In some ways I think that my task this morning may be the easiest of all for I think I know exactly what Wayne would say right now. He'd be thankful for all of the kind words said about him and would receive them graciously but then would start encouraging us and pointing us to the God he loved so much. To me he would simply say, "All of this fuss about me is fine but now it's time to preach the Word." So that is what we will do. Today we gather in honor of Wayne and to remember him but, as Roberta emphasized when we sat down to talk about this service, our primary purpose here today is to worship God and to proclaim the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The bad news today is right before us. Martin Luther has reminded us that we live "in a world with demons filled that threaten to undo us." Sin and death have been ultimately defeated through Christ our Victor but they still keep hanging around and doing a number on us all. We still live behind enemy lines even though we believe that the ultimate triumph of God and his people is secure. Wayne is simply the latest casualty in a world gone awry. Never minimize sin and death, my brothers and sisters. The story of Genesis 1-3 is true. Sin entered into the world and with it death. And God's people have suffered because of this ever since. Sin and death are bad news. Any attempt to sugar coat why we're here today by minimizing death and somehow making it a friend would repulse brother Wayne. He saw the devastating effects of evil in our world and gave his life in the battle of good over evil. And he did this because he believed that, in the midst of terrible bad news, there is good news. And this good news I proclaim to you today.

Wayne believed in God our Father, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. He believed that our God is good and that all he has ever done or will do is for our good. Wayne believed that "the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end." Theology for Wayne always began with faith in the goodness of God. The first time I really heard of Wayne was on an internet discussion group that was considering the subject of baptism. I was impressed with his impassioned plea for the role of baptism in conversion but what struck me then was his approach to the subject. He gently, and sometimes not so gently, chided his opponent for beginning on the subject of baptism with baptism texts. Wayne's argument was that you must begin the study of every subject with a clear view of who God is. You read everything through those lens. If you don't, you end up with a caricature of God. God is good, Wayne believed, and any theology that made God bad is bad theology.

Wayne saw God's goodness revealed in many ways: through his statutes and ordinances, through his Son Jesus Christ, through the church of our Lord. But I think that the way that is probably the most endearing to his friends is his agreement with the psalmist that "the heavens proclaim the glory of God and the firmament his handiwork." He probably has the apostle Paul off to the side right now, grilling him about some of the things he wrote, but he heartily concurred with the apostle when he said, "Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made." Wayne believed this. He was a Franciscan at heart. He saw God's goodness revealed in the birds, the flowers, and the rivers. Wayne believed that you could learn a lot by watching a squirrel. Not long ago we greeted each other after church and he said, "George, you won't believe what happened to me yesterday. I was sitting in the living room and watching the birds at our bird feeders when a squirrel starting tearing up one of the bird feeders. He was knocking bird seed all over the place and scaring off all the birds. I decided to get my bb gun and bounce one off of the bird feeder and scare him away for awhile. Doggone it if I didn't accidentally nail that sucker right between the eyes. That squirrel fell off of that bird feeder and hit the ground dead. Man, I was devastated. 'I've killed this thing.' Then I thought, 'Ya know, one squirrel doesn't make a meal.' So I had to get me another one." "You had to do what," I said? "I had to get another one. Two squirrels will make a meal." Even after he got so sick that he couldn't hardly get out of his hospital bed there, under his bed, were his hiking boots or, as my wife Deb would say, "his old, clunky, hiking boots." Those boots are a symbol of Wayne Dockery. He loved God's creation because he loved God who made it for our good. Those hiking boots kept him ready at any moment to explore the world that he loved so much. Some of us joked yesterday about wearing hiking boots to this service in honor of Wayne. We didn't do it but next January 18 I plan to celebrate the anniversary of his death by putting on my hiking boots, hiking into the woods somewhere, and praising God for the things he has made. The good news? Our awesome, powerful God loves his children and has done everything for our good. Wayne believed in God, our Father, maker of heaven and earth.

He also believed in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He believed that the cross and resurrection of Christ were the central events of human history. This loving, merciful God had entered into human existence, embraced the suffering of his people, identified with sinners, and died so that they might have life. Through his death and resurrection sin and death have been defeated. What you see before us today is not the end of the story. Christ is risen. He is the firstfruits of the resurrection. We who are in Christ participate in his victory and have the hope of eternal life. Wayne would really be ticked off at me right now if I left the impression that the primary impact of belief in Christ is the saving of one's hide in the by and by. He believed in heaven, of course, but eternal life meant that, through this knowledge of and love for God, our lives are changed. We do not live fearfully. Our lives reflect the life of the One in whom we believe. He who was rich became poor. Therefore, Wayne, the closet Franciscan, believed that we, like Jesus, should identify with the poor. If you were involved in the oppression of the poor or the lowly, you wouldn't want to see Wayne Dockery coming your way. He loved the underdog. I have often wondered why Wayne knew, loved and ate in every dive in town. I think he felt that the food just tasted better when it was served up by someone who was scratching and scraping to make a living. It shouldn't surprise any of us that Wayne was involved in Habitat for Humanity or went to Mexico each year on our Mexico Medical Mission trip. He is particularly loved by our poor brothers and sisters in Mexico. Wayne respected them enough to learn to speak their language and was so utterly relaxed around them that one could forget he was one of those gringos from up north. Besides, how can you not love the outrageously joyous man in the old, clunky hiking boots. Poor people felt at ease around Wayne Dockery. He stood for righteousness and justice. He was on their side. He loved them. The identification of God with humanity in the incarnation of Jesus Christ meant to Wayne that we are to identify with the lowly. The cross of Christ was his polar star. There is good news. We who have identified with Christ in his lowliness will also share in his resurrection and glory.

Wayne believed in the Holy Spirit. He was a spiritual man. He had his problems with some of the emphases of the charismatic movement but he deeply believed that the Spirit of the Living God empowers his people for service in the world. He certainly wasn't perfect. My, my, Wayne had his faults. Some of us have imagined how St. Peter's orientation session with Wayne went. "Brother Wayne, there are certain things that we do not say in heaven." I quite imagine that that was not a brief session! Wayne was as tough as nails. He could argue with a fence post. His tremendous intellect led him into areas that many of us do not even know exist. It could get him in trouble. He wanted others to catch a glimpse of what he had seen in the heart of God and he could be argumentative and feisty. Once, in the middle of one of our many knock down drag out debates, I zinged him with, "I think your motives on this are just a little bit mixed, to say the least." Wayne responded, "Hey, my theology is Reformed, everybody's motives are mixed all the time. We're all sinners. Now, where were we." He could infuriate you, but, if you knew him, you could see into his heart and know the goodness that was there. God produced the fruit of the Holy Spirit in his life. He was full of joy and love. He believed in the Holy Spirit and the holiness that comes only from God.

Finally, Wayne Dockery believed in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. This love caused him to struggle with things that many of us do not even understand. For example, recently our church, like many churches, studied the role of women in the church. Wayne really struggled with his own point of view. Was it because he had not studied the matter? Anyone who knows Wayne knows that would never be the case. Was he afraid to have and state his point of view? Wayne wasn't afraid of anything. So why did he struggle? Because his understanding disagreed with the historic consensus of the Church on this subject. He hated trendiness and novelty but what made him a little more tentative and circumspect was that he respected his forefathers and mothers in the faith. He never wanted to do anything that could be understood as disrespectful to the saints who have gone before. He believed, with G. K. Chesterton, that we should give our ancestors a vote. We don't study the Bible or do theology as individuals in isolation from one another. We are part of a community and that community includes the believers of all the ages. They were some of Wayne's discussion partners.

Wayne also loved the Restoration Movement of which Churches of Christ are a part. He didn't think we are or ever were perfect but it rankled him to high heaven when people among us called themselves "progressives" because they were willing to throw baptism and the Lord's Supper overboard. Wayne believed that even we have gotten a few things right and it pained him to see so many among us who could not distinguish the baby from the bath water. His greatest love for the Church, though, was reserved for the Singing Oaks Church of Christ. O, how he loved this church. What did Wayne think of you? He had a stock phrase that he used over and over again. After the most discouraging debate among the elders, or after someone had gone after him for his views on some matter, or after something had happened at church that deeply pained him (I know for a fact that he had many a sleepless night because of his love for this church) - after all of that, he said the same thing over and over again: "These are good people." Perhaps you're here and the last conversation you had with Wayne was an argument about something. It wouldn't be surprising because Wayne was passionate about what he believed. But, at the end of the day, when it was all said and done, what did Wayne have to say about you? "These are good people." He loved this Church. He loved her elders, her ministers, her deacons, her ministry leaders, all the way to the most humble, lowly among us. "These are good people." He reveled in the little kindnesses that he believed were breaking out among us. The good news of Jesus Christ was shaping a people into his holy and divine image.

Today we mourn the loss of our good and dear brother, our friend. And we grieve. But not as those who have no hope. For we, like Wayne, "look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." We proclaim the ancient faith. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Hallelujah.

George Butterfield