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Words at the Memorial Celebration for Karl Barth on December 14^th 1968 in the “Münster” in Basel

by Helmut Gollwitzer

“I’m for you, I am your friend” – that’s how he summed it all up one time, that’s how he heard the voice coming out of eternity, from out of a place in time, from the human being Jesus, from out of the “ineffable reality of Jesus Christ,” as he once wrote. That’s what he heard the living Jesus saying and in him the living God, and so he passed it on, saying it to others. It gave him material to think about, as soon as he understood the opposition that the friendship of God for human beings ran against the voices of the abyss, of death, loneliness; and against the voices of wrath, of conscience, of guilt. It threw a light of great compassion and mercy into the darkest places of the earth, gave the impulse for friendship and friendliness [needed] for living in unfriendly times; and gave material for thick books, countless essays, booklets, and sermons, inexhaustibly until the last evening of his life, for this bottomless, not to be thought out Immanuel: “I’m for you, I am your friend,” whom he has now finally reached.

“Where are we going?” is the way he persistently questioned visitors in his last years, in order to receive help from them for better understanding of the hope grounded for us in Immanuel and he himself answered from what he had heard out of the gospel: in the understanding of Immanuel, who in a moment quiets and fulfills everything, quiets the burning hunger for immortality and reconciles us fully with the limit, with the finitude of this, but once happening life, and fulfills the promises that have become ours, through the revelation of the one, who indeed had thought everything out well: the cross of his Son as well as the sufferings of Job, the loneliness experienced by an old Theology professor, like the dancing of each mosquito in the sunlight. There are no Auschwitz and no Vietnam, without what was suffered through and fought out on Golgotha in advance. What are we heading for? We are headed toward the revelation of the one, who in advance has made right what could never be undone and what could never be made right again: the children’s shoes of Auschwitz and the burned skin of the children of Vietnam and skeleton of the child from Biafra – which only through God and God’s own suffering could be made right again. From this already-in-advance, he was walking with Jesus Christ toward the day of revelation, and all his teaching in the Church was a teaching of the praxis of constantly beginning again on the way of this forward looking being on the way.

“The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). That the Eternal Truth freely determines and openly declares itself to be the friend of human beings, that it does not want to be against human beings, but be unconditionally for them, – hardly one of the Christian theologians has dared to proclaim that in such an unqualified way, the Α and Ω, the atonement of all, so that all ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ of which the other theologians felt they had to remind before all, now only appeared in brackets before this unconditional: “Jesus lives – and with him also I”, [and] this world of humanity also with him.

Looking forward fifty years ago, who would have ever dared to say, that this one who from standing against any friendly attempt of making the cross of Christ inoffensive, proclaimed eternity to be the crisis of time, as the wrathful, vertical in-breaking of the cross from above, crossing up our possibilities; would become the great preacher of unconditional and insuppressible grace? Looking back, it now no longer appears like a break: in his early expressions, we already notice the Mozart-tones of thankfulness for the resurrection’s song of praise, and only where the contradiction of the ‘no’ was experienced, the deep ‘yes’ [planted] under the ‘no’ becomes the discovery that releases awe, which for him became the life-long ground, from which his theology emerged.

To hear the Gospel as the voice of the living God, as a friend’s voice, makes [a person] into a friend of people. The word “friend,” like hardly another, characterizes him, from whom we now take our leave “for a little while” (John 16:16). Standing under the friendship of God, he was allowed to experience a great deal of friendship in his life and turned to many with friendship. “Bergli” as a true place of friendship remains bound up with his name. We Germans were privileged to have experienced the friendship of his that had sprung out of the philanthropy of God; privileged, because he worked for 14 years with us as a professor in Göttingen, Münster, and Bonn, and that in his characteristic openness and resolve, immediately made our problems his own. He certainly could not count on being thanked from all sides in the face of the broad mentality in our country at that time, but now many in our country are with us in their thoughts with great thanks, for the one from whom we have gathered to take our leave. What he tried to introduce as Swiss experience, was often enough used as evidence to rid and reject his Swiss “inability to understand.” Finally through Schub he was ushered out, and even the Confessing Church, which was unthinkable without him, did not fight enough to keep him working with us. But where have we Germans, who like so much to circle around our own problems and illuminate the whole world with them, had a place in Switzerland or anywhere else in the world, like here in this book-filled room – first in Albanring, then in Pilgrim Street, and at last in Bruderholz – a place, in which we were so welcome, in which we were listened to so carefully, where our questions and concerns were so attentively [heard and] thought about with us?

He places the word with which I began, as a very peculiar and valid summation of the Gospel, beyond the scope of that time, into the mouth of Jesus Christ, as a gospel for the Germans. At that time, in that lecture, “The Germans and Us,” in January 1945, the first one that we Germans could read, there he was and he himself came again, ready to sacrifice and do without, bringing us material and spiritual gifts, giving the best proof of his friendship. The call of Jesus Christ: “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden!” he translated at the time for us: “Get over here you unsympathetic, you evil Hitler-rogues and Hitler-girls, you brutal SS-soldiers, you evil Gestapo scoundrels, you sad compromisers and collaborators, you people of the herd, you who so long and so patiently and stupidly ran behind your so-called ‘Führer.’ Get over here you guilty and you accomplices of the guilty, who now experience and have to experience what your deeds are worth! Get over here, I know you well, but I do not ask who you are and what you did. I only see that you are at your end and for good or evil, you have to start from the beginning all over again. I will revive you. Precisely with you, will I myself again, from your zero point, with you begin a-new. I am for you. I am your friend” (“For the Recovery of German Essence,” Stuttgart, 1945, p. 35 f.).

At the time he often spoke to us about the great opportunity the Germans now had because of the fact that they had failed so completely taking an evil way and now new possibilities stood open before us. What did we make of the offer given us? How seldom countries perceive God’s offer of grace in the hour of trial! That at least the Church would recognize, perceive, and accept the offer [of grace], for that he fought. But he himself was an offer [of grace] for the Church, this valiant man, and none of us know another to match him, this thorough going and complete Christian and theologian. They are not all theologians, to use a favorite expression of his, in a night in which all the cats are gray. There are chosen instruments among them, for whom the issue is not theological systems, directions, and differences of opinion, but who represent [another] chance for the Church, that can be grasped or failed, through whom a whole period of the way of the Church becomes decided. With the Barmen Declaration, written by him completely awake, while others slept, we have a formulation of such a decision, but it has to be carried out on a daily basis. We now cry after him like the forsaken Elisha: “Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” “And he saw him no more”, it says there (2 Kings 2:12). We would have had more need of his counsel, his reproof, his criticism, his instruction, his encouragement, his heart-felt nature. He, however, our friend, thank God! with his Christomonist, Christological theology, in advance, had already pointed away from himself to the Resurrected One, who goes forward from victory to victory through the dark places of also this century and says to us: “I’m for you, I am your friend.”

(A Separate Printing from “Karl Barth, 1886-1968”, Zürich: EVZ-Verlag)

A Funeral in Coney Island (1977)

Let us take a passage from Romans for our text:

None of us live to ourselves or die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord; so living or dying, we belong to the Lord. Therefore Christ died and was raised to life again, so that he might become Lord of both the living and the dead (Romans 14:7-9).

We all belong to the Lord and heaven is where we actually live and find our rest.

We are visitors on earth. All of life can be gray and empty, but God’s divine self offers to live in us. God’s life in ours is genuine life in all its rich colors, because through God’s love, a rainbow of promises radiate over us and through us to others.

God has appointed a rendez vous with each of us and this is how God keeps it – with those who respond to the calling to be for others:

In the poor, God lets us experience riches,

In his prisoners, we appreciate God’s freedom,

In the confused, the direction for our lives,

From those that stray, the path of righteousness,

Among the lost, God shows us the way,

From the mentally ill, the health of the Spirit,

And here by the dead, the fulfillment of life.

By the Law of God’s love, through the very least, we receive the most precious gifts, and what’s more – a rendez vous with God-Self, so that no one is excluded; yes, all become included in God’s plan of salvation.

The Funeral Words at the Graveside of Mrs. Frieda Frischbutter

Dear Mrs. Hahne,

(The funeral director asked me to accompany him to the grave. “A service is not necessary,” he said, “because no one knew her and no one is coming.” I called the women’s circle and Mrs. Hahne came along. She always helped me with worship in the senior citizen homes. For Frieda we did a full funeral service. In this service we experienced an incredibly powerful encounter with God.)

Together we now want to say goodbye to Mrs. Frieda Frischbutter, whom we have in our hearts, because we always visited her there in the senior citizen’s home at No. 8 Hammerstein Street, in order not to forsake and abandon this woman, not to leave her to herself. Now we are here to show our thankfulness for her life and her sorrows – under the sign of the cross – because no one else is here and we feel poor and forlorn, like forsaken creatures of God.  How many die that forgotten, who have also even forgotten themselves – before they even died?

Let us take Romans 14. 7ff. for our text:

We do not live to ourselves and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both  the dead and the living (7-9).

Before our eyes we see a human being very isolated and left to herself, although she could not bear herself, could not remember herself: she herself had even forgotten who she was. She was lonely and forsaken, without family or friends. Others were paid to take care of her or no one would have had anything to do with her.

But now this is not the case. We thank God that we are not completely lost. No one lives to herself when we accept the loving concern of the one to whom we belong, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has mercy and compassion for the forgotten of the earth.

That’s because it is precisely those whom the world forgets that God cannot forget. God has a big heart. To tell it like it is, God meets us and encounters us through the very least of these, his lost ones. That is how God worked it out so that no one is excluded and everybody experiences and gets a taste of God’s grace and compassion.

For us to get to know God, feel secure and protected, God enclosed the whole creation inside the law of love: and therefore God now encounters us in none other than dear Mrs. Frischbutter – and not through any one with more or some one who had a lot to give, who was together enough to be able to help herself and others.

Yet it is precisely this woman that was chosen by God to give us a taste of God’s love. We are now speaking of only the highest and greatest achievements of human life here on earth. Yes, through the life, suffering, and dying of this woman, and to her credit, we have now experienced something glorious!

If we grieve, we need to grieve for ourselves, we who fail to see God because God is hidden in love. Stuck in our old selves, we always want to live to and for ourselves, to live oriented to our own self, keeping an eye on our own interests and profit, because of which we fail to find and then forfeit the actual meaning of life, not purchasing the precious pearl of great price.

An abyss with an open mouth swallows human beings among us. People die so wretchedly and forsaken because we fail to see God’s plan and the meaning of our lives in the inhuman conditions that prevail in our society. No one wants to accept God’s call to live and die to the Lord, because we do precisely the opposite of what our Lord did; for to this end, our Lord Jesus Christ died and lived again – notice, it says, “he died” first – died to himself to live for others, in order to become the Lord of life and death, in order thus to be able to live out of God, rather than to live out of himself and to live his own life (apart from the concern for others).

(Here this little homily ends and I’m not sure if a few pages were lost or the words concluded orally. But for Mrs. Charlotte Peetz’ funeral that took place just three weeks later, I developed some of these thoughts further. The powerful encounter/ meeting/ rendez vous with God took place in the service at Frieda’s graveside, however.)

For Mrs. Charlotte Peetz, 29^th of August, 1974.

Dear cousin and friends of the deceased,

For the last years of her life, Charlotte Peetz lived in the Red Cross Home and now she has passed away. I am so glad that you have come to participate in this funeral service, the celebration of her life, because often the forsaken of the earth are those who can do great things for us. We dare not forget the elderly languishing in our senior citizen homes and for that reason we gather together thankfully to think about this woman and show our gratitude for the God, who does not forget people, when we take up God’s assignment of love, and driven by God’s compassion, we search for, find, and visit the forgotten of the earth.

Our text comes from Romans 14:7-9. (See it above!)

In these homes the elderly folks live isolated and forsaken, left to languish by themselves, while we pay others to take care of them. But we thank, thee, O God, that you have sent us to show mercy and have compassion on the forgotten of the earth.

God has enclosed the creation inside the law of Love, so that no one is excluded, even the very least of these and most insignificant people of the earth. They, too are thereby included.

These are the ones, whom God has chosen, the ones who have nothing, who are broken and forsaken, who have been forgotten by their fellow neighbors for so long that they have even forgotten themselves, and it is precisely through them that God encounters us.

The very least and lost are chosen for this very high dignity. It is because of them that God moves among us today.

We have to grieve for ourselves. The abyss opens before us and how many people fall in! But we lift up our eyes to the hills, from where our help comes. It comes from God’s mountains of goodness, filling and overwhelming the evil abyss. Those who are not reached, slide into the abyss, but God’s good mountains comfort us while we continue to work in God’s assignment.

God is in us and with us, when God lives in us. The life of God in us is the veritable love and truth living in us. We cannot live out of ourselves.

Thus, in love God has decided, how we will meet and encounter him. Those who have been sent to carry out God’s assignments, God encounters in the following ways:

In the poor, we receive God’s riches

In the imprisoned, God’s freedom

In the confused, God’s clarity

From the lost, God shows us the way

From the mentally ill, the health of the Spirit

And from the dead, the fulfillment of life

These gifts come from the very least, whom God has thereby completely included in the plan for the creation.

The very least, which God enfolded into the divine plan of creation are probably not the poor or forgotten or the forsaken of the world, but the dead – but on the other hand, the dead can become very powerful. They can become so powerful that they can determine and decide everything among us “the living.”

No one lives to him or herself and no one dies to him or herself: that means firstly, we need each other. To become isolated and forgotten brings us into conditions of degradation, unworthy of human beings.

Secondly, God’s plan is to include all human beings in God’s love. No one is to be forgotten. The very least, the very poorest, those who have lost everything and are forgotten by everyone, are chosen by God for the gift of the divine encounter. Therefore, although these can have nothing to give us, we can receive the most important, the gift of the highest value on earth through them, namely, the encounter with the living God, the wonderful taste of God’s presence.

Thirdly, we are sent to reach people in the holiness of that encounter of the living God. The abyss is of two kinds: first, the mountains of the goodness and grace of God; and second, our evil abyss, which can in no way swallow up God’s good one. To God belongs the victory.

Farther Development of these Thoughts for the Funeral of Mrs. Emma Doede on October 15^th 1974

I would like to read a word from the fourteenth Letter to the Romans for this occasion:

For no one lives to him or herself and no one dies to him or herself, (14. 7-9). (See full text above.)

We say goodbye to Mrs. Emma Doede today, confessing that we do not know much about her life. It was only a few times that we saw her in the senior citizen’s home, where she was always very sad. Then I was with her when she died. I put flowers beside her, but whether or not she saw them I do not know.

But we still want to hear God’s word thankfully, because it remains meaningful to speak at this time. We do not have to remain in silent grief.

Although people are so isolated here and seemingly suffer so much, for in our social conditions we are forced to live to ourselves, our visits and our concern for them remains meaningful. Because God is merciful and full of compassion, we are sent to the people who are the least important on earth, the forgotten, the isolated, those who live in utter misery.

God has chosen these people, through whom we receive the gift of meeting and encountering God. We can have a rendez vous with God through these, the forgotten and the least important people of the earth. It is in this way that God constituted the law of love so that all people would become included in God’s love. It is not from those that have the most that we receive the greatest and most precious gift possible here on earth. That possibility of receiving it comes only from the least of the earth. Indeed, it is only from the forgotten of the earth that it is possible to receive the good of the greatest value on earth. That gift is to feel and experience the very presence of God, in which the life of God is given us, and with the life of God in us, the veritable love of God dwelling in us.

It is interesting to think through in what ways the forgotten of the earth bring us presents:

From the poor, we receive God’s riches, etc.

(See the list above.)

In that kind of a surprise, I see what a wonderful God we have! How merciful and compassionate God is and how precious for us to treasure! Who would not lay down his or her life to serve our God? Who wouldn’t take up God’s call and assignment in order to get a taste of God’s presence? It is like seeing God in the faces of the needy as they wait for the one God sent to them with help.

The way Emma Doede came to belong completely to God, we want to as well. Amen.

Let us pray

For this human being, Emma Doede, we give you thanks and praise! That you have included us all in your love, we give you thanks. That you chose the least of these on earth to enfold us with your presence, we give you thanks and praise, because it shows how wonderful, Oh God, you are!

Increase and strengthen our faith, that in the assignment of your call of love, we can visit the least of the earth and become capable of sharing in their fate. Through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. May you guard, protect, and shelter our souls and that of the deceased. Amen.

Prayer at the grave

We thank you, Oh Lord our God, that you have overcome all the messengers of death and death itself through the love of your dear Son, Jesus Christ. Through him you redeemed and freed us from the powers of death, so that worry-free and without the dread of fear, our faith can become active in the love we share one with another. Receive the soul of Emma Doede. Lift her spirit up into your joy. Through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray.

Amen.

Liebe Verwandte und Freunde der Verstorbene,

Wir versammeln uns Heute morgen weil Frau Elsa Haack von hinnen gegangen ist in die Ewigkeit. Wir wollen uns zusammen setzten hier öffentlich, um uns mit ihren Tod selbst zurecht zu finden. So gesagt ist unser Ziel zu hoch gesteckt, aber wir möchten doch von ihr Abschied nehmen, wissend dass für uns sterblichen Menschen es ein endgültiger Abschied sein muss. Wir hoffen auf Gott, der Diesseits und Jenseits der harten Todes Grenze waltet, und wollen ihn auch in dieser Stunde danken für seine Gnade, denn unser Leben bekommen wir aus seiner Hand, und ihm sind wir gehörig, und auch nach dem Tode nicht verloren. Daher wollen wir auch ein Wort betrachten, ein Gottes Wort.

Aus Römer 14 ⁷ ff. lautet unser Text :

Denn unser keiner lebt sich selber,

und keiner stirbt sich selber.

Leben wir so leben wir dem Herrn;

sterben wir so sterben wir dem Herrn.

Darum wir leben oder sterben,

so sind wir des Herrn.

Denn dazu ist Christus gestorben

und wieder lebendig geworden,

dass er über Tote und Lebendige Herr sei. (14.7-9)

Was sagt dieser Text? Obwohl wir uns das Gegenteil hier auf Erden vortäuschen, keiner lebt sich selber und keiner stirbt sich selber. Aus der Liebe Gottes leben wir. Unser Leben und Dasein sind in sein ewiges Dasein gepflanzt. Und darin können wir Trost finden. Denn im Sterben sehen wir wie wir selbst verfallen und vergessen oft dass unser Leben eigentlich nicht aus uns selbst kommt, sondern aus Gott.

Wir leben und sterben auf dem Herrn hinzu. Er ist unser Ziel. Er ist Endpunkt, aber darin auch unser Anfang: unser A und O, und von ihn wissen wir, dass Er ein grosser Erlöser und Befreier ist.

Der Tod kann diese Glaubens-Tatsache nicht verändern. der Tod als letzter Feind ist besiegt und gefangen genommen worden und muss jetzt den Fürst des Lebens dienen. Wenn wir manchmal sagen, ihr Tod hat für sie eine Erlösung bedeutet, dann meinen wir dass ihr Herrn Jesus Christus sie erlöst hat. Der Tod von selbst ist ein Greuel und kann uns nicht erlösen. Denn wir wissen dass wir die Ewigkeit gehören und der Tod wiederspricht diese Glaubens-Tatsache – in solch einer lauten Stimme hier auf Erden, dass wir Angst haben es zu glauben. Darum wir leben oder wir sterben gehören wir dem Herrn der Ewigkeit, Diesseits und Jenseits dieser harten Grenze.

Wenn wir versuchen diese ewige Seite in uns zu leugnen, dann versuchen wir nur Teilweise zu sein wer wir sind. Realistisch wird man. Es gibt eine infantile Art wo wir nicht unser eigenem Sterben und daher begrenzte Existenz akzeptieren können.[1] Es gibt auch eine primitive Art wo wir unsere Veränderung und die Veränderung unsere Verhältnisse in den Jenseits hineinschieben, ohne unser Diesseits ernst zu nehmen. Aber so realistisch wie man sein kann, beseht unserer Verwandsschaft mit dem ewigen Gott, der Vater unsers Herrn Jesus Christus.

Wir können getrost in diesem Rahmen die sterbliche Elsa Haack gedenken….Und jetzt hat der dunkele Engel nicht seine Vorzeichen geschickt, sondern er selbst ist gekommen und hat sie von den Menschenkindern weggerissen.

Aber dazu ist Christus gestorben und wieder lebendig geworden um Herr über die Toten und die Lebendigen zu sein. Vor seiner gewaltigen Liebe, uns am Kreuz bewiesen, kann der grausamer Tod nicht Stand halten. Er kann uns nur unsere Grenzen mitteilen um uns realistisch zu machen und dadurch fähiger machen aus Gott zu leben, und nicht aus uns selbst. Daher können wir getrost sein und auf die Lebensfülle bei unseren Herrn hoffen. Nicht nur für Elsa Haack, dessen Sarg Heute vor uns steht, sondern auch für uns selbst, die wir solch Liebe brauchen um die schmerzhafte Grenzen, die wir ausgesetzt sind, akzeptieren zu können.

[1] Manchmal möchte man am Ostern sagen, ihr kommt zur Kirche um vom ewigen Leben zu hören, wie eine gewisse religiöse Lebensversicherung.  Das ist nicht hier zu bekommen. Leute die ihr eigenes Leben und Sterben nicht ernst nehmen und Gott auch nicht, wollen infantil glauben, dass sie immer und ewig leben werden. Doch werden wir all sterben. Wir haben Tage, Stunden, Wochen, Manate, Jahren. Die die das nicht wahr haben wollen, wollen eigentlich Gott sein. Sie wollen nicht Gott gegenüber stehen in der schmerzhaften Unterschied zwischen sich selbst und Gott, zwischen Menschen und Gott, der Unsterbliche. Sie wollen eigentlich aus sich selbst leben.

Ansprache für die Bestattung von

Frau Frieda Frischbutter am 8.8.1974 in Wilmersdorf

Liebe Frau Hahne!

Wir wollen jetzt gemeinsam unseren Abschied von Frau Friede Frischbutter nehmen, die wir am Herzen haben weil wir immer dort in der Hammersteinstrasse No. 8 Besuche gemacht haben um diese Frau nicht zu verlassen, nicht sich selbst zu überlassen. Jetzt sind wir hier um auch unsere Dankbarkeit für ihr Leben und Leiden zu erweisen – unter dem Zeichen des Kreuzes – weil keine Andere hier sind und wir fühlen uns wie armselige, verlassene Geschöpfe des Herrn. Wie viele sterben so vergessen, sich selbst schon vergessen habend bevor man schon gestorben ist! Daher ist unser Text Römer 14⁷ff.

Denn unser keiner lebt sich selber,

und keiner stirbt sich selber.

Leben wir so leben wir dem Herrn;

sterben wir so sterben wir dem Herrn.

Darum wir leben oder sterben,

so sind wir des Herrn.

Denn dazu ist Christus gestorben

und wieder lebendig geworden,

dass er über Tote und Lebendige Herr sei. (14.7-9)

Vor unseren Augen sehen wir ein Menschenkind sehr isoliert und auf sich selbst verlassen, obwohl sie sich selbst nicht tragen konnte und obwohl sie sich selbst vergessen hatte. Sie war einsam und verlasssen von den Mitmenschen. Andere worden bezahlt um sie zu betreuen, sonst hätte Keiner mehr etwas mit ihr zu tun gehabt.

Aber es ist nicht so. Wir danken Gott, dass wir nicht ganz und gar verlorren sind. Keiner lebt sich selber wenn wir das Anliegen von Jesus Christus selbst aufnehmen und Barmherzigkeit an seine Vergessene der Erde nehmen.

Denn besonders die, die die Welt vergisst, kann Gott nicht vergessen. Sein Herz wird gross. Es ist nur Mal so, dass Gott unser Herr uns durch diese seine Geringsten und diese seine Verlorenen uns begegnet. So hat Er es sich ausgedacht, dass alle seine Gnade und Barmherzigkeit spüren und erleben.

Dass wir die Geborgenheit in ihm erkennen und erleben, hat Er seine Schöpfung unter dem Gesetz der Liebe beschlossen – dass Er uns in der liebe Frau Frischbutter begegnet – und aus keine mehr habende, keine die viel zu geben hat, und die in der Stellung wär sich selbst helfen und andere helfen zu können.

Doch ist diese Frau von Gott erwählt worden uns seine Liebe spüren zu lassen. Hier sind nur von der grössten Erreichnissen des Menschlichen Lebens die Sprache und durch das Leben, Leiden, und Sterben dieser Frau, als ihrer Verdienst, sind wir solch herrliches Teilhaftig geworden.

Trauern können wir für uns selbst, die wir Gott nicht sehen weil Er in der Liebe verborgen ist, und wir so sehr an unseren alten Menschen gehaftet sind, der aus sich selbst leben will, und seine eigene Interressen und Gewinn im Auge behält, und dadurch sein eigentliches Sinn des Lebens verfehlt, die aller kostbarste Perle nicht findet.

Unter uns Menschen gibt es auch den Abgrund. Dass Menschen so elend und verlassen sterben, dass wir nicht Sinn und Plan Gottes in vielen menschlichen Verhältnissen spüren, denn keine haben die Aufgabe aufgenommen dem Herrn zu leben und zu sterben in dem wir das genau umgekehrt machen, wie es sagt von unseren Herrn – denn dazu ist Christus gestorben und wieder lebendig geworden – erst gestorben – erst sich selbst gestorben um Herrn über Leben und Tod zu werden, aus Gott dann leben zu können anstatt aus sich selbst oder sich selbst leben zu wollen….

Hier brechen die Worte ab. Es kann sein dass ich Paar Blätter verloren habe. Das Folgende ist eine spätere Entwicklung dieser Gedanken bei der Bestattung von Charlotte Martha Peetz 29.8.1974.

Liebe Cousine, liebe Freunde der Verstorbene,

Diese letzte Jahre hat Charlotte Peetz im Roten Kreuz Heim gelebt und jetzt ist sie verstorben.

Es freut mich dass sie gekommen sind um in iherer Trauerfeier Anteil zu nehmen. Denn oft sind die verlassen auf Erden, diejenigen die grosses an uns tun können. Die alte Menschen in dem Heim dürfen wir nicht vergessen und daher mit Dankbarkeit sammeln wir uns hier um an dieser Frau zu denken und unsere Dankbarkeit zu erweisen, dass Gott Menschen nicht vergisst, wenn Menschen seinen Auftrag annehmen und von seiner Liebe her getrieben die Vergessene der Erde aufsuchen, finden, und besuchen.

Unser Text lautet: Römer 14 ⁷ ff. (Siehe oben!)

In den Heimen leben die Menschen isoliert und auf sich selbst verlassen, wie andere bezahlt werden diese zu betreuen. Aber Dir, O Gott, danken wir, dass wir gesandt sind Barmherzigkeit für die Vergessene der Erden zu erweisen.

Gott hat seine Schöpfung unter dem Gesetz der Liebe beschlossen, dass alle, auch die Geringsten der Erde eingeschlossen werden.

Diese hat Gott auserwählt, die die Nichts haben, die kaput und verlassen sind, die so lange von den Mitmenschen vergessen sind, bis sie sich selbst vergessen, durch diese begegnet uns Gott selbst.

Die Geringsten, die Verlorenen sind auserwählt für diese hohe Würde. Es ist deren Verdienst, wenn Gott auch Heute sich unter uns Menschen bewegt.

Für uns sollen wir trauern. Der Abgrund steht vor uns und wie viele Menschen rutschen herein! Wir heben aber unsere Augen auf zu den Bergen, woher unsere Hilfe kommt: seine Berge der Güte, seine gute Abgründe.

Die die nicht erreicht worden sind, rutschen den Abgrund herein; aber Gottes Berge der Güte trösten uns während wir weiter in seinem Auftrag arbeiten werden.

Gott ist in uns und bei uns, wenn Er in uns lebt. Das Leben Gottes in uns ist die ungefärbte Liebe und Wahrheit in uns: wir können nicht aus uns selbst leben.

Daher in der Liebe hat Gott beschlossen, wie wir ihn begegnen: im Gottes Auftrag gesanten begegnet Gott folgender Massen:

In den Armen, sein Reichtum

in den Gefangenen, seine Freiheit

in den Verworrenen, seine Besinnung

in den Geisteskranken, seinen hl. Geist

in den Toten, seine Lebensfülle.

Die Geringsten, die Er in seiner Liebe eingeschlossen hat, sind wahrscheinlich nicht die Armen oder Vergessenen oder Verlassenen der Erde, sondern die Toten – aber anderseits können die Toten so gewaltig sein, dass sie Mächte werden die alles unter uns „Lebenden“ bestimmen können.

Keiner lebt sich selber und keiner stirbt sich selber, das heist, erstens: wir brauchen einander. Isoliert und vergessen zu werden bringt uns in menschen-unwürdigen Verhältnisse hinein.

Zweitens: Gottes Plan will alle Menschen in seiner Liebe einschliessen. Keiner soll vergessen werden. Die Geringsten, die aller ärmsten, die die alles verloren haben und von den Mitmenschen vergessen sind, erwählt daher Gott um durch sie uns zu begegnen. Daher obwohl diese uns nichts zu geben haben, können wir die aller wichtigste, der aller höchsten Wert der Erde bekommen – nämlich Gott zu begegnen – zu spüren.

Drittens: Wir sind gesandt um Menschen zu erreichen in der Huld der Gottesbegegnung. Es gibt zwei Abgründe: erstens, die Berge der Güte und Gnade Gottes, und zweitens, unsere bösen Abgründe, die keineswegs die Guten verschlingen können. Gott behält den Sieg.

Weitere Entwickelung dieser Gedanken für die Bestattung von Frau Emma Doede am 15. Oktober, 1974

Ein Wort vom Römer Brief möchte ich bei dieser Gelegenheit lesen:

Denn unser keiner lebt sich selber,

und keiner stirbt sich selber (Römer 14 ⁷).

Wir nehmen Abschied von der Frau Emma Doede und wissen nicht viel von ihr Leben. Wir haben ihr nur im Heim ein Paar Mal gesehen. Sie war immer sehr traurig und dann hab ich sie im Sterben gesehen. Ich hab Blumen für sie hingestellt, ob sie es sah, weiss ich nicht.

Doch wollen wir mit Dankbarkeit wieder Gottes Wort hören, denn es hat ein Sinn hier zu sprechen. Wir brauchen nicht zu schweigen.

Obwohl Menschen so isoliert bei uns sind und scheinbar so leiden, weil sie in unseren Verhältnissen gezwungen sind sich selber zu leben, haben unsere Besuche und unsere Mühe für diese Menschen einen Sinn. Weil Gott barmherzig ist, sind wir geschickt zu diesen Menschen, die geringsten der Erde, die vergessenen, die isolierten, die so arm dran sind.

Gott hat diese auserwählt um durch sie uns mit seiner Begegnung zu beschenken. Durch die Vergessene und die Geringsten der Erde, begegnet er uns. So hat es Gott geregelt in seinem Gesetz der Liebe um alle in seiner Liebe einzuschliessen. Nicht von den viel habenden können wir das grösste Geschenk möglichst bekommen – nur von diesen Geringsten der Erde ist das möglich. Ja, das grösste Gut auf Erden ist nur möglich von diesen Vergessenen der Erde zu erhalten – dass wir Gott spüren und erleben, dass das Leben Gottes uns gegeben wird, das Leben Gottes in uns wohnt und Gottes ungefärbte Liebe in uns bleibt.

Es ist interessant zu denken wie wir beschenkt werden von den Vergessenen der Erde. Um eine Liste zu machen, meine ich:

von dem Armen, erhalten wir sein Reichtum

von den Gefangenen, seine Freiheit

von den Irrenden, seine Richtlienien

von den Verworrenen, seine Besinnung

von den Trauernden, sein Freude

von den Kranken, seine Gesundheit

von den Toten, seine Lebensfülle, usw.

Darin sehe ich solch ein grossartiger Gott, so barmherzig, so zu schätzen! Wer würde nicht sein Leben geben um ihn zu dienen? Wer würde nicht seinen Auftrag annehmen um ihn zu spüren, um ihn einmal in den Gesichtern der Menschen, wie sie auf seinen Beauftragten, von der Liebe bewegt und gesandt, warten?

Wie Emma Doede ihm ganz gehörig worden ist, wollen wir auch sein. Amen.

Lasst uns beten: Für dieses Menschenkind, Emma Doede, geben wir Dir Dank und Lob. Dass Du uns alle in deiner Liebe eingeschlossen hast, dafür wollen wir danken. Dass Du die Geringsten der Erde auserwählt hast, um duch sie uns zu begegnen, dafür wollen wir Dich loben und preisen, denn es ziegt, lieber Gott, wie grossartig Du bist!

Stärke unseren Glauben, dass wir in deiner Liebe beauftragt, die Geringsten der Erde zu besuchen und an deren Schicksal Anteil zu nehmen fähig sind. Durch deinen Sohn Jesus Christus, unseren Herrn; der behüte unsere Seelen und dessen der Verstorbene. Amen.

Gebet am Grab: Wir danken Dir, O Herr Gott, dass Du alle die Boten des Todes und den Tod selbst überwunden hast durch die Liebe deines Sohnes Jesus Christus. Du hast uns dadurch von den Todes Mächten erlöst und befreit, um frei von Angst und Sorge unter den Menschen in der Liebe tätig zu werden. Nimm auf die Seele von Emma Doede, dass sie in deine Freude aufgehen kann. Durch das Kreuz unsers Herrn Jesus Christus beten wir. Amen.

The Evening Devotion for Marion Lee Davis

(April 25, 1926-February 24, 2009) February 27^th 2009 at 6:30pm

We do not live to ourselves and we do not die to ourselves.

If we live, we live to the Lord and if we die to die to the Lord.

So then, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

For to this end, Christ died and lived again

So that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

(Romans 14:7-9)

Here in this coffin before us, we do not have Marion, but merely Marion’s earthly remains, because she has now become a heavenly new edition!

In grieving for Marion, who crossed the threshold into eternity on Saturday night, we cry to the Lord:

Lord have mercy,

Christ have mercy,

Lord have mercy upon us!

Kyrie eleison!

What a comfort to know that Marion belonged to the Lord and our Lord will give her spirit safe-keeping, because our Lord has taken her spirit home.

In Jesus’ day, when some doubted that there was an afterlife, he corrected them. The God of Sarah, Hagar and Abraham; the God of Rebecca and Isaac; and the God of Leah, Rachel and Jacob is a God of the living and not of the dead. Therefore they are alive in God. So Marion and we also after we have passed away, will become alive in God’s heaven.

Yes, on that great gettin’ up morning.

Will you sing the “Fare thee well” part, while I sing the verses of that old spiritual that her forbears and your ancestors sang with such strong hope that their chains could not even snuff it out?

On that great getting’ up morning, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

The Lord spoke to Gabriel, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

Take down your silver trumpet, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

Blow your trumpet, Gabriel, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

Blow it as loud as thunder, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

On that great getting’ up morning, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

On that great getting’ up morning, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

Place one foot on dry land, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

Place the other on the sea, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

Then you’ll see the coffins bustin’, etc.

See the dry bones come a-creepin’, etc.

On that great getting’ up morning, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

On that great getting’ up morning, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

Then you’ll see poor sinners risin’, etc.

Then you’ll see the Christians marchin’, etc.

See them marchin’ home to heaven, etc.

Then you’ll see my Jesus a comin’, etc.

And Marion will be with them, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

On that great getting’ up morning, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

On that great getting’ up morning, Fare thee well, Fare thee well!

Prayer:

Almighty God, through your only Son you overcame death and the grave and opened for us the gate to everlasting life. We thank you for your daughter Marion Davis, for the gift of her life, for the joy of having her as a mother, cousin, Godmother, family member, and friend. We thank you for receiving her, a sheep of your own pasture and a lamb of your own fold. Let her stand up on that great getting’ up morning and let us all meet each other again in your heavenly house, O Lord, filled with many mansions. We thank you that by his death, Jesus destroyed death and by his rising has given us all the promise of everlasting life. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer.

The Benediction.

The Funeral Eulogy, February 28, 2009 at 11:00am

Marion wanted us to read words that were very important to her that she had on a plaque on her wall:

“Serenity is something you may search for time to time.

It’s a state of inner peace that starts within your mind.

Find a quiet place to be, with just yourself, and you will see,

Love of self must first begin,

For peace of mind comes from within. . . .”

Yes, in the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “Thou dost keep in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because s/he trusts in Thee” (Isaiah 26:3).

Back in Jesus’ day, some questioned whether or not there was an afterlife, a resurrection from the dead. Jesus told those who did not believe in it that they were quite wrong. Those who die belonging to the Lord go to be with God, where they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to the angels and are sons and daughters of God, sons and daughters of the resurrection.

Jesus said, “That the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now God is not a God of the dead but of the living, for all live to him” (Luke 20:36f).

Now if our faith should waver here beside Marion’s earthly remains, remember that Jesus came to us from God in heaven and we can count on the fact that he knows what he is talking about. As LeVar Burton says in “Reading Rainbow,” “Don’t take my word for it!” Read the good book. Jesus himself said it.

So the way we sang yesterday, “On that great getting’ up morning,” Marion is going to fare well. Jesus is going to take her by the hand and say, “Daughter, arise!” and she will breathe the pure air of the Holy Spirit, and believe you me, she won’t have to schlep any oxygen tanks around anymore. There will be a better celebration up there than she had on her eightieth birthday and it will be with her husband Charles once again.

She is now out from under the shadow of death and she is out in the sunshine of the presence of God in heaven. Where all the saints go marchin’ in, she’ll have that big base drum strapped to her and she’ll be beating it proudly with all her family who have gone before chasing after her to keep up with her in the parade. She’ll be beating her drum with Gabriel playing his trumpet and Martin Luther King, Jr., the drum major in his beautiful white uniform, marching before.

Let’s all be there, on that great getting’ up morning! When we have been baptized in Jesus’ suffering and death, the shadow of death has already passed over us and we are already in a way, in the sunshine of God’s presence, doing God’s will with love and pleasure, just like Marion now up in heaven.

So we can die to sin and come alive to God even here where we have a foretaste of heaven and even share that taste of heaven with others.

Jesus’ death on the cross for us put death to death. O death, now where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? Our victory over suffering and death came to us by the Lord of Life, Jesus Christ. So really the older we get, the more we need to rejoice, because we are closer to the land of laughter and the celebration up in heaven. If we keep sorrowing for our youth, then we have forgotten that our destiny is in heaven and a coffin, a grave, a dead body, cannot keep us out of the loving arms of our wonderful Lord Jesus and his heavenly Father, who sent him to save us. Amen.

Let us pray:

Oh Lord, we know that your daughter Marion is now safe in your arms with all the heavenly saints on high. But comfort those of us here she left behind, who mourn her loss. Ah Lord, we will miss her, her cheerful and uncomplaining attitude and her profound courage. Yes, comfort us who will miss her and mourn her loss. We thank you for making the way for us through suffering, death, and the grave into your realm of heaven, where our many mansions await us, the mansions you have prepared for us await us. O death where is your sting?

O grave, where is your victory? Our victory is the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, who makes us rise even here, and will certainly raise us up over there. Amen.