Preface

We are gathered here in memory of Barry Greene (1943-2003). As it is often put, we come "to pay our respects." Primarily we pay our respects to the nearest of kin, to those who remain alive, to his mother, and to his wife of many years, Karen, to his children: Alicia, Claudia, Jason, and Grant, to his sisters, Della and Gilda, and to his brother, Tom; and to the extended family. So, on behalf of all who are present, I want to offer you our sincere condolences.

Introduction

To all of us here today, family and friends let me begin this message by emphasizing something very obvious. We need to remember that the funeral service is for the living. It is for us. It is for our profit. There is value in gathering like this for these few brief moments. So I want to ask something of you this evening. Please, make an extra effort to think. I am asking you to settle your emotions. They tend to go running every which way. Enter these moments to quiet yourself in order to gain the profit that can be yours in this time. For me to ask this is just what Barry would want us to do. He loved to ponder things and he loved thought questions. Many times he said to me "that’s a good question." He liked good questions. We can find this profit if we ask two basic questions: "who was he?" and "who am I?" Let's consider each in order.

1A. First we must ask, who was he?

He was Barry Green, son of Marvin and Lavelle Greene. He was many things and had many roles. He was not only a son and a husband, he was also a father, grandfather, brother, cousin, uncle, friend, neighbor, and green thumb specialist.

After a rough teen and early adult life (this is an understatement), he got a job at Greenfield Village where he developed an interest in plants (flowers, shrubs, bushes, and trees; you name it, he knew how to care for it). This led to his main career in life as a landscaper.

Last summer we had Barry over for dinner and we sat in the backyard. My wife and I were simply fascinated as he named various plants and described how they would look in the fall. He loved the variegated leaves on the hostas and highlighted the growth and development of the golden rod. In this connection, he said something that gives insight into his heart: "I think it is going to be great to see Him-the one who made all these things." One thing that you have to understand about Barry is that when he worked with the creation He worshipped the Creator.

With a sense of the need of forgiveness, last year he told me that when he looks at the solar system and how big it is that he gets a lesson from the sun. He pictures the sun as a person looking at the earth and seeing everyone. It represents the sun of God. Thus he put it in a question, "How big are you when you see the Son of God seeing you?" And he gave this answer: "if He knows you then you do not have to worry." I took him to be saying how small we are in the solar system shows us how small we are before the greatness of God. And if Christ knows you than you have a true greatness and do not have to worry; the key is to be known by Christ.

In the beauty of plant life on this planet, he saw the beauty of Christ. I think that this is what explains his sense of humor; he was very observant, playful and joyful in his awe of the Lord’s creation. He was in awe when he looked at the stars in the sky, when he looked at the plants on earth, and thereby, when he saw the glory of God (cf. Ps. 19).

Anyone who knew Barry knew that he had a sense of humor and a subtle way of being witty. Let me give a few recent examples.

1) Last August we were talking about his difficulty speaking (starting a sentence and being unable to finish it). I said, "Well then you have to do a lot of listening; you always were a good listener." He replied with no difficulty finishing, "Yes, and it may take all night as long as you preach."

2) He always liked a focus question; good listeners need some kind of hook to hang things on. When he told me of some of his personal distress at the moment he shed a few tears and said out loud to himself: "hey, enough already, golly." In the car waiting for a train to pass, I looked over to him and asked, "When you are all stressed out and cry, does it help?" At this he burst into laughter saying "that’s a good question."

3) At Penera’s last April he paid for my lunch though I had to order for both of us. And his sense of humor came out when to our surprise a number of people that I knew were there in the restaurant (I had never been there before and don’t get out that way much); the gal that took our order was one of my former logic students in college; so we were standing there and she said, "Are you Mr. Ostella?" We talked for a few minutes as Barry waited. Then a friend I play tennis with called out my name. And we talked. And Barry waited. And you know how patient Barry was. Well Barry had to take the ball and run with it: when we got to our table, he pretended to hold up a microphone saying, "Attention, attention everyone, Richard is here." We sat down and he became disoriented and said, "I don’t know where I am at." He laughed when I said, "we have been both saying that for years now."

4) I even got a couple of smiles from him last Sunday at the Arbor Hospice. He had a sense of humor, I suggest, because he had a sense of the glory and majesty of Christ displayed in His creation.

So how did he come to know Christ? In his young and crazy years, every time he got into some serious trouble or was in jail he got converted to Christianity. Of course, those were emotion driven, bogus (to use his word) conversions. How did he come to know Christ, to know that Christ knows him (for Barry it was secondary that we know Christ; what was primary is that we are known by Christ)? He reported it this way: he was in a bar with a friend from Melvindale. The friend had Christian upbringing but returned from Viet Nam messed up by drugs. They were talking sharing their difficulties with life and the friend looked over at Barry and said, "You know what you need? You need Christ." Barry reported that those words went like an arrow through his chest and into his heart, into his soul, mind, and conscience. He left that bar clinging to Jesus Christ the risen Savior, got baptized, and joined the church.

Perhaps you think that that doesn’t sound very religious (a bar and all that). Perhaps you noticed something about Barry that I probably don’t need to tell you but I will tell you anyway. Perhaps you noticed that Barry was a sinner. We all saw him from different angles and we knew him in different relationships. I knew him since childhood but my basic relationship to Barry was as his pastor. I heard him pray many times and one thing that marked his prayers like no one I have ever known was his acknowledgment before God of his sinfulness and of his need of Jesus Christ the risen Lord.

I really think that if you want an answer to the question, "who was he?" (And this is a good time to ask such a question) you have to understand that acknowledgement; you have to think about his self-awareness. You have to see him as a sinner-saint. Some of you may question that he was a sinner (you have too low a view of sin) and some of you may question that he was a saint (you have too low a view of grace). It is this self-awareness of his dire need of Christ that shaped his understanding of the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24 in context of 20-27).

It is his sense of sin that shaped Barry’s faith in the doctrines of grace. He saw the heights of grace against the backdrop of the depths of sin. Over the last two years, Barry asked me more than once to preach at his funeral. He made a number of requests that I am trying to fulfill. And He asked me to explain the gospel of grace on this occasion. So I have been thinking about how I might explain the doctrines of grace, and it seems that some stories and analogies will help me do this.

1) Let me set the stage by telling you something that Barry said to me about fifty years ago (yes, I said fifty!). I don’t remember the whole context and I am only approximating the time. Picture Barry and me about 10 and 9 years old, perhaps a little older. We were walking from Allen Road on Oakwood on our way to the Mel Theater when Barry said to me, "You know that our church doesn’t approve of going to movies." I replied with something like, "I didn’t know that" as we marched our way in to see the show. Little did I know that years later we would be walking together (pastor and church member) and he would be saying to me, "You know that many well-meaning people do not approve of preaching the doctrines of grace." And there he was encouraging me to preach the doctrines of grace (there he was leading me down Oakwood again). Why did he do that? Why did he love these doctrines? It is because he knew that he was a sinner saved by grace and grace alone. He knew (he was convinced beyond a shadow of doubt) that his salvation depended 100 per cent on God and not on himself in any way shape or form. If you do not know the grace of God in the gospel, I hope this will get your attention. I hope it will be like a hook for your mind. I pray to that end as I try to explain the grace of God in the gospel.

2) To understand who Barry was you have to understand the doctrines of grace. You have to understand what it means to talk about a sinner saved by grace. So let me tell you another story. One of his requests was that I quote for your hearing from a favorite hymn, "Amazing love." He wanted me to point you all to one verse in particular from the hymn. A repeated refrain is "Amazing love how can it be that thou my God didst die for me." He loved that teaching; he had a sense of awe that God in Christ died "for me." Here is the verse that meant so much to Barry and think of him saying this, these are in effect his words: "Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature’s night; thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light, may chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose went forth and followed thee."

Do you hear what is being said about imprisonment, bondage, darkness, and death? This is the biblical teaching about slaves to sin who have been set free (Rom. 6:22, "now …you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God"). To make this point, we have to clear the table of some misunderstanding. At least we have to try because there are some tricky things here. It is a misunderstanding regarding man’s ability in his sinful state before He is saved by Christ. In no uncertain terms, Barry rejected the teaching that man has a free will (as teacher of philosophy courses I have been impressed with the fact that philosophers who have no love for Christianity love the doctrine of free will). Last year he put it in a question: "how can people talk about a free will when we are blind, deaf, mute, and dead in sin?" In other words, the issue is not free will but a freed will; it is about being set free by the absolutely free grace of Almighty God:

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life (Rom. 6:20-22).

It is only God who has free will, not fallen sinners. Thus Jesus said, "no one can come to me unless the Father draws him" (Jn. 6:44).

3) An illustration that Barry liked to have clarified was the one about throwing a life line to sinners out in the ocean of the world. The question he liked to discuss is this, "Are sinners drowning or drowned? Can they grab on to the gospel life line? No, they have drowned; they are unable to submit themselves to God (Rom. 8:7, "For the mind that I set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God law; indeed, it cannot"). So you ask, why throw out the life line to people that are dead, what good will it do? You throw it out because the preaching of the gospel is the means by which Christ gives life to the dead. It is the way that He sovereignly frees the will of those he has chosen to save (God calls by the gospel, 2 Thess. 2:13-14). This is good news. Salvation depends totally on the grace of God in Christ. Salvation does not depend on us in any way; if it did that would be bad news because we are not dependable. Therefore Barry believed in the grace of divine election as taught by the apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace (1:3-5).

4) Another illustration that Barry liked was about pruning. You sometimes have to prune a tree to save it. This illustrates how Jesus saves the world. God so loved the world (Jn. 3:16) means that He sent Christ to save the world (Jn. 3:17). So the world that Jesus came to save will in fact be saved. Regarding the accomplishment of Christ on the cross, Barry said this to me within the last year, "people have a hard time accepting the fact that Jesus did not die for the world; but what they miss is the fact that everyone that Jesus died for will be found like a lost sheep and brought home." He was alluding to the parables about lost things (the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son) given by Christ (Lk. 15). A key to understanding this three-fold but single parable is the statement of Jesus where he says the good shepherd seeks the lost sheep "until he finds it" (v. 4). To make a long story short on the doctrines of grace, these doctrines teach that there is power in the blood of Christ (as in the song, Power in the Blood, "there is power, power, and wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb"). Jesus seeks and does not give up until He finds and when He finds the lost sinner the sinner will come to his senses and say in repentance, "I am not worthy" (v. 19).

That is good news! It is good news to know that Jesus will in fact save everyone for whom He died. Jesus never fails. He will accomplish all that He set out to accomplish. Jesus saves. It is Jesus who saves and we contribute nothing to our salvation. That is why Barry loved the doctrines of grace because they proclaim a salvation that is God’s doing from beginning to end. Therefore, He cast himself at the feet of Christ with thanksgiving and worship.

So who was Barry Greene? There are many ways to answer that question. I have answered it briefly by referring you to things that he pondered, studied, and believed. Without a formal education of higher learning, Barry had a theological mind; he thought much about the high doctrine of grace. Barry was a sinner. No hiding that fact. But he was a sinner-saint because he was a sinner saved by grace. He believed in God’s electing love and in the power of the cross of Christ. I don’t think that you can understand Barry unless you see him in this way as a sinner, a repentant sinner, a sinner knowing the forgiveness of Christ and depending on Him alone. Then you can understand why deep down in his soul he loved the doctrines of grace because he loved the grace that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

2A. Who am I?

You can answer this question by a summary of the entire Bible in a single sentence. That is quite a thought, "can a summary of the entire Bible be given in a single sentence?" Here is the summary that relates to the nature of man as the image of God: "I am a person created in the image of God, I have fallen from that image and I need restoration in the image of God."

To be God’s image means to be a reflection of His glory. This is man’s dignity on the earth. But in the fall, sin and death entered into the world. Thus it is written, "For you are dust and to dust you shall return" (Gen. 3:19). Therefore, when I ask this "who am I?" question of myself, and when you ask it of yourself, we all must say, "you know what I need; I need Jesus Christ the risen Lord."

Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall see God (Matt. 5:3). It all begins with this acknowledgment of dire need. I am a sinner and I need the Lord Jesus. To faith and repentance, Jesus promises rest of soul: come to me, he said, and I will give you rest: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-30).

One final story captures some of this promise of the gospel. At Henry Ford Hospital I saw him through the glass doors to intensive care pod 4 - sitting up but sleeping (after his last operation). When I woke him, He said "Where have you been?" as if he had been waiting for me for a while. We talked some about the operation. Then he asked me to read from the Bible. I chose Romans 8 a passage that was one of his favorites. As I read he made comments. When I got to verse 18 ("for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us") he said, "Wow" and he chuckled when I replied "to be sure that is a wow-verse." He then said, "but stop making me laugh, it makes my head hurt" (there he was with a series of staples in his skull laughing but up to a limit; I kidded him that the staples looked a large question mark written on his head).

The last verse I read to Barry there at the hospital last year and just last Sunday was Romans 8:23. Before I read it I want to mention one more thought question that Barry enjoyed pondering: Why is it correct to say that Jesus did not come into the world to save souls? Off the cuff you might want to say "wait a minute, surely Jesus came to save souls." But this is a hook for the mind. Think about it in light of Romans 8:23, "And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." We can say that Jesus did not come to save souls because He came to save persons body and soul; He came to save the whole person before God and forever (cf. Matt. 6:25-34 with 25:31-46). "As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:21) because "Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:20; firstfruits give a taste now of what is to come later). The death of believers is called sleep because death for a Christian is a temporary state; it is like putting a child to sleep at night with the words, "I’ll see you in the morning." Barry has truly gone to sleep so we who cling to Christ can say, "By grace, I will see you on resurrection morning."

So, Alicia, Claude, Jay, and Grant, let me speak to you about the testimony of your father. He was a sinner, a sinner saved by grace. This is a call to you: Don’t leave God out your life; don’t simply travel this journey on your own terms, going your own way. Submit yourselves to Jesus Christ to live under His authority and for His glory (in other words, "take His yoke upon you and learn of Him"). May this testimony of a sinner-saint pierce your hearts and may you look at the stars in the sky and the plants on the earth and see there the beauty of Christ. To Him be the glory forever, Amen.