Friends, we are so sorry that we could not all gather in person for Elissa's homegoing. The entire service is below, including the sermon and scriptures. Click on the link for the audio. We regret that Michelle's beautiful performance of Ashokan Farewell was not picked up by the mic.
Welcome & Sentences of Scripture Romans 6:3-5
Music Ashokan Farewell
* Call to Worship:
Leader: Jesus said: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Believe in God, believe also in me.’
People: We believe in Jesus Christ, whose resurrection gives us eternal life.
Leader: Jesus said with blessed assurance:
‘In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places.’
People: Dwelling places prepared for us, children of God.
Leader: Jesus promised: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you there myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”
People: We give thanks for the promise that when it is time for us to leave our earthly lives, Jesus carries us home to be with God.
ALL: Let us worship God!
* Hymn Open My Eyes
Prayer
O God who gave us birth, you are ever more ready to hear than we are to pray. Show us now your grace, that as we face the mystery of death, we may see the light of eternity. Speak to us once more your solemn message of life and of death. Help us to live as those who are prepared to die. And when our days here are ended, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in Jesus Christ our risen Lord. Amen.
Sermon and Scripture
Elissa Quigg
March 19, 2020
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL
Christina Berry
I chose two readings from scripture today.
The first comes from Paul’s letter to the Christians at Corinth,
a letter of teaching, encouragement, and guidance.
This scripture is a reminder that we are meant for eternity,
and that the time we spend in this world is only a part of our lives,
the part we can see.
Here we are clothed in the temporary,
but God’s promise is that we will be clothed in eternal glory.
Let’s listen for God’s word to us in Second Corinthians, verses 1-8
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed,
we have a building from God,
a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.
For in this tent we groan,
longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling—
if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked.
For while we are still in this tent,
we groan under our burden,
because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed,
so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
He who has prepared us for this very thing is God,
who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always confident;
even though we know that while we are at home in the body
we are away from the Lord—
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Yes, we do have confidence,
and we would rather be away from the body
and at home with the Lord.
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
The second reading today is from the Gospel according to Matthew.
In this part of the gospel, Jesus has prayed a prayer of thanksgiving,
then he speaks to those around him,
and to us, here, now, today.
May we find comfort in knowing that Jesus welcomes us
to come and lay our burdens down at his feet –
our sorrow and confusion, our grief and worries.
March 19, 2020
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL
Christina Berry
I chose two readings from scripture today.
The first comes from Paul’s letter to the Christians at Corinth,
a letter of teaching, encouragement, and guidance.
This scripture is a reminder that we are meant for eternity,
and that the time we spend in this world is only a part of our lives,
the part we can see.
Here we are clothed in the temporary,
but God’s promise is that we will be clothed in eternal glory.
Let’s listen for God’s word to us in Second Corinthians, verses 1-8
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed,
we have a building from God,
a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.
For in this tent we groan,
longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling—
if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked.
For while we are still in this tent,
we groan under our burden,
because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed,
so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
He who has prepared us for this very thing is God,
who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always confident;
even though we know that while we are at home in the body
we are away from the Lord—
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Yes, we do have confidence,
and we would rather be away from the body
and at home with the Lord.
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
The second reading today is from the Gospel according to Matthew.
In this part of the gospel, Jesus has prayed a prayer of thanksgiving,
then he speaks to those around him,
and to us, here, now, today.
May we find comfort in knowing that Jesus welcomes us
to come and lay our burdens down at his feet –
our sorrow and confusion, our grief and worries.
Let’s listen for God’s word to us in Matthew 11:28-30:
“Come to me, all you that are weary
and are carrying heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
The world feels broken today.
Things are not as they should be.
The world feels broken because today,
the church should be gathered here,
streaming in the doors to offer their hugs and condolences,
plying you with sandwiches and coffee and cake.
The world feels broken because Elissa Montgomery Quigg has died.
Our hearts are broken, and most of the ways we bind up broken hearts –
embracing one another, breaking bread together, weeping and laughing –
those ways we care for one another within the community of faith –
are not available to us today, because the world is broken.
And so, here we are, gathered here, to sing and to pray,
to hear scripture and to reflect on a beautiful life,
a life well-lived, and cut far too short by the dementia
that dissolved so much of the Elissa we knew and loved.
We are gathered here because this is where we should be,
where of course we should be.
This is where Jesus bids us come – to him -
those of us who are weary, carrying heavy burdens,
in need of rest for our souls.
He said wherever two or three gather in his name, he would be with them.
And he is here.
Because he is here, the church is gathered here with us.
They are not here in the body, but in spirit,
surrounding you with love and shared memories.
In the moments when your own faith might fail you,
the church is here with you, believing for you.
The church militant, those alive now on this earth,
is with us in prayer and provision.
The church triumphant is with us, too,
those who have cast off this earthly tent in which we live,
and have entered an eternal dwelling, a house not made with hands.
They are with us too, as we gather.
They are with us in memories, and in the music.
“Come to me, all you that are weary
and are carrying heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
The world feels broken today.
Things are not as they should be.
The world feels broken because today,
the church should be gathered here,
streaming in the doors to offer their hugs and condolences,
plying you with sandwiches and coffee and cake.
The world feels broken because Elissa Montgomery Quigg has died.
Our hearts are broken, and most of the ways we bind up broken hearts –
embracing one another, breaking bread together, weeping and laughing –
those ways we care for one another within the community of faith –
are not available to us today, because the world is broken.
And so, here we are, gathered here, to sing and to pray,
to hear scripture and to reflect on a beautiful life,
a life well-lived, and cut far too short by the dementia
that dissolved so much of the Elissa we knew and loved.
We are gathered here because this is where we should be,
where of course we should be.
This is where Jesus bids us come – to him -
those of us who are weary, carrying heavy burdens,
in need of rest for our souls.
He said wherever two or three gather in his name, he would be with them.
And he is here.
Because he is here, the church is gathered here with us.
They are not here in the body, but in spirit,
surrounding you with love and shared memories.
In the moments when your own faith might fail you,
the church is here with you, believing for you.
The church militant, those alive now on this earth,
is with us in prayer and provision.
The church triumphant is with us, too,
those who have cast off this earthly tent in which we live,
and have entered an eternal dwelling, a house not made with hands.
They are with us too, as we gather.
They are with us in memories, and in the music.
They are with us in the way that Elissa will always be with us:
in the photographs we treasure,
when we see that sweet smile and bright eyes;
in the memories you share as a family –
whether of backing up the trailer,
or sitting down at the dinner table.
Elissa will always be with us in the memories Jerry shares,
of their early years and their sweet life together,
in the turns of phrase that make her children say,
“I sound like my mother.”
She will be with us in the ways her children resemble her,
and their children resemble them;
in the stories the grandchildren tell
about the things grandma let them get away with.
in the photographs we treasure,
when we see that sweet smile and bright eyes;
in the memories you share as a family –
whether of backing up the trailer,
or sitting down at the dinner table.
Elissa will always be with us in the memories Jerry shares,
of their early years and their sweet life together,
in the turns of phrase that make her children say,
“I sound like my mother.”
She will be with us in the ways her children resemble her,
and their children resemble them;
in the stories the grandchildren tell
about the things grandma let them get away with.
She lives on in the children whose lives she touched in day care,
and in the hundreds of peanut butter sandwiches that nourished children.
She lives on in the children whose lives she saved and salvaged
and protected in her work with DCFS,
like the little girls taken from their abusive parents,
separated by the system,
but reunited by Elissa every Christmas, even after they aged out.
and in the hundreds of peanut butter sandwiches that nourished children.
She lives on in the children whose lives she saved and salvaged
and protected in her work with DCFS,
like the little girls taken from their abusive parents,
separated by the system,
but reunited by Elissa every Christmas, even after they aged out.
Elissa will be with us in the quilts she made,
in the beauty of every piece of cloth and every stitch.
Elissa leaves a great legacy:
in you, the people she loved most in the world;
in her church, where she loved and served and was loved in return;
in the life-changing work she did in the world,
and in the works of her hands.
I found a little poem on a quilting page called “A Legacy of Stitches.”
The last few lines of it say:
“.. some quilts are sewn in happy times and others when we’re sad,
and some are sewn in laughter and others when we’re mad.
…Some quilts are sewn for beauty, a quilt made just for “show”,
but the heart of the true quilter is the one who really knows~
That no matter how the quilt is stitched, we leave our mark in time.
This legacy of stitches is what we leave behind."
Our hearts may be broken.
But the legacy of love and joy we were given in Elissa,
beloved wife, mother, grandmother, friend and sister in Christ –
that love will stitch our hearts together again,
and each day will give us a new glimpse of the joy that she was to us.
And yes- the world is broken.
But in the promise of scripture we know that death is not the end,
and that Christ is at work in the world.
And all that is heavy, all that is broken,
we give into the loving arms of Jesus.
And even in this broken world,
as we walk by faith, not by sight,
we know that when we are no longer at home in the body
we are with the Lord.
Elissa now rests in the loving presence of God.
We give thanks to God for her life of faith
and for her resurrection in the Lord.
Amen.
in the beauty of every piece of cloth and every stitch.
Elissa leaves a great legacy:
in you, the people she loved most in the world;
in her church, where she loved and served and was loved in return;
in the life-changing work she did in the world,
and in the works of her hands.
I found a little poem on a quilting page called “A Legacy of Stitches.”
The last few lines of it say:
“.. some quilts are sewn in happy times and others when we’re sad,
and some are sewn in laughter and others when we’re mad.
…Some quilts are sewn for beauty, a quilt made just for “show”,
but the heart of the true quilter is the one who really knows~
That no matter how the quilt is stitched, we leave our mark in time.
This legacy of stitches is what we leave behind."
Our hearts may be broken.
But the legacy of love and joy we were given in Elissa,
beloved wife, mother, grandmother, friend and sister in Christ –
that love will stitch our hearts together again,
and each day will give us a new glimpse of the joy that she was to us.
And yes- the world is broken.
But in the promise of scripture we know that death is not the end,
and that Christ is at work in the world.
And all that is heavy, all that is broken,
we give into the loving arms of Jesus.
And even in this broken world,
as we walk by faith, not by sight,
we know that when we are no longer at home in the body
we are with the Lord.
Elissa now rests in the loving presence of God.
We give thanks to God for her life of faith
and for her resurrection in the Lord.
Amen.
Solo Here I Am, Lord
Prayer of Thanksgiving and The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, Amen.
Music Precious Lord, Take My Hand
Commendation
Benediction
Those leading in the service:
Officiant: Rev. Dr. Christina Berry
Music Director: Mr. Rex Neff
Vocalist: Mr. Tim Pashon
Violinist: Ms. Michelle Hepler
Prayer of Thanksgiving and The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, Amen.
Music Precious Lord, Take My Hand
Commendation
Benediction
Those leading in the service:
Officiant: Rev. Dr. Christina Berry
Music Director: Mr. Rex Neff
Vocalist: Mr. Tim Pashon
Violinist: Ms. Michelle Hepler
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