Gloria Gray
Memorial
It was the signature song of “old
blue eyes.” Frank Sinatra would come to
the end of a concert with one final tune to sing. The lights would go down until there was just
one spotlight on the singer who had entertained generations. He would begin, “And now, the end is near,
and so I face the final curtain. My
friend, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.”
The song would continue to build to
a crescendo and then Sinatra sang its spine-tingling conclusion: “To say the
things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels. The record shows I took the blows and did it
my way!” And before the last note was
played, the crowd was on its feet, saluting the man who, for better or worse,
did it his way.
On the Sunday that she fell asleep
in Jesus, I heard stories about Gloria.
We were gathered in a hospice room, Mike and Lori and some other family
members. People reminisced and told
stories. I was glad to be there to hear
about Gloria’s life. And I heard a phrase
that seemed to describe her. She did
things her way, Gloria’s way.
If you know of Gloria’s battle with
cancer, she certainly followed a type of treatment that was her way. She didn’t have a lot of use for traditional
medicine. She didn’t care much for
“idiot doctors.” My apologies to any
doctors here today. In talking with
Gloria one day I came to realize that she had done extensive reading on cancer
treatments and medications. She was not
going to let some doctor poison her with a treatment that would do more harm
than good. So she dealt with cancer her
way. If she had to battle cancer, she
would do so on her terms. That was the way
it was going to be.
On the other hand, the “my way” of
doing things served Gloria well in reaching out to other people. Lori and Mike talked about the way that
Gloria took such “lost souls” under her wing, so to speak, those who were in
need of love and friendship. Gloria was
not concerned with befriending the successful or well connected. She discovered people who were in need of a
little love and a little grace. She
reached out and cared for them. Gloria
made such people feel special. Wouldn’t we
all want a friend who made us feel that way?
Gloria was a gifted and talented
person. I had no idea she was an engineer
with the phone company. Even more
impressive was that she was a woman engineer in a place that was dominated by
men. She had to be smart and quick to
compete in that environment. She was
also a talented seamstress. Did I get
this story right, Mike? Gloria used to make clothing for you and David to
wear? Like matching shirts? And you
weren’t too happy when David came out of the house wearing the same shirt as
you? Gloria thought it looked cute. You
weren’t so sure.
So this gifted and talented person
did lots of things her way. In fact, you
might say that God gave Gloria a lot of freedom to deal with certain aspects of
her life in the manner that she wanted.
But there was one thing that God said “no” to Gloria. And there isn’t anything in this world that
Gloria could have done to have changed God’s mind. That was regarding Gloria’s salvation. She would not earn salvation “her way.” God said “no way” to Gloria’s way. Instead, God would give salvation and eternal
life to Gloria Gray. He would do it His
way.
You and I needed God to come to our
rescue and work salvation for us. Go all
the back to the beginning of creation. Adam
and Eve had been given the role of caretaker of all that God had made. Their lives were full of bliss and happiness. God had given them everything they
needed. He also gave them one rule –
don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would die.
Adam and Eve would be completely
safe as long as they stood on the firm ground of God’s Word. But they did it their way. They listened to the lies of the devil. They did not trust the loving God than had
given them everything. One bite of the
forbidden fruit was all that it took. By
doing it their way, Adam and Eve brought sin into the world. You and I have been infected by this sin
disease.
And as Gloria did battle with cancer
on her terms, you and I try to deal with sin on our terms. We decide that if we just try harder, work at
living a good and honest life, that God should accept us. Unfortunately, trying harder doesn’t remove
sin or make us holy. And that’s what God
demands – perfection, holiness.
Or our way to deal with sin might be
to try to make up for the bad things we do by doing good things. If we can tip the scales in our favor, God
will surely have to accept us. But
again, the idea of trying to cancel out our sin with good deeds doesn’t remove
the sin that is already in our lives.
The prophet Isaiah wrote, “Your iniquities have separated you from your
God.”
And if all else fails we can resort
to the “good old comparison game.” We
look at the people around us and say, “I’m not perfect but I’m a lot better
than many people I know. That must count
for something!” But that way of dealing
with sin is a losing way too. You see,
it’s not our holiness against others that counts but it’s how you and I measure
up to God’s holiness. In Leviticus, the
Lord says, “Be holy as I the Lord Your God am holy.”
Anyone tempted to stand before the
Lord and say, “I did it my way,” is certain to suffer eternal
condemnation. We cannot save ourselves
no matter how hard we try. Indeed, as we
gather here today, we can give thanks and praise God that in the matter of our
salvation, how grateful we are that He did it “His way.”
God’s way began with the giving of
His Son. God the Father sent God the Son
into the world to become one of us. He
was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary and was made man.
The God-man, Jesus, lived a
perfectly holy life. He was tempted by
the devil and constantly tested by His enemies but not once did Jesus think an
evil thought, speak an evil word or do an evil deed. Once, when Jesus was verbally sparring with
His critics He said to them, “Can any of you prove me of sin?” They could only
stand before Jesus, speechless.
And we too are left speechless when
we consider the next part of God’s plan of salvation. The perfect Jesus died on a cross for
imperfect people – people like Gloria and you and me. The Bible teaches that “The Lord laid on Him
(Jesus) the iniquity (sin) of us all.
This was God’s way, to transfer our sins to Jesus and to have Him pay
the penalty for them, which is death – separation from God.
This helps us to understand why
Jesus, near the end of his six hour ordeal on the cross, cried out, “My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus is
suffering the wages of sin which is complete separation from God – it’s called
hell. God’s own Son, forsaken by God. Why? Because resting on Jesus were the sins
that bring with them the just penalty of death.
Then just before He died, Jesus
cried out again, saying, “It is finished!”
This was not a cry of defeat but of victory. The word means, “Paid in full!”
This was God’s way, His plan for our
salvation. Jesus paid our way in, paid
the penalty in full, taking our sins upon Himself so that we could be in a
right relationship with God.
This you and I can be certain
of. For in return for our sins, Jesus
gave to us exactly what we needed – His righteousness. Now, we have the holiness that God demands
and so, in God’s eyes, we are truly righteous and holy people.
So all those who died, trusting in
Jesus for salvation and eternal life, have these gifts of grace. We don’t do salvation our way; instead, we
trust in the One who is “the way and the truth and the life.” We trust in our Lord and Savior, Jesus.
And we can celebrate today because
Gloria trusted in Jesus to be her personal Savior. She confessed that Jesus had won her from
sin, death and the power of the devil.
She knelt here at this table, confident that Jesus had come to her in
the bread and wine, giving her His true body and blood for the forgiveness of
sins.
Knowing this gave Mike the courage
to say to his Mom that it was alright to let go and take the hand of Jesus, who
would lead her through the valley of the shadow of death and to her eternal
rest. Mike could say this because, as we
confess in the third article of the Creed, we believe in “the resurrection of
the dead and the life everlasting.”
Mike and David and all the rest of
us who believe will be with Gloria again.
She will be so beautiful. There
will be no signs of the cancer that wracked her body. She will be whole again with a new glorified
body.
We’ll gather around the throne of
God and the Lamb. We will use our voices
to give glory and praise to God for the eternal life that we have in
Jesus. We will sing with a great
heavenly choir, voices too numerous to count: “Great and marvelous are Your
deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true
are Your ways.” What joy it will give us
all to sing, “Thank you, Lord. You did
it Your way!” And just think – Gloria is
there, waiting for us to join her. And
join her, we will. Praise God! Amen.
