Sermon for the 2nd Sunday in Lent - In Memory of Julie Smith

Sermon for the 2nd Sunday in Lent
In Memory of Julie Smith
March 16th, A+D 2025
Our Savior's and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
The Good Shepherd Seeks His Own

Audio of Sermon available HERE.

Julie Mae (Parlin) Smith

Born September 29^th Year of Our + Lord 1953,

at the Lutheran Hospital in Hot Springs, South Dakota.

Baptized into Christ December 15^th, A+D 1957,

at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Custer, SD.

Confirmed in Christ June 2^nd, A+D 1968,

at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Custer, SD.

Transferred in Christ January 8^th, A+D 1984,

to Redeemer Lutheran Church, Burnsville, MN.

Married in Christ July 24^th, A+D 1997, in Chamberlain, SD.

Reaffirmation of Faith in Christ November 22, A+D 2015,
at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Custer, SD.

Final Earthly Holy Communion in Christ February 12^th, A+D 2025,

at the Custer Care and Rehab Center, Custer, SD.

Died in Christ March 1^st, A+D 2025, at Monument Health Hospital, Rapid City, SD.

Soli Deo Gloria – To God Alone Be Glory

Dear fellow members, with Julie, of Christ’s Flock: Grace, Mercy and Peace to you,

from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 

   The day after Julie died, the Bible Study we did at “Christians with Altitude”, our youth group, was something I call “Rebuild the Bible.”  We imagine a situation where somehow we’ve lost all our Bibles, and we need to reconstruct God’s Word as best we can from our memories.  That Sunday evening we tried to collectively remember everything we could about Jesus.  While we pray fervently that we never lose God’s written Word, this is a good exercise, to test what we have in our brains and hearts.  We took five minutes for everyone to write down what events or truths they could remember, then went around the table, offering them up one at a time, as I filled the white board with everyone’s contributions.  The youth did excellently.  They quickly captured a great deal of the life, ministry and teaching of Jesus.  Of all the things they remembered, there was only one error, an error that wasn’t really a mistake.  On one of his turns, Logan Olson offered up that Jesus carried a lamb on His shoulders.  After we were done, I asked the group if there were any mistakes on the board.  The kids studied the list…   

   “Does the Bible tell us that Jesus literally picked up a lamb and carried it on His shoulders?”  Logan got up and pointed out the painting of this very scene, that hangs on the wall next to the whiteboard.  It’s a super common image in the Church; we even have a wood carving of the same (here) tucked into a niche in the pulpit Our Redeemer.  But that event is not literally recorded in the Gospels.  And yet, in a deeper truth, the image of our shepherding Lord finding lost lambs and carrying them home is all over the Bible. 

   Psalm 23 declares the LORD is my shepherd, who leads me to cool waters.  Our Old Testament reading from Ezekiel 34 is all about God promising to come and shepherd His flock Himself, since the human shepherds He had appointed were failing at their calling.  Paul exhorts the Elders of Ephesus to shepherd, or pastor the flock of God, amongst whom they had been appointed as Bishops, or Overseers.  Peter in his letters, the Book of Revelation, and of course Jesus Himself in the Gospel of John, chapter 10, all talk about Christ Himself being our Good Shepherd, who finds and protects and rescues us. 

   Who is Julie Smith? Or maybe still Julie Parlin, for some of you…  Most of your never had the opportunity to meet her.  Not yet, anyway.  She was a dear friend to many, and also dear to me, even though I only knew Julie on this earth for about 15 months.  Most importantly to say today, she is for all of us a dear sister in Christ, who left this world with a simple, peaceful faith in her Good Shepherd. 

    Julie’s life, or better said, the work of God in Julie’s life, is also a vivid example of our relentless Good Shepherd’s desire to save.  For He never stopped pulling Julie back to Himself, pursuing her across years and across the country, through good times and tough times, until He finally brought her all the way home.

   Julie expressed her desire to only have a simple graveside service, no church funeral.  This committal service is on the calendar for May, and that will be fine.  But Julie’s sudden passing is fresh, and for some of you, personally painful.  Even more, her life is a great story, one that we all need to hear, because the same Good Shepherd is pursuing all of us, and our hearts need to be reminded of this joyful fact.  And so we will honor Julie’s request, no funeral service.  And, today at our regular Sunday Divine Service we will also honor Christ and celebrate His work in her life.  And I know Julie doesn’t mind; now that her soul rests in the peace and glory of her Savior, she isn’t bothered by anything at all. 

   In Julie’s life, we can see how God works, always through His Word to create and sustain faith, and also through people, sinners like you and me, bringing that good Word and other signs of God’s love into the lives of sinners.  God serving sinners, through the efforts of other sinners, sinners like you and me. 

   It is always a bit startling to see up close how the LORD God Almighty works through such simple means and through such unlikely servants to deliver His gifts and draw souls to Himself.  It is startling, surprising, and wonderful to get a glimpse of the Good Shepherd at work, fulfilling His promises. 

   Julie was born in Hot Springs, and sometime during her early years, her family came into the orbit of the venerable Rev. Uecker and Our Redeemer congregation in Custer.  Baptized at 4, confirmed at 14, her classmates in Catechism and Public School could probably fill in a lot of rich details.  Along the way, Jesus was laying a firm foundation in Julie, which would serve her well in the decades to come. 

   Everyone whom I’ve met who knew Julie remarked about her cheerful nature.  I can attest as well.  At the same time, we know how we begin the service each Sunday, “O almighty God, merciful Father, I a poor miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities…” There is no question that Julie knew God’s Word and her own problem with sin.  But the Good Shepherd does not leave us in our sins.  We are taught to confess our sins, so that we can once again hear the Good News that forgives our sins.  For Jesus lay down His life to take away our sins, and give us His righteousness, His goodness and holiness, in return.  This basic message, Law and Gospel, God’s rebuke and correction, followed by God’s mercy and forgiveness, this Great Exchange is the heart and soul of Christianity, and leads to wonderful things, in this life, and much more, wonderful things in the life to come.  This Gospel, delivered through Words, Water, Wheat and Wine, is the good pasture and the cool water that the Good Shepherd provides His beloved flock, day after day, year after year. 

   And that’s a good and necessary thing, because life in this broken-by-sin world can be rough.  I don’t know many details about Julie’s life, and that’s not what we are here for.  But in order to see what Christ overcame for her, I do want to lay out a few challenges that we can easily identify from her story. 

   Whatever else, good or not so good, that happened in Julie’s life, we know that her father Darrell died when she was 34.  Then her only brother Thomas passed when she was 37.  Julie was joined in Holy Matrimony to Albert Smith at age 44, but then had to say goodbye to her husband when he died, four years later.  Julie moved back to Custer and cared for her mother Helen for a few years.  Helen died when Julie was 58.  Julie was all alone; she had no family left in this world. 

   But, of course, Julie was not alone.  Jesus had not left her, and she still had friends who cared for her.  It appears that at some point Julie had stopped attending the gatherings of Christ’s flock, but in 2015 she re-affirmed the faith of her baptism and confirmation, and rejoined the congregation e) at Our Redeemer. 

   When I was installed as pastor here in 2021, Julie was on the list of people who were receiving our Sunday bulletins by mail.  Since 2011 Julie had been living alone on her family’s beautiful, but isolated place here in Custer County.  I imagine that the pandemic, which isolated all of us to one extent or another, may have been especially challenging for Julie.  I’m not sure.  But I do know this: the Good Shepherd had still not forgotten about Julie.  He continued pursuing her, through friends from town and friends from Church. 

   As the new pastor at Our Redeemer, I was fairly useless in my attempts to connect with Julie.  But God had brought our retired Pastor Anderson back to Custer, and he spends his time just running into people around town and talking to them.  He ran into Julie one day when they both had appointments at the clinic.  Bob spoke with Julie, and so helped keep a connection with her.  God through retirement also brought Lois Stokes back to town, a childhood friend of Julie’s from church and school.  Monica McGowan, who ended up being Julie’s caretaker, never forgot about her, nor did Ida, Isabel, or Marcia, and God only knows how many other people who kept reaching out, and kept praying for Julie.    

   With Lois Stokes’s help, I finally met Julie face to face in late 2023.  Living alone is hard, and Julie’s health wasn’t the best.  But she greeted me with a big smile, as if I were Rev. Uecker who baptized her and taught her the faith, or Pastor Anderson, who always had a good word for Julie.  And in a sense I was those men, for all of us were simply forgiven sinners called by Christ to seek out His people and deliver God’s Gospel gifts to them.     In the bit more than a year that I was privileged to visit her and bring her God’s Word and Supper, Julie always received those gifts gladly.  The Good Shepherd knows how to care for His beloved. 

   Julie moved into the Assisted Living home in Custer, (Wedgewood for many of you), and that was great for her.  She made new friends with the staff and other residents.  Her Custer friends could more easily visit her, and they did.  And, oh the joy on the handful of Sundays when we were able to pick up Julie and bring her to Sunday services!  Back in the room where she was Baptized, gathered with the Flock, singing the praise of the Savior, feasting together at His Meal, specially delivered to her in the back pew. 

   The picture on her insert is from last December, when a bunch of us from Our Redeemer went caroling at Wedgewood and the Nursing Home and the hospital.  We were there for everyone, but Julie received us as if we came just for her.                         

   The last time I saw Julie in this world was February 12^th.  She had moved over to the Nursing Home, and ended up in the room right next door to Ella Goldammer.  I was able to bring Julie to Ella’s room, and a new friendship quickly formed, as they chatted while I set up for Church.  We confessed and prayed together, and sang a little.  We heard the Good News of Jesus’ Cross and Resurrection, we received His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of all our sins.

   Julie told me she had a bit of a cold, and by the end of the service she was coughing a little.  She admitted to me she hadn’t told the staff yet, so I got her permission to tell them for her.  In a day or two I heard that influenza was tearing through the Nursing Home.  Later we heard she had been taken to Monument in Rapid.  Julie was carried home by her Good Shepherd on March 1^st.  To the end, she had friends visiting and praying for her.  To the end her Savior was seeking her, and now she is with Him, forever and ever. 

   The Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, is always seeking you.  As Peter reminded us this morning, all of us, like sheep, tend to go astray.  But God is always working, through His Word, through the love of friends, family, and brothers and sisters in Christ, always seeking us, always ready to clean us up from whatever messes we’ve gotten ourselves into, always working to bring us home. 

   You are sometimes the one who needs seeking.  And sometimes you are called to be part of the Good Shepherd’s search party.  God grant us all repentance, faith, humility and wisdom, to gladly accept His call to come home when we wander.  And God grant us courage and energy, to pray, to dare to befriend, to dare to seek, to dare to get involved and share the love of Jesus with others, the other lambs He is seeking.                 

   Through it all, God will gather His flock, today, tomorrow, and forever and ever, Amen.