Norma Washington 9/10/2004
Norma Washington had the gift of a particular smile, that when you looked at her, it would seem as though a laugh was just a second or two away. Her smile and her eyes worked in combination to give you a good feeling inside while you were in her presence. This past Sunday I preached the message, “is God in your work.” The heart of the message involved the question, “are you doing what God created you to do when God created you in His image.
In our Old Testament reading, we discover we were not the random chance of one sperm hitting an egg while countless millions missed. We are an intentional act of God being created in our mother’s womb with special gifts and talents which come from God’s image. One of the verses in the passage we read proclaims. Psalm 139:16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
We were all shocked the suddenness and unexpectedness of Norma’s death, but I find comfort in knowing that last Sunday was known by God at the same time God was putting Norma together in her mother, Allie Chamber’s womb. It lets me know that God is still in control. Death never catches God off guard.
We often use the phrase, “why did God take my mom.” In reality, God does not take anyone. God only waits for the arrival because all of us are on a journey in life. Right now God is waiting your arrival, and God is waiting for mine. We may want to argue with God over what time the train should leave the station or the ship should leave the dock, but sooner or later we will be boarding. Death comes to us all.
God’s perspective on death is quite a bit different from ours. We see death as something to be avoided at almost any cost, but for some reason God sees it with the potential for tremendous gain for us. We say “God how could you let this happen” and yet the word of God says, “precious in the sight of the Lord is death of His saints.”
A saint is not someone who has lived a perfect life. A saint is not someone who thinks he or she is better than someone else. A saint is not a super spiritual person who goes around saying praise God and Hallelujah after every other word. A saint is a person who recognizes, that he or she can never be good enough to go to heaven or be bad enough to lose the chance to do so, but understands that by putting his or her faith in Jesus Christ, he or she can be changed into a child of God.
The reason we are having a Homegoing service today is that Norma Washington knew Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. The reason we have hope today is the promise that Jesus made to all of his followers when he spoke of going away to Heaven, Jesus said, “in my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you, and I will come back to take you to it, that you may be with me.
Are you aware that we spend a whole lifetime preparing to die and some of us are not ready when we arrive? The sad thing is, so many people live as though this lifetime will go on forever, they never take time to ask God, what was my purpose and why did you create me.
We live because God has ordained certain things for us to accomplish. He expects us to do it through the everyday experiences of life. God treats us differently because He gives us different things to work with. In order to discover what ingredients God used to create Norma, all we have to do is to look at who she was. Norma was strong, intelligent, anxious, humorous, shy, stern, passionate, compassionate, caring, hard-working, working for perfection and loving.
As a child, Norma had the possibility to consider a possible career in professional wrestling. She and her sister Debbie were just a year and 16 days apart and they spent their early years fighting and wrestling. It seemed Norma wanted to do everything Debbie was doing and Debbie just got tired of it. They even dressed alike. But the wrestling career hopes faded once they reached their teen years. They gave up the wrestling and fighting lifestyle, and thus began to blossom one of the most beautiful relationships between two sisters.
They shared some turbulent times together in high school be being among the first to go to Collinwood School. They would be on the school bus on the floor with racists throwing bricks and bottles breaking out the windows on the bus as it traveled to and from school. But this did not stop them from getting the education they would need to make it in society. They were among those who were willing to pay the price for equality in education.
As the sisters grew, Debbie and Norma truly cared for and loved each other. In the Bible there were two brothers named Andrew and Peter. When Andrew found Jesus, he went and found his brother Peter to introduce him to Jesus. When Debbie found Jesus here at Glenville, she went and got her sister and brought her here, and she found Jesus here as well.
Norma, Debbie and Tony have been there for each other through the years. On thing I could not figure out is that Debbie told me the three of them were always good kids who got a lot of whuppings. I think Debbie intentionally left out some facts. Tony did confess that he was the biggest trouble make of the three.
Norma had a very shy side to her. She did not like being the center of attention or even being out front. She sang in the choir and had an absolute beautiful voice. But she was terrified of singing in front of people. She and Debbie were to sing this song “It must be love” together. To this day, it is the only song Debbie knows every word to and can sing it without paper because Norma made them go over it a 1,000 times.
As the moment approached for the two of them to this duet, standing together, Debbie could feel Norma shaking and about to go down. When the music started, it seemed as though nothing was going to come out of Norma’s mouth, so Debbie gave her a not so gentle hit in the back and out came “It must be.”
However, Norma could leave her shyness when she went into the zone. What zone you may ask? The basketball zone. When LaDonna played basketball, her mother yelled louder in the stands than anybody else. She terrified some of those little girls on the courts. “Foul-Look At That, She’s Fouling Her.” “Pass The Ball” Everybody knew when Norma was in the house at the game. The Refs would even come and ask her to please sit down.
But Norma’s persistence paid off. Once when LaDonna’s coach could not make a game, she asked Norma if she would coach the team. How could Norma pass up an opportunity like this. By the time the game was over, Norma had discovered it’s a little easier to yell from the stands, than it is to coach to victory. On the bright side though, she’s probably the only coach that only lost one game.
The pride and joy of Norma’s life were her two daughters Erica and LaDonna. She invested a lot into their lives to make them happy. She gave them wonderful memories of decorating for Christmas and making holidays special. Their testimony is that their mother gave them everything they needed and then some extra even when they did not deserve it. They had a mom who loved them enough to push them to be the best they could be.
I asked them, as you watched your mom through the years, what kind of sacrifices did you see her make for you. They said often she’d work two jobs to make ends meet, she’d put their needs and desires ahead of her own, and she gave us a lot that we did not deserve. Now before you say, you’re ready to become the third Washington sister, know that they said it was fun and hard at the same time.
You see Norma didn’t want just two girls. Norma wanted to give birth to two young women who would know how to make a positive difference in this world and know how to live for the Lord. They can each testify hearing their mother say, “I know you are not going to wear that outside this house. We’ll just have to wait until you change your clothes.”
They knew when their mother said something she meant it. If she told you to do something. If it was not done the night, you got a consequence. Nobody needed to teach Norma about tough love because she practiced it around the home.
Norma had pushed herself to high standards and she wanted to see them reach their potential as well. She wanted them to think highly of themselves and to have others think of them in a positive manner. Now one area of weakness Norma had was the drive to perfection in many areas. Whereas some Moms would tell you to go do the dishes and be glad just to see you in there with water, dishes and a cloth.
Not Norma. Norma came into the kitchen with you. “Are you sure you have enough water in the sink.” “Is the water hot enough.” “You should wash cups in this manner.” After about the third suggestion, Erica would lose it and say, “Now mom do you want to wash these dishes or did you want me to do it.”
When God calls and we respond, God saves us to be used by Him to impact the lives of others. Norma’s job involved being a social worker to help seniors get services they needed. Norma approached her job with a servant’s heart. She had a real passion to make life better for others. She didn’t separate her job from her faith. She helped several of our elderly members and their families who were not a part of her case load. She did it out of her love for people and her love for God. For Jesus said, “whatever you do for the least of these, you do it for me.
Norma was active for the cause of Christ here in the church. She served in Presbyterian Women, she served as a deacon and moderator of the deacons, she served in the Praise Choir and Women’s Choir. But she will most likely be remembered for her role as an usher. I can see her now standing there in her black and white outfit.
How many times did she lead us down the aisle in order for us to worship the Lord? How many times did you she have to say to some of us “you’re not supposed to be in the prayer room without a kid, or wait a minute, you can’t enter the service right now? Sometimes she called kids parents who were acting up.
She did this because she wanted us to be the best church that we could be with everyone following the rules. She gave 110% as an usher and as a leader of the ushers. She was shocked that some of us had signed up and then planned on not being at church on the day we were to usher. She truly expected others to give of their best if they said they were going to do something. Who is going to rise up and fill the position in our church that Norma had.
We could us few more people with her kind of desire to “do what you say you’re going to do and give it your best.” Norma’s life is also a reason we should treat everyone with a little extra grace because we do not know what burden the person next to us is carrying. Norma had received treatment for Lukemia for about a year, but most of us knew nothing of it.
We simply saw a person with a smile on her face. It’s something when you go through this kind of a struggle, and you’re still striving to be a blessing to others. It’s in the lonely moments of life that we can appreciate God’s promise to us, that I will never leave nor forsake you.
Norma’s life appeared to come to a sudden and abrupt end. But it didn’t. She simply finished her course. As believers our goal is to carry the baton for Jesus Christ and to pass it on to those coming after us. To die young is not to die abruptly. Jesus died at around 33, and yet all he needed to do was done in that time frame. God has allotted every one of us a certain number of days to do that which He has ordained for us to do. Are we keeping an account of the days as they pass by.
For many of us, when we think of death, we think of heaven. Did you know that according to Jesus, most people will not go to heaven?
Jesus said in , 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.
Norma Washington 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, Norma Washington 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.
