I read the 23rd Palm from her worn Bible and after making preliminary remarks, I sat down, as the family had requested. They had asked that friends and family members be allowed to share their thoughts. I would conclude the funeral service after others spoke. “Would they?” I worried. As it turns out, my only concern was how to call a fitting conclusion to the testimonials which poured from hearts touched by a gentle spirit who never saw in herself anything special.
Predictably, family members spoke of her devotion to them and of her unconditional love. But then, others, sometimes unable to contain their emotions, rose to tell of their spiritual encounters with a woman of faith.
Jim White
“I wouldn't even be here [alive] if Mrs. Thomas had not encouraged me and told me about Jesus who loves me,” one said. She described the hopelessness of her life and conceded that her desperation was leading her to a tragic end. But then she met a frail little lady who did not judge her. With empathy for her plight, Elsie Thomas befriended her. Little by little, she found faith in Christ and in him, the strength to turn her life around.
Another woman rose to her feet. “Mrs. Thomas and her family took me in. She was more of a mother to me than my own mother. She took me to church.” She spoke about her conversion as an adult. “Mrs. Thomas was the first one I wanted to tell. I would never have become a Christian without her example.”
An African-American woman spoke next. “I lived next door to Mrs. Thomas and she was always tending her flowers. I remember one morning I came out of my house feeling so low that it must have shown. Mrs. Thomas called me over to the fence and asked, ‘What's wrong, Honey?' She must have known I was having husband troubles. We talked for a long time. She told me about needing to forgive and getting my own attitude right and how Jesus would want us to live. That talk changed me.”
A woman who had tended to Mrs. Thomas in later years told of a time when Mrs. Thomas read Scripture and spoke extemporaneously at the funeral of a mutual friend. “No preacher could have said it just like she said it,” she concluded.
Others continued to add their praises in a funeral service celebrating the life of a 93-year-old saint, but by this time I was only half listening. I found myself saying to the Lord, “This is how you intended it to be! This is the Christianity described in the book of Acts! ” In my mind, I could see how the church expanded in those early days as individual Christians chose to be Christ to those around her.
I reflected on the words of Jesus in the sermon on the mount. “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.”
Elsie Thomas was born in the Virginia mountains not long after the turn of the previous century and lacked academic advantages. Mountain life, always hard, was made even more difficult by the economic times of the Great Depression during which she reached marriageable age. She got married, had children and raised them, looked after her husband and went to church.
Mrs. Thomas didn't go to seminary. In fact, she never took a course on how to witness. She simply believed what she read in the Bible about loving other people. Without fanfare, without embarrassment and without judgment, she told the folks around her about the Jesus who had helped her through many a hard time in her life.
I sat there thinking, “I know of preachers who have not been directly responsible for this many people coming to Christ.”
In her later life, after she had gone to live with a daughter, she joined First Baptist Church of Newport News, where I was then pastor. Due to a current pastoral vacancy caused by Randel Everett's departure to lead the Baptist General Convention of Texas, I had been asked to return to do Mrs. Thomas's funeral. I had been prepared to conduct the funeral, not be blessed by it. As I prepared my remarks and travelled to the funeral home, I didn't imagine the worship that awaited me.
When we think of evangelists, we tend to think of the thundering voices of the prophets or the powerful and persuasive logic of Paul's messages. But the most biblical model of all is the genuine Christian witness of the ordinary layperson. The secret behind the power of Mrs. Thomas's witness was its authenticity.
It seems to me that the life of Elsie Thomas has something noteworthy to say to Virginia Baptists and others who are concerned about the drop in baptisms. Who could deny the evangelical potential in powerful preaching? Who could possibly question the value of training Christ's people in evangelistic methodology? Both have a rightful place in our efforts to reconcile the world to God through Christ.
But it may be that we have undervalued the simplicity of being light to those without a vision of hope; and salt those whose tasteless lives have led them to the brink of despair. The power of a word of hope backed by a life bearing witness to its truth is a force for spiritual change.
Let us profess what we have learned about life in Christ and let us live what we profess. Ah, there's the problem, as I see it.
Denominational leaders can address and agitate conventions and assemblies about the drop in baptisms; preachers can harangue and harass their congregations about winning others to Jesus; but until our walk matches our talk, our words will lack the persuasive power of a genuine spiritual encounter.
It may be strange to admit that I rededicated my life at a funeral, but I did. The power of the sermon overwhelmed me. What may seem even more strange is that the sermon was delivered not from the pulpit but from the casket.