Untitled Sermon (4)

Membership Transfer Folder

I have a folder in my office that I keep all new member info, transfer of membership letters (both transferring their membership to the church and transferring out to another church), and also obituaries and order of service for funerals of our members. Why you may ask, do I keep all of these in the same folder. Well one simple reason is for the report that I have to do every year as a part of my pastor’s report. Last Monday night, I gave my report of membership changes for the past year. We have had five baptisms, which is remarkable and just a big blessing. This represents new life in Christ, a rebirth! We have had three people join this local congregation and each of them have been a big blessing to me and to the ministry work of this congregation. We also had two to officially withdrawal their membership after many years of inactivity. We have one former member who felt called to do ministry with another congregation. At the bottom of the page, are ten names of those who have passed since the last charge conference.

The second reason why I have these blessed individuals obituaries and funerals in this folder is because of I hope that I have. That hope is that they have transferred their membership to the eternal Great Cloud of Witness. In this folder are twelve people, two more beyond the ten listed in the report that I know are resting right now in the presence of the Lord.

Pray and read Revelation 21: 1-8

Revelation 21:1–8 NRSV

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

The rest of this chapter is about the new heaven and the new earth that we will all get to experience together. The walls of twelve different precious gems and streets of gold. The gates that are nothing but pearls, and the gold that we will see, will be so pure that they will be clear as crystal. Amazing to envision in our minds, but exciting to know that soon, our hope will become our sight.

But for right now, we have our faith and our hope. Our faith is that Jesus has already overcome death and the grave. Jesus was crucified, and resurrected from death. He now sits at the right hand of God the Father and will come again to receive us into His eternal Kingdom. So that is our hope. We will see Jesus face-to-face. We will see our loved ones again soon.

Soon, we will all be in our eternal home that Jesus has prepared for us. We will be with Him and He will be with us. His light is our light, His gifts we will inherit. Jesus gives water to all who are thirsty, yet not the kind of water we find on earth. The thirst that He quenches is a thirst for true life, rich and eternal. Those who have experienced death to this world are now alive in Christ Jesus, and will never experience death again.

Death, right now, to many of us seems so overbearing. Dealing with the death of a loved one is hard. Especially when there are multiple deaths in a short amount of time. This has been a hard year. From the start it has been difficult. Jack Harris passed a year ago at this time. Then at the beginning of this year, we lost three members around the same time, Malcolm Simpson, Martha Hunter, and Rachel Boatman. Then at the start of Summer we lost three more: Gerald Brubaker, Brinda Hale, and Pam Marcy. Do you know that we have at least five congregants who have lost a child in recent time? This year, Jimmy Passons lost his daughter, Carol Lee. Also, Joyce Nowlin lost her son, Brian. Pam Marcy is the daughter of Ms. Billie Cutler. There are others throughout the year that many of us have known, loved and lost. I think all of us have experienced grief first hand this year. Just in the past two weeks we have lost three more of our beloved church members. Russ Hamblin, Pedro Paz, and Doug Capshaw.

I have prayed to God that I could get some reprieve, just a time of peace. Yet, we do have others in our congregation who are not doing as well as we would hope. So where is our peace? Where is the victory against death? Today we grieve. But our days are short compared to the eternity of peace and joy that is to come. We morn for a time, yet our pain will give way to gladness beyond all comprehension. Though it seems like we see death here and now, Jesus is not dead nor are those who find their life in Him. We miss seeing our loved ones today, but know that we will see them again. We know that all those who live for Christ are alive in Him even now. All of these beloveds are a part of the Great Cloud of Witness that we celebrate today as we take communion here and now. Soon we will be breaking bread with those who have gone on before us in a banquet that will start all things new.

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