My sermon was “Sola Scriptura”. The Scriptures are the only book in the world in
which God has revealed Himself to mankind. The Scriptures contain words
inspired by God and are literally the Word of God. Therefore, the Scriptures
carry with them the same authority as a signed decree by a king, except they
are the decrees of God. The Scriptures teach us what we need to know about God
and what duties He requires of us. The Scriptures contain the only way of
salvation. The Scriptures have sufficient power in themselves, without any
priest or clergyman, to lead those who read them to salvation and a relationship
with God.
After church I had a light lunch and lay down
for a nap. That evening Phil called. He and Molly and then Billy and Polly
talked with me. The kids were excited about school. They have to ride over an
hour on the school bus. Molly has been teaching them songs to sing on the way
to school. The other kids are joining in, happy to have a way to pass the time.
About
an hour afterward Nathaniel called.
“Hi, Dad. I just wanted to see if you are all
right.”
“Yes, I’m doing okay, Nathaniel, how about
you?”
“Well, good. Good talking to you. I just
wanted to make sure you were all right. Good-bye now.”
“Good-bye, son.”
Monday, I devoted myself to assembling the
checks and receipts for Laura’s medical expenses that were in my files. The
ones in the envelope in Laura’s dresser drawer covered the first six years and
the very beginning of this year. They were carefully arranged in chronological
order. Then she had given me power of attorney so that I could sign checks on
her account to pay medical bills. After that the checks and bills were in my
files.
After I finished arranging the checks and
bills in my files, I took them to the office of Graham Bilton, C.P.A. I had been going to tabulate them myself and
print four copies and mail that to the boys. I thought that it would be better
to have them audited. Maybe that would settle the matter.
“Graham, I have a job that I would like for
you to do for me. Two of my sons practically accused me of embezzling Laura’s
inheritance. In these two envelopes are the originals of the bills and checks
of monies spent from her account. Would you audit them and write a statement of
your findings? Then I’ll mail a copy to each of my sons.”
“I’ll be glad to do that for you. Things are
slow right now so I should have the job completed this week.”
I walked back home. There was a message on the
answering machine from the bank. It was too late to call this evening. This was
supposed to be my day off. I decided to drive over to the next town and go to
the movies, just to get out of the house. When I came to the movie house and
looked at the posters for the six movies showing, none of them were appealing.
I went to Jim’s Hamburger Restaurant and bought a large hamburger with sweet
potato fries. The hamburger was delicious and the sweet potato fries served
with barbeque sauce for dipping were out of this world. A juke box was playing.
I nursed my meal, chewing slowly, and dragging out the time. It was a time of
relaxing and unwinding for me. I didn’t want to see anyone that I knew, and I
didn’t.
The next day, when the mailman came, he rang
the door bell.
“Reverend Sterner, I have a piece of mail for
you that requires your signature.”
After I had signed a green card, he gave me a
letter from the Circuit Court. The papers inside informed me that I was being
sued by Thomas Sterner and Matthew Sterner for the wrongful death of Laura
Claudette Sterner and the mishandling of the funds in her estate. Until a
judgment has been made, the Court has frozen all my assets. That explains why
the bank called.
I called the church office and told the
secretary that I had to take care of some business in town, but that I would be
in the office before noon. I walked into town to the bank and went back to
Accounting.
“Reverend Sterner, thank you for coming in. I
wanted you to know that the bank received an order from the court freezing all
your accounts. You won’t be able to write checks or withdraw money from any of
your accounts or have access to your lock box until such time as the court
rescinds its order or modifies it.”
“What about checks that I have written
already?”
“Any check dated before we received the court
order will be honored.”
“Thank you.”
Next I went to Graham Bilton’s office.
“Hello preacher, I started working on your
job, but I am nowhere near being finished.”
“Graham, there is a new dimension to that job.
I found out today that I am being sued for mismanaging Laura’s inheritance, so
the work you are doing will eventually be evidence in court. Also, the court
has frozen all my assets. I will have to pay you in cash. You’ll have to tell
me a day or so ahead how much the job will cost.”
“It will be around $500. If you can’t come up
with the money right away, I know you are good for it.”
“No, I’ll get it some way. I don’t believe in
asking people to work and then putting off paying them.”
From there I went to the lawyer’s office. I
asked to see Mr. Capon. He had drawn up the wills for Laura and me. He had
urged us to make a Living Will at that time.
“Brother Sterner, I expect you are here to
ask some questions about submitting Laura’s will for probate.”
“No, I haven’t got to that yet. Let me ask
some other questions. No, first read these.”
I gave him the papers from the Circuit Court.
He leaned back in his chair while he was reading. He reminded me of pictures
that I had seen of Abraham Lincoln. He didn’t look like him in the face, but he
was tall and slim and seemed awkward when he was sitting in a chair.
“Your son sure was busy while he was in town
for his mother’s funeral. What are your questions?”
“The most immediate question is how am I
going to live? I have less than $100 in my wallet. I don’t have a pantry full
of food, in fact there is hardly any food at the house. If someone wants me to
visit a family member in a hospital in Pine Bluff, Little Rock, or El Dorado, I
have to jump in my car and go. My gas gauge is on ¼ full right now. I should
take it to the gas station, but if I do it will take more than $50 to fill it
up.
“Before I knew anything about this lawsuit, I
took bills and cancelled checks to Graham Bilton relative to Laura’s
inheritance. I asked him to audit the account that contains her inheritance.
That is going to cost me $500. I was going to send his report to the four sons
because at the dinner after the funeral both Tom and Matthew had challenged me.
When Laura first received her inheritance, she told the boys that she was going
to save it for them. That is why we put it into an account in Laura’s name
alone with my name in case of death. Later, when she developed cancer, she
decided to use the inheritance for medical expenses that the insurance didn’t
pay. She was the only one who wrote checks on that account until this year.
When she was getting too weak to write the checks, she gave me power of
attorney to write checks on the account.
“As for the wrongful death – the night Laura
died, I did not find her dead until the next morning. By then her body was cold
and her limbs were stiff. Her hand was clutching the bell she used to call me
at night and her mouth was wide open. Mrs. Koontz, one of her aides, came not
long after I discovered Laura dead. I told her that Laura was dead and she
shoved past me into the house and went to Laura’s room. When she saw her, she
screamed. She ran out of the house. Then she began to tell all over town that
Laura died because she was calling for help and ringing her bell, but that I
wouldn’t come to help her.
“Laura’s doctor told me that she had lived a
lot longer than he thought she would. All of her organs were affected. She had
not been able to talk for several weeks or more, so she couldn’t have called
for help. He said that her mouth was wide open because she was trying to get
air but her diaphragm and lungs had stopped working. He said that even if she
had managed to ring the bell, and I had run down the hall to her room, there
was nothing I could have done to keep her from dying. The hospice nurse said
the same thing. She said that even if a nurse had been there, there was a Do
Not Resuscitate order in accordance with her own instructions in the Living
Will.”
“It would appear, Reverend Sterner, that the
facts are on your side, that furthermore you need a lawyer to use the facts to
send your lawyer son back to Georgia with his tail between his legs. In the
meantime, I don’t know the answer to your first question, ‘How am I going to
live.’ The trial date is not until December 10. Since your son’s purpose seems
to be to make your life miserable, he may even try to postpone the trial until
later.”
“Will you represent me?”
“It would be an honor, Joshua.”
“I probably will not be in this town or state
much longer. The church is asking me to leave.”
I was standing up and Mr. Capon unfolded
himself from his chair to stand across from me. His jaw dropped and for a few
moments he seemed stunned. When he recovered he said,
“Keep me informed of your whereabouts and how
I can reach you.”
When I reached the church office, the
secretary greeted me with a cheering smile. There were no messages. I called
Rev. Sheetz at the Presbytery office and told him about the lawsuit and all my
bank accounts being frozen.
“Joshua, is there any way that I can help
you?”
“I am going to have to operate on cash until
this is straightened out. I deposited this month’s pay into my checking
account, but now I can’t get any of it out. I have less than $100 in my wallet
and two weeks to go until my next pay. I have no food in the house. I think
that the Presbytery has an emergency fund for ministers. If you could send me
at least $500 in cash by FedEx overnight I sure would appreciate it. When the
church pays me in the beginning of November, I’ll repay the money.”
“I’ll get on that right away. You certainly
are being punched right and left. You are a modern day Job. The Devil is doing
everything possible to defeat you. Keep looking up to Jesus and I’ll be holding
you up in my prayers.”
I was relieved to know that I could manage
for the time being. I was grateful to the Presbytery for helping me in this
way. I had to plan what my next moves would be. I should begin prioritizing,
packing, and throwing things away. I would pick out what was most important to me
that I could take in the car with me. The things I wanted to keep but couldn’t
take with me I would put into the storage unit where I had put the boxes of
Laura’s belongings. The furniture I would sell to the second hand store for
whatever they would give me for it. There wasn’t much furniture and it wasn’t
too good.
I remembered what Nathaniel said about Laura
writing to him every week and how he had appreciated it. I decided to write to
him.
Dear
son,
It was
so good to see you and be with you even though it was under such sad
circumstances.
I had a
real uplifting experience last week. A man that I didn’t even know asked me to
come to the hospital and pray for his wife. I did and walking out of the
hospital I was certain that she was going to get better. The next week I had to
go to the Emergency Room for a church member who had a heart attack. While I
was there I went to see the woman I had prayed for. She was sitting up in bed,
real happy, and said that she was going home the next day.
Nathaniel,
I have decided to leave this church and this town. There are just too many sad
memories. Wherever I go from here, when I die I want to be buried beside Laura.
Please remember that and when the time comes don’t let your brothers change it.
Love,
Dad
No comments:
Post a Comment