Patrick McNamee Memorial

Welcome - Jack

Celebration of Patrick’s life.

Worship - Patti and Mike

Eulogy - Jack

Patrick McNamee

September 1, 1973-April 5, 2020

With Robyn, welcomed Haylee and Alyson.

Loved his girls.

Loved playing basketball.

Loved his friends.

Loved to worship Jesus - Ran sound, the quartet.

Thoughtful, reflective, helpful.

First time I preached here - microphone

Lunch - talked about life.

Sharing

Everyone in some way gives life to us; joy, laughs, memories.

What did Patrick add to yours?

Reflections - Jack

An episode of Marvel Agents of Shield: caught in a time loop as the crippled ship is headed into some sort of force that will destroy it. In each loop, they learn a little more about how to fix the ship to get it back to full power and escape the pull of the force.

It would be great if we could time loop back to March like that and be somewhere else today rather than Patrick’s memorial service.

Memorial services - often the focus is on comforting us, talk of heaven as a destination for the person who’s life we’re celebrating and of course, ours.

Just make it through, cross that finish line.

This Life Matters - why we call this a celebration of life.

Ever hear of the idea that death is part of life?

I believe it’s true but it seems to leave as many questions as it answers.

Sounds like a paradox or oxymoron. These two things shouldn’t go together.

But they do.

We spend a lot of time, energy, resources - religion, hospice, counseling, etc making sense of death, coming to terms with it, preparing ourselves for it all while trying to live fully in the present.

Here’s a a question Patrick had heard asked here at YFC: What if heaven wasn’t the end? Some of us here might already have decided that’s not happening; no such place.

What if the end was life restored to the way it was intended to be?

Think of all that has been broken, scarred, divided, separated, left well, for dead. What if, the desire of the creator of the universe is to give us back the life we were intended to live to never have it taken away again and imagine if we could get a taste of it now.

1 Corinthians 15:12–20 ESV

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

A lot of people are saying a lot of things these days about God, about Jesus. Mostly using them to support their own agendas. Big turn off.

Jesus didn’t say much about himself but three things stand out: way, truth, life.

Here’s Jesus’ agenda: come this way and I will give you life. To restore relationships with God and one another. Now and forever.

How do we know besides what we read? Jesus’ Resurrection.

To share one thing about Patrick’s life with you it is that of all the possibilities to consider, as messy and difficult as life can get, alongside his realistic nature, this is where he landed, what he trusted.

You being here is is proof of that. He lived what he trusted - brought people together.

Blessing

Refreshments following.

2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.