Funeral Service—July 21, 1990
Wollaston Church of the Nazarene
2 Corinthians 5:1-11
Paul opens this second Corinthian letter with a word about comfort and assurance: (1:3-4) "Blessed be the . . . God of all comfort, who comforts us . . . so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction." Paul says there are many things we don't know, don't control. But he also says there are things that we do know— and these things we know give us great strength:
Maude Nelson had a quiet confidence :
The wellspring of all spiritual life and Christian love is the assurance of a right relationship with God. The certitude of belonging, of being accepted... Not incompatible with questing, growing.
Out of this assurance spring several things:
Many of us have a sense of loss in one who supported us with daily prayer.
We think in terms of "useful life.:' i.e., "What did he/she do in life before he/she retired?" God thinks in terms of what we ARE before Him, and our work, our service, our strength never ends!
God gives His children a gracious competence. We use our gifts to serve the FAMILY! The Christian Way is family if it is anything.
"We don't lose heart ..." (verse 8 "We are of good courage" and such a faith is powerful!— we persuade onlookers that the faith is real!.
Sometimes I think people expect preachers to say good things about the faith. But a person who LIVES the faith consistently— who walks with God— THIS IS PERSUASIVE!
Conclusion:
One more time I have been privileged to go to the "edge of life"
AT THE GRAVE
Psalm 84 (Living Psalms)
O God, the center of Your will is truly the place of fulfillment. I long incessantly for the peace and security of walking with You. Therein only is purpose and meaning for my life.
Even the birds of the air and the animals that inhabit our forests abide within Your orbit and destiny for them. Thus it is that the man who discovers and follows Your course for him is forever blessed.
How enriched they are who draw their power from You, whose hearts are focused on You! Even as they wend their way through this fractured world, they become spirngs of healing, reservoirs of power, to the sick, weak, and empty lives they touch about them.
O Lord, look with loving mercy upon those who have yielded their destinies to You. Just one day in the center of Your will is incomparably better than a thousand spent in the pursuit of self-centered aims and objectives. It is more fulfilling to be an underpaid clerk in the service of my God then to be owner and director of some huge and wealthy enterprise.
O God, nothing that is truly good and worthwhile is withheld from those who walk within Your will. The man who trusts You is very rich indeed.
Committal
Forasmuch as it has pleased Almighty God to receive unto Himself the spirit of our departed sister, Maude Parsons Nelson, we tenderly commit her body to the earth, in sure and certain hope of the Return of our Lord, and the Resurrection of the dead, and of the life everlasting. As we have borne the image of the earthly, so we shall bear the image of the eternal and heavenly.
Benediction
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious
unto you.
The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you, and
give you peace. Amen.