Lawrence (Larry) Alan Stark

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LAWRENCE (LARRY) ALAN STARK

8 SEPTEMBER 1945 - 30 APRIL 2011

NEWBERG FRIENDS CHURCH

MEMORIAL SERVICE | THURSDAY, 5 MAY 2011 | 2:00 P.M.

WELCOME, PRAYER, SCRIPTUREGregg Lamm pastor-teacher, and friend

Lark Stark was my good friend, and my brother in Christ. We met about 3 years ago when he and Karla moved to Newberg and were looking for a home church. They wanted a church where the pastor taught verse-by-verse through the Bible, and so when they heard that 2nd Street Community Church, the flock I shepherd, they came for a visit.

On the first Sunday, when he and Karla came in the door at 2nd Street, Larry said to Wayne, one of our greeters, “I hear your pastor teaches through the Bible verse-by-verse.” Wayne said, “Yes, he does.” To which Larry replied, “We’ll see.” Well, the short of it is that I was teaching through The Gospel of John at the time, and Larry and Karla soon came to call 2nd Street “home” and it’s been one of the honors of my life to walk with the two of them through this most difficult chapter of their life together as husband and wife.

Larry was a lover of God’s Word. He knew that from its beginning to it’s end, from GENESIS through REVELATION, that God’s Word speaks to us of God’s love for us and God’s plans for us … TELLINGus the story of Jesus Christ, God’s one and only son, and God’s desire that you and I confess our sins to Him …INVITINGus to repent of living life on our own, separated from Him, and ASKINGJesus Christ to come into our lives and teach us a whole new way to live…

Anew way of life where our thoughts begin to reflect the thoughts of Jesus Christ …

A new way of life where our words begin to reflect the words of Jesus Christ …

A new way of life where our actions begin to reflect the actions of Jesus Christ … and

A new way of life where our priorities begin to reflect the priorities of Jesus Christ.

Larry understood, believed, and embraced this as thecall of God on his life … to live surrendered to God, to His love, and to His plans. In fact, I think that I could say that living into this call of God on his life was Larry’s heartbeat … that it was at the very central core of who he was, what he valued, and what he’d committed his life to living out and proclaiming. And so it’s with several passages from God’s Word that were meaningful to Larry that we will begin hisMemorial Service celebration of his life this afternoon.

ROMANS 8:28-29a(NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

28-29And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son.

FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:8-9 (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

8-9God will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for He is faithful to do what He says, and Hehas invited you into partnership with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

JEREMIAH 29:11-14 (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

11-14 “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for Me whole-heartedly, you will find Me. “I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again.”

PHILIPPIANS 1:6 (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

6And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

ROMANS 12:1-2(NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

1-2And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind God will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

PSALM 71:17-18 (NEW LIVING TRANSATION)

17-18OGod, You have taught me from my earliest childhood, and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things You do. Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, OGod. Let me proclaim Your power to this new generation, Your mighty miracles to all who come after me.

SECOND TIMOTHY 4:1-8 (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

1-2I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when He appears to set up His Kingdom: Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.

3-4For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.

5-6But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you. As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near.

7-8I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, will give me on the day of His return. And the prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to His appearing.

Blessed be the Word of the Lord.

ATRIBUTE TO OUR FATHERStacy Weigandand Karie Lee

Larry and Karla’s daughters

WORSHIP IN SONG Laura Sorenson

"I Will Think Of You"

family friend

REMEMBERING LARRY A DVD Memorial Arranged by Sue Juran “I Can Only Imagine” and

“Finally Home” by MercyMe

STORIES AND MEMORIES Family and friends

MEASURING A LIFE Gregg Lamm

The Hebrew language has two primary words for time … chronosand kiros. And while these two words sound somewhat similar, they have entirely different meanings. Chronos refers to the normal kind of time … the clock ticking, the sun moving across the sky, the seconds and minutes and hours going by one by one. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.

This morning when you got up, you probably took a shower and had breakfast … maybe you read the paper, and then a little while ago you looked at your watch and you said to yourself, “Oh, it’s time to go to go to Larry’s Memorial Service.” That’s chronos time. It’s an important kind of time, but it’s only one kind.

Kiros, on the other hand, is the kind of time that has nothing to do with us and the way we keep track of things … but instead, it has everything to do with how God measures time. For instance, when a woman is pregnant, in the last days of her third trimester … one minute her labor hasn’t begun, and then suddenly that first contraction hits or her water breaks and she yells out to her husband, “It’s time!” A second ago it wasn’t time, but now it’s time. That’s kiros time.

Much of the life we live in between birth and death is measured in chronos time … but when our lives start and when they end, that’s when God’s hand is on us mightily … and when kirostime kicks in.

On the afternoon ofSaturday, 30 April 2011, God said, “Larry, My son, it’stime to stop measuringyour life by the movement of the hands of a clock … for you, chronos time is now over … its kirostime … it’s time for your eternity to begin. It’s time for you to come home to Me.”

Friends, how do you and I learn the important lessons of life? T.S. Elliot said, “We had the experience, we missed the meaning.” How do we learn to peek behind and inside the events of our lives, inside and under and experiences of our lives, and see the meaning that is waiting there to be discovered? We learn to do this by pressing into God in the good chapters ANDin the hard chapters of our lives, and by inviting God to shape our character, our thoughts, our words, our deeds, and our priorities.

Dr. James Dobson, pondering what he wanted to have written on his tombstone, came up with these words … I guess he’s having a big tombstone!

I have concluded that the accumulation of wealth, even if I could achieve it, is an insufficient reason for living. When I reach the end of my days, I must look backward onto something more meaningful than the pursuit of houses and land and machines and stocks and bonds. Nor is fame of any lasting benefit.

I will consider my earthly existence to have been wasted unless I can recall a loving family, a consistent investment in the livesof people, and an earnest attempt to serve the God who made me. And nothing elsemakes much sense.

Friends, we can come to the place where we know what Dr. Dobson was talking about by partnering with God … and by listening to our lives. And in fact, Larry told me that the main thing he wants us to do as we gather here this afternoon is tolisten to our lives … listen to his life … listen to his going home to begin eternity with God … and to discover out of this listening, the meanings waiting for us … inside, underneath, and all around.

Here’s how Jesus talked with His disciples about these issues oftime and eternity in JOHN 14 …

John 14:1-4(new american standard bible)

1 Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.

2 In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

4 And you know the way where I am going.

God took care of Larry during his life here on earth – and now God is caring for Larry in heaven. God has now received Larry into His presence … but God is also here with us today. Larry’s heart and mind are no longer troubled by being trapped in his earthly body–and today God wants everyone of us here to know, to celebrate, and to enter into the peace and comfort Larry knows.

I want us to remember that this service is for the living! Larry’s life here on earth has ended, but for thoseof ushere, life goes on … and because of that very real fact, the questions we have to ask ourselves are, “How do I deal with my feelings?” “How do I listen to what God's saying to me during this time of loss and change?”

Oftentimes we come to funerals and we don't know what to say to each other. Maybe you feel like crying and you aren't sure you should … or maybe you want to give someone a hug but you aren't sure it’s appropriate. So many times we just don't know what to do. Listen to what priest and author Henri Nouwen writes about this in his book Out Of The Solitude …

“When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it's those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand.

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can simply stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares.”

Larry believed in the God Who is PERSONALand ACCESSIBLE– the God who hears the cries of His children and comes to their aid, the God whoaccepts us not because of what we’ve done, or might do, or could do … but the God who loves you and me unconditionally.

In his book The Wisdom of Tenderness, author Brennan Manning tells the story of a man named Edward Farrell who took his two-week vacation to Ireland to celebrate his Uncle Seamus’ 80th birthday.

“On the morning of the great day, Ed and his Uncle Seamus got up before dawn, dressed in silence, and went for a walk along the shores of Lake Killarney. Just as the sun rose, his uncle turned and stared straight at the rising orb. Ed stood beside him for nearly 20-minutes with not a single word exchanged. Then his elderly uncle began to skip along the shoreline, a radiant smile on his face.

After catching up with him, Ed commented, “Uncle Seamus, you look very happy. Do you want to tell my why?” “Yes, lad,” the old man said, tears washing down his face. “You see, the Father is fond of me. Ah, me Father is so very fond of me.”

This is the God Larry knew and loved. The God who was “so very fond of him” … who cried with him when he cried … who heard hisprayers whenhe prayed … who laughed with himwhen he laughed … who felt hispain when he was in pain … this is the God Larry knew and loved, and in Whose presence and grace he is now living.

In 1991 my wife Teresa and I adopted a grandmother named Sue Johnson. Sue was a passionate lover of God, a compassionate lover of people, a servant of the highest order, in whom we saw every day the character of Jesus Christ. Near the end of Sue’s life, Teresa was with Sue, and one evening she asked her, “Sue, what is Jesus saying to you?” And Sue reached out and put her hand on Teresa’s forearm and said, “Oh honey, He’s so close I could touch Him.”

I believe with all my heart that in the last chapter of his life, in the days and nights when he was at home with Karla, and in the last days and nights with his beloved daughters Stacy and Karie, and with his grandson Braden, as he went was at home under the loving care of Hospice. I believe Larry knew what Sue was talking about. And that even in his hours of deep sleep, that Jesus was so close he could touch Him.” And in this place of knowing, Larry experienced the kind of peace only God couldpour into him.

You’ve heard these verses before … at funerals, at weddings, and even at baby dedications. And the reason these words from King David are so often read at all these different TRANSITION TIMES of life is because they’re a powerful description of you and I when we’re at the most vulnerable times of our lives … when we’re coming into this life, and when we’re going out … when we’re beginning an exciting new chapter of life … even the chapter just preceded by our death … and when we’re most in need of being led by God as our precious Shepherd.

PSALM 23(KING JAMES VERSION)

1The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.

3He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.

5Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

God will never leave us or forsake us. God is with us right now … and He is inviting us to not only allow Him to shepherd us, but to feed us, lead us, restore us, protect us, comfort us, provide for us, and tend to our needs large and small, physical, emotional, and spiritual.

You know, death has a way of putting life into perspective … it reminds us of our own mortality … it whispers in our ear a suggestion to GETourhouse in order, to SETourpriorities straight, to SEEourselvesas people with a beginning and an as an end.

And this kind of perspective urges us to ask critical life questions like “How can I move from today ontotomorrow without regret over how I've lived?” and “How can I make the most of life, sometimes in the midst of hard circumstances, yes, sometimes even in the midst of death?”

Everyone of us gathered here this afternoon has a different story – a different history – a different collection of victories and sorrows – a different set of joys and pains. And our STORIES, and our HISTORIES, and our SORROWS, and our VICTORIESmake us who we are. But the great reality is that none of us have to stay who we are.