FINISHING TOUCHES (Philippians 1:3-11)
I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.
Some tasks are never finished. No matter how much effort you put in, they are never finished. There is always more that could be done.
Take housecleaning, for instance. To the truly fastidious, there is no such thing as a clean house. There is always a nook or a cranny that hides dust. There is always a fingerprint on the woodwork, always a heel mark on the kitchen floor. There is always something that could be cleaner. But you stop cleaning, because there is more to life than a clean house. You just stop and accept it the way it is. It’s not perfect, but it is presentable. It’s not complete, but it will be enough. I always marveled that the Parker house looked so immaculate, every time I visited. I don’t know how Betty did it, with her health challenges. She would always say that it needed more attention, more work. But it looked fine to me.
Yet to the truly fastidious, there is no such thing as a clean house. Some tasks are never finished. No matter how much effort you put in, they are never finished. There is always more that could be done.
Works of art are like that too. Painters, writers, musicians – they keep fiddling with their work. They try to get it right, they try to improve it. A dab of paint here, a rewritten paragraph there, a change in the orchestration – artists are never quite satisfied with their work. Those finishing touches are never quite complete. But the time comes when you have to stop tweaking and just let go. The time comes when the painting has to be hung in the gallery, the book has to be sent to the publisher, the concert hall is filled and ready. Finishing touches or not, the artist has to release his work and let it fly. Let it go, even though some tasks are never finished. There is always more that could be done.
When God purposed in His heart to give us Betty Jean Parker, He began a work of art. He shaped a mind that was quiet and yet clear. He made a heart that was sensitive and yet wide open. He created a work of art. In these last few weeks, God began to put the finishing touches on this work of art. God began to complete the incomplete, and prepared her to fly. We wanted her to stay in the workshop. We would have loved for her Lord to have taken yet more time to add those finishing touches. But the time comes when, finishing touches or not, the artist has to release His work and let it go. And you and I then marvel at His handiwork and glory in its beauty. And we know, with the apostle Paul, that “the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
I
I was first privileged to see God sculpting this work of art more than fifteen years ago. I received a call from a lady whom I had not yet met; she told me that her husband lay ill at Walter Reed Hospital, and that his illness was likely terminal. She went on to say that his plight had spoken to her about his spiritual need and about her own. I visited Betty Parker that very day, and Ernest Parker as well. In that hospital room her husband, your father and grandfather, reached out to the Lord of life and death. He acknowledged his need of a personal Savior, and he received Christ as His Lord. Takoma Park Baptist Church considered Ernest Parker as one of our own, knowing that the Lord had claimed him. A Sunday or two later, Betty came forward, receiving Christ as her Lord and following Him in baptism. God had begun a good work in her. God had started a magnificent work of art.
But it was not yet finished. It was not yet complete. But that’s all right, for, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
II
Betty was not one of those people who impress you right away by their leadership qualities. She was not somebody who would grab you by the lapels and insist that you give them a place of prominence. Far from it. In fact, she worshipped here for quite a while unnoticed by many of our members. She made no speeches, she offered no public testimonies, she did nothing that would call attention to herself. I don’t think we ever even asked her to serve on a church committee. It’s a small miracle if you can stay around here for any length of time without being corralled to do some job! But Betty did begin to serve behind the scenes, and she did begin to give hints that God was preparing a very special work of art in her life.
a
For one thing, I soon found that Betty was a devoted participant in our church’s prayer ministry. We have a daily recorded telephone message, through which we can communicate a devotional thought and can share the names of persons who need prayer. Those who listen can then, at the end of the recorded message, leave comments or suggest other prayer concerns. Many of our members take that opportunity to tell me things; in fact, I am always a little scared to listen on Monday morning, when the sermon critics weigh in! I had no idea that Betty Parker was listening to the prayer phone. She never offered a word of comment. She never spoke about anything that was happening in the life of the church. But I found out that one of the brushes the Lord was using to put the finishing touches on Betty was this ministry of prayer. I found out that without fail, day after day, she called 723-9140 and shared in this special fellowship. She knew what was happening with people, she joined in prayer for them, and through this simple instrument, she gained immense encouragement. I visited her in the hospital one day, and found that even when she was seriously ill, she found the strength to call that number. Day after day, in season and out, convenient or not, Betty Parker devoted herself to prayer and to this expression of her church at prayer. God was preparing a very special work of art, and was putting on the finishing touches. The one who had begun a good work in her was bringing it to completion through prayer.
b
After a while, Betty discovered our Wednesday Club ministry. For many years our church has served groups of recovering mental patients, some of them from St. Elizabeths Hospital, others from group homes. These men and women are provided recreation, arts and crafts, nutrition, and a warm and friendly fellowship. It is ministry in the purest sense, because we don’t expect anything back from them. We just want to serve them and love them. Betty fell in love with Wednesday Club. So when its leader had to step aside for health reasons, we asked Betty if she would coordinate this ministry. Now those of you who knew her well can imagine what her response was. In no way did she consider herself a leader. She did not think that she could order people around. At first she declined my invitation to coordinate Wednesday Club. But, you know, the Lord has a way of humbling pastors, and so, even though she turned me down, when the other workers in Wednesday Club encouraged her, she accepted. She began to lead this ministry. She began to mature as a leader – not the kind of leader who leads by commands and directives, but the kind of leader who leads from within. The kind of leader who serves. The kind of leader who sets an example. We soon found out that this quiet lady, who seemed so unassuming, got things done in Wednesday Club. She never raised her voice. She never ordered people around. Yet people knew what she wanted done. She just gently led her co-workers to do what needed to be done. In her own beautiful way she let others do what they were called to do, she did what she was called to do, and the ministry thrived. Betty was growing; and the God who had begun a good work in her was bringing it to completion.
c
There is another aspect of Betty’s personality, as some of you will know. Betty was very sensitive about relationships. She was always concerned about what others thought of her. Occasionally, Betty would call and ask me to counsel with her about her relationships with other church members. She would imagine that she had offended one person or another. Personally, I doubt very seriously that she had offended. It is difficult for me to see her acting in any sort of hostile manner. But in her own mind she wondered whether this person or that person had something against her. We would talk it through; we would pray about the conflict, real or imagined, and she would let it go.
But that’s where the Lord really did begin to put on the final and finishing touches. That’s where the God who had begun a good work in her really did bring it to perfection. In these final weeks, Betty went to work to reach out to every person she thought she might have offended. She went to work to ask forgiveness and seek closure on every damaged relationship. One by one, person by person, as she was able, she sought reconciliation. I know that several of you were in that group, but that when she spoke to you, you had had no idea of ever having been offended. You were not offended by anything she said or did; but, you see, a sensitive spirit is like a thermometer that is able to read the slightest variations of temperature. And in her sensitivity, Betty Parker was unwilling to leave unfinished the profoundly spiritual work of reconciliation.
In fact, one day, as we began planning for this day, she said to me, “You know I’ve had some differences with people at the church. Do you think it’s inappropriate for me to be buried from the church?” My response was as swift and as certain as I know how to be – that God has committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation. And that as she was already reconciled to her Lord, and as she was reconciling with her brothers and sisters, there could be no place more fitting, than a place dedicated to the ministry of reconciliation. How profoundly our God was putting the finishing touches on Betty! How wonderfully true, in her, the word of the Scripture, “… that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
III
Betty’s last days and hours were invested in seeing to it that all the finishing touches were in place for her children and her grandchildren. She wanted you around her, not just for her own sake, but for yours as well. She wanted to make sure that everything that needed to be done was done. She asked you repeatedly if this paper had been signed and that arrangement had been made. She wanted to put the finishing touches on her physical life.
But it is the Lord who put His finest finishing touches on her spiritual life, leaving you a legacy that you will long remember and always cherish. When I remember how her faith in God was complete, so that she chose not to fight this old enemy, death, but to accept it, I know that here was the Lord, putting on His finishing touches. When I recall how she smiled with appreciation each time some friend would enter her room, I know that the Lord was completing His artistic masterpiece. When I think back to the day before she died, how her mind was alert and her lips could repeat the psalm, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help” – when I think back to that day, I can do no better than to echo the great apostle one more time, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
Oh, some tasks are never finished. No matter how much effort you put in, they are never finished. There is always more that could be done. In these last few weeks, God began to put the finishing touches on this work of art. God began to complete the incomplete, and prepared her to fly. We wanted her to stay in the workshop. We would have loved for her Lord to have taken yet more time to add those finishing touches. But the time comes, when, finishing touches or not, the artist has to release His work and let it go. Today, then, you and I then marvel at His handiwork and glory in its beauty. And we know, with the apostle Paul, that “the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
Thank you, Lord, for the work of art you gave us, so nearly complete. Finish her now, in the workshop of heaven, in the day of Jesus Christ. Amen.
