The Hope of the Believer . . .

EULOGY FOR W. CARL KETCHERSIDE, 1908-1989

(St. Louis, Mo. May 28, 1989)  

What a beautiful tribute this is to a great and good man! If all those around the world were here who would like to be here, we could fill Busch Stadium, empty it and fill it again, for Carl Ketcherside has been a great blessing to thousand and tens of thousands during his long ministry. He started preaching when he was but a boy of 12. He would have to stand on a box when he spoke so he could be seen behind the pulpit. He's told me how he received several invitations following his very first sermon. When an elder from a nearby church invited him to his congregation, he told him, "Sorry, brother Jones, I'm all booked up!" Twelve years old! This man has served in the ministry of the word for seventy years.  

They also tell the story on young Carl that when he tried to get on a train wearing a cap and knee pants, telling the conductor that he was going on a preaching appointment, the conductor didn't believe his story, and, supposing he might be a runaway, wouldn't let him board. His mother had to come to the station and confirm his story.

You are apart of history by attending Carl Ketcherside's funeral, for this man has had such an impact on his world and brought freedom and hope to so many people that he will not soon be forgotten nor will his influence soon fade. Historians will one day be researching and evaluating his life and work.

But this is not a mere funeral. We are here to worship God. And it is a celebration, Carl's homegoing! I have heard him say it often, that when we leave this world we are not leaving home but going home. We do not sorrow as those who have no hope.

But we do sorrow and we will miss him terribly. The poet Edwin Markham spoke for us all when he likened the passing of a great soul to the fall of a mighty tree in the forest.  

He went down  
As when a lordly cedar, green with boughs,  
Goes down with a great shout upon the hills,  
And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.  

A mighty tree has fallen and there is a lonesome place against the sky. We are here not only to honor a dear friend and brother who has left our midst but also to show our love and respect to those who were closest to him. These are his son Jerry and his wife Emily, and his daughter Sharon Sue Burton and her husband Curt. There are also four grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Sitting with the family is also Fran Woodside, who had a special relationship with Carl and who is deeply grieved. (This woman and Carl were engaged to be married later this year.)  

We realize that there is a lonesome place in your sky today and we are here to assure you of our love and to offer our condolences.

I speak a word about Carl Ketcherside today in four ways: a favorite poem of his, a favorite Scripture, a favorite story, and a favorite promise.

I have seen Carl stand before numerous audiences that were somewhat suspicious of him due to his broader views of Christian fellowship, and he would sometimes quote these pungent lines, again from Edwin Markham:  

He drew a circle that shut me out—
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.  
But love and I had the wit to win;  
We drew a circle that took him in.  

These lines tell the story of Carl's ministry as a peacemaker amongst divided Christians. When others would draw their circles and leave him out, he conspired with love and drew a circle that took them in. He travelled all over this country and in foreign nations as an apostle of unity, sounding the refrain, "Wherever God has a child I have a brother or sister." He insisted that we have no right to make anything a test of fellowship that God has not made a condition for going to heaven. He had a neat way of saying to those who doubted him, "You may not agree with what I am saying, but I am going to love you and accept you as my brothers and sisters in Christ nonetheless, and there's not much you can do about that." He helped multiplied thousands to escape the bondage of legalism and sectarianism and gave them hope for a more loving and united church.

One of Carl's favorite Scriptures was Acts 13:36, and I think he viewed it as reflective of his own philosophy of life: "David, after he had served his own generation according to the will of God, fell asleep."

Doesn't that one little line speak volumes about what our lives in this troubled world are to be about? David, a mighty king and an elegant poet though he was, resolved to stay busy doing God's will among his own people and in his own generation. He did not try to live in the past nor did he worry about the future. He did what he could on a day-to-day basis, following God the best he knew how, among his own people in his own time, and then fell asleep. That was Carl. How is this for a full and happy life? You are 81 years young. You come in at 10 o'clock at night after being out there amongst them all day as you have done all those years. You kneel beside your bed and commit your soul to God's safe keeping. You get in bed and go to sleep — and wake up in heaven! That's not bad! Carl not only showed us how to live but how to die, if we can manage it.

Carl served his own generation by serving his family, by serving the church, and by serving the world. He wrote between 180 to 200 letters a month, year after year, to people all over the world, helping them with their personal problems and encouraging them in the work of the lord. He authored 28 books (or is it 35?), sent out Mission Messenger for 37 years, and preached tens of thousands of times on college and university campuses, in homes, under tents and brush arbors, in the streets, as well as in churches. He seemed to have loved his inner-city work most of all. He enjoyed writing about how many blankets they had given to the poor, or if summer how many electric fans. When I had extolled his virtues in Restoration Review, he wrote to me, "Your estimate of me embarrasses me. If I can leave this interesting world with the goodwill of the poor and needy that I am with everyday, I shall be pleased."

A favorite story of his, coming from Nathaniel Hawthorne, is also reflective of Carl's life and work. There was this village alongside a craggy mountain that was so cleft that it bore the image of a man's face which came to be known as Old Stone Face. There was a tradition in the village that one would come someday, bearing the likeness of Old Stone Face, who would be a blessing to the village. A little boy in that village, named Ernest, was especially attracted to the Old Stone Face. He studied it with boyhood awe as he made his way to school each day, and then again when he returned. He often looked upon that stone face, wondering when one would come to his village in its likeness. When a famous philanthropist came to town, the boy thought he might be the Old Stone Face since he was so liberal with his money, but he looked nothing like the stone face. Then came an important politician and Ernest thought that surely this would be he, but neither did he beer any resemblance.

Years passed and the boy grew to manhood and at last became an old man, but all those years he never ceased to study the Old Stone Face. But no one ever came to the village bearing its image. Then one evening when he was sitting with a neighbor on the porch, the neighbor looked to the distant mountain at the Old Stone Face, and then fixed his gaze upon the old man as he sat in his rocking chair. "Ernest," cried the neighbor, "You are the Old Stone Face!

Hawthorne's point was that we become like what we give our heart and life to, whether something beautiful or something not so beautiful.

And that brings us to one of Carl's favorite promises, found in 2 Cor. 3:18: "We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." The promise is that as we "look unto Jesus" and walk in the light as he is in the light we become more and more like him. We reflect the Lord's glory and are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.

As a close friend for nearly 40 years I saw that transformation in Carl Ketcherside. From "glory to glory" he became more like the Christ that he loved and served. He became the Old Stone Face!

Once when we were studying the term glory, I remember his saying, "When the Lord says to me, 'Well done good and faithful servant,' that will be my glory."

Carl once told his family that he didn't want any crying at his funeral, but for them to gather around and sing "Amazing Grace." We are going to close this memorial by doing just that, with his grandson Gryfon leading us.--Leroy Garrett

(Those present at Hoffmeister Colonial Mortuary in St. Louis, hundreds of them, stood and sang "Amazing Grace" with glorious beauty and enthusiasm. It was an appropriate finale to a beautiful and enthusiastic life. Memorials may be sent to Cornerstone Fellowship, 3258 Ohio St., St. Louis, Mo., 63118)

What does all this mean? It means that I am older and wiser than I once was. It also means that my faith has grown perceptibly. I believe that the God of glory is getting ready to do a mighty and wonderful work on earth. I am convinced that sectarianism will decline. lam persuaded that truth will predominate. I believe we are facing a day in which "our" church will mean less to everyone and there will be "one body, and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling." And all of us shall become part of the "multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues" which shall stand before the throne. — Carl Ketcherside in a recent issue of Integrity