"To Remember" - a funeral sermon for Rev. Ron Jensen

Pastor Madison here, and it was my distinct honor and privilege to preside over the funeral for a beloved colleague and St. Olaf member, Rev. Ronald D. Jensen, this past week. I've had several people request a copy of the funeral sermon and sonnet that were written for him, and with Kathy's permission, I share them both here.

This sermon is based on Ron's life, as well as the following texts: Romans 8:31-35, 37-39, Psalm 121, and Luke 24:13-35

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Dear friends and family gathered today, grace and peace to you from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
Now, if you’ve been with me as I’ve had the honor of presiding over other funerals in my tenure as a pastor, you’ll know that I always start my funeral sermons with a quote from the writer, Gerhard Frost, who once said that to mourn for someone is to pay them a great compliment; it is to give meaning and significance to their life.
 
This is, of course, the reality; that when we mourn for someone, it means, for lack of more eloquent phrasing, that there is something to mourn. It means that there was closeness and a relationship during a lifetime.
 
And as we look out today and as we hear and share memories of Ron’s life and legacy, perhaps this line from Frost has never been more true. We are left with all of the memories and lessons and sonnets and writings that Ron shared with us during his amazing life lived.
 
Since Ron’s death almost two weeks ago now, stories and memories of him have been pouring out from a slew of different places. As they should. I’ve heard stories about Ron as a pastor. I’ve heard stories from Kathy, especially about Ron’s calm nature. I’ve heard stories about his love for and pride in David, Nathan, Karisa, and their spouses and children. I’ve received countless emails after his death from pastors who were colleagues or parishioners of Ron during his career as a pastor, my favorite of which described him as “the saltiest salt of the earth,” meaning that Ron was, really, the best of the best.
 
I think, based on all of this, it’s safe to assume we’re all looking back on the privilege of knowing Ron with some tears and a smile today, remembering the genuine, kind, loving, thoughtful, supportive man who has gone before us.
 
It’s clear that Ron made an indelible mark on this community and on each of you. And, we now gather for one more worship service with him before we commend him to the mercy of God.
 
Hearing all of this, our task, then, isn’t so much trying to figure out how to keep his memory alive; his life lived did that enough for itself. And it isn’t to contemplate how we are going to live in the wake of his absence; that’s something I don’t know if we will ever quite figure out.
 
Our challenge today is to accompany Ron one last time, and then learn how to walk with each other, reflecting the love of God that Ron so beautifully modeled, so that we can’t help but show others the resurrection promise that comes through Jesus and his rising…something that Ron did each day of his life, and promises that sustained him through his life as he journeyed through God’s creation, and promises that are now complete for him.
 
The three readings that we just heard all point us in the right direction for how to best contextualize this change in our lives in response.
 
Paul’s letter to the Romans was a message of love, that since Christ was raised from the dead, could anything else, death or otherwise, separate us from God’s love? Hardship? Distress? Persecution? Cancer? Clinical trials? Distance? Death?

No, because even in death, seemingly the most final ending of all, God loves us from one life into the next, that not trials or temptations, not things of the past, not things in the present, not cancer, not distance, not even death itself could show us anything less than God’s unconditional love and grace for us.
 
And if we have questions or doubts about that love and grace, if we need reassurance or help, Psalm 121 reminds us to look to the hills. Look to the hills to encounter the same God who made heaven and earth, the same God who kept God’s people from generation to generation, the same God who, on a hill, promised eternal life to Pastor Ron Jensen…that same God also promised eternal life and love to you, child of God, and reminds you in that promise that you are loved and seen and important to God, that God thought you would bring value to the world and created you and called you good, just as you are.
 
So much so that God sent Jesus to earth to fulfill the words of the prophets, to journey with us, to figure out what life means on earth so that God might better understand God’s creation.
 
And Jesus did. Jesus went to the cross to show us that nothing could ever separate us from the love of God. That even in our grief, such as the disciples were on their way to Emmaus, that Jesus journeys with us. That even through the hard times, the times that seem utterly impossible, the adjustments that we sometimes have to make but don’t want to…we have a community to hold us up. That even and especially in those times, God always shows up alongside us and can help us transition from our grief to thanksgiving.
 
That even when we might forget the promises God makes to us, even when those trials from Romans make their way into our minds, that God pulls us back to remember.
 
To remember Jesus, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God.
To remember Jesus, who was handed over to the chief priests and leaders.
To remember Jesus, who was missing from the tomb when the women went to look for him.
To remember Jesus, who was the one to redeem God’s people.
To remember Jesus, who stays with us and goes on the journey with us.
 
And, to remember Ron, who proclaimed all of these things so well during his life.
 
People of God, death will not have the last word. The love of God will. The resurrection of Jesus will.
 
And it is in that resurrection promise that we celebrate the life of Pastor Ron Jensen, that we rejoice in who he was and the legacy he left as a husband, father, grandfather, son, brother, friend, colleague, and pastor.
 
It is in that resurrection promise that we are able to give thanks to God for the many ways that God loved and cared for Ron, the many ways that the love of God poured through his hands and his heart.
 
We give thanks to God for the pleasure of knowing and loving Ron in this life. We give thanks to God for the resurrection and life of Jesus Christ, who gave himself so that even in the trials of life, we are reminded that nothing could ever separate us from the love of God.
 
Now, likely you all are familiar with the great gift Ron had with words. Last week, as I informed my colleague, Pastor Mark Niethammer, and his family of Ron’s death (he’s on sabbatical right now), they said, “you should write Ron a sonnet!” And that was all that was said as the idea burrowed itself into my brain.
 
I’m not as gifted with words as Ron was in his life, but…here’s a sonnet for Ron.
 
For Pastor Ron, dear beloved of God:
Thoughtful and kind, you left words to ponder.
You led us on the faith journeys we trod,
Stronger with you in our lives we did wander.
 
How do we show our appreciation
To a man who asked for nothing from others?
Who eagerly joined us in conversation,
Teaching us God’s love, which comes in all colors.
 
His days were filled with much care and good strife
Thorough and honest, he was ever thus.
We give thanks to God for Ron Jensen’s life
And the legacy he left ’hind to us.
 
Now, God’s peace, which passes understanding,
Keep your hearts in Christ our Lord, outstanding.

Amen.