Christian Obituary for Richard Getz
Richard Edward Getz was born on October 3, 1931, to Edward Adolf and Edna Getz in Teaneck, New Jersey. The Triune God who gave him life also gave him the new birth and saving faith; he was baptized in the name of the Triune God as a child. Having suffered the death of his mother before age 10, his paternal grandparents, Gottlieb and Anna Getz, raised him in this faith, and he was led to confess his faith when he was confirmed in the Lutheran confession of faith in a church of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. After serving his country in the godly vocation of soldier in the U.S. Marine Corps (reaching the rank of 1st Lieutenant), both in the Korean War and at home, Richard pursued a life of serving the Lord in the church: He graduated from Concordia Teachers’ College in Seward, Neb., in 1959, and also graduated with a Master’s of Arts in Religion from Concordia Lutheran Seminary (LCMS) in St. Louis. He taught religion and history for one year at Detroit (Mich.) Lutheran High School West; served as librarian at Concordia Lutheran High School and (from 1964) also at Concordia Teachers’ College, both in Seward, Neb., from 1960 to 1967; and served as head librarian and assistant professor at Concordia Lutheran College in Austin, Texas, from 1967 to 1971. After that he used his gifts in working for the Texas State Library.
Richard was among those gathered by the Holy Spirit faithfully to receive God’s grace in Word and Sacrament, first in congregations of the LCMS through 1971; then in two Wisconsin Synod congregations in the Austin area (1971-2017), and finally at Hope Lutheran Church in Leander (2017-25), a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The Holy Spirit preserved him in faith until August 27, 2025, when he was called out of this life and the holy angels carried his soul to heaven. He will receive Christian burial today, September 12, to await the resurrection of his body when the Lord Jesus Christ returns with all His holy angels.
God’s tender mercies to Richard during his life included joining him in holy matrimony, first with Edna and later with Donna (who survives him); giving him one son, David; and also giving him Donna’s children David Henderson, Paul (Debbie) Henderson, Elizabeth Henderson and Naomi (Max) Goller, and five grandchildren. Blessed be his memory.
RICHARD HAS ETERNAL LIFE BECAUSE
HE WAS RIGHTEOUS – FORGIVEN – BY FAITH
The Sermon Text: Romans 4:3-8. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (Ps. 32:1-2).
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your Words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Lord, we thank You that You give us such certainty that our loved one is home with You. We thank You for the Gospel – that although Richard was born in sin and could not but sin and fall short every day – for Christ’s sake You provided for Richard a sure salvation, leading Him by Your Holy Spirit to repent daily and turn to You for forgiveness, and forgiving his many transgressions, not counting them against him, so that he stood before You blameless each day and now stands before You in perfection, holiness, and joy for all eternity. Amen.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ:
Richard was well read. His house was filled, even overflowing, with books. Early in his career, he spoke in a letter of his efforts to build a theological library and gave a count for how many books he had gathered “thus far.” He was a lifelong librarian who took this vocation seriously.
He undertook post-graduate education alongside future Lutheran clergy to take a full course of seminary classes. He was contributing writer of a Lutheran journal when the “Battle For the Bible” was happening in the early 1970s, a battle to keep the Lutheran church faithful to the view that every word in the Bible was God’s divinely inspired word, without error.
Richard was an intelligent man. He knew a lot. He was a careful thinker who chose his words carefully. He was meticulous, which his work in library and technical services showed. He also had high standards; his service as a Marine, both in the Korean War and stateside, bore this out.
Whatever we can say about how he lived, and about his intelligence and being a thinking man, we face the difficult question of whether any of it could give him credit, before God, at the time of death. The answer is no.
This is what St. Paul speaks about in Romans 4. He makes a contrast between faith and works – “works” being a person’s efforts to obey God’s commands and do God’s will in life. He says that if works – say, what we might say about Richard’s goodness, legacy or accomplishments – if that gets the credit, then righteousness and salvation is something that God would owe him. That’s what it means when it says: “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.”
But the problem is if there are sins. In order to stand before God with confidence and joy, there can be no sins. In spite of what we see on the outside, or what we remember, each person – Richard included – has sins that nobody else knows, or that people have forgotten. The requirement from God is that you must be perfect in your thoughts, words and deeds.
In these verses from Romans, Paul brings into this picture two Old Testament sinner-saints: first Abraham, and then David in Psalm 32.
I sometimes could think of Richard as sort of an Abraham. Of course, Abraham was one who the Israelites considered a father of the faith. You think of how he answered God’s call, which was against human logic; how he waited on God and His promise for decades; how he was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac in obedience to God. Abraham received the honored title “friend of God.” But hidden underneath that were some serious sins, such as getting impatient with God’s promise and intentionally producing a son not with his wife Sarah, but with her maidservant Hagar; and the two (!) times he pretended Sarah wasn’t his wife, out of fear and a self-serving desire to protect his own life at her expense. These were shameful sins.
Then there’s David, who is described as “a man after God’s own heart.” He killed Goliath, followed the Lord whole-heartedly, suffered in faith, acted not with revenge but mercy toward wicked King Saul, established Israel in the true worship of God, won God’s battles. But also he took Bathsheba for himself, the wife of one of his soldiers, and had her husband killed; he covered up his sin so long; and he failed to be a good father and indulged the wicked acts of his sons. These were shameful sins.
It didn’t matter how well Abraham and David were thought of, or how much good they did in their lives. It couldn’t cancel out their sins. Here St. Paul quotes part of Psalm 32, by David; elsewhere in the psalm you can hear his anguish, his “groaning all the day long.” He says: “Day and night Your hand was heavy upon me.” He says:
“My iniquity I have not hidden.”
These examples are important. These saints, Abraham and David, were sinners. How were they able to be saints –to go to heaven – when they had such sins? The answer to this is important for Richard, and for you and me.
St. Paul answers that God “justifies the ungodly,” that someone who fits the description of “ungodly” because of sins, God declares to be righteous, not guilty but innocent, not ungodly but holy. How is this true?
The way this is true is that God takes away all the sin, all the guilt. In order to stand before God with confidence, there can be no sins. God takes away all the sins. You need a Savior for this. Richard was righteous – forgiven – because he believed that what the Savior did was for him; as Jesus says in the Lord’s Supper: “for you, for the remission of your sins.”
It starts with what Jesus did. It starts with the righteousness that Paul keeps mentioning here. God requires a righteousness that’s perfect. Jesus’ righteousness – that He was perfect in thought, word and deed – is the only righteousness that’s acceptable to God. But He did it to count for us.
In Jesus’ death, He was taking all of Richard’s sin – and Abraham’s, and David’s, and yours and mine, everyone’s – and paying the full penalty for it. And His righteousness is given to you. It’s a beautiful exchange.
It’s by faith that a person benefits from this. This is why “faith” – faith in Jesus – “is counted as righteousness.” Richard believed. By faith he was righteous. By faith he had no sins in God’s sight. When he died, there were no sins for God to condemn, no sins to keep him out of heaven.
In the words of Psalm 32 that St. Paul quotes is the good news we need to hear today about Richard’s life. This is better than any of us could say about his life, that he was blesséd – “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” These words Paul quotes from Psalm 32 are the words I read to Richard the day before he died, when he told me: “I hope I’m forgiven.” I told him, from Psalm 32, that he was definitely forgiven by God, the Lord didn’t count one sin against him!
In these verses of Psalm 32 it even says: “Blesséd are those whose sins are covered.” This is another Old Testament picture: the Mercy Seat, the Atonement Cover, that was on the ark of the covenant. Inside the ark were the 10 Commandments on two tablets, they represent all the sins. But the Atonement Cover, the Mercy Seat, covered it up so God saw no sins.
“Blesséd is the man whose sin is covered,” knowing what Jesus did as the fulfillment of this, means that Jesus’ blood is the Atonement Cover: His blood covers up all sin – all Richard’s sin – so God would see none of it for Jesus’ sake. So every day of Richard’s life, and the day he died, because of Jesus – by believing on Him – he stood before God with no sins. He was cleansed from all sin through faith, which the Holy Spirit kept him in.
This was Richard’s faith. It’s the greatest wisdom, to believe this despite what the accusations of your conscience say. He had many books, which will pass to others and pass away; but the Book of Life – in which is Richard’s name, through faith – will never pass away. He will never pass away. He has eternal life, and on the last day Richard, in the grave, will hear the voice of this same Jesus in whom he believed, and his body will be raised, to be reunited with his soul for life everlasting, for joy eternal.
We’re sinner-saints too. Our way to join Richard is by faith, to do as he did – repent daily and believe that for Jesus’ sake our lawless deeds are forgiven, our sins are covered, and God will not count our sin against us. Then heaven is open to you, the heaven where Richard now lives. Amen!