All Should Go: A Funeral Sermon for Jim Scherer. December 30, 2023

I was blessed to preach and preside at the funeral for the Rev. Dr. James A. Scherer at Grace Lutheran Church (River Forest, IL). You can view both the livestream and the bulletin. Rest eternal grant Jim, O Lord; and let light perpetual shine upon him.

Jim, Susan, Liene; family and friends; sisters, brothers, all friends in Christ, grace be unto you and peace in the name of God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

1. Jesus doesn’t call it the Great Commission, but that’s how we’ve come to know these words near the end of Matthew’s Gospel: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” These words wound their way into Jim’s heart and mind on the campus of Yale, although they were summed up in the pithier slogan of the missions movement: “All should go and go to all.” Jim took these words seriously; they shaped his life. If all should go, that meant Jim should go. And if all should be gone to, then that meant Jim should follow God’s call anywhere, even to China and, later, Japan. I confess I cannot quite wrap my head around what it would mean to be a so-called “Yale Bachelor”, sent to teach at Yali Middle School in Hunan Province after graduating from Yale at the ripe old age of nineteen. Jim took Jesus at his word. God called. Jim went. And what a wonderful, faithful journey it was that God unfolded in Jim’s life over the course of 97 years. Jim spent his life going to all he could, and helping others do the same, bearing witness to the good news of the risen Christ.
2. Jim took Jesus at his word, which may be why he didn’t want too many words spoken during the service today. Of course, that’s partially due to his desire for music and celebration. Why speak when one can listen to Bach? But more than that, I think, was that Jim cared less for words and more for the Word, less about himself and more about Jesus, the One to whom he committed his life and from whom his vocation flowed. Jim’s life was marked by the One who sent him, the Triune God into whose life he was baptized long ago. Following the sending part of the Great Commission, Jesus speaks words of pure promise: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Jim’s life was not simply one of being sent by Jesus. It was a life in which Jesus was present with Jim. Bringing Jim and Frances together in China for a marriage that would last 60 years. Being with Jim and Frances as they moved to Japan with two very young children, Jim and Susan, for four years of ministry. Guiding Jim through studies under luminaries like Niebuhr and Tillich until he himself became a luminary in Maywood and then Hyde Park. Being with Jim as he mourned Frances’s death and then blessing Jim with a second love in Liene. Gracing him with grandchildren and great-grandchildren, with colleagues and friends beyond count. Jim’s life bears testament to the abiding presence of Jesus Christ.
3. But there I go, talking about Jim again. It’s something we could all do for hours on end. But here at this ending, we gather not only in mourning but in celebration. Because the Christ who promises to be with us is none other than the One who has conquered death itself; the One in whose dying sin – your sin, Jim’s sin – is forgiven, in whose rising new life springs forth from the grave. Today we proclaim the gospel at the heart of every missions movement throughout church history, beginning with the commissioning of the Eleven: Jesus Christ has won the victory over sin, death, and the devil. What was once the end is now a new beginning without end. Death has become an empty shell; even better, the gateway to life everlasting. Death, as Isaiah long ago foretold, has been swallowed up in victory.
4. Last Tuesday, as Jim’s life neared its end, I sat with Susan and Liene in his room at the Scottish Home. At that particular end, we went to a different beginning. I don’t know how much Jim heard or understood, but it matters little. He knew the story by heart. In these days, we read again of those days, when a decree went out from Caesar Augustus. We heard again from Luke of how, when an ancient despot tried to claim control of this world, God snuck in the back door and into Bethlehem, born as a baby to redeem the world. On this Sixth Day of Christmas, we gather in this holy space to rejoice with the shepherds and the angels, to ponder with Mary the wonderous things accomplished by our Lord. This incarnate Word, so much more than our words, has wrapped itself up in our flesh that our lives would forever be wrapped up in the steadfast love of God – on both sides of the grave. Wrapped in this Word, Jim lived long enough for his son to arrive the next day, then went home to his Savior.
5. We gather as friends and family, from LSTC, from Good Shepherd and Grace and places far flung. We gather as the people of God blessed to know Jim, and graced to know that we will see Jim again, for the story begun in Bethlehem echoes unto eternity. The baby of Bethlehem is the risen Christ, and in him we live. In him, Jim lives, the promises of baptism now fully given and received. All should go and go to all, yes and amen. But this is so first because Christ comes to all and is with all. Christ is with Jim as our beloved friend enters the glory of God, the feast that has no end. And Christ is with us as we celebrate the eucharistic feast in which Christ makes good on his promise: He is with us here. Now. It is but a foretaste of the coming feast, yet more than enough to strengthen us for the days ahead.
6. As we go forth from this place, let the Word of God incarnate, the Word of God for you, give you comfort and hope. And from that Word, let our words spill forth, giving voice to our grief and our joy, giving thanks for Jim’s life, bearing witness to the new life he has, that we have, in Christ. And because I’ve gone on longer that Jim might have wanted, let us sing the gospel in praise of the One we love with all our hearts, the One who wakens us from death, when all the sorrows of this world will give way to a joy that we now know only in part, but shall one day know in full. Thanks be to God – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – in whose joy Jim now lives forever, with Frances and all the saints, world without end. Christ is with you always, to the end of the age. Amen.

And now may that peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, this day and forever. Amen.