I was shocked with hundreds of others when Vern's home-going was announced in worship last Sunday at Calvary. My heart goes out to his family and friends who are grieving his loss.
As I reflect on Vern, a few words come to mind: steady faithfulness and humble generosity. There are only a handful of people in a choir that you can count on being there every Sunday. Vern was one of those people in the Calvary Memorial Church choir. I knew well in advance if he planned to be gone - it was easy, really. There was always one Sunday in the Spring when he and several other golf enthusiasts from Calvary would take off and go golfing. Other than that annual excursion, Vern was here always. And that was just one way he was steadily faithful.
I remember visiting Vern in his home several times during my first couple years at Calvary. I wanted to meet his wife, who he so obviously loved. Her condition of not being able to communicate, but instead just "crying" was really hard on Vern. He wanted to know what she was saying. He so wanted to communicate with her, and yet, the whole situation was as frustrating as it was heartbreaking. And there was Vern, faithfully caring for his wife. I have only known two other men whose wives were in similar situations. I have known only one who was faithful to his wife until her dying day. And that's Vern.
I think Vern was the treasurer at Calvary since they invented the abacus. Vern was a man of precision until only recently when the stresses of life and his age combined to make it hard to always remember. But even with those difficulties he continued, with steady faithfulness, to serve.
Vern humbly gave of himself. People that others of us might try to sidestep were recipients of Vern's quiet kindness and support. His humble generosity was displayed in as many ways as his steady faithfulness. Vern made it possible for us to be homeowners in River Forest. He had a town-home that he bought many years earlier for his mother-in-law and since rented to various infamous Calvary characters (usually youth staff). He decided he wanted to sell his property and instead of putting it on the market, at a time when he could have received top dollar, by the way, he instead established a price he thought was fair and approached us about buying it. As it happened, I heard through the grapevine that somebody heard about this and asked Vern about it. I've known others who may have bragged about how they sold the property at a great discount. Vern instead said, "Isn't it wonderful that Andrew and Christina are finally buying a home in our area?"
Vern's humility in giving is also seen again in singing in the choir. I didn't know Vern had perfect pitch until we sang a couple of a cappella pieces. One of the tricks of directing a choir is to sometimes pitch an a cappella piece up or down a half-step, depending on a variety of factors. After one of those times, Vern approached me and simply asked me if I'd let him know when I planned to do that. He explained that he had perfect pitch, and the re-tuning was "drving him crazy" I believe were the words he used. I always put singers around Vern that I knew would benefit the most from standing near him. Other singers in similar situations complain that other singers are throwing them off and making it harder to concentrate. Not Vern. Not a word, just humbly giving of himself to help others along.
I don't remember what Vern's favorite anthem was ... I've been working on that since Sunday, but I remember one of the hymns that we sang a cappella that seemed to have struck a chord with Vern and many of the choir members when we sang it - which was only a couple times as I recall ...
When He shall come, resplendent in His glory,
To take His own from out this vale of night,
O, may I know the joy of His appearing,
Only at morn to walk with Him in white.
Vern is now one of those who has been taken out of this land of the dying and is now in the presence of God in the land of the living. He is one of those who will be walking with Christ in white at the day of His appearing. Until then, may we have the grace to, like Vern, be steadily faithful and humbly generous. Amen.
