Sermantha Mary Dubose Gillespie
Death first appeared in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. It was a frightening concept to them and has been for most of humankind ever since. But even before Jesus Christ conquered death by rising from the dead, God saw death in a different light. From God’s perspective, death could be rendered completely powerless depending on who was doing the dying. The word of God says in Psalms 116:15 "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." This means that on August 1st, 1995 Sermantha Dubose Gillespie, brought joy in a special way to the heart of God.
What was it about her that moved the heart of God? What was it about her, that moved our hearts to tears, when we discovered that she was now waiting for our arrival in heaven? What was it about her that caused us to celebrate this afternoon? She was more than a daughter, more than a wife, more than a mother, more than a sister, more than a relative, more than a good friend, and more than a strong Black woman. Brothers and sisters I submit to you this day, that Sermantha Mary Dubose Gillespie was a servant and a child of the Most High God.
The actual date of Sermantha’s death is probably not written down in a record book that we can easily get our hands on, you see the date on the obituary refers to the date her body cease to function. The real Sermantha, the part that lives forever, died a long time ago, when she heard of the call of Jesus Christ as a young girl upon her life.
Jesus said, , "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a person if he or she gains the whole world, yet forfeits his or her soul? Or what can a person give in exchange for his or her soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he or she has done.
Sermantha picked up her cross to follow Jesus Christ, thereby making her death on Tuesday just a means of passing from one form of service to God to another. How does a person go about denying himself or herself to follow Jesus? It begins with the realization that there is more to life than what we can see around us. It continues with the understanding that everyday, all of us are making choices for our lives that affect us and others. Not only are choices being made, the word of God tells us that a record is being kept of every decision that we make, and that one day we will give an account to God for those decisions.
There use to be a beer commercial ad that said, "you only live once, give it all the gusto you can in life." That slogan actually comes from the Old Testament in the bible. Only the beer commercial stopped halfway with the verse. The verse goes on to say, give it all you got, but realize that God is going to hold you accountable for the way you live it. If you were to die today, would you be ready to give God an account for the decisions you have made, and would you know with a certainty that you would spend eternity in heaven with God? If the answer is not yes, then perhaps your life is being lived in vain.
The good news about Sermantha, is that her living has not been in vain. God gives each of us an assignment to work with in this world. We cannot let the outward circumstances of our lives hinder us in fulfilling the task that is before us. Right underneath her commitment to Christ, that were two other driving passions in Mother’s life, both shaped by her observation of what went on in life.
When Christ tells us to pick up our cross and follow Him, it often takes us some strange ways in life. One of her passions was to combat racism. Mother spoke of how the girls she had grown up with in high school got the same grades as she did, and some even worse. But then came high school graduation and a division occurred. Some of those friends got called to those good paying jobs at Ohio Bell, but she like many others were offered the second class tier jobs with little hope of advancements. It wasn’t the school she went to, because the other girls had gone to the same school, nor was it the grades she had received, for her grades were better than many. The only noticeable factor was that she was black and her friends were white.
Mother didn’t grow bitter. She picked up her cross to follow Christ, determined that she would make a difference for her children who were yet to come. The other passion in her life was the liberation of women. For she saw that not only could she not get some jobs, there were other jobs that were outside of her reach altogether simply because she was a woman. Again she didn’t grow bitter. She picked up her cross to follow Jesus Christ, determined that she would make a difference for her children who were yet to come. Mother’s heart also ached for the women she saw that were battered and beaten by their husbands. Again she picked up her cross to follow Jesus Christ.
When God gave her and her husband children, from day one, Mother began to teach them that they were somebody and that they could do anything that anybody else could do. She did all that she could to support Toby and Susan in their education beyond high school. Those of you who don’t quite understand Pastor Toby’s fire and passion for women’s issues don’t understand that she didn’t get her foundation for the movement in some college, she gained it from the wisdom of her mother at a very early age. Mother saw to it that Toby & Susan didn’t believe that just because you were white, meant that you were right.
Now Mother was a very sweet, loving and gentle person, however you have to understand that when a mother loves her daughters, it may call for some extraordinary measures. I’m glad that I didn’t date Pastor Toby back in her high school days. Mother didn’t assume that all boys who wanted to date her daughters had good intentions in mind. My wife confessed that Mother had her carry a concealed weapon. Mother saw to it that inside of Toby’s purpose was a long hat pin, that she was to use immediately if a guy made an uncalled for move on the date.
One of the gifts that Mother gave to her daughters, that we so often search for as parents these days, is the gift of friendship. Toby and Susan both saw their mother, as their friend. When I asked Susan for a special moment that she treasured with her mom, she said, "I recall when I came home from school and mother picked me up at the airport. She took me out to lunch at a very nice restaurant, and we just spent time talking together. It was so good how we enjoyed each other’s company that day. Toby also saw mother as one of the best friends that she had. Whenever she went out to preach, Mother wanted to go. Just to let her know how proud she was of her, and that could count on her support as a friend.
Mother did away with the so called generation gap. Not only was she a friend to her daughters, but to her granddaughter as well. I asked Samantha what she appreciated about her grandmother, and one of the things she noted was grandmother’s willingness to listen and to talk to her. She said, "when you and Mom, were too busy to play games with me, Grandmother would always be willing to play "Candyland" with me. She was there when nobody else was. One of her memorable moments was the day she fell off her bike and hurt her knee We were gone, but she remembers grandmother sat with her the rest of the day to help share the pain."
Mother was truly a grandmother . Sam confessed to me that she got to watch TV long after her bedtime, simply by going to sleep with grandmother who let her stay up as long as she wanted to stay up. With all the many foster kids that we brought into our home, all of them called her grandmother, and she did her best to love them all. One of our kids was sneaking into Mother’s room at night, crawling on the floor to steal money out of her purse. When he got caught, his case manager wanted us to press charges against him. But not mother. To her it was only money. She didn’t want to do anything to help someone get a record. Mother have always had a heart for little kids, and for some reason they loved to be around her. She seemed to manage to have some goodies around quite often. If mother saw a kid lacking something in the neighborhood or in the church, she’d let us know that she wanted to buy something for them.
Mother had a will all of her own. When she made up her mind she was going to do something, she stuck to it. We have a dog by the name of Faith. Faith use to be a skinnier dog. We were thinking that Mother was eating her food in the room, when she’d be feeding it to the dog. We told Mother to quit feeding the dog. She said okay, however, Faith would sit right next to Mother at the dinner table. When Mother thought no one was looking, she’d sneak Faith some food. Faith would give her away every time because you’d hear her lips smacking.
We eventually had to take Faith to the doctor. Faith’s doctor told us the dog needed to lose some weight. Since Mother was the main cause of the problem, the doctor decided to use psychology on Mother by putting her in charge of Faith’s reduction plan. He explained to her how being over weight was bad to the dog’s health, and how she could lengthen Faith’s life by helping to control his weight. Mother agreed to help the dog lose weight. With Mother in charge of the process, Faith gained another 10 lbs. The only way we could keep Faith from being fed was to lock her out during dinner. Mother would ask for a late night snack, and save it for Faith. We gave up.
Mother had a good sense of humor and enjoyed a good laugh. One story she told over and over again involved her husband. Her husband had gotten a pair of new shoes. He was getting ready to go out when she noticed he had on mismatched shoes. She thought he had made a mistake. She said, "You’ve only got on one of your new shoes." He said, "Yeah, I know. I’m trying to break them in because they hurt my feet." She said, "Yes but you only have on one of them. You need to get the other one." With all seriousness he said, " Only a crazy man would wear two shoes that were hurting his feet." With that he walked out the house.
I had the honor of being mother’s only son-in-law. It’s a shame that there are so many mother-in-law jokes that go around because none of them were true to my experience. When Toby and I first started talking about marriage, Mother thought it was a good idea, but she thought we should wait two years longer than we had wanted to wait. She was willing to compromise down to a year, but we wanted to get married that summer and we did. That could have been a source of tension for us but it never was.
I know that there was not a thing Mother would not do to help me in life if she could. She lived with us for about 10 of our 15 years of marriage. As difficult as I can be to live with, not once did she ever come to me with a word of criticism, complaint or put down. She loved me and accepted me as I was. She always tried to make my birthday, father’s day, and Christmas special. She never made me feel as though I was not living up to her expectations. When financially things were not that good, she was willing to help us out. Every now and then, she would insist on taking us all out to dinner. She was a loving Mother.
Mother had a giving and generous spirit that she passed on to both Susan and Toby. They don’t believe in one or two gifts at Christmas, the whole house has to be full of gifts for everybody. The same with birthdays and holidays. Both of them like her, are ready to make a sacrifice to help someone out in their times of need. One of thing I noticed about Mother was that she did her best to live before them, the qualities that she wanted them to adopt in their lives. I asked Samantha, what part of your grandmother’s life did she want to see in her own life, she said "I want to be able to be able to share and to listen to others like she did." Thank God that mother did more than "talk the talk, she walked the walk."
Of all the things that I’ve said, "the thing that we as family admired about Mother the most was her commitment and faith in Jesus Christ in the face of adversity." Mother had worked hard taking care of her parents in the late 70’s and early 80’s to the point that her own health began to take a serious decline. We watched as Lupus took hold of her body. We watched as one and then both kidneys failed. We watched her struggle with dialysis.
There are so many who falsely teach, that if you come to know Jesus Christ, you will have health, wealth, and happiness all of your days. All it takes is faith. Each time I hear that message, I think of how cruel and insensitive it is to those saints of God whose faith is demonstrated in their ability to believe in a loving and caring God, despite what the circumstances of their lives around them may seem to say. It’s easy to praise God, when you’ve got your health and your money. But what are you like when your health and your wealth is gone?
I learned about ministry and about faith from watching my mother’s life. There were days upon days in which she would hear 5 or 6 sermons while lying in bed with her body in pain. Yet mother never complained about being in pain. When the situation became unbearable, she would simply say, I think I need to go to the hospital now. It wasn’t that she was denying the pain as some would falsely teach, it was that her faith was in Jesus Christ and she was willing to endure whatever came her way, so long as He stood by her side.
Mother loved being a part of the church. She served whenever she could. Mother didn’t wait for somebody to come ask her to do something, she remembered that verse, "whatsoever your hands find to do, do it." I can recall many a Sunday, after the physically healthy saints were gone, Mother would get up trembling as she went trying to straighten up the hymn books and to pick up all the discarded bulletins and papers." So often I wanted to say, "Mother that’s all right, we’ll get them, but I kept my mouth shut. I recognized that she was offering the best that she had to offer in service to her Lord at His house. She didn’t believe in early retirement for Christians. You retire when you die.
Many people wouldn’t want you to open the books on what they did in the life of the church, especially when it comes to their giving. Not Mother. Mother has been a tither every year that I’ve known her and years before that. Sometimes mother’s giving would get us a little upset. Toby would try to see to it that Mother had money in her possession. Mother would get to church, find out what the need was of the week and give it in an envelope, We’d say Mother, you can’t give away all of your money to the church, now save some of it. Mother would say okay, and then give whatever she wanted to give because she loved giving.
There were many a Sundays in which Mother could barely get dressed in the morning with Pastor Toby’s help, but she wanted to be in the House of the Lord. Many times you may have looked over here and seen this little quite woman who didn’t say much. But you had no idea of the struggles that she was going through trying to fight off lupus, kidney failure, several minor strokes and poor blood circulation. It takes a strong faith to know that God is able to heal you, but you accept the fact that maybe that healing will not come in this life
. Just like Shadrach, Meshak and Abednego said to the king, "We know that our God is able to deliver us, but even if He does not, we will not serve your God." Mother knew that there was power in the name of Jesus Christ to be healed of her sickness, but even if Jesus chose to walk with her through it instead of delivering her from it, she would still remain true to the cause of Christ.
My friends, many times the giants of the faith are not necessarily the ones that you see in the pulpit. Faith can only be tested by difficult trials and circumstances. Mother had known difficulty and trials for much of her life. Her faith has been refined by the fire, and by now it should be as pure as gold.
Like Paul wrote to Timothy about the faith that first dwell in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, I hope to one day write to my own daughter about the faith that dwelt in her great grandmother Sara, her grandmother Sermantha, and in her mother Toby and Aunt Susan. Three outstanding generations of women passing the faith from one generation to the next.
Robert Frost wrote a poem that involved coming to a fork in the road, and choosing the path that was less traveled by. In looking back, he realized that choosing that path made all the difference in the world. Choosing to live for Jesus Christ made all the difference in the world for Sermantha Mary Dubose Gillespie.
Did you know that according to Jesus, most people will not go to heaven? Jesus said, Mat 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the only way to enter that narrow gate. All you have to do is to admit, "God, I have done a lot of things I should not have done. I realize I cannot pay for all that I have done. I ask you for forgiveness. I accept that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He being holy and righteous, paid the penalty for my sin. I invite him to come into my life and take control of it."
You will make numerous decisions in your life between your birth and your death. But the only decision that will still be personally affecting you a 1000 years from today, is what did you do with Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches there will certainly be a resurrection of everybody from the dead, and then comes the judgment of God.
Sermantha is prepared for that Judgment. Like the Apostle Paul she can say, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. For those of us who die without Jesus Christ, Sermantha will only be a passing memory. For those of us who die in Christ, she’s waiting for us to join her in that great reunion that will certainly take place.
For the word of God teaches, 1 Th 4:13-18 Brothers & Sisters, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, 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 word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from 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 together 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.
