Question 1. What is your only comfort in life and death?
Answer: That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. [Heidelberg Catechism]In life and in death we belong to God. [Brief Statement of Faith]
These two phrases, each leading off their respective faith documents, are almost mantras to me. “I am not my own,” “We belong to God.” And from what I know, these are appropriate to the three gentlemen who I remember here today.
The Rev. Jack Stotts Ph.D. was familiar to many American Presbyterians as the former president of Austin Theological Seminary and McCormick Theological Seminary before that. Among his most remembered contributions will be the job of chairing the task force that wrote the Brief Statement of Faith, adopted in 1991. This document was written in the wake of the UPC and PCUS reunification to embody the shared faith. He was himself a strong advocate for unification. He went to be with the Lord on January 24 and is remembered in both a Presbyterian News Service press release and a page on the PCUSA web site.
In God’s divine wisdom He also called home the Rev. Dr. Lewis Wilkins, another worker for Presbyterian unification, on January 31. In addition to his Presbyterian union work, Rev. Wilkins served a variety of positions, many of them as staff in higher governing bodies including presbytery executive, associate executive of synods, and staff on the national level for the Presbyterian Church in the United States. The Presbyterian News Service released an article remembering Rev. Wilkins.
Today, the Edinburgh News published the news of the death of Elder William Smith on December 1, 2007. From reading the article I was struck by the tremendous example he set of an Elder involved in the work of the church. The article carried the great title of “A Life Spent Serving Faith and Family.” This servant, unable to afford a university education, was a life-long member of the Church of Scotland and a civil servant. He was ordained an elder in 1950 and served as his kirk’s clerk twice. But he also served on the national level being the first elder to serve as convener of the Diaconate Board of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1981-1986. In 1987 the Moderator of the General Assembly ask Mr. Smith to serve as his senior chaplain. Once again he was the first elder to be asked to hold that position. His dedication and faithfulness remind us that the core of our Presbyterian government is elders and clergy serving together and equally in the administration of the church.
“Well done good and faithful servants.”