Pam Fielke Funeral (8 February 2019)

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: John 14:2
Theme: Prepared By The Saviour

Dear family, friends and loved ones of Pam, and especially you, Leanne, Ken, Grant, Craig, and Tony, her children:

God doesn’t have contingency plans. He doesn’t need them. He knows what will come to pass. So, when the Lord Jesus, the conqueror of death, says today, “In My Father’s house are many rooms… I am going there to prepare a place for you,”1 He was not speaking of possibilities, probabilities, or contingencies. God’s preparations are only made in anticipation of a future event that will be fulfilled with certainty. Today we celebrate that no more preparations need to be made for Pam Fielke’s reception into heaven. It has come to pass. Pam has been released from the burden of this mortal existence. She is at peace. Thanks be to God!

So, how is it possible? Really? This radical transition. In the record of Jesus’ life, we come across various descriptions of His interactions with people such as this one, “They were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.”2 The words of Christ were gripping and incisive. The utterances of Jesus had clout. You see, the people of Jesus’ day, like us, understandably expected claims of extraordinary magnitude to be verified by independent authorities. But who would Christ turn to to sanction or validate His assertions? Even the greatest human authorities are fallible. Experts in every field have their failings and limitations. Exceptional claims must be substantiated again and again and again before they gain widespread credibility. What did Jesus do to validate His claims? Well, there was this little matter of rising from the dead. Of course, countless other miracles had already demonstrated His divinity.

Dear friends, ours is an age of skepticism about the need for God’s assistance. Do you think that any person who dies today is in any less need of divine clemency than the great figures of ancient times, the princes or the paupers of the Middle Ages, the popes or the peasants, the victims of wars past or benefactors of peaceful eras? Are we any closer to God’s mercy? Are we any further from His grace? No. The condemnation of sin is no less real than if God had rebuked Adam and Eve two days ago. The call to repentance is never obsolete. It is never inapplicable.

I first met Pam and Ray in 2006 when Pam was a still a member of the Bookpurnong Ladies’ Guild. At some point they welcomed me into their home for a guild meeting and this green horn from across the ocean learned a little bit more about farming in the Mallee and the resilience of those who do it. Pam had a spirited sense of humor. Her wit served her well both in the daily routine of life and through the more difficult challenges. She was a devoted wife and mother and competent in everything required of her. She endured the loss of a child.

Still, all humans have significant limitations. Some require resolution. How can the gates of heaven be unbolted? Could Pam do it with her wit, her generosity, or her resilience? Can I do it with seminary training or biblical knowledge? Can you succeed with your sincerity, your philanthropy, or your kindheartedness? No, dear friends the threshold of heaven cannot be crossed, it cannot be breached, it cannot be accessed by the strivings, heroic or otherwise, of any individual. The combined ingenuity, piety, and tenacity of all humanity is not able push open the gates of heaven or overcome the finality of death.

But what does the Scripture say? “Jesus, who went before us, has entered [heaven] on our behalf.”3 “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”4 Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.”5 And, “Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”6

Pam Fielke was a forgiven sinner. Immersed in Christ’s forgiveness from the time of her baptism she was made a child of God and promised an everlasting inheritance. The wedding text her and Ray shared proved to be a steadfast support for her, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”7 At her confirmation Pam was assigned this verse from Matthew 24, “The one who endures to the end will be saved.”8 And that’s exactly what Pam did. Through Christ’s grace, and His strength she endured until He called her home. “In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”9

It can be reasonably argued that Pam had suffered from her vascular dementia long enough. It was time for her to be relieved. Only God can really say. He chose to summon her and for that we’re thankful even while we grieve. We might say that from a purely human perspective there is never a good time for death. After all, death is final. There are no second chances. There’s no going back. But, dear friends, if we could truly comprehend what those who are in the presence of the triune God, saints and angels now enjoy, there’s little question anyone would want to come back!

Leanne, Ken, Grant, Craig, Tony, grief doesn’t schedule appointments. It doesn’t ask permission to intrude upon your life. It is not polite. It doesn’t negotiate. You might try to postpone its beginning, suspend its progress, or hasten its conclusion but you won’t find any of these efforts to be very helpful. Instead, the Scriptures empower you to face grief head on. Every person that is lost from our lives is unique and that makes them irreplaceable. But don’t think for even a moment that God is too feeble or apathetic to sustain you even in times of darkest doubt?

Does God care about our personal worries? Of course He does. God cares about everything, but He is indebted to no one. Christ is the exalted One, but He’s also the Suffering Servant. The victim of Calvary was not an unwilling pawn. He was not naïve or clueless. He was not ill-informed about the task. He knew He was facing death. He knew He was going to be sacrificed. He went to the cross anyway.

Jesus Christ is immortal, and He has overturned the power of death. And He can, and He will, reassemble our disintegrated bodies and resurrect them in like manner to His glorious body. It will not be slight-of-hand or a magician’s deception. The resurrected will not be in a mystifying trance or feel like they are in some kind of suspended out-of-body experience. Our perception will be as natural and familiar as what we enjoy right now. Therefore, Job says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes.”10 Pam has been crowned with life. Thanks be to God! Amen.

+ In nomine Jesu +

Christian Burial of Pamela Helen Fielke
8 February 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 John 14:2 2 Mark 1:22
3 Hebrews 6:20 4 Ephesians 2:8
5 John 11:25 6 Acts 10:43
7 Matthew 28:20 8 Matthew 24:13
9 John 14:2 10 Job 19:26-27