For most of us, that is the last word. There is nothing else to say. We silently turn, hugging our family or friends who are with us. We cry and walk out the door. The worst has happened. Lazarus is dead. In our modern world, the nurse can go home. The physician can return to his/her office. Medicines, I.V.'s, oxygen and comforting hands are no longer needed.

In a story called "The Fugitive," by the Indian author, Tagore, the father comes home from a funeral, and his seven years son stands at the window with eyes wide open and a golden amulet hanging from his neck. The boy is full of thoughts too difficult for his age. The father takes him in his arms and the boy asks him "Where is mammy?" The father pauses and answers "In Heaven," pointing to the sky.

The boy raises his eyes to the sky and gazes in silence. His bewildered mind searches long into the night, asking the question, "Where is Heaven?" No answer comes, and the stars seem like the burning tears of that empty darkness.

Apparently the disciples of Jesus were asking the same question and, in the 14^th Chapter of John's Gospel, Jesus speaks to the very point. He says, "In My Father's house there are many resting places. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am you may be also.

And you know the way. " Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

To send someone we love on a journey can be a frightening experience. We know the time is approaching, and we plan for weeks or months. Still when the time comes, there can still be a knot in your stomach as they leave, still some doubt. What have I forgotten? Am I sure everything has been covered?

Today we send a dear friend and God's family member, Henning Ross-Jensen, off on his journey. The journey for which he has been preparing since the day he was baptized. A journey which Henning knew was coming and prepared to take. Yet, there is still a mixture of emotions today, one of which is fear and uncertainty.

Today, this coffin we behold is a grim reminder of what is come. It is a time at which we must all face our own mortality as well as the mortality of one we love. Am I ready for this moment in my life? Am I prepared? How will I face this moment? Do I really believe that Jesus Christ is the conqueror of death? And many other questions.

We hear the words, "Do not let your hearts be troubled" but it can be hard advice. This is no time for word plays, or easy assurances. It is natural not to think about death if we have any doubts about our own readiness. "Do not let your hearts be troubled." These are words more for us than they are for Henning.

Henning worked hard all his life. His life was centered around his family and the Church. He had simple pleasures and didn’t need much as long as he had family and friends near.

This past Christmas was a difficult one for Henning, he felt lost, he looked like an eagle its wings clipped. He said "I done gone" missed Eli dearly. This burden was lessened as he spent the holidays with a Kris up north. Henning Ross-Jensen was gift of God to us at St. Ansgar and the Lutheran Church at large.

On personal note Henning had an open door policy, I could drop by his place any time to visit and talk on serious issues or just shoot the breeze. He was always welcoming and ready for a chat.

Our friendship was intimate because we shared common conviction on Scriptures. He was man who played by the rulebook, the constitution of the church.

He was one person I could be comfortable with sharing my ideas about spiritual things, I have great respect for him, he was not ashamed to speak about Jesus Christ, his Lord and Saviour. Just before Christmas I had to make an important decision, I spoke to him about it, his first thought was pray for God’s guidance, and listen to your heart.

He was a man of compassion, fairness, and of faith, man who treasured his family and his church deeply. Henning’s life was one of looking after the house of God, and his family. Henning knew that his future was secure no matter what time would bring.

Henning had little reason to fear death, as the time approached, because he had heard the words of Jesus, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me." He knew that a place was prepared for him.

Today our certainty isn't quite as secure as we might want. We ask along with Thomas, "How do we know the way?" Doubts and questions can creep in. In the confusion and high emotion around death, we need to hear clearly the words, "You know the way." These words bring calm as we are reminded of the long preparation that began at our baptism.

From the moment of our baptism we are preparing for the moment of our death. As Henning lived out his baptism in the promises of God all his life, he knew that Jesus would come for him. He depended on the promises he learned from Luther's Catechism.

"What benefits does God give in Baptism? In baptism God forgives sin, delivers from death and the devil and gives everlasting salvation to all who believe what God has promised." Henning lived his life in the security of God’s promises and grace made to him by God so many years ago.

On Good Friday, I visited Henning, together with Kris Kristensen. I brought him greeting from his sister-in-law, Tove in Denmark, and from John, his son. After reading portions of Scripture, we prayed I then asked him if he had any request. He said, "every thing is alright" he was coherent, raised his hand and waved good bye.

To each of us whose certainty may be a little shaken today Jesus reminds us that, "You know the way. . . . I am the way, the truth, and the life." Jesus reminds us that, "I claimed you in your baptism and I have had a place waiting for you all these years."

When we feel alienated from God, we need to hear words of hope and forgiveness to remind us that we do know God and God knows us. We need to hear these words especially today as we say "Farewell, see you later" to one who is dear to all of us. As Henning Ross-Jensen goes to his place prepared for him, we too can look forward to joining him and others saints when our time comes. Our future is assured when we believe what God has promised. I believe that Henning's hope for all of us today would echo those words of Jesus, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." Henning's future is secure and we need not worry about him, he earned his rest. We can say farewell to Henning without fear for him.

We can have our fears quieted today also as we are reminded of God's plans for us. Because of God's promises to us, we can leave this place with confidence, firmly established on one who is "the way, the truth and the life."

Dan Richardson, lost his battle with cancer. But his life demonstrated that even though the physical body may be destroyed by disease, the spirit can remain triumphant. This poem was distributed at his memorial service:

Cancer is so limited... It cannot cripple love, It cannot shatter hope,

It cannot corrode faith, It cannot eat away peace, It cannot destroy confidence,

It cannot kill friendship, It cannot shut out memories, It cannot silence courage,

It cannot invade the soul, It cannot reduce eternal life, It cannot quench the Spirit,

× 4Ø

The prayer of an 8^th Century Mystic includes these lines:

To love God for himself, to love God for who he is, and not what he does.

This is Heaven. This is the direction Jesus points us in when the question arises, "Where is Heaven?" Where is this place? What is it like? Think of God! Think of the loving, caring, God who revealed Himself in and through Jesus Christ.

The thing that is most important in our life is God -- knowing God, loving God, experiencing God's Presence in our life. This is what gives meaning to your life and to mine. And this is what gives meaning to your death and to mine.

We are being called now, in this earthly life, to prepare for our "debut in Heaven," so to speak. We are being called now to prepare for our inevitable death by drawing ever closer to the God of Love in and through our love for one another!