Alice Randall Memorial

Scriptures

Isaiah 40:26-31

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

John 14:1-4

The New Revised Standard Version God’s People Are Comforted

26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:

Who created these?

He who brings out their host and numbers them,

calling them all by name;

because he is great in strength,

mighty in power,

not one is missing.

27 Why do you say, O Jacob,

and speak, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the LORD,

and my right is disregarded by my God”?

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the faint,

and strengthens the powerless.

30 Even youths will faint and be weary,

and the young will fall exhausted;

31 but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength,

they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary,

they shall walk and not faint.

The New Revised Standard Version Everything Has Its Time

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

The New Revised Standard Version Jesus the Way to the Father

14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.”

Home

I haven’t been here at Laboratory very long.

But it has been one of the biggest joys of my life to get to know Alice Randall in that short time.

In my early tenure here, she was almost always first in the handshake line after church to talk to me about the sermon, and to offer me a word of encouragement in the early days.

I remember once in that line Alice said to me “Now you stay out of trouble this week.” To which I replied “I promise nothing.” And that was when I got one of those Alice Randall smiles.

I am sure that if you’re sitting here in this room, you have been blessed like I have with that smile.

If you have taken any time to look at photographs these last few days, you have been blessed with that smile.

If you are part of Alice’s incredible, large, loving, and amazing family, you have been blessed with that smile.

Some of you are even lucky enough to have inherited it!

But I want to tell you a story from recent days about my favorite time I saw that Alice Randall smile.

Promises

These last few weeks I was stopping over to see Alice as often as I could, to pray with her and the family that has gathered in recent weeks.

And true to her fighter nature, Alice was having moments of decline, followed by sharp up ticks in energy.

So on Sunday, as she was in a downward moment, I stopped by to pray with Stacey and Scott and Cheri.

Alice had been asleep all morning, so we all gathered around the bed together to pray.

I pulled up on my phone the 23rd Psalm, which so many people have found to be words of comfort in seasons of distress and mourning like this.

And as I was reading and praying my way through this Psalm, I came to the ending where we are given two promises from our Maker:

Surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives.

And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

And right then as we were praying through this, I looked up at Alice, and to my surprise, Alice was staring right back at me.

I don’t know how long she had been awake, if it was the words of this familiar psalm that rang true to her, or what.

But there she was, staring at me, with that bigger than life Alice Randall smile.

And I mean, it’s impossible to know for sure, but I think that bigger than life Alice Randall smile was meant to tell us something.

I think it was meant to tell us that she knew that those promises are true.

Surely Goodness and Mercy Will Follow Me.

There is unending evidence that goodness and mercy have been following Alice through her life.

At 92 years old, she lived quite a life!

She studied in a one-room school house, which is something that I’m sure some of us in this room have a really hard time imagining!

She worked at JC Penny, and then at Washington Cemetery, before starting a company with her husband in the 1970s.

She was an active member of this congregation.

A ruling elder here, helping us to make decisions about the best way to lead our congregation.

A deacon, dedicated to the hard work of serving the congregation and the community, putting the needs of others ahead of herself.

A faithful member, and in fact host, of our Presbyterian Women for many years.

It is hard to walk through the halls of this church, or even just bump in to a regular attender here, who wasn’t impacted in some way by Alice’s ministry in this place.

And Lord, look at this family!

My head was spinning as I’ve been introduced to family over these last few weeks.

I’ve seen big families before, but you know what this one is a little different, isn’t it?

This family isn’t just big in number, this family is huge in love.

I have seen the ways so many of you have cared for each other in these difficult days.

I have seen the photographs and the memories that so many of you have passed around.

And I have seen you all gather around Alice in her last days, what a blessing and a joy to be able to be together in this time, and to be reminded of the ways that she raised each of you in your own way, to be the beautiful sons and daughters that you are.

Surely, surely, surely, goodness and mercy have followed Alice all of her days.

I am sure she was smiling because she knew it.

And the second promise is like the first:

I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

There is no doubt, that Alice Randall was a believer in Jesus Christ.

There is no doubt that her faith was a driving force in her life.

There is no doubt that worshipping her God was central in her life.

No one who knew Alice for even a short period of time could have any doubt that she was a devoted and loving Christian.

And at the very same time, in the midst of all that love Alice had for Jesus, there is zero doubt that Jesus had love for her.

There is no reason to doubt that what Jesus said to his disciples is true of Alice, that he has gone ahead to prepare a place for her.

Who knows for sure, but it may even have a cookoo clock with a decent sense of comedic timing.

There is no reason to doubt that God, through Jesus Christ, will indeed raise Alice up on Eagles wings as Isaiah promised, to call her home.

There is no reason to doubt that Alice will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

And what a sweet sweet blessing it is to know, I don’t think Alice had a single doubt about any of that.

She knew her savior.

Her savior knew her.

And I am confident, confident, that Jesus whispered sweetly into her ear just a few short days ago “Alice, well done good and faithful servant.”

Don’t Let your Hearts be Troubled.

The writer of Ecclesiastes gave us permission to feel the sense of grief that we are feeling today, that is to be sure.

There is in fact a time for weeping.

There is in fact a time for mourning.

There is a time for keeping silence, every bit as much as there is a time for speaking up.

But while there is time for all of this, I think Jesus has some words for us today in our last passage as well.

Don’t let your hearts be troubled.

Yes, saying goodbye can be difficult and painful, but as believers in Jesus Christ we know full well this isn’t the last goodbye.

Yes, there may be an open place in our hearts for a while going forward, but as friends of Jesus we know that our hearts are made to heal.

Yes, Alice’s passing is difficult for us, but it is a glorious reunion with Jesus Christ for her, and a reunion we will all share in as well.

There is a time for sadness and mourning, but let our hearts not be troubled.

Instead, let us all place our hearts in the loving and capable hands of Jesus Christ.

Let us place our hearts in the hands of the Lord God who has been with Alice from the beginning, and has lovingly welcomed her home.

Let us place our hearts in the hands of the Lord Jesus who brings us all together, to share in each other’s grief, and to be a loving support to one another.

And let us place our hearts in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ who made sure that through his resurrection, death does not have the last word.

We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, and we’ll see Alice again when we get there.

Thanks be to God. Amen!