Donald Ray McCoy - July 28, 2024

Welcome & Gathering

Jesus said, I am the resurrection and I am life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, yet shall they live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

Friends, we have gathered here to praise God and to witness to our faith as we celebrate the life of Donald Ray McCoy. We come together in grief, acknowledging our human loss. May God grant us grace, that in pain we may find comfort, in sorrow….hope, in death….resurrection.

Pastoral Prayer

O God, who gave us birth, you are ever more ready to hear than we are to pray. You know our needs before we ask, and our ignorance in asking. Give to us now your grace, that as we shrink before the mystery of death, we may see the light of eternity. Speak to us once more your solemn message of life and of death. Help us to live as those who are prepared to die. And when our days here are accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in you, and that nothing in life or in death will be able to separate us from your great love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Add prayer for family:

Amen.

Special Music - Amazing Grace

Old Testament Scripture

Jeremiah 29:11–13 NIV

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Special Music - Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah" is a complex song with many interpretations that explores themes of love, loss, faith, doubt, and praise. The song's title translates to "Praise Yah", which is a shortened version of God's name. The word "hallelujah" itself is made up of two Hebrew words that mean "praise God", and the song's refrain takes the listener on a journey through a range of emotions, from pain and suffering to joy and celebration.

The song's lyrics are full of Biblical references and allusions, including the stories of King David and Bathsheba, Samson, and Delilah. Cohen's original intention was to convey that the word "hallelujah" can have many meanings and be used in a variety of situations, such as times of grief, celebration, remorse, or relief. He delivers this message through the lens of a love story, exploring love found, love lost, and the aftermath of those experiences.

Celebration of Life

Read Obit.

Lindsey Strickland, Grandaughter

New Testament and Scripture

John 14:1–4 NIV

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

John 14:23–27 NIV

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Pray.

Don McCoy

It has been an honor to get to serve you during this time and to celebrate Don’s life.

The best word I can think of to describe Don is intentional. I shared with Renate and the girls last week as they described Don’s life, it made me think of a book by Jon Tyson. In the book Tyson describes a spectrum of fathers. The first is one who surrenders responsibility or abandons. The second one is the physically present and emotionally/spiritually absent father…addicted to work or career. The third is what most “good” dads ascribe to be and that is a present Father. The fourth is the intentional father. The present father is at everything, dedicated to family, makes every ball game and for all intention and purposes is a good dad. However, the intentional Father aggressively discerns the gifts of each child and every relationship in their life and seeks to bring those to flourish.

Don did that.

often the only male in a fabric shop, learning to sew so that he and Renate could do that together

Finances and investing with one child

Gardening with another

Taking a part an entire engine of a ‘56 station Wagon one summer so that Don and neighborhood friends could learn to put it back together.

Steady, never angry, always kind…except maybe at Montgomery County Appraisal board meetings. I talked to someone who served with him and heard some funny stories. He didnt play when it came to taxes, haha.

That is what makes today difficult. Even a full life of 93 years, we mourn today because in our bones it does not feel right.

Peace I leave with you

The text I read from John 14 would have the disciples feeling the beginning of a similar emotion. Jesus is preparing them for his death, resurrection, and departure. He is trying to teach them and prepare them for the mission that Jesus is now passing on to them. In the next few days they would see their leader die and that would be excruciating. Then Jesus knows they will have difficult days ahead as well and Jesus promises Peace….His peace.

Reminder today that God can be trusted in this space. A few observations, from the text:

1. His peace is unlike peace of this world

a. He has conquered death itself and is the resurrection. He has walked through the darkest valley so that in our dark valleys, we know we are not alone. Jesus has the last word…this is the only way that he can say....peace I give to you and it can mean anything really when our hearts are broken.

b. His peace is comprehensive. Not just a rest…but deeper than that. Biblical peace is about a setting things right that are wrong. Rebuilding and restoring. The world promises allusions of peace…but goodness we know anything resembling peace is fleeting and difficult to grasp. God’s peace, even if hard to grasp right now is comprehensive.

God is not in the business of making life all copasetic for everyone… God is in the business of turning this rotten fallen world around. Rebuilding.

C. One of the images of peace in the bible is of a rebuilding of a wall that has been broken. Pieces missing and the wall has lost its integrity. God promises peace which is the setting right and rebuilding. Family: God can and will rebuild what is broken here.

2. He is sending the advocate, the Holy Spirit, to testify to our hearts.

But God is not just an outside player in this story. He gives of his Spirit on those days when you just can’t. He promises to join them in the darkness.

3. And he is preparing a place for all of us that are in Christ Jesus. Don is with the Lord. To be absent from the body is to be with the Lord.

· Earlier in this text there is the guy named Thomas who begins to challenge Jesus… Wait youre leaving? Let us go with you! Jesus speaks words to Thomas so that we might hear them today… I am the way, the truth, and the life. Don came to that realization, so even today we can hold onto that hope.

So....Jesus offers them peace in their struggle. That peace is comprehensive, it is tied to his presence

Peace conditioned only by God’s presence with his people. Not on circumstances

“Total well being, prosperity, and security associated with God’s presence among his people.”

· It’s the peace that even when things are not all alright…we still know he is with us.

This is the steady and reliable truth today.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Special Music - What a Wonderful World

Benediction

The peace of God He which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

Graveside

A SERVICE OF COMMITTAL – Don McCoyJuly 15, 2024

Greeting

Listen, I will tell you a mystery!

We will not all die, but we will all be changed.

For this perishable body must put on imperishability,

and this mortal body must put on immortality.

Then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

"Death has been swallowed up in victory."

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

But thanks be to God,

who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 CORINTHIANS 15:51, 53, 54 b-55, 57)

The following prayer is offered:

Let us pray.

O God, you have ordered this wonderful world

and know all things in earth and in heaven.

Give us such faith that by day and by night,

at all times and in all places,

we may without fear commit ourselves

and those dear to us

to your never-failing love,

in this life and in the life to come. Amen.

Jesus said: "Very truly, I tell you,

unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,

it remains just a single grain;

but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Those who love their life lose it,

and those who hate their life in this world

will keep it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me,

and where I am, there will my servant be also.

Whoever serves me, the Father will honor." (JOHN 12:24-26)

Commital

Standing at the head of the coffin and facing it (preferably casting earth upon it as it is lowered into the grave) the pastor says:

Almighty God,

into your hands we commend your son Don,

in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

One or more of the following or other prayers is offered:

Eternal God, you have shared with us the life of Don McCoy

Before he was ours, he is yours.

For all that Don has given us to make us what we are,

for that of his which lives and grows in each of us,

and for his life that in your love will never end,

we give you thanks.

As now we offer Don back into your arms,

comfort us in our loneliness,

strengthen us in our weakness,

and give us courage to face the future unafraid.

Draw those of us who remain in this life closer to one another,

make us faithful to serve one another,

and give us to know that peace and joy which is eternal life;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The pastor dismisses the people with the following or another blessing:

Now to the One who is able to keep you from falling,

and to make you stand without blemish

in the presence of God's glory with rejoicing,

to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord,

be glory, majesty, power, and authority,

before all time and now and forever. Amen. (JUDE 24-25, ALT.)