Victor Edward Wirth Funeral Sermon - Luke 8:4–15 March 7th 2025 / Bear Fruit With Patience

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Friday March 7th 2025: Season of Lent / Luke 8:4–15 “Bear Fruit With Patience”

And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to [Jesus], He said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

And when His disciples asked Him what this parable meant, He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

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 Victor Wirth in our Gospel Reading we hear the parable of the sower, here Jesus uses farming as a way to teach the Christian faith, and not only to teach the faith but to teach us what the Christian faith looks like: the kind of faith that lasts and is true, that is not devoured by evil or choked out by the cares and riches of the World, or shallow and fleeting, falling away in times of testing, no, the kind of faith Jesus singles out as lasts and true has deep roots and bears fruit with patience. Saint Paul would later write of patience saying, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”[1] Saint Paul also teaches that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;”[2] and in the years that I have known Vic Wirth I can say that I saw this fruit of patience and kindness in him expressed towards others: and even under the most challenging of trials and most difficult of circumstances, I fail to recall a time when I ever found him to be irritable or resentful or arrogant or rude.

In a warning about false teachers Jesus taught that “You will recognise them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” [Jesus asks us, and of course we know that answer to that, and the answer is no] “So,” [Jesus continues] “every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.”[3] Keeping all of this in mind and working backward from the fruits we have witnessed in Vic’s life we can see what kind of tree he has been, what kind of soil the gift of faith was sown into by the LORD. Vic’s heart, by the grace of God, was not a hard packed path or a rocky patch or a bed of thistles no, by the grace of God, Vic’s heart was the rich good soil of an honest heart. I saw this heart in action with Mary, his wife, and with his friends and family and with me. And yet if this heart of his is the good soil which Jesus speaks of in the Parable of the Sower — which I believe it is — nevertheless Vic knows that the field doesn’t cultivate itself, it doesn’t sow seed into itself or fertilise itself, and it certainly doesn’t harvest itself, the field needs a gracious sower, the field needs a faithful farmer, and that Farmer, that Sower is Christ Jesus. If you are to learn something regarding faith I’m sure Vic would want you to learn this to be true.

And so we, along with our dear Vic, say with Saint Paul in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, that it is “by grace [that] you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”[4] As Christians we are not called to boast in ourselves or in our works because that is not what saves us from Sin, Death, the Devil, or the World, and our works no matter how great or kind cannot save us from ourselves; we are saved from all these things by our Lord Jesus Christ, so we boast in Him and not in ourselves. We do not give the gift of faith to ourselves, we receive it from the Gracious Sower, the Faithful Farmer, and so we boast in Jesus and not in ourselves: It has always been that way and so we heard in our Psalm this morning from King David in the Old Testament:

“My soul makes its boast in the LORD;

               let the humble hear and be glad.”[5]

Let the humble hear and be glad: and so Jesus says the good soil are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart. Let the humble hear and be glad: Vic heard the word of the Lord and today you are hearing the Word of God. How is the condition of your heart? What kind of soil does Jesus sow His word onto today? Is your heart hard as pavement; or as rocky as a gravel pit? Is it a bramble patch of thistles or is it the good soil ready to receive the seed of faith? Perhaps you are a filed already growing with the seed that was sown and yet in need of protection from the pests and weeds of life or the scorching heat of the troubles of the day? Remember what we heard in Psalm 34:

“The LORD is near to the brokenhearted

               and saves the crushed in spirit.”[6]

Vic knew this, and trusted this, and in every affliction along the way Vic trusted that the LORD would deliver him out of them all.[7] And so He did, and when the final harvest came for Victor Jesus delivered Vic even out of the afflictions of his recent poor ill health in these his last days. No matter what the trial or challenge Vic, by the grace of God, proved faithful and true and yet the one who was faithful and true without fault was Jesus, and it was Jesus in whom Vic placed his trust and hope. As Christians Scripture teaches us to look not to ourselves and our works or to our struggles or our ability to overcome challenges but rather to look “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” We are counselled to “consider [this same Jesus] who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted,”[8] in the face of all the things that lay ahead of you.

Dear ones it is not a challenge to be faithful when everything is going well, and you don’t grow in patience if your patience is never tested; in fact Saint Paul explains how as Christians “we [are called to actually] rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”[9] Today we remember and celebrate the life of Vic Wirth, and as we do we can see how God’s love was poured into Victor’s heart through the Holy Spirit; how Jesus sowed the gift of faith there in Vic’s heart and how it took firm root and produced excellent fruit.

At the end of the season the famer doesn’t weep over the golden grain in the bin, he is joyful that his work is coming to its end, with anticipation for what is to come. We can do the same as Vic is being harvested home into the grain bins of the Gracious Sower, the Faithful Farmer: our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you struggles with your faith, if you find the times hard, remember the example that the Lord has provided you in Vic and more importantly remember what this is to teach you: the one that was ever faithful, the one who never faltered or stumbled in His faith, the one who was perfectly patient is Christ Jesus. In Him Vic found his forgiveness and strength of character and this forgiveness and strength of character is not only for men like Vic it is for you in Christ Jesus as well.

The Seed is in the hand of Christ Jesus; the seed is sown upon the soil of your heart; therefore, dear ones, be humble, bear fruit with patience and rest your faith in Him as Victor has. And if you are to boast in anyone, boast in Christ Jesus: To God Be the Glory. 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] 1 Corinthians 13:4–8a
[2] Galatians 5:22–24a
[3] Matthew 7:16–18
[4] Ephesians 2:8-9
[5] Psalm 34:2
[6] Psalm 34:18
[7] Psalm 34:19
[8] Hebrews 12:2–3
[9] Romans 5:3–5

Photo Credit: Main photo suplied by Mount Olive Lutheran Church and the Wirth Family.