I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in
the tents of wickedness.
I
Frank Jackson was the very soul of dependability. If he was
to be at a certain place at a given time, he was there. He
was on time at the door, ready to go to work. I have never
seen a man who could time his arrival so perfectly. The
workday here began at 8:00 a.m.; his Buick would be pulling
up at 7:59 and certainly not 8:01. Utterly dependable.
Always on time at the door. At precisely 8:00 a.m., he would
be at the door of my office, waving at me, and saying, “All
right, Rev. Smith. All right!” On time at the door.
The doors of this place, this house of the Lord, were very
much his to attend. For twelve years he served this church
as its sexton, or janitor. Sexton or janitor, call it what you
will, the Bible calls that work doorkeeping. Caring for the
place of worship. For twelve years he served as our
doorkeeper, absolutely faithful, completely trustworthy, the
very soul of dependability. How else do you describe a man
who in all those years used not one day of sick leave? What
else can you say about a man who, if you asked him to do
something, never wrote it on a list, never said, “I’ll get to it
someday”, never had to say, “I forgot”, but just got it done?
What else can we say except that he was thoroughly
dependable; he was on time at the door.
When Mr. Jackson was working as our doorkeeper, there
was one little extra duty that we enlisted him for, and that
was to take out the church van and pick up some of the
guests who come for our Wednesday Club ministry. For
those not connected with our church, Wednesday Club is a
service we have provided for over thirty years for recovering
mental patients; it offers recreation, arts and crafts, a good
meal, and just time away from the hospital or the group
home. Some come on a bus from St. Elizabeths Hospital,
but others must be transported from group homes. Mr.
Jackson drove our church van to pick up and then deliver
home some of our guests. In all the years he did that, I do
not remember any occasion when he was late or when he
missed picking up somebody. He would make sure to get to
the group homes on time, because he knew that some of
the people would be upset if their ride was not there. And he
would take them back after Wednesday Club, making sure
they got home safely. We never had to send anybody along
to supervise Mr. Jackson when he drove for Wednesday
Club; he just knew the needs of our guests and took good
care of them. He was always on time at the door.
After Mr. Jackson retired from our staff, we began an after-
school program for children, offering tutoring and a safe
place. We had children enrolling from three or four local
elementary schools, most of them too far away for the
children to walk here. And so again we enlisted Frank
Jackson to be our van driver. Imagine, now: for the princely
sum of $40.00 a week, five days a week, September through
June, throughout the school year, this man left his home, in
all kinds of weather, came up here, fired up the van, and
drove it around to several schools, picking up children. He
did not do it for the money, which was minimal anyway (and
we’ve since found out that he didn’t even cash some of the
checks!). He did it for love of the children; he did it for love
of the house of the Lord; and he did it, knowing that he had
to be on time at the door. We never worried about that.
Frank Jackson was always on time at the door.
II
Now you know there are people who are on time because
they have to be, and then there are people who are on time
because it is a matter of integrity. There are people who get
to the door on time because if they don’t, their pay will be
docked or they will miss the flight or there will be some
penalty to pay. They are on time because somebody forces
them to be on time, or else they pay a price.
But there are others who are on time at the door because it
is a matter of integrity, a question of honor. There are others
who do what they do, not because the boss orders them or
because they are pushed into it, but they do it because
integrity demands it. They want to be right. They want to be
on time at the door.
Frank Jackson was that kind of person. He was here,
faithful, dependable and trustworthy, not because we
imposed rules on him, but because that was his character.
Integrity. The psalmist describes Frank Jackson perfectly
when he says, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house
of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.” Frank
Jackson knew that some folks lived it up in the tents of
wickedness, but he was having none of that. He was a
doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, and for him that meant
integrity.
A
If in the course of his cleaning duties, Mr. Jackson would run
across a nickel or a dime that some child had dropped, he
would come down to the office and tell us to put it in the safe.
Most of us would have picked it up and put it in our own
pockets without a second thought, but for him, that would
have been to live in the tents of wickedness, taking
something that was not his. Integrity told him to turn it in to
the house of the Lord.
One day I heard voices out here on the street, and looked
out and saw Mr. Jackson having a heated conversation with
some man. I had no idea what that was all about, but he
came in and told me that some fellow had come up to him
while he was working in the yard, and had said, “Man, are
you working for that white pastor? What do they have in
there? Can we get some money from whitey?” Mr. Jackson
told that guy off in no uncertain terms, and then came in to
warn me to watch out for that scam artist. He was not
having anybody live in the tents of wickedness on his watch
at the house of the Lord.
B
But Frank Jackson also expected integrity to work both
ways. He expected integrity and respect from us. If he was
a man of integrity, giving good service as the doorkeeper in
the house of the Lord, he wanted us to respect his dignity as
well. Sad to say, some of us developed the habit of ordering
him around. Some of us treated him as if he were just part of
the furniture that we could push around as we wished. Some
of us would snap our fingers and order him to do this or carry
that, and never stopped to think about how that felt. Make
no mistake about it: just because a man is humble and self-
effacing – and there was never a more genuinely humble
man than Frank Jackson – just because a man is humble,
that does not mean he has no feelings. Nor does it mean
that he does not notice when he is being put down. And so
learn from this, brothers and sisters, learn from this:
sometimes, after one of those “Jackson, here, lift this”
sessions, he would stop in and say, “Rev. Smith, they don’t
treat me right. Just because I don’t have the education they
have, that doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings. I wish they
would respect me.” Doorkeeping in the house of the Lord
meant that you did not live in the tents of wickedness, and
that you expected integrity not only of yourself, but of others
as well.
One day Joe Hairston bought a safe at an auction, and
loaded it on his truck to bring it to the church. Joe and Al
Bailey undertook to get that thing off the truck and into the
building. It was awful. It was not pretty. With all the muscle
they could muster, with levers and lifts and pulleys they tried
to get that heavy safe off Joe’s truck and into this building.
And of course, as luck would have it, it began to rain and to
get muddy, and they were in a mess. Frank Jackson was
enlisted to help. He brought from home his own little
hardwood dolly. To make a long story short, with the help of
Frank and Frank’s dolly, that safe got off the truck, got into
the building, got to the door of the office annex, and right
there its weight broke Frank’s dolly. He was heartbroken; his
tool, his equipment that he had depended on for so long, was
ruined. Well, that safe sat at the door of the office annex,
half in and half out, for weeks, until we could figure out how
to move it; and during those weeks not a day went by but
Frank reminded somebody that we owed him a new dolly.
We broke his cart and nearly broke his heart, and we owed
him a new dolly.
I got the message. I went to the store myself and bought
one. Integrity and respect. If he was going to give us
service with integrity and respect, he expected that in return.
He expected us to be the house of the Lord, and not to be a
tent of wickedness. Incidentally, I will spare Brothers
Hairston and Bailey a report of Mr. Jackson’s opinion of your
safe-hauling episode!
III
But if Frank Jackson was always on time at the door, coming
to work; and if he both gave and expected respect in the
house of the Lord; it is also true that Frank Jackson was on
time at the door when it was time to leave. The door of
departure: he was always there on time.
I have told you that the workday began at 8:00, and that
Frank was always at my door precisely at 8:00, not 7:59 and
certainly not 8:01. Well, at the end of the day, the closing
time was 4:00 p.m., and you could count on it, that at
precisely 4:00 p.m., not 3:59 and not 4:01, he would be at my
office door, waving at me again, and once again smiling, “All
right now, Rev. Smith. All right. See you tomorrow.” On
time at the door of departure.
In fact, he was so on time at the door of departure that we
couldn’t change a thing. We had to invite Rev. Helton, my
predecessor as pastor, to come here today, because any
time any discussion came up about Frank’s duties or his time
schedule or especially about his vacation, he would say,
“Rev. Helton hired me, and he told me what I am supposed
to do.” Among the things that Rev. Helton told Mr. Jackson
was that he would have the month of August as his vacation.
Now after I arrived as pastor, our Administrative Committee
went about the business of writing a personnel policy, and it
has in it a rather complex formula about how much vacation
time church staff people get. So many hours per pay period
according to your length of service, and so on. The
personnel policy would not have given our sexton an entire
month off. But Frank would just say, “I don’t know about any
personnel policy. Rev. Helton hired me, and he said I would
have the month of August for vacation.” And so count on it,
that at 4:00 p.m. on July 31, Mr. Jackson would be at my
door, “All right, Rev. Smith. All right. See you September 1.”
And sure enough, at 8:00 a.m. on the morning of September
1, there he was, on time at the door, waving again, “All right,
all right.”
And so today we gather, forced to believe that his departure
from this life was on time. Understanding that though for us
his leaving seems too soon, for him, he was on time at the
door. It was time to leave. Some of us have thought a bit
about what was happening to Frank’s health, as we saw him
lose weight in recent months. We suspect that whatever
was going on in his body was not something that could have
been stopped. And so we count it God’s mercy and grace
that his life came to an end now, rather than his lingering
through months of painful treatments and indignities. In
death as well as in life, Frank Jackson was on time at the
door, living with integrity, expecting to be respected, and
ready to do what he was supposed to do when he was
supposed to do it.
Like the Apostle Paul, he could say, “The time of my
departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have
finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Let us not grieve
today. Let us applaud a man who lived with integrity and
who was always on time at the door. Let us celebrate a man
who, as the psalmist here says, “goes from strength to
strength.” Let us offer praise to the Lord who will not
withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly and
who trust Him. Let us rejoice at having known a man who, in
humility and dignity, endured the deaths of, among others,
his brother George, his granddaughter K.C., his son Frank
Jr., but who never failed to carry out his own duties. Let us
give thanks for the privilege of watching the love story of
Frank and Frances, whom he always called “Sugar”. And,
most of all, let us take comfort in knowing that at heaven’s
door a few nights ago there was a smiling man waving and
saying, “All right now. All right. See you tomorrow”. Frank
Jackson was on time at the door.
