Funeral sermon for Marilyn Acklam

Psalm 139:7-10 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? ⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. ⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, ¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

How well did you know Marilyn? I think many of us knew Marilyn well enough to know that she was a type “A” personality; she was driven; she got things done. We knew that she was a very positive person with a beautiful smile and a sense of urgency. Many people relied on her – Roger, her children, her grandchildren, the Home Guild ladies here at Epiphany and the Women’s Club at Open Bible Lutheran Church in Florida. She and her family would always stay late to clean up the church kitchen and put chairs away. Pastor Kraus, the retired pastor here at Epiphany, asked Marilyn to cut the ribbon on the new addition of our school because she had been so vital to the committee. Two years ago, when we started raising money for four sets of paintings in the front of the church, Marilyn asked if she could help. She told me, “I know those older people at church have money. I just have to get it out of them.”

Perhaps you knew that she was a responsible adult and senior citizen because she had been a responsible child. As a child, she had the responsibility of taking care of the animals, cooking the meals and taking care of her brother, Willie, who had cerebral palsy. In fact, Marilyn was confirmed a year earlier than usual so that she could attend confirmation classes with Willard. She taught Sunday School and even confirmation classes. She had a passion to see people come to Christ – a burden for the lost. She passed that passion on to her children and grandchildren who are very involved in their home churches, as well. She passed that passion on to Roger. Because of Marilyn, Roger was baptized and confirmed here at Epiphany as an adult. She attended the adult confirmation classes with him. He also said he could not remember a time when they missed a worship service.

Perhaps you also knew that Marilyn never made mistakes … you could just ask her.

But maybe you didn’t know that Marilyn had been sick for a very long time. She had no immune system since she was a child. She had open heart surgery already at the age of 36. She had diabetes. She had sarcoidosis (which I’ve only heard of only from episodes of House), which is an inflammatory disease that affects the organs and causes fatigue, aches and pains, a dry, hacking cough, among other symptoms. Even as a young parent, Marilyn would be so fatigued that by 6:30 – 7:00 at night, she was worn out and lying on the couch. Most people did not know just how sick she really was. She hid her illnesses from people and even got upset with Roger if he discussed them with anyone. Even her children didn’t know about the cabinet full of medicine she had to take daily. She would appear bubbly in public in the morning and then in the afternoon be at home to crash and burn. Kert put it well that his mom was a firecracker, she just ran out of gun powder.

Maybe you knew a lot about Marilyn or maybe you are learning some new things about her right now. But as well as Roger or Kert or Shelley knew Marilyn, no one knew her as well as her Lord. God knew Marilyn better than she knew herself.

The Psalmist talks about how well the all-knowing God knew him: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? ⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. ⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, ¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

God knows David, the Psalmist. He knows Marilyn. And He knows all of us. He knows our specific sins, our accidental sins, our pet sins. He knows how often we listen to the seductive whisper of the ancient serpent, the devil. He knows that nothing good lives in us, in our sinful nature. He knows how weak and vulnerable we’ve made ourselves by our sins. He knows our laziness for His worship, our indifference to His Word, our carelessness about His Sacraments, our pitiful amount of prayer. He knows our inmost thoughts … and they are not good. He knows that our bodies are rapidly wearing down and we will feel God’s curse upon sin, “Dust you are and to dust you will return.”

God knew all this about us. He knew all this about Marilyn. In the words of the Psalmist, “You searched me and you know me” (Ps 139:1). He knew us before He knit us together in our mother’s womb (Ps 139:13). He knew us and had our lives planned and written out before a single day of our lives came to be (Ps 139:16). God knows us better than we know ourselves. … And still He loves us. He knew what kind of blind, lost and wretched sinners we would be. He knew how much we would sin, even before we were born. He knew how much of His amazing grace we would need. But because of His great love for sinful humanity, even though God knew that sinners like you and me and Marilyn would reject Him, He still sent His Son, Jesus to save us.

The serpent of the devil overcame Adam and all humanity at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God knew this would happen and had a plan of salvation already in place. Only moments after the world was plunged into sin by Adam’s sin, God had set in motion the plan of having the second Adam, Jesus Christ, come into our world to expunge sin from His people. God promised the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3:15). The ancient serpent that was so lively and colorful in Eden is now withered and crushed under Jesus’ heel at Calvary.

God knew what it would take to rescue us from the devil’s power. God had it all planned out from eternity, that though the devil would overcome humanity be a tree, the devil would in turn by a tree be overcome. How great is the love of our Lord who knows us so well, and has made us His own through Jesus, despite what He knows about us.

Adam brought death to us all. Today is a painful reminder of that. But the second Adam, Jesus Christ, has brought life eternal. Today is a glorious reminder of that! Today Jesus wipes away every tear from your eyes (Rev 7:17). Your tears of sorrow become tears of joy because we know that Marilyn knew Jesus as her Savior and Good Shepherd. But even more imporantly, God knew Marilyn. He made Marilyn His own in her baptism at Friedens Lutheran Church in Kenosha in 1942. He confirmed her in that baptismal faith here at Epiphany in 1955. The eternal Bridegroom, brought Roger and Marilyn together as groom and bride here before the Lord’s altar in 1959. Then for 54 years, Roger and Marilyn together received the Lord’s forgiveness in His absolution, His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, His strength and comfort in His Holy Word and His blessing of peace in His benediction.

God knew Marilyn and now Marilyn really, truly knows the Lord. I have heard a few people lament that Marilyn did not get to see the new paintings that she worked so hard to raise money for. Yet, God in His infinite wisdom and perfect grace knows what He is doing. Though Marilyn did not get to see the beautiful paintings of Adam and Jesus … she has already met the real-life Adam and she is standing before the throne of Jesus. Though we might prefer her to be here, I can say with complete confidence that Marilyn prefers being where she is.

Marilyn was never afraid to die. May Marilyn’s confidence in her Lord be ours. “Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” When things get tough in life, don’t start questioning, “Where is God?” Our asking “Where is God?” is like a fish asking “Where is water?” or a bird asking “Where is air?” God is everywhere! Equally present in Peking and Peoria. As active in the lives of Icelanders as in the lives of Floridians escaping the cold winters of Wisconsin. We cannot find a place where God is not. God is everywhere.

Nothing can hide us from God’s eyes – not sickness or sorrow or the worst of our sins. God peers through the fog and sees all of our actions, all of our hurts, all of our needs. God is in the thick of things in your world. He has not taken up residence in a distant galaxy. He has not chosen to seclude Himself on a throne in an incandescent castle. He has drawn near in the person of Jesus Christ. He is as near to us on a Wednesday as He is on Sunday. As near in the classroom or office as in the sanctuary. He has involved Himself in our car pools, heartbreaks and funerals.

We take great comfort that every moment of our lives, God is with us. We take great comfort today that for every moment of eternity, Marilyn is with God.

I loved the story that the family told me the other day about how Marilyn ended up here at Epiphany. As a seven-year-old, Marilyn heard some girls in the bathroom at the old Richards school on the corner of Old Green Bay Road and Braun Road. They were talking about Jesus. She went home that day and asked, “Mom, who is Jesus?” Her mom said, “Fritz, we need to get these kids into church!”

By God’s grace, Marilyn came to know Jesus. And she knows Him now even better, because she is standing before His throne and seeing Him face-to-face. Amen.

 

Obituary for Marilyn