Jesus said, as Bonnie just read—you can see it here in your service leaflet—verse 6:
I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me. (John14)I want to draw your attention to this Jesus this morning, to what he is saying to us through his Word written and to his presence and influence in Barry Atkinson’s life.
Let’s pray:
Lord Jesus, you claim to be the resurrection and the life. If what you claim is true, please guide us, teach us, and open to us the reality of who you are. Give us an understanding that is coherent, convincing, and leads to the life and the home that you promise.
Jesus was the way Barry Atkinson followed and the way he led his life. Jesus was the truth by which Barry discerned what was what and Jesus gave him the abundant life he (and Betty) lived through all the list of laughing and dancing, mourning and weeping, loving and embracing of their life together which we heard Kelly read from Ecclesiastes.
Judging by Barry’s photograph in the leaflet, by the way, perhaps it would be more appropriate to call him The Dread Pirate, Barry!
I remember lots of laughing, especially, whenever I was with Barry and Betty. They were fun to me around.
Barry and Betty lit up for each all the way back when they were ten years old in Sunday school. They grew up together, blossomed, were wed, raised a family, travelled the world, grew old together as they lived through all the times and seasons of their lives. And all the while Jesus, way, truth and life was present. Constant. Faithful. Watching, waiting. Even before they really connected with him in Rhiyad, of all places, in a clandestine Alpha course. Jesus was always there, just as he is with us now, perhaps still waiting for some of us, wanting the best for Barry and Betty and Karen and Bev and their kids and their kids and wanting the best for the rest of us, too. That’s the Jesus I want you to notice and remember and perhaps reconnect with this morning.
Barry and Betty lit up for each all the way back when they were ten years old in Sunday school. They grew up together, blossomed, were wed, raised a family, travelled the world, grew old together as they lived through all the times and seasons of their lives. And all the while Jesus, way, truth and life was present. Constant. Faithful. Watching, waiting. Even before they really connected with him in Rhiyad, of all places, in a clandestine Alpha course. Jesus was always there, just as he is with us now, perhaps still waiting for some of us, wanting the best for Barry and Betty and Karen and Bev and their kids and their kids and wanting the best for the rest of us, too. That’s the Jesus I want you to notice and remember and perhaps reconnect with this morning.
I remember how hard it knocked Barry when Betty died. It hit us all hard. But, just as we heard in those first verses from John’s gospel, I also remember how Barry still chose to believe in God and believe also in Jesus, just as Jesus asked his disciples to do in the first verses of that reading from John’s gospel. And when Jesus says there are many rooms in his Father’s house, Barry believed that, too, because he knew Jesus always tells the truth. And that Jesus really has gone on ahead to prepare places for Betty, for Barry, and for you and me, if we want them. And that Jesus will come again, just as he said, and take us to himself where he now is—home, in his Father’s house, the place where we belong—for ever and ever. Amen.
Which brings me to Betty’s favourite Bible verse from our first reading. Nehemiah chapter nine, verse 10—“the Joy of the LORD is your strength.” (These same readings were read at her funeral in 2015) Betty knew that to God she was (and is) a joy. And one of the most amazing truths that Jesus embodies—despite humanity’s rebellion against God and trying to live as if he didn’t make us or even exist—we’ve all been a part of that in all our unique little ways. God loves us all. Still. For God so loved the world loves us. That he sent…well, you know how it goes, people hold signs up with chapter and verse at sports events—John 3.16. Each one of us human beings is God’s absolute joy and that joy provides us with a supernatural strength that enhances and overcomes this world. Joy-of-The-LORD-who-loves-us strength is what empowers us to believe what Jesus says, it’s what makes days and lives holy. Joy-of-The-LORD strength brings comfort when times are tough and when things don’t make sense. God enjoyed Barry and that, along with the love of his family, his church and his friends (and through the “haunting” Betty promised), provided the strength he needed to live these last few years since Betty died well. Joy-of-The-LORD strength gave Barry’s daughter, Bev, what she needed to field up to seventeen calls a day from her Dad and look after him as dementia tightened its grip on his mind—it strengthened the whole family as they shared to that load.
God loves and takes joy in you and me, too. Joy-of-The-LORD strength is available to us, too. The ultimate and defining expression of that strength is Jesus Christ, Saviour and Lord, risen from the dead and present by his Spirit. With the joy of the Lord as our strength, like Betty and Barry Atkinson, we too can follow the way Jesus provides; live by the truth he is; and the life he offers.
It just so happens that we’re doing this in the Church’s season of Lent——a time for self-examination, penitence, prayer, giving and reading and meditating on the word of God. Lent is a great opportunity to discover, rediscover, connect, re-connect with and enjoy Jesus and to make the most of Resurrection hopes and joys that will come with Easter 2020. As we commend Barry Atkinson into the Everlasting Arms, could God be calling some or all of us and offering some joy-of-The-LORD strength to make this day holy to The LORD (another phrase from Ed’s Nehemiah reading) by committing ourselves—using those three strengths Ron, Barry’s son-in-law, attributed to him: grace, grit and gratitude—to some special holy Lenten observance in his memory and for the sake of the way, the truth and the life, Jesus?
The homily for Betty’s funeral can be found here.
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