Evelyn Reese June 10,1922 -July 6, 2019
How long ago was 1922? It was the year President Harding had the first radio installed at the White House. It was the year the first human being was treated with insulin for diabetes.
It was the year the Supreme Court upheld the 19th amendment giving women the Right to Vote. It was the year the American Pro Football Association became the National Football League. It was the year the Soviet Union was born.
On June 10, 1922, Judy Garland, better known as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz was born, but the event that has brought us here together tonight, was something with a more heavenly consequence attached to it.
For us the big event of June 10th, 1922 was a small event that happened in a small rural county in Kentucky. That event had a greater impact on our lives than any of those earlier events. That was the day that Almighty God presented to the world, the gift of a little black girl whose name was Evelyn
For it was God who decided that Sylvester Lousie and John Thomas Wimbush would have a child, and that child would be named Evelyn.
You see in the midst of world, national and local events, God is never to busy to send a blessing into the world, who will enrich the lives of others. I submit to you tonight, that Evelyn has been such a blessing.
God had a plan and a purpose for her, before she ever slid out of her Mother’s womb and took her first breath. For the word of God tells us, Psalm 139:13-16 (TNIV) 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. God knew about all of Evelyn’s 35,455 days ahead of time. God had a plan to make Evelyn into something beautiful and God started it right there in her mother’s womb.
That’s where the journey began. It’s possible to get lost on a journey. Have you ever been lost and you saw something that seemed familiar and you that it would take you where you wanted to go, but it didn’t? Sometimes things are not always what they seem. There is a verse in the bible that says there is a way that seems right to a person, but at the end of it is death.
One thing about a homecoming service or funeral is that it reminds us that we did not come in this world to live forever. All of us are on a journey in life, but every journey has an end. It’s good to be prepared when you get there.
If all you know about life is living in the Bahamas, but you plan to come to Cleveland in January, there are some things you will need here that you don’t need in the Bahamas. A good heavy coat and a pair of solid boots would be a good place to start. We think it silly of a person to think that just because they wore something during the winter in the Bahamas, it will get them through the winter in Cleveland.
You know, since we are all traveling on this planet toward death at the speed of 360 seconds per hour, we should be preparing ourselves for our arrival. Have you prepared for the circumstances of your arrival? You certainly won’t be able to say, I never expected to arrive. God set you in motion for a reason. Do you know what it is?
God sent Evelyn into this world to reach people, to love people, and to bring as many people as she could into a relationship with Jesus Christ. He placed within her certain traits and abilities that made her the unique person that she was.
If you had the privilege of getting to know Evelyn, you discovered that she was something else. She could be lively, fun loving, funny, passionate and driven. She could be persistent, strong willed, and at times stubborn. She could be kind and gentle.
She was a loyal person who would stand by you when others had given up on you. She had a good heart in many ways. She would try to spoil you in her own way. But if she got upset with you, she was going to be honest with you.
Evelyn was a woman of strength and resilience. Though she and Judy Garland were born on the same day, they were born into two very different kinds of the United States of America. Judy did not grow up with the constant racism, prejudice, and discrimination that Evelyn had to deal with. And though both of them had very beautiful singing voices, Evelyn’s color kept her from being heard by many.
But Evelyn never used racism for a reason not to move ahead in life. In a day in which many of our young people have all kinds of assistance programs available to them, yet they don’t graduate from high school, Evelyn overcame the struggles she faced and walked across the stage as a graduate from Central High School in Cleveland. Her message to our young people after 97 years is to quit blaming others and go ahead and get your diploma and your college degree.
Evelyn refused to cave in to the Jim Crow Laws of her day when a white couple expected her to get up and give them her seat on the bus and move to the back. She knew then she was a woman in the eyes of God and she took a stand come what may.
There were no tv cameras or photographers there to capture her stance. She represents the thousands of Negro men and women who stood up for their sense of justice and equality. If you go to Montgomery Alabama and visit the Lynching Memorial you will see how many people were lynched for taking a stand as Evelyn did. Some were lynched for things as simple as refusing to cross to the other side of the street because a white person was approaching them.
Evelyn had a fire inside of her, because she experience injustice first hand. She didn’t read about white and colored fountains. They were staring her in the face when she wanted a drink or wanted to go to the restroom.
Evelyn wanted something better for her race and for her family. Evelyn took pride in the accomplishments of her son Reginald. In my 30 years of knowing Evelyn, We heard many stories of what Reggie had done.
Evelyn was crazy about her granddaughter Janoris. We got to see several pictures of her as she was growing up. Evelyn was a woman on the go. Janoris fondly remembers how she and her grandmother went everywhere on the bus. Evelyn had stack of bus schedules and the two of them would be gone all day long.
Evelyn wanted to fill her granddaughter’s life with positive things. But the thing that made being with her grandmother even sweeter was when Evelyn would make her dump cake as a child.
Evelyn loved her family dearly. She was heartbroken when her son died. I can remember her saying, “Oh Pastor Rick what am I going to do.” Evelyn had a strong faith and it was God and the many people she had loved and loved her that got her through her loss.
There was a point in Evelyn’s when she realized that simply being a strong black woman was not going to be enough to get her through life. She recognized that she needed a Savior who could not only get her through this life, but one that would be waiting for her at the end of her journey. She made a decision to allow Jesus Christ to take control of her life and to live through her.
God blessed her with many gifts and gave her the heart of a servant. She served in many ways in the life of the church. It was apparent to all that she had a voice that could minister to those who were hurting. She sang for the church for nearly fifty years. At the age of 94 she was still singing in the choir and singing with the praise team.
Her gift for singing took her all over this country with the Cleveland Interfaith Choir. Evelyn had a humble spirit in her singing. She never was demanding a solo part. Her desire was to be used wherever God wanted her to be, be it up front or in the background. She sang with the same enthusiasm to the glory of God.
Pastor Toby and I first met Evelyn because she was on the pastoral search team that issued an invitation to us to come to Cleveland. She was the woman with the twinkle in her eye when she smiled and talked to us.
Little did we know just how important of a role she would play in our lives over the next three decades. She always had a card and a gift for us on any special day in our lives.
She was a true servant in the life of the church. She volunteered to serve in the office, at special events, and in dramas. She was the clerk of Session for many years which involved keeping minutes for all the church leadership meetings and congregational meetings. Her records would be turned over to the Presbytery and they would often come back approved without exception because of her attention to detail.
Evelyn possessed a strong sense of loyalty. She loved her pastors, she loved her church and she loved her church family. We recognized God’s call upon her life by ordaining her as a deacon and as an elder. She took her calling seriously, and we as a church were greatly blessed by it. She was faithful in her giving, tithing and supporting many other ministries of the church. She never missed a pledge opportunity to a church vision.
Evelyn had a difficult time this last past year as her memory was beginning to fade. God gave us a blessed day together one afternoon as I drove her all over Cleveland to special sites that had meant a lot to her. On that afternoon, her mind was completely intact. We laughed and joked as we had done for many years. It was as though God had given us the gift of each other one more time.
About two months ago, I had hoped we could have one more Cleveland trip together, but I couldn’t keep her focus on going to the car. She would say okay, then why are we doing this and then she would say, she was not going to go. It was a painful moment, but I turned it over to the Lord. God had been good to us.
What makes us celebrate today is not that Evelyn was a perfect woman, but rather Evelyn was a woman who was putting her faith in Jesus Christ. She battled with dementia and Alzheimer’s at the end, but it did not negate our love for her. Thank you to all of you who went to celebrate her 97th birthday with her. Your love helped to keep her going these last couple of years. Jesus was walking with Evelyn even when we could no longer fully reach her.
Death is significant only because it marks the end of our opportunity to have an effect upon others for the sake of Jesus Christ But death is not something to be feared, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not die but have everlasting life.”
We all have a problem that is called a sin problem. Sin is the stuff we do that has pushed us away from God because we have disobeyed God’s laws. In order to be in a right relationship with God, we have to do something about our sin because God is holy. We can’t do anything about our sin, but the good news is that God wants to be in a relationship with us. God wants us to have meaningful lives.
The price to deal with our sin, is to have a sacrifice that is greater than our sin. God sent Jesus Christ into the world to be that sacrifice. When Jesus Christ died on a cross some 2000 years ago, he died to cover the sins of everyone. If you choose to believe in Jesus, your sins can be forgiven and you can enter a new relationship with God.
Three days after Jesus died, God raised Jesus from the dead with a power that God wants to place inside of you. That power can allow you to have a life that is different than the life you now have. All of us when we die, will have to give an account to God for our lives and the decisions we make. We will spend eternity in either the lake of fire or in heaven. Jesus spoke about both.
God’s word makes it clear, that none of us will be able to enter heaven based on the good works we have done. Going to heaven is about accepting God’s plan for forgiving our sins which is free and open to all.
The question you will answer after death is not whether or not your works were good enough to have you approved by God. The question is going to be what did you do with God’s method of salvation found in Jesus Christ. In other words, what did you do with Jesus Christ.
That is why Jesus once said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” God loves all people and has made the work of Jesus Christ available to all people. No-one is too good and no one is too bad to be beyond God’s love and grace. We each make a decision to accept or to reject it.
“Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. For I go to prepare a place for you.
What about you? What have you done with the invitation by Jesus to come follow Him? We know where Evelyn is going to spend eternity. Have you made your decision where you will be spending it? To not make a decision is to make a decision because we all start out lost and separated from the plan God has for us.
To those who do not know Jesus Christ, Evelyn Olivia Reese. will only be a memory. For those who do know Christ, Evelyn is waiting to meet us. For the word of God clearly states, " Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men and women who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.
According to the Lord’s own words, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left at the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down form heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left, will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. Our God is faithful
