Reverend’s Reflections
Not long ago, I attended the funeral of Ernest Theodore Lams. While none of you to whom I’m writing knew Ernest, most people who knew him simply called him Ted. To me, he is, and will for the rest of my life remain, Mr. Lams. He was my teacher and principal at St. Paul Lutheran Elementary School in Brookfield, Illinois. He was the organist for the St. Paul congregation. He was my coach in softball, basketball, and track. He gave me my first coaching job while I was a student at Concordia in River Forest. He en- couraged me as I studied first to become a teacher, and then a pastor, and. he played the organ at my Ordination service.
Mr. Lams and his wife, Nancy, were close friends of my parents. He taught all three of my sisters to play organ and led them into service in the Church. My parents and my three sisters were all able to attend the funeral and sit together. As the family of my childhood sat there together in the pews we filled many years ago, it was at times hard to sing as tears came to my eyes, blurring my vision. They were tears of joy and thanksgiving – for the Church in which I was raised, for the pastor who shepherded me, and for the teachers at the school who taught me. My sisters and I, along with my parents, have all been nurtured in the faith by those whom God brought to St. Paul Church and School. Pastor Otten, Mr. Lams, Miss Kruse, Mr. Stuenkel, and other teachers my younger sisters had, all taught and modeled the Christian faith and life.
The funeral was not “a celebration of life.” It was all about Christ, our salvation, and our hope in the resurrection. The pastor who now serves St. Paul, Rev. Edward Naumann, preached a wonderful sermon and the hymns in the service were truly Christ-centered. We sang “Behold A Host, Arrayed in White,” “For All The Saints,” and “Lord, Thee I Love, With All My Heart.” The children of the school sang “God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It.” Pastor Naumann began his sermon by reminding those gathered in an overflowing church that many of us who knew Mr. Lams were students of his and called him teacher. Mr. Lams loved giving “pop” quizzes in class so, fittingly, Pastor Nauman began his sermon by giving us a quiz:
Who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt?
Who led the Israelites into the promised land?
Who confronted King David for his sin with Bathsheba and led David to repentance?
If you were a student of Mr. Lams, you should know the answer to these questions. If nothing else, we learned the Bible at St. Paul.But Pastor Nauman had tricked us. He knew that the immediate answer we would give to those questions would be: Moses, Joshua, and Nathan. Pastor Naumann reminded us that the correct answer to those questions, the answer which Mr. Lams would have taught us, was God. God led the people of Israel out of slavery. God led the Israelites into the promised land. God convicted David of his sin and led him to repentance.
Just as God used Moses, Joshua, and Nathan to accomplish His work, so God uses people like Mr. Lams to bring people to faith, to teach them the truth of salvation in Christ, and guide them in the life of righteousness and purity. A funeral is certainly a time for mourning. After all, even Jesus mourned at the death of Lazarus. But funerals are also a time of joy and thanksgiving as we recall what Christ our Lord did for the believer who died in Christ and what He has done for us as well. It is also a time to reflect on one’s own life. It should be a time of repentance as well as a time of joy and thanksgiving. Pastor Naumann pointed all of us to Christ. He reminded us that Mr. Lams, though a well-loved and faithful husband, father, teacher, principal, and organist, was of all things a sinner redeemed in the precious blood of Jesus. Mr. Lams believed this, he confessed this, he lived this.
Pastor Nauman also reminded us that, even as we gathered for Mr. Lams’ funeral, he had one last lesson to teach – he taught us how to die well – as a lamb of Jesus’ flock. We have just come through the season of Lent and Holy Week. We are now living in the season of Easter. During Holy Week we sang the hymn “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.” The final stanza of the hymn speaks of how the Christian faces death:
Be Thou my consolation, my shield, when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfold Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.
For the remainder of my life, each time I sing this hymn, the final stanza will remind me of the many lessons Mr. Lams taught me and so many others: he taught us the Bible, he taught us about Jesus, he taught us how to die well.
—Pastor Knox