Sara Darity Funeral

Sara is Sara.

Back in the 70’s, the comedian Flip Wilson had a character named Geraldine Jones.

One of her famous lines was, “What you see is what you get.”

That is Sara - no pretense, no sugar-coating, just Sara.

My last contact with her was a text on October 8th at 4:28 pm.

She stated rather matter of factly, “Cancer has spread in both lungs and throat.

Don’t think I’m going to take treatments, just kept comfortable.

I replied, “Well, I guess it’s good to know what you are up against.

“I’m very glad you have Jesus so you can make such a courageous decision.

“Renee and I will be here to help you in any way we can.”

Her simple reply was, “Thank you.”

I text George Sheffield and told him the next time we went visiting, we needed to go see Sara.

I figured we’d get to see her a couple of times before the Lord sent His angel to take her home.

Boy was I wrong.

Now, we say this in jest but I suspect it’s more true than a joke.

At 7:29 am on October 10th, two days later, Ellen Morgan called to let me know that Sara had passed.

After we hung up, I said, “I suspect Sara told Jesus.

“Listen, there’s no need for me to hang around here miserable and making everyone else miserable.

“Why don’t you just take me on home, and let’s be done with this.

Jesus knows Sara better than any of us so He said, “You’re right Sara.

“I’ve got your place ready - why don’t you come on home?”

Sara, as you would expect, left very exacting instructions.

We can’t be here longer than 30 minutes.

No music.

I am to speak only using my memories of Sara.

So here is what everyone is going to get - you are going to get the Sara we knew at First Baptist Gray.

I have no clue how that will compare or contrast with the Sara all her family and Hillsboro friends knew over the years

But knowing Sara, I suspect, well, “What you see is what you get.”

There are two passages of scripture that I think of when I think of Sara.

We’ll read one now and the other later.

The first one is Psalm 121.

Hear now the Word of the Lord from Psalm 121

Psalm 121 KJV 1900

A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, From whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, Which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, Nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in From this time forth, and even for evermore.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Would you pray with me?

O Lord,

Our helper, our keeper, our protector, the One Who preserves our souls.

Dear Father, you know our hearts are heavy.

We’ve lost a friend - a fixture around our place.

With our eyes closed we can see her face, hear her voice

We can see her smile and her laughter.

Lord, we know better than most that she is at home with you

And we would not want her back here.

Your house is so much more than here.

But you know we miss her and will miss her.

There is a hole where there was once a friend.

You are the God of comfort and by faith, we are relying on You to do as You say.

We know You will not abandon us or leave us behind.

You will send ministering angels to give us comfort and joy.

Dear Lord,

We are so very happy Sara was yours and that we have assurance our Sister is safely at home.

We do take joy in that.

If you would be so kind, please remind us of that at every remembrance of Sara.

Thank you for putting her in our lives as you did.

You didn’t have to, but You did and we are better for it.

Thank you very much.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Psalm 121:1 “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?”

When Sara and our team where in Israel, Sara saw the setting of this and so much of the Bible.

Sara walked through some very lonely and desolate places.

A lot of the places we went were full of hills and in the Negev around the Dead Sea, there were thousands of hills

All covered in rocks and dust with very, very little vegetation.

A single traveler walking through those hills would feel very, very alone and probably somewhat afraid.

I came up here last week to make sure I could find this cemetery.

I got out of my car to find Sara’s husband’s grave

It was easy to find.

I also found her 3 sons and was surprised how young they were when they all passed.

And how close together them and their dad’s passing was.

I suspect Sara felt sometimes like she was walking through a very desolate and dry land.

Her obituary said, “Because of her love for Christ, Sara never let her grief and sadness consume the remainder of her life.”

But I don’t think Sara, as tough and resilient as she was, I don’t think she was super-human.

I would imagine as she was cutting away all of the bushes she told me about

And as she worked on her house

And cut her grass

And worked - just plain worked in the hot Georgia sun

I can’t help but believe there were times she was thinking of them.

And her Helper would come to her.

Her obituary came as quite the surprise.

She never let on to us about her church life at Hillsboro.

I suspect she figured it wasn’t anything we needed to know or maybe she was tired of volunteering and didn’t want to be asked anymore

I certainly would blame her for that

But, man, she was into a lot

And who knew sang in and led the church choir.

Which really explains one of my most vivid memories of her.

She had not been at First Baptist more than a year, at most.

We gave a young guy the opportunity to be our minister of music

He had all of the training and talent he needed to lead

The only thing he was missing was - shall we say - proper aging.

He consistently had us singing songs that were good - but we had no clue.

So Sara made a list

She was not requested to make a list

No one had mentioned making a list as far as I know.

But Sara made a list of about 100 songs and she gave them to him

And she said, “here is a list of songs we know.”

Now, first off - she had only been at the church less than a year

I thought to myself, “Who is we?

She hasn’t been here long enough to know the “we” - but here she is with her list

And it wasn’t a bad list at all.

It was, really, our songs.

Sara was being Sara.

She wasn’t trying to put the kid down or tell him how horrible he was doing.

She was trying to help him by clueing him into the culture where he was.

Unfortunately for him, he didn’t listen.

But Sara tried.

My wife described Sara with six words:

“Unafraid, unashamed, and spoke her mind.”

In Israel, they told us in the desert we would dehydrate quickly so we needed to drink lots of water.

The temperature never felt stifling but it hovered around the 100 degree mark.

They specifically said to avoid soft drinks as they don’t hydrate well.

We had a rest break.

We are all hitting our water bottles pretty hard when we hear the pop of a pop top.

And there’s Sara, filling her water bottle up with Coca-Cola.

And nobody said a word.

Once we got to Jerusalem, Sara was getting tired, so she decided she was taking a day off.

Our group co-ordinator talked to her a bunch trying to convince her to stay with the group.

He was afraid she’d get out and wander around and, while we were safe, there were places we could go that we’d be really not safe.

But his concerns fell on deaf ears.

Our 10 day trip cost around $5000 so one day cost about $500.

Sara paid $500 to rest in her hotel room watching Fox News for a day.

And the next day, she was up, ready and raring to go.

Sara was going to do what Sara wanted to do.

I was told by a few folks that the Israel trip was one of the highlights of her life.

Sara was extremely knowledgable in the Bible.

In our Wednesday night group, she was the Bible answer woman.

If no one else could answer, Sara could.

She went on every one of our Young at Heart trips.

She did her own thing and always seemed truly happy to be there.

I promise you, my biggest memories of her are seeing her smiling.

She was genuinely, truly happy to be a part of the group doing what we did.

Like I said, the obituary was a surprise.

Sunday School teacher, VBS teacher, Training Union - that’s back in the day, right?

Playing the piano - she never touched one at FBC-Gray that I saw

Sang in the choir

I was told by those who sat around her in services that she had a beautiful voice.

But I never heard it.

Led the choir and served as the church treasurer?

She didn’t make much of her past with us.

It just sort of leaked out.

If I’m remembering properly, one of her people, I think in California or out west somewhere had a child

And Sara was over the moon happy and she shared that with us.

She told one of our folks about a dream she had.

She said in the dream she saw her husband and three sons in heaven

That dream was very real to her and she told whoever she was talking to that she knew she would be joining them one day.

Of course, it wasn’t the dream that gave her that assurance.

It just made her feel good - kind of like a confirmation - a pat on the back - a “just keep going” sister kind of thing.

No, what gave Sara her assurance was her knowing Jesus.

In Israel, we went to Chorazim and there we saw an insula.

We would call it a compound.

It was basically a small town, surrounded by a wall.

Inside was the main house that the patriarch and matriarch lived in

And attached were the houses that all of the kids lived in.

It had a common cooking area and a large courtyard where people would meet and kids would play.

It had a large storage area for food and whatever else needed storage.

The compound would have been filled every day with work, and talk, and laughter and life.

We read some, what we typically look at as funeral scripture, we read that scripture there.

When Jesus said what he said, the insula, the compound was what He had in mind.

Listen to Jesus:

John 14:1–6 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Now, I’m very aware that many translations say “many mansions” but what Jesus had in mind and what “mansion” brings to our minds are two different things.

You see, Sara had her mansion here.

Her house that she was very proud of,

That she loved and labored over

Where she cut grass and pulled weeds and cut hedges and repaired fences

And worked on flooring and walls and paint

And she did much of it alone - that’s our idea of a mansion.

100 acres of land with a house right in the middle of it with no trespassing signs everywhere - that’s what we have in mind.

But see, that’s where Psalm 121 plays in to Sara’s life.

We don’t belong here - this world is not the Christ followers home.

Here she needed help.

She needed a protector that never got drowsy or slept.

She needed a very special person who would keep her physically safe from the sun and the elements.

She needed someone who would not remove the evil from her life

That can’t happen - this world is a sinful and broken place.

But Sara had Someone who made her “well armed” to resist and restrain that evil from her.

Traveling through this lonely place, Sara needed a Savior and a helper and she found Him in Jesus.

When Sara heard that a powerful God created the most perfect place for humans ever

And that humans had messed it up and we keep on messing it up.

She she realized she was messing it up - sinning - just like everyone one

And there was not way to fix it on our on.

Someone told Sara about Jesus.

About His being born of a virgin

Of His living a perfect life - exactly as God would have it.

Of His crucifixion on a cross

How on that cross, He took her sins on Himself.

How He was placed in a tomb and buried

But How on the third day, by the power of God, Jesus was raised back to life.

She heard how he appeared to over 500 people.

She heard of how he ascended into heaven where He is waiting even now, to come and set things right

She heard how Jesus was coming to make all things new.

When Sara heard this, her dead soul was given life.

She repented of her sins, she turned her life towards Jesus and she followed him.

And on the 10th, she followed Jesus out of the mansion she lived it

Into the compound where Jesus lives.

Sara’s dream may well have been a vision.

In her Father’s house, there are many rooms

Beautiful, indescribable, incomprehensibly exquisite

All of her relatives that have trusted Jesus welcomed her home.

I hope Tucker was there as well.

Sara no longer needs Psalm 121.

There is no evil to be protected from.

She isn’t wandering this path alone anymore.

Jesus led Sara home.

Sara’s story could be your story.

If you’ve never considered following Jesus, He’s worth a thought.

There is no real life apart from Jesus

But with Jesus, there is nothing but life.

What did Jesus say?

John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Something Sara got from Jesus was her “What you see is what you get” attitude.

When you see Jesus, you see Life.

I’m glad my friend is alive and well, at home with Jesus.

I am glad that many of us will see Sara again one day with Jesus.

Pray with me, please:

Holy Father, We commend into thy hands of mercy the soul of this our sister departed, Sara

And her body we commit to the earth, beseeching your infinite goodness, to give us grace to live in your fear and love and to die in your favor

So that when the judgement shall come which you have committed to your well-beloved son,

Both this our sister and we, may be found acceptable in your sight

And that we receive that blessing, which your well-beloved son shall then pronounce to all that love and fear you, saying

Come you blessed children of my Father: Receive the kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the world.

Grant this merciful father for the honor of Jesus Christ, our only Savior, Mediator, our Advocate and our Friend.

Romans 15:13 ESV

[Now] May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.