John Winder Horton, October 15, 1927 - February 16, 2024

Funeral • Sermon • Submitted 2 months ago • Presented 2 months ago

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Welcome & Gathering

Jesus said, I am the resurrection and I am life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, yet shall they live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

Friends, we have gathered here to praise God and to witness to our faith as we celebrate the life of John Winder Horton. We come together in grief, acknowledging our human loss. May God grant us grace, that in pain we may find comfort, in sorrow….hope, in death….resurrection.

Pray

Old Testament Scripture

Proverbs 20:7 NIV

The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them.

Micah 6:8 NIV

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Pastoral Prayer

O God, who gave us birth, you are ever more ready to hear than we are to pray. You know our needs before we ask, and our ignorance in asking. Give to us now your grace, that as we shrink before 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 accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in you, and that nothing in life or in death will be able to separate us from your great love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Add prayer for family:

Amen.

Will you join me in the Lord’s prayer as you are able:

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 TRESPASSES, AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US, AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL. FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER AND EVER AMEN

Music - In the Garden

New Testament Scripture

1 Timothy 6:11 NIV

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

2 Timothy 4:8 NIV

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Music - Amazing Grace

Celebration of Life

Patrick Horton

John Blair Horton

Message

It has been an honor to get to know the life that John lived from the family this week. And I love that the family has chosen these passages from 1 and 2nd timothy. The instruction of Paul to his protege and son in the faith for what it looks like to live the Christian life. Like John, some of the most instructive mentoring and encouragement did not come from a parent like you would think but from someone else. Timothy needed to listen and act of this but thankfully there was critical people in his life to pour into him. For John it was other family members like Sue.

There are a few similarities I see in this scripture context to the life that John lived.

Turning from the past

In the first letter to Timothy, Paul instructs him to run from brokkenness. The love of things that will not satisfy and the things that lead to destruction.

John had to make a decision early in life to allow his story to be written for him or to lean into something new that God wanted to do. As you have already heard…he has come from such a difficult beginning, not many would be able to carry on in the way that John did. Not without God and what God sent his way with loved ones and other help, but still fairy tale endings are not as easy as the movies make them seem.

This is the good news for all of us. It does not matter what you have done in the past, or what has happened to you in the past, your whole story is not prewritten. We worship a God of grace, new life, resurrection…what ever you are carrying, there is an invitation of healing and redemption.

Turning towards life

Second, Paul tells Timothy to turn towards characteristics of life: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.

Let’s talk about each one of these quickly:

Righteousness: This is not a quality of holier than thou or perfect living. This is about those that live in the covenant relationship with God. Those that pursue the relationship. In a marriage, you pursue, you do not break the covenant. It does not mean your perfect.

Godliness: And in the pursuing righteousness, there comes godliness. We are made in the image of God. So when we pursue God, we become who we were created to be.

Faith: This is about believing loyalty. Not just intellectual assent to a higher being, but a belief that acts.

Love: intentional, unconditional, available love. Love of God, love from God. Love for others.

Endurance: This is the determination to keep going. Where does this come from? The next verse gives us a hint… “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. You endure when you know your heavenly promise is for you.

Gentleness: I love this one. It is almost an odd ending. Like thrown in there all of the sudden. But it’s not all that odd. Those that are gentle, even when they have endured much, they are the ones that have been transformed by God. Gentle people can love sacrificially and without the need for reciprocity because they are satisfied in what God has given them.

John was not perfect. He was not all these things all the time. Sometimes we can crown people in this way at moments like this, but they were marks of John, characteristics, because he had taken hold of eternal life.

I love this charge from Paul, to which John now can say, I have completed, and hopefully for all of us we might orient ourselves in again today…

1 Timothy 6:12–16 NIV

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

Family, I see these qualities in you, even in a brief time of getting to know you. I know today is difficult but the best parts of John are your legacy now. Because the best parts was the love of God in him and that has been passed onto you.

Music - Abide with me

Benediction

The peace of God He which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

Graveside

A SERVICE OF COMMITTAL – John Winder Horton

February 24, 2024

Greeting

Listen, I will tell you a mystery!

We will not all die, but we will all be changed.

For this perishable body must put on imperishability,

and this mortal body must put on immortality.

Then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

"Death has been swallowed up in victory."

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

But thanks be to God,

who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 CORINTHIANS 15:51, 53, 54 b-55, 57)

Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;

my body also dwells secure.

You, [Lord,] show me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy,

in your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (PSALM 16:9, 11, UMH 748)

The following prayer is offered:

Let us pray.

O God, you have ordered this wonderful world

and know all things in earth and in heaven.

Give us such faith that by day and by night,

at all times and in all places,

we may without fear commit ourselves

and those dear to us

to your never-failing love,

in this life and in the life to come. Amen.

Scripture

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled and unfading,

kept in heaven for you.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you suffer trials

so that the genuineness of your faith may prove itself worthy

at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Without having seen him, yet you love him;

though you do not now see him,

you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy.

As the harvest of your faith you reap the salvation of your souls.

(ADAPTED FROM 1 PETER 1:3-9)

Jesus said: "Very truly, I tell you,

unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,

it remains just a single grain;

but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Those who love their life lose it,

and those who hate their life in this world

will keep it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me,

and where I am, there will my servant be also.

Whoever serves me, the Father will honor." (JOHN 12:24-26)

Commital

Standing at the head of the coffin and facing it (preferably casting earth upon it as it is lowered into the grave) the pastor says:

Almighty God,

into your hands we commend your son John,

in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This body we commit to the ground

(to the elements, to its resting place),

earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. (TRADITIONAL)

One or more of the following or other prayers is offered:

Eternal God, you have shared with us the life of John Winder Horton. Before he was ours, he is yours.

For all that John has given us to make us what we are,

for that of he which lives and grows in each of us,

and for his life that in your love will never end,

we give you thanks.

As now we offer John back into your arms,

comfort us in our loneliness,

strengthen us in our weakness,

and give us courage to face the future unafraid.

Draw those of us who remain in this life closer to one another,

make us faithful to serve one another,

and give us to know that peace and joy which is eternal life;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Moment of silence

The pastor dismisses the people with the following or another blessing:

Now to the One who is able to keep you from falling,

and to make you stand without blemish

in the presence of God's glory with rejoicing,

to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord,

be glory, majesty, power, and authority,

before all time and now and forever. Amen. (JUDE 24-25, ALT.)

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