In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear Betty, Kathryn and Karen; Paul, Steve and Mark; Maria, relatives, friends, members of Mt. Pisgah, Immanuel, Trinity, Bethlehem and Holy Trinity, Brothers in the Holy Office of the Ministry: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. I was looking forward to Pastor Ude’s and Betty’s company together a while longer. We had talked just recently of a Texas brisket sometime. In fact, Deb and I had come back from Texas, and Pastor Ude wanted to know if I had gotten any Mesquite. He was shocked that I hadn’t picked up some of the precious wood. Like you, I was looking for more—more time in the presence of a dear man. It did not work out that way. God had other plans.

At the death of Professor Henry Hamann in Ft Wayne IN years ago, Dr. Scaer asked Professor Marquart why God takes all the good guys. He replied in Marquartian fashion, “Perhaps He prefers their company.” That is absolutely true; Jesus likes talking to shepherds, because He is the Good Shepherd. Shepherding in the Word of His Truth is what Jesus is all about.

Willis Paul Ude was acting as a Shepherd to all of us when he chose his funeral text. He didn’t just want us to know Jesus the Redeemer, that He is risen and coming again. Bill, husband, father, brother, pastor, friend, for our comfort and encouragement on this day, wanted us to know of his complete confidence, yes, his saving knowledge that his Redeemer lives; that as Job is with his Redeemer, we know Dad is right there beside him.

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“How can man be justified before God? If even the moon does not shine And the stars are not pure in His sight, How much less man, that maggot, And the son of man, that worm!" Thus Job spoke of fallen man (25:6).

Before the just, holy and all-seeing God, man can boast of no righteousness. Not only does he sin much both from weakness and from a corrupt heart, but man sins today in many ways he does not even realize . . . unable by his reason to determine for certain whether a particular action is sinful or right: in matters of war, for example, with medicine and health care. Sometimes the problem is due to incomplete information, other times to faulty counsel, sometimes the Christian is blinded by greed or sinful anxiety which won’t let him make a proper decision on a matter. Sin flourishes, even in the elect.

How marvelous that it is totally otherwise with Jesus. His is a glorious, transcending righteousness, as the light of the sun surpasses the feeble radiance of the moon and stars. He is the only pure One. So that Pilate’s wife called Jesus, “This just One,” and Judas spoke of “innocent Blood,” and the thief said, “This Man has done nothing wrong,” and the centurion exclaimed, “Certainly this was a good Man and just.” Jesus, born of Mary, is the Holy One of God in human flesh.

When Christ was raised from the dead, His righteousness was declared by the power of the Father, through the universe, as in heaven, and to the prison house of hell. Jesus’ resurrection proved wrong the slanders of His enemies—a great host since the time of Noah. His own people even accused Him of blasphemy and seditious doctrine. “He is worthy of death,” they cried. But HE rose from the dead.
Our Redeemer stands before the world today in the preaching of the Gospel, the Gospel which Pastor Ude faithfully preached. Jesus stands as He whom God the Father has declared pure and innocent, without fault, righteous, holy and just. Death looked upon its captive, but was afraid to touch Him. This Holy One is yours! His death and resurrection declare your forgiveness.

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Job confessed this in the words, "I know that my Redeemer lives." Job’s reference to his “Redeemer” is summed up by Saint Paul, “You are bought with a price.”

It goes against man’s reason and every human advisor, for surely God is to blame when sickness and death strike, but Job kept his eyes focused on the Word of promise and his Redeemer. Emotions and feelings, reason and thoughts must be kept at bay. In the midst of the overwhelming flood of what God permitted to happen to Job, the foundation of his life was the Word of God. Centuries later, the Lord Jesus would state the truth that Job confessed. Jesus told His disciples of all ages, “He who believes in Me, though he dies, yet shall he live.” The Risen Jesus proclaimed to His Church, “Be faithful unto death and I will give you the Crown of Life.”

The foundation of Job's great hope was the Redeemer. As Pastor Ude knew, the Hebrew word is "Go’el." Translated “redeemer” the word carries deep meaning. Go’el is used to describe the situation where a man had sold himself into slavery and the obligation to buy him back rested upon a kinsman ... a relative ... a go’el. Job was confident that his Go’el ... his Kinsman ... would be the Seed of the Woman. He would buy Job back from the slavery of sin and the bondage of death. This Jesus did for Job and for Willis and for you and for me and for the whole world. Jesus accomplished this by His stripes.

The word for “stripe” means a “wound that trickles with blood.” Our nation has been blessed by the blood-trickling wounds of its soldiers and the sacrifices of their families. You and I are sinners who have been made well by the blood-trickling wounds of our Savior. That is what Christianity is all about. We have been redeemed with that precious blood. We are the Lord’s, which means we can rest assured He will care for us, protect and deliver us.

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You don’t serve in the military for 20 years during the Korean Conflict and Viet Nam (10 of those years with the Marines) and fail to appreciate what it means to be wounded. Wounded bodies and wounded spirits were everywhere. No doubt, Chaplain Ude was a very busy man. He knew where the message of the Redeemer was needed. Bill was sent by God to return to Viet Nam a second time, and as Mark related to me, some think a third. He was a pastor—“who is weak without my being weak; who is led into sin without my intense concern.” When others were wounded, he felt the pain. And in dealing with those in his charge, he was strong, yet gentle: that is what a chaplain and pastor must be. (When I told son Paul that those are the two traits I would use to describe his father, he concurred (dismissing my talk of chaplain and pastor) and said: to be a father. Betty would add: a husband.) To accomplish his calling, God filled Pastor Ude with His Spirit and put a faithful wife beside him.

The wounds suffered in war were many and deep—physical and psychological—they required an ointment Chaplain Ude carried with him: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last He will stand on the earth.”

This promise of the Resurrection of Job's Redeemer, the Incarnate Word of God, and of Job himself, is what kept Job spiritually alive even as his world was crumbling before him. Job was miserable. He complained. He moaned. In all of it, however, he did not blame God. Rather, he trusted in the Word of Promise. He knew his Redeemer would come. Bill has likewise trusted, even as he has similarly confessed that his Redeemer has come. In any war, without wounds there is no victory. The Christian soldier can always boldly say with Job (5:18), “God bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hands make whole.” God does work all things for good for those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. The bruisings and wounds we suffer remind us of our sin, but more importantly they remind us of the love of our Savior. For Jesus suffered for us.

“I fall asleep in Jesus’ wounds.” “For I know that my Redeemer lives.”

You don’t live through the 1970’s as an attentive Missouri Synod Lutheran, let alone a pastor, without being wounded. The battle within our Synod was great. The presence of false teachings and false acts always divide and bruise. Here again the Word of God comforts us, but also sounds a warning, for Proverbs (27:6) states, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” Pastor Ude took his stand on the Word of God. And there he stood steadfastly to the end, built on the Rock Christ, depending solely on Jesus’ blood and righteousness, depending on the promise of forgiveness and eternal life, preaching the Truth and supporting it wherever he went. Bill cherished the Sacrament of our Lord’s Body and Blood. He was close to the spilling of blood. He needed the spilt blood of Jesus to heal him, to comfort and sustain him. He longed for it, not just once or twice a month, but every week.

For Willis Paul Ude was determined to “fall asleep in Jesus’ wounds” and he has. He knows in a way he never did on earth that his Redeemer lives. He knows what it is to have no more sin, no more sorrow, but to have life in Jesus’ name. He knows the victory won by the wounds of Christ.

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At the end, at 82 years, eight months, and nineteen days, Pastor Ude’s once strong, soldier’s body was battled and bruised. Sight and hearing were most missed. Pastor Ude was wounded by a heart attack on Monday morning, June 18. This wound was sent by a Friend, by which God was drawing His faithful servant home. Forgiven of his sins as he had forgiven others, his corruptible still needed to put on incorruption. And that could only be through the death and resurrection of his body by the power of Christ’s resurrection.

*Though it is certain that even moon and stars do not shine in Christ’s presence, “Those who understand (have insight) will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven” [that is all of you, Betty, Karen, Paul, Kathryn, Mark and Steve], “and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” [and that is your dear husband and father] (Daniel 12:3).*

Karen, your father loved Texas, didn’t he? It was his state, though he was born in Nebraska. He wouldn’t pass up a chance to travel there. How much more he loved heaven. How wonderful that he has now traveled home, greeted by his Redeemer as He showed Bill His hands and His feet. “I know that my Redeemer lives.” In the name of Jesus. Amen.  SDG

*Included in written copy to family, though accidently omitted in preached version.