Friends, we have gathered here to praise God and to witness to our faith as we celebrate the life of Vera Helen Stevens. We come together in grief, acknowledging our human loss. May God grants us grace that in pain- we find comfort, in sorrow- hope, in death- resurrection.
When you think of Vera Stevens, how can you not see the perseverance and patience of God? Vera was a wife, a homemaker, a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother who cared for and loved her family. She was born January 18, 1924 in Searcy to the late Arthur and Ella Mae Fife Solomon. She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, C.E. Stevens and two brothers. She is survived by her children: one son, Sam Stevens, wife Vickey of Sherwood and one daughter, Karon Horton, husband John of Judsonia; four grandchildren; eight great-grand children and three step-grandchildren.
I would like to bring you a message today from the Twenty-third Psalm. For centuries these verses have been one of the most treasured passages in all of Holy Scripture. It is among the most familiar, so much so that even people who are not religious or very knowledgeable about Scripture recognize these words. Karon shared with me that this is Ms. Stevens’ favorite passage of scriptures. They are among the most comforting, and often read in times of distress.
Verse one reads, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” Ms. Vera understood this, that day so long ago, when she accepted Christ as her personal Savior and Lord and as she worshiped and served at Bethel Grove Church of Christ.
As the passage continues we know it reads, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside the still waters.” Through her patience, her kindness, her gentle speech, and her silence Vera displayed her understanding of God.
Verse three says, “He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” If there could be one message Vera would want each of you to know is that she has received ultimate healing being in the fullness of Christ and He is walking with her in those paths of righteousness. If you will put your faith in God, through Christ, He will restore your soul.
You see friends; there are many images in this Psalm which hold particular meanings and truths. Our next image comes from the fourth verse, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me, Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.”
It would be so wonderful if God would simply promise to us that we would never go through difficult times. But we do go through great and terrible difficulties all of the time, and God constantly warns us of these dangers and difficulties in His Holy Word.
Peter wrote in his first letter (1 Pet 4:12) “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.”
The Bible constantly tells us that there will be difficult times in life, and Psalm 23 voices such a warning. It does not say, “God will keep you from danger,” but rather it describes that there will come times, and they come for all of us, when we feel like we are walking through a dark, dangerous valley -- a “valley of the shadow of death.” But what the Word of God does make very clear is that as we move through such times, God is with us. God is there to comfort us and sustain us.
For anything to have a shadow, light must be shined upon it. Christ is our light. It is not the ‘Valley of Death’, but the ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death.’ I f you have not responded to Christ’s call to repentance, accepted His offer of forgiveness, and received His promise of eternal life; do so today by placing your faith in the name of the one Ms. Vera placed her faith in, the name of Jesus.
For in the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon reminds us in chapter 7 that it is the “destiny of everyone to die, and the living should take this to heart!” It’s one thing to die, but it is something altogether different to die in the Lord. The Bible puts it this way, “Precious in the eyes of the Lord, is the death of His saints.” Something precious happened on March 24, 2011. It may have sent tears and grief into our hearts, but God said what took place was precious in His eyes. Anything that’s precious in the eyes of God ought to be precious in our eyes as well, because we know God is good.
The fifth verse reads, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.” In a little while you, as a family, will set at a table together for dinner. In this time of fellowship may you reflect and acknowledge Vera’s impact in your life, but more importantly to thank God for the gift of having Vera in your life. You see the majority like to think that we have an ownership claim on each other, especially those we love; but in reality all the people that come into our lives are borrowed from God. We all know that when we borrow something, we’re supposed to give it back to whom it came from. It does not matter how long we keep it, whatever we borrow, still belongs to the owner.
In Psalms 24, the writer reminds us that “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.” Death is the reminder, that one day we all go back to our original owner.
The downside, friends, of receiving such gifts, through the life of an individual, is the tremendous and lingering loss we feel when that person and their gifts have been taken back from us. Today I pray for an anointing of the Holy Spirit on this family and all who mourn with us this day. I pray, through the anointing, for the healing and strength needed to allow each of your hearts to overflow with the joy of your salvation and the peace of knowing Vera Stevens has the righteousness of Christ imputed to her, as do all who believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead and understand He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. The truth is our God wants a relationship with us much more than we do Him. There isn’t a one of us here today that God isn’t seeking for citizenship into His Kingdom.
We know this is true by the last verse in Psalm 23, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” The English word dwell in Hebrew actually interprets to mean return. Vera always knew that she, too, would return to the house of the Lord forever.
The end of our journey through life on earth is to be with God forever. In baptism we are made members of the household of God already, and our destiny is made secure through faith. Sometimes the journey is filled with joy, and sometimes it is very sad and lonely. Yet the promise that God has already given us eternal life with Him sustains us in our journey and gives substance to our hope.
This is important. Times such as this, we are sure that no one else has ever experienced the pain and loneliness that we feel. No one understands what we are going through. There are even those who become angry. Jesus experienced angry friends with the loss of a loved one. Mary and Martha were deeply disturbed when their brother Lazarus died. They were visibly angry at Jesus. They couldn’t understand why Jesus did not intervene quicker than when He did. But Jesus’ kindness glows no better than when He accepted their hurt, loved them and turned a tragedy into a miracle.
Some of you may be wondering the same thing with Vera, as to why didn’t God act sooner in her life, to cure her of dementia and all that follow this disease? Well, He did. The Bible tells us that in Romans 5: 8, “But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The reality friends is that God has already intervened in all of our lives, but He gives us free will to chose to accept it and love Him and be grateful or we can reject His intervention that brings salvation and refuse to see it.
For all who are here today, God wants you to know that in His love for you, He is willing to take your hurt, your failures, and your grief and turn your tragedy into a miracle. This is something God has done throughout all of time. When Christ chose to die on the cross for all of mankind, many seen this as a tragedy, and it is, but God’s love for you and I didn’t stop that day that Jesus died on the cross. It continues today in and through your happiness as well as your sorrows. What most people didn’t see on that Friday was that Sunday was coming. What a glorious day for the believer.
Vera would want each of you to know that God’s love for us is greater than her love for Reese’s cups and as available as a McDonald’s hamburger.
The goodness and mercy that follow us are not something we achieve for ourselves. They are given to us by the sheer grace of God. Our life on earth and our life with God forever are the product of his grace alone. May each of you see God’s grace this today and all of the days of your life!
I offer this to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of The Holy Spirit. Amen
