It is time to show you what Spring is looking like here in Massachusetts. THIS IS IN RESPONSE TO DAWN’S FESTIVAL OF SPRING 2024 CHALLENGE.
The hostas have poked their heads through the dirt.
The maple flowers have blossomed.
And the wild roses are leafing.
The temps are warmer. Yesterday was perfect weather for my mother’s funeral.
Today was Mom’s celebration of life. There are lots of things I can hardly believe. I can hardly believe it has been three weeks since she passed. I can hardly believe how my life and schedule have changed in those three weeks. I can hardly believe Brenda will be returning to her mission in The Netherlands next Thursday. I can hardly believe the changes I see yet to come.
Today we gathered at the family plot in Silver Lake Cemetery in Athol MA. It was a beautiful Spring day spent with family and friends. The last members of Mom’s generation were present for the celebration: Uncle Tom and Aunt Carol from her side (Mom’s last remaining sister and brother-in-law) and from my Dad’s side: his cousin Barbara and her husband Bob, Dad’s cousin Dana and Dad’s cousin Dick with Dick’s wife, Elise. I think everyone else is gone from that great generation. My sister and I along with our cousins are now the elders of the family.
My grandson, Sevy (Joseph Elon Lillie VII) took up a place next to his namesake as soon as we got to the cemetery.
My father always called himself Jr. He was really Joseph Elon Lillie IV. It was really sweet how Sevy took up this spot and just kind of stayed there through the service. At least until the bubbles started.
The service began with “Amazing Grace” and ended with a Lawrence Welk favorite of my mother’s, “Goodnight! Goodnight!” complete with the bubble machine. I am thinking my cousin Terrie was not enjoying the bubbles as much as the kids.
The church threw us a wonderful family reception after the graveside service. Here is Brenda and I with our cousin Renee at the reception.
It was a day of mourning and a day of laughter. It was day of closure and a day of beginning.
Today would normally be the day on which I posted my Festival of Spring 2024 post, but this has not been a normal week, or maybe it is just the new normal.
Since Mom has passed we have all been relearning how to live life. Many of the folks in church told me that care-giving to the end of life, left the care-giver with a sense of identity loss, when all was said and done. I thought I believed them when they said it. I thought I knew what they meant. I also thought I had bolstered myself against that very thing by being “pastor”. I realize now, that it did not work as well as I had hoped. Maybe it worked as best as it could. Maybe like the rest of the grief process, coming to our new identities, apart from being Mom’s caregiver, is just going to take time and be a several step journey.
All that to say, I am not doing my Festival of Spring Post today. I will probably do that tomorrow. Today I will just blather on a bit about our lost identity.
In the last weeks we have had to relearn that someone does not always have to be home. The whole family can go out together whenever we want because no one has to sit with Mom. It actually took us about three days to figure that out and it still feels strange to do it, almost like a betrayal. It feels even stranger to come home to an empty house.
Learning silence is another part of this new identity. I had not realized it until I cancelled cable and shut the television off but the TV has been on for the better part of a decade from 7 AM until 10 PM everyday. Mom liked the noise and never wanted it off. We got used to eating our meals to the sound of “Murder She Wrote” or “Perry Mason”. The first time we gathered around the table for dinner, and the television was not on, there was this deep sense of peace and breath and a weird finality that felt at odds with the table conversation. I guess I thought I would be struggling with who I was or who I was going to become in this new phase of life. It’s not really that at all. I have plenty to do and I don’t really feel like I am a whole new person. Rather I am struggling with how to be in the world. I feel like I have a pretty good grip on who I am. It is the new world of silence and emptiness that feels alien to me.
HERE ARE THE THINGS I WILL BE THINKING ABOUT TOMORROW DURING MY SABBATH RECHARGE.
Here in Massachusetts winter seems to be finally losing its grip on the world. The nights are still very cold and frosty, but the days are getting warmer and greener.
The sun is making a bigger appearance on out landscape.
And the early Spring flowers have finally said, “Hello world!” It’s time to start gardening in earnest now.
Here is what I will be thinking about tomorrow as I spend my Sabbath times of prayer.
WHICH ONE SPEAKS TO YOU THE MOST
This year our church has been given a congregational sentence that comes through the many prophetic words which have been spoken to us over the last year or so. That sentence says: “Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Prepare you Spirit (come out of the decay of your strongholds). Prepare your Souls(Prepare to practice and feel compassion). Prepare your facility (your structures, infrastructures and plans). Prepare for the storm (Pray for action plan, Pray for a spirit of perseverance). Prepare your witness (know your gifts, earn the right to speak, build your relationships with those outside the church, build your example). Prepare your hope and faith (think hope, speak hope, act in hope). Prepare your love (love each other, love the people in your towns, love those who disagree with you, love through the doors that open).“
I am breaking down these seven prepare statements into three daily devotionals which I am sharing on Mondays for twenty one weeks. This is week number 12.
PREPARE FOR THE STORM (PRAY FOR ACTION PLANS, PRAY FOR A SPIRIT OF PERSEVERANCE)
In this final devotional thought about preparing for the storm let’s finish our pass by of Matthew 24.
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.Ma. 24:3-14
The storm ahead will involve great upheavals in nature and the economies of the world. It will be an increasing softening of the strength of nations to set up the world for the coming of anti-Christ. In the midst of that softening the gospel and those who carry it will become increasingly unpopular. In all of this our job does not change. We must bear witness to the truth of Jesus.
PRAY FOR THE ABILITY TO BE FAITHFUL TO THE GOSPEL IN THE MIDST OF TROUBLE.
Here are some things I have been thinking about the last few days.
Our church has been given a seven part statement for 2024, through the congregational gift of prophecy. We are calling this statement the congregational sentence for 2024. It reads: “Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Prepare you Spirit (come out of the decay of your strongholds). Prepare your Souls(Prepare to practice and feel compassion). Prepare your facility (your structures, infrastructures and plans). Prepare for the storm (Pray for action plan, Pray for a spirit of perseverance). Prepare your witness (know your gifts, earn the right to speak, build your relationships with those outside the church, build your example). Prepare your hope and faith (think hope, speak hope, act in hope). Prepare your love (love each other, love the people in your towns, love those who disagree with you, love through the doors that open).“
I am breaking these seven prepare statements 21 devotional which will be posted on Mondays throughout the year. Here is our eleventh devotional of the series.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT # 11: PREPARE FOR THE STORM (PRAY FOR ACTION PLANS, PRAY FOR A SPIRIT OF PERSEVERANCE)
What else do we know for sure about the coming storm that will help us prepare?
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.Ma. 24:3-14
The storm ahead will bring many false belief systems and false hopes of salvation outside of Jesus Christ. We must be prepared for this, and hold onto the truth that Jesus is the only way, the only truth the only life. No one will come to the Father or eternal life, but through Him.
The storm ahead will be a time of large scale war and conflict across the Earth. Mankind cannot establish peace. Only God can do that. As mankind allows less and less room for God in the public arena conflict can only escalate. We must in the midst of this storm become what Jesus called, in Matthew 5, a peacemaker.
PRAY THAT IN THE DAYS AHEAD GOD WOULD HELP US AS A CHURCH TO BE A COMMUNITY THAT KEEPS THE GOSPEL MESSAGE AT ITS CENTER AND A COMMUNITY THAT CREATES PEACE IN THE MIDST OF GROWING CONFLICT.
Mom passed from Earth into Glory at 5 A.M. this morning. As I prepare for Sabbath tomorrow here are some thoughts about Heaven I am contemplating.
Notes From the Vicarage 