Emma Lily Albus Funeral Sermon – John 10:14–18, 27-30 August 6th 2025 / Taught by the Voice of the Good Shepherd

Emma Lily Albus Funeral Sermon / Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Wednesday August 6th 2025: Season of Pentecost / John 10:14–18, 27-30, “Taught by the Voice of the Good Shepherd”

[Jesus says] “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one Shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.”

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends and family of Emma Albus, in a journaling book designed to reflect on life given to Emma by her son Byron one year on Mother’s Day, Emma answered this question, “What were your youthful goals and ambitions for life? Which ones have you been able to fulfil?”

Her answer,

“My youthful goal was to become a teacher as I used to pretend the cows (when I got them from the pasture) where my students and we’d do spelling and math quizzes and sing a lot of songs (the cows didn’t really participate).

She concludes that part saying, “I taught for 33 year” then she says, “I also wished to find a nice husband and have a family.” Both of these things she was able to fulfill, she explained how, Frank was a great husband and friend with whom she had many happy times including all the times she’d had with their two “beautiful children, Melody and Byron,” which Emma wrote, “I am very proud of and love very much.”

From her earliest days Emma had her priorities set: Faith in God, belief in family and friends and to be a teacher. From the beginning Emma was one of Jesus’ little lambs always glad at heart, always hearing His voice, as she’d remarked that she’d been going to church with her mom and dad (John and Caroline) from before she could even remember, wrapped up in her mother’s arms as a baby guided by Jesus, the Good Shepherded, from her baptism and confirmation of baptism, through her entire life, until her final breath right through death into her eternal life in Him.   

Our Gospel Reading for today where Jesus explains to us how He is the Good Shepherd who looks after His sheep, His little lambs, comes hot on the heels of a big kerfuffle. Jesus had healed a man born blind and the authorities didn’t like how and when it happened and they also couldn’t figure out how it was even possible. They had been questioning the man and his parents when the man born blind — now able to see — after being asked yet again to tell them one more time what had happened shoots back at the authorities, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”[1] A disciple is a student of a teacher, in those years leading to His cross and passion, Jesus formally had twelve disciples but He had many more informal disciples who had become His students and after His Good Friday death and Easter Sunday resurrection the number of His disciples grew. At His Ascension to God the Father’s right hand on high in heaven, forty days after that first Easter, Jesus told His apostles (who were His disciples and students) to “Go [under His authority] and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Jesus says, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[2] Now earlier we’d heard how Emma felt that God would’ve liked her to be a missionary in some far-off country and how this would have taken her far away from her family so instead, she chose to be a teacher where she could still do missionary work in a way through her actions and beliefs. Some of her students are here today. She wasn’t shy about teaching the Christian faith in her vocation as a teacher and some of you are here, in part, because she shared her Christian faith with you.

While the cows were not very interested in Emma’s lessons the children God gave her to teach were much more receptive and she was much loved by them. Friends and family, children from the church and the community everyone who had her as a teacher cherished her and thinking back can probably even still hear her voice in their heads. As I was going though the book of her reflection filled out in her own hand I couldn’t help but hear her voice as I read her answers to the questions on each page.

If you were to ask who the ultimate teacher was Emma would tell you Jesus and His voice is the one she followed in life. Jesus in our Gospel reading says “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” Safe and secure in Jesus’ hand Emma now has her rest in Him and she awaits The Day when she will see and hear Him not only in spirit but in her physical body resurrected, made new like His, and raised from the Dead on the Last Day. To the question, “What Bible Character would you most like to meet? [And] why?” Emma answered, “Jesus [because He is] so perfect and wonderful,” then she wistfully adds, “I do wish to meet Him someday in my eternal home.” Psalm 23 was an important Scripture passage for her — a version of it was even sung at Emma and Franks wedding — and the little lambs who follow after Jesus the Good Shepherd’s voice are promised there that with all goodness and mercy Jesus will lead them, and provide for them, that He would comfort them and encourage them not to be afraid of death or evil and that He would bring them finally to the House of the Lord to dwell there forever.

Jesus in our Gospel reading says that He has, “other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one Shepherd.” What did Jesus mean? Well, beyond the day He first taught His disciples these word, He knew that there would be more little lambs, little lambs like Emma, little lambs like me and little lambs like you, who would be called by Jesus’ voice to follow Him. ‘Oh preacher, I think I’m probably one of those black sheep, a lost sheep, way off in the back forty with my head caught in the brambles or my butt stuck in a culvert in a ditch,’ dear ones, take heart, the voice of Jesus is for you too. And Jesus promises to seek out the lost sheep and bring them home to the rest. In fact in His parable of the lost sheep Jesus says the Good Shepherd when He has found His lost sheep lays that sheep on His shoulders, rejoicing. And when He comes home, the Good Shepherd calls together His friends and His neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep that was lost.’[3] You are never so lost that you can’t hear the voice of Jesus calling you to follow Him as He makes His way to rescue you from whatever awful situation you find yourself in.

Don’t be like the cows brought in from the pasture, listen to your kind-hearted and wise teacher Emma and as a disciple and student of the best of all teachers, Jesus, she will teach you what has been taught from generation to generation: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”[4] This is the 10 Commandments in a nutshell. Over and over again Emma wrote how going to church weekly (when she was physically able) and reading her Bible daily, praying morning noon and night and before meals all contributed to her growing in her Christian faith which helped her through hard time and gave her joy in the good time. She also talked about taking seriously her confirmation classes and her confirmation vows and learning to follow the 10 Commandments. So ok class! Time for a little refresher; get out your books, stand up, and turn to page 264, that’s page 264 in your hymnal and we’ll recite the 10 Commandments together:

You shall have no other gods.

You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

Honor your father and your mother.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his

manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Emma noted that learning to follow the 10 Commandments provided the opportunity to have a good life with family and with everyone. This is very true. If you’ve struggled with some of these, don’t give up, keep learning and growing in them and remember Jesus followed them perfectly and has forgiveness for you for when you fail, listen to His voice as He teaches them to you daily.

Never stop learning, learn daily to follow the voice of the Good Shepherd as Emma did and remember Jesus is the one who laid down His life for the sheep, for all His little lambs, He willing did this upon the cross of His crucifixion to save you from all the wolves and troubles that befall us in this life, some of which we make for ourselves; and your Good Shepherd Jesus took His life up again so that He can lead you now through your life to your eternal home. Jesus’ whole life is both your salvation and a lesson to learn, that you would treat others the way He treats you. There have been many times where we have been on the receiving end of this lesson, and sometimes Jesus was using Emma to teach that lesson to you. Thanks be to God for Emma and for all the good teachers we have been given in this life and Lord grant each of us what we need so that we can learn and grow in the faith and teach, where we are able, the love of God for us in Christ Jesus. The very one who says to you today, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” Amen.    

Let us pray: Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] John 9:27
[2] Matthew 28:19–20
[3] Luke 15:5–6
[4] Luke 10:27

Photo Credit: Main Photo suplied by family and Mount Olive Lutheran Church.