From: "Glenn Berg-Moberg" <glenn@saplc.org>
Date: June 2, 2006 12:42:47 PM EDT
To: <Olaf@cox.net>
Subject: Funeral sermon

Here is the text of the sermon preached at Olaf Storaasli's funeral.

Funeral Sermon
For
Olaf K. Storaasli

Olaf packed a lot of living into 90 years.  Deeply religious, yes, but he
never let faith be a private retreat from the world, but rather a loving
embrace- he traveled, saw the world, and saw to it that foreign students
were welcomed and cared for in our part of the world.

Optimistic, he expected his children to do well and they have, partly
because he and Lila had the rare wisdom to combine high standards, with
unconditional love.

Impulsive, athletic, frugal for himself so he could be generous to others.
Intelligent.  Durable- he continued to meet life gamely in spite of a
growing list of ailments and physical limits.

Faithful.  This spring would mark the 65th anniversary of his seminary
graduation and ordination.

In preparation for this day’s worship I was privileged to see a very
precious document.  It was the notes that Olaf himself made in preparation
for his own memorial service.

In this paper he left instructions on various details, and naturally this
included his selections of Scripture.  Allow me to note it is a boon to the
family to know the wishes of the deceased, and therefore to be able to make
good on them.  Please bear that in mind with your own mortality, and
understand it is a gift to your loved ones to express clearly your thoughts
and wishes.  Don’t make them ask.  You do it.

It is also a great relief to me, as preacher, to know that today’s texts
have been chosen by a specialist, an expert in New Testament.

I know Olaf’s choices are among the best and most appropriate texts for
Christian burial and memorial.  His mind was crystal clear to the very end,
and he could still make accurate quotes of key Greek words in the pericopes
for Sunday worship.  I witnessed this more than once at the Mens’ Bible
study lunches on Fridays.  Olaf knew what he was talking about.  I have no
illusions- I certainly can’t improve on his choices.

Back to that document.  He was a scholar and scholars are thorough.  Olaf
made sure we would be immersed in scripture today.  Olaf chose no fewer than
11 New Testament texts.  I’m not making that up.  11 Texts from the New
Testament.  He also chose four Psalms.

Of the New Testament texts, several are from the Apostle Paul, one from 1st
Peter, 2nd Peter, and a couple from Revelation.  There are four gospel
texts.  Four, the number- has a familiar ring.  Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John?  No.  John, John, John, and John.  All four from the book of John.

Michael Rogness commented to me that the gospel of John was Olaf’s favorite
book.  Now I have seen evidence of that in writing.  So I feel I must try to
fulfill an undeniable mandate by preaching from John.

The gospel of John is devotional, theological, poetic, mystical, and in it
we meet a victorious Christ.  This book paints vivid contrasts- darkness and
light, weddings and funerals, trial scenes where the accused is innocent and
the accusers guilty.  A crucifixion that kills the body, but reveals eternal
life.

There are many dualities in John.  When Jesus speaks to Nicodemus he makes
the distinction between earthly things and heavenly things.  In chapter 6:27
Jesus warns, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that
endures for eternal life…"  In 6: 63 It is the spirit that gives life; the
flesh is useless.”  In 8: 23 He said to his critics, "You are from below, I
am from above..”  In 18:36 Jesus says to Pontius Pilate,  "My kingdom is not
from this world.”

Lots of duality.  Earthly and heavenly, perishing and living, spirit and
flesh, this world, and not of this world.  Good shepherd and thief.
Darkness and light.

I confess that all this other world talk in John is sometimes difficult for
me.  It can all seem so dreamy, almost like wishful thinking.  But I can
hear another theologian, Gerhard Forde, saying, “What’s the matter, don’t
you like pie?”  So on Olaf’s insistence, I have searched this book, the
fourth gospel.

I hope I can express what I have seen there- I hope to use a simple analogy
to say something of value.  Please bear with a moment of self reference.

In school, I was never any good at science.  I say this with some
embarrassment, since I am in the presence of another Olaf Storaasli who has
serious scientific accomplishments in his resume’.  It’s not that I thought
science was boring, or unimportant- I just wasn’t any good at it.  I was
always a fish out of water in the hard sciences.  In college I was much more
of a literary type, which is another way of saying I was good at Frisbee.

What has all this got to do with anything?  Well, from science I borrow the
fact- the fact- that there is so much about reality that cannot be seen with
the naked eye.  Science has helped us understand that some things are hidden
from everyday experience, and yet are real.

Before the microscope, who could believe there were living organisms too
small to see?  Who in the ancient world would understand talk of atoms and
molecules?  What would the Old Testament writers make of planetary orbits-
they who trusted that the world stood on pillars like a table- the land
nestled under the solid blue bowl of the sky?  Radio waves, ultra violet
light, genetic code, atomic energy, the protection of a vaccine- all real,
and all in their way, invisible.

I don’t really know what goes on inside the computer I use every day- but
someone understands such things, and makes them work for us.

Faith talk is like that.  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the
conviction of things unseen.

It seems to me the gospel of John is very intent on asserting the truth
about things we cannot see.  So for faith, this gospel is our microscope,
our telescope, it is the documentation of what lies beyond common sense.

Jesus is the one sent by God to describe, interpret, to introduce and above
all to invite- Jesus makes the things above  -visible to those who dwell
below.

When Jesus met Martha, tears were shed over the death of the beloved brother
Lazarus.  Tears are the expression of real love, and real loss.  Even Jesus
wept for the sadness of separation, for pity over human pain and heartache.
Dear Lila, dear family, understand that God in Christ sees your bereavement.
As in this text, Christ meets you in your grief.

But Jesus also came to that grieving family for another reason.  Remember he
was late, deliberately late, so there could be no doubt that death was real
and total- Jesus came then- after the fact- to bear witness to the unseen
reality.  Our microscope, our telescope, the prism that reveals a spectrum
of hidden color.  Jesus spoke of what we cannot see, but IS nevertheless
real.  He declared a power greater than death, a resurrection of the
self-same person- not some cloud of amorphous well-being, but THE ONE we
miss- this is the unseen reality to which Jesus points.  Lazarus walked out
of the tomb, a promise of what will be.

Now I suppose the analogy to science, breaks down, as all analogies do.
Science relies on demonstration, and faith does not yield to proof, nor to a
perceived lack of proof.

But there are other ways to build trust besides proof.  Whom DO you trust?
Olaf trusted the witness of Scripture.  Olaf trusted Jesus.  Olaf would want
us to do the same.

As we prepared for today the family shared memories and stories with me, and
they are precious.  The love for Olaf, the respect, and admiration were
genuine.  Palpable.

You can see it.  You can feel it.  Who could doubt it?

I saw a light in his eyes, an incandescence- a spiritual fire.  I know you
saw it too.  What I say now is not the business of making him into an angel,
or a false god, or some plaster saint.  But I trust that the light I saw in
his quiet beam was a reflection of the light of Christ.  A soul nourished on
Word and sacrament, which testifies not to itself but to Jesus who teaches
us to look at the unseen, and to see.

That’s what happens when you soak up the Word.  That’s why Olaf couldn’t
help but choose a banquet of scripture on which to feast and to feed our
hope.

John 10: 7-11
So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the
sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did
not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and
will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal
and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly. 11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life
for the sheep.

John 14:1-3
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
 2 In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so,
would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself,
so that where I am, there you may be also.

Rev. 7:13-17
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white,
and where have they come from?" 14 I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that
knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great
ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb. 15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him
day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne
will shelter them. 16 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun
will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; 17 for the Lamb at the center
of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of
the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Listen.  Olaf wanted you to hear all these things and more.

Jesus said, “…The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”