Richard John Mehling Funeral Sermon – Colossians 3:16–17 October 23rd 2023 / This is My Song

Richard John Mehling Funeral Sermon - Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Monday October 23rd 2023: Season of Pentecost / Colossians 3:16–17 "This is My Song"

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

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 Richard Mehling. As we gather together today let us remember these words from Saint Paul form Colossians chapter 3 when he encourages us saying, “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”[1] Richard loved singing, loved listening to it, and loved doing it. Today we have opportunity to sing and this would gladden Richard’s heart.

In many places Scripture teach and encourages us to sing. Think on the first words of Psalm 98 where King David invites us to sing saying, “Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done marvelous things! His Right Hand and His Holy Arm have worked salvation for Him.”[2] And who is the Right Hand and the Holy Arm or the LORD? Here David is pointing forward to Jesus who was to come and for us has come and will come again on The Last Day. The Prophet Isaiah says the same sort of thing when he says, “The LORD has bared His Holy Arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”[3] This happened upon the Cross at Jesus’ Crucifixion where the salvation of our God was revealed to all nations. As Saint Peter preaches following the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection when Peter says of Jesus, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”[4] Jesus said this of Himself in the night before His death when He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”[5] This was all very important to Richard for as you know it wasn’t that Richard simply enjoyed music and singing in general it was that he enjoyed singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and the Christian faith in song, when it’s at it’s very best, is focused on the Gospel; the Good News of this Jesus who is the Salvation of all God to all nations, for the whole world, especially for all who have their faith in Him as Richard had. This is the blessed assurance that Richard had in Jesus, this is Richard’s story and this is his song, praising this Saviour Jesus all the day long.   

In his earlier life I’m told Richard’s rich baritone voice had a very strong resemblance to the singer Josh Groban; this is one of the reasons Richard found himself involved in choir singing, at one point he’d confided that he’d wished that he’d done more with his voice over the years than he had. He knew that this was one of the gifts God had gifted him and over time as all things do in life the quality of that voice faded and became diminished and Richard spent more time listening to the Gospel music he loved than did singing it. Dear ones if this saddens you I have Good News for you today from the Book of Revelation where Saint John recounts his vision of what is to come in Christ, when he says “and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I Am making all things new.” Also He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And He said to me, “It is done! I Am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.”[6] The one who says ‘behold I making all things new’ is Christ Jesus the Lord, and included in the all things being made new will be Richard’s singing voice and not just that, when Richard is made new things like Crohn's disease will have ‘passed away’ along with all the struggles that come with age. What new songs we will sing on That Day, along with all the ones we love made new in Christ, how we will praise our Saviour along with Richard all The Eternal Day long. Today we have a foretaste of glory divine living in the assurance that Jesus belongs to us and that we belong to Him.  

Now today you may struggle as you sing the hymns, or you might have a lower opinion of your own voice than is actually the case, you might think ‘my own voice has certainly faded over time too,’ you may think to yourself how wonderful it will be to hear Richard sing again, to hear him sing anew as he was always meant to sing … but did you catch what I’d said “What new songs we will sing on that day, along with all the ones we love made new in Christ, how we will praise our Saviour along with Richard all The Eternal Day long.” You’re voice, like his, will be made new too. If you’ve never had a singing voice you’ll be singing like a bird, and not a Magpie or a Crow for on That Day the Magpies and Crows will sound as beautiful as the Nightingale and so will you. This, dear ones, Jesus won for you with His innocent life lived without fault, His sinless blood that was shed at His Good Friday cross for your sins and the sins of the World, His Body given into death that death would die and you would have life in Him. This promise was fulfilled at the cross where Jesus died and at the empty tomb where Jesus walked out alive, resurrected on that first Easter morning, and at His Ascension to His heavenly Father’s throne where He now sits at the Father’s right hand, as His Father’s Right Hand. For this reason we believe teach and confess that the Christian faith is not only a spiritual faith, it is also concrete physical faith that includes flesh and blood, sinew and vocal cords, it doesn’t just dwell in our hearts and minds, it also finds a home in the work of our hands and feet and spills out of our lips as we both speak God’s word and as we sing God’s praise all the day long.  

I started with this very confident verse from Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Now let me read the verse that follows it where Saint Paul continues saying, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” When you think on these words remember Doreen and Richard’s life together, and for you children and grandchildren remember these words in relation to how they cared for you. Remember how Richard would have the Gospel music cranked up as you marched around the house singing the praises of our Saviour all the day long. At their best they strived to do everything in the name of the LORD. Doreen and now Richard both have their rest in this same Saviour, Jesus Christ, so now during the pangs of your grief today and in the days and weeks and years to come, as you live out your life, find your rest in this same Jesus as well, and in The End you will have the promised happy reunion in Christ Jesus filled with songs of praise and thanksgiving. For today take a page out of Richard’s life and remember to go about your Christian faith in such a way that “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything” as Saint Paul encourages, “in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” 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] Colossians 3:16
[2] Psalm 98:1
[3] Isaiah 52:10
[4] Acts 4:12
[5] John 14:6
[6] Revelation 21:3–6

Photo Credits: Main Photo provided by family and Mount Olive; details of free sheet music for Amazing Grace from michaelkravchuk; Photos of Richard and Doreen from family, Richard died on the their 66th Wedding Anniversary. You can find Doreen's funeral sermon here.