Date: 6/15/09
St. John Lutheran Church, Fraser, MI
Dear Christian friends, friends and acquaintances of Ron Smith, Pastor Merrill, Pastor Fischer, and especially you Diane, Pastor Bradley and Judy, Corey and Alison, Nathan, and you Tim, Jacob, Ian and Lauren:
Peace be to you, and grace, from Him who freed us from our sins (Rev. 1:4-5). In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
We are gathered here today to commend our beloved brother, husband, father, grandfather and dear fellow Christian friend Ronald Smith to the safe-keeping of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who said, “if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (Jn. 14:3). We do this with great faith and confidence that Ron’s faith and confidence was always in that certain Word and promise of Christ. A faithful, confessing member of the Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, he has been walking with us accompanied by God’s Word every step of the way. As such we take God’s Word with us from Sunday to live it out in the days and the weeks following. And it is because of our connection with God’s Word in the lectionary from Sunday to Sunday that I would like to draw your attention to that Word which we have heard even as our dear Ron has departed to be with the Lord. That Word is the little parable of the growing seed. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29). (more…)