss.
But today we gather, some would believe
in a valley with the shadow of death looming over us. But we are not in a shadow, because death no
longer has dominion. Death has been
overcome. Death was overcome by Dan’s
Savior, His Lord, His God, none other than Jesus Christ.
You see the same Man Who taught
His disciples the Lord’s Prayer is the same Lord Who in, with, through and by
the Water of Holy Baptism washed Dan clean and spotless in the font. Jesus Christ promised Dan on that faithful
day he would be with Him in paradise and today that day has come. Our grief that the devil wants us to hold
onto should be joy, for the devil has not won.
The victory is God’s because on the Cross of Calvary, Jesus Christ bled
and died in order that Dan would be set free and have eternal life. Jesus Christ offered Himself, took on the
sins of the entire world including Dan and each and every one of us and
fulfills in our hearing and sight God’s promise of grace and mercy for Dan
today.
Oswald Chambers once said, “Faith
never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the one who is
leading”. Today we celebrate Dan’s being
led home and his entrance into eternity where he was led by none other than our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. For the
Great Shepherd visits us today not only to lead Dan home, but welcome him into
His Kingdom. The Great Shepherd comes to
pray with us as He taught us in the Lord’s Prayer, but also enable us to lay
claim to the grace and mercy we find in the Water and Word of God that promised
Dan eternal life. Today, we gather to
join together as a family of God and partake of Jesus gift of His precious Body
and Blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sin, life and salvation. Today we bridge the gap with eternity through
Holy Communion with Dan, Laura and Diana and all the Saints who have gone
before us. Today we lay claim to the
promises of God not only in the Lord’s Prayer, but especially in the gift of
God’s grace and mercy offered to Dan with his baptism into Jesus Christ life,
death, but especially His resurrection on the third day.
May this promise of grace and
every blessing not only enable us to embrace God’s gift of Grace and mercy, but
may we know that today Dan has been reunited with his wife Laura, daughter
Diana and entered into eternity to be with His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. For this reunion is a celebration, a
fulfillment of what Dan was certainly waiting for, but a clear reminder that
when we prayed the Lord’s Prayer the ending was the exclamation point. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and
the glory, forever and ever.” And Jesus
makes this true for Dan today and one day for each of us. AMEN.
Now may the peace of God that surpasses all human
understanding guard, protect and comfort our hearts, minds and spirits as we celebrate
Dan’s entrance into eternity because of the love of God through His Son, and
Dan’s and our Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN.
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