Message for the service of Mary Faye Delp

We have come here today to worship God and celebrate the life of Mary Faye Delp. 

This has been a crazy week.  There have been a lot of people coming to see me needing help and I needed to be a lot of places.  There were a lot of things due at the end of this week which is the end of this month and a lot of places where I needed to be, and then Mary Faye passed, and I needed a message for today.

You have heard me say this before, I will miss her but her message was easy to prepare and is easy to deliver.  With all the certainty that the human mind can muster, I can say—we can say—she is with the Lord.

May Faye made this message easy for me.  Her life made this easy for me.  Now, come Sunday morning, I might still be playing catch up but today’s message comes so naturally.

Mary Faye did what we are commanded to do. She did what we long to do.  She lived a full life.  I don’t think that she ventured far from home, but she lived this life to the full and brought glory to God.

This service today is for you not her. She has been liberated from whatever ailed her in this life.  She is completely healed.  Her heartache for her husband who preceded her, is over.  I know she missed Junior.

It was tough to see Mary Faye this last year.  She was seldom awake and had very little energy when she was.  When she was awake, I doubt that she remembered my visit for long.

One time I went to visit her and she was in the bed but awake and she had this look that said this better be worth staying awake for.  She never said a word.

Now there were other visits where Sharman, and my mother, and even Libby came and though she couldn’t remember names, she recognized us and smiled with us.  Sometimes her questions left out 30 or 40 years of memory, but she enjoyed the visit. I can’t talk about Mary Faye and her time in the nursing home without mentioning Agnes.

Agnes was Mary Faye’s roommate for most of her time there. She was someone known to few people other than the family. I think Agnes just turned 100 and I hope that my mind is a sharp as hers if I make it to 70 or 80.

I first met Agnes when I came to visit Mary Faye and before I left as was my custom, prayed with her or for her depending on whether she was asleep or awake.  After I prayed for Mary Faye, Agnes said that she would like a prayer as well.  After than point, I would visit Mary Faye and Agnes. 

Sometimes Mary Faye would be asleep, so I just left a card or flowers or both.  I knew Agnes would fill her in when she awakened.  I know that Mary Faye missed Junior but Agnes filled part of that companionship void.

These last years were the toughest, but they were not the mainstay of her life.  I have only known her 20 years but they were a good twenty years.  I think back to just after we moved to Burns Flat.  We felt at home in this church and had been coming regularly.  At the same time my son, Christopher, was going full-fledged teenager.

I was ready to skin him alive.

The next Sunday—this is at the old church building; Mary Faye came up to me—we really had talked much up to that point—and she told me what a sweet boy Christopher was and how he had helped some visitors find the restroom and a seat in the congregation.

She saw a side of him in the middle of his teenage years that I had not yet seen.  She had eyes to see.

There are some things I heard over the past couple days that I did not know.  It came about putting together the obituary.  There was some discussion among all the things she had done in her life as a livelihood, as to whether to list her as a farmer or a farmer’s wife.

I will have to read the obituary again to see what was decided but in the course of this discussion what stuck with me was that she had her own tractor, and as I recall it was top of the line.

She had her own tractor!

We shared a common interest in gardening, but the only tractor I had was a 5 horse power rototiller.   She had her own tractor.

Today, you see families with several tractors and pieces of farm equipment, but back in her day, having your own tractor was surely unique.

I learned some other things that I had never known.  Evidently on a trip to Oklahoma City for the Women of Faith conference while traveling in the church van, Mary Faye put on lingerie show.  She had purchased a new bra and took off her shirt and shared the new purchase with those aboard.

I’m not sure what the other folks on I-40 had to say about the ladies in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church van, but I was interested to hear the story for the first time just a few days ago.

Once we moved to this church building, we started a First Light service.  It’s a contemporary service that we hold at 9 am.  Sunday school is at 10.  Junior and Mary Faye were always early for Sunday school.  I think Junior dropped Mary Faye at the door and gave her a head start to the classroom.

I couldn’t keep up with this once we started the 9 o’clock service because I was in the service.  The girls who sang today were often leading music during the service. 

I faced them while we sang and really wasn’t aware of much going on behind me.  Sometimes in the middle of singing about God’s love and mercy, one of the girls would point a finger at one of her kids sitting up close.

All in one breath she could go from My Jesus, My Savior to You better act right all said without words but at the end of a pointing finger and then back to Lord there is none like you.

Sometimes one of the kids who received the pointing finger would be directly in front of me.  I straightened up too just in case.

I tell you this because on one Sunday morning we were singing something which was pretty familiar, but I will tell you we still needed our song leaders, and all the girls just started cracking up.  They tried to recompose themselves but couldn’t.  Eventually, they did get us all on track again but when the service was over, I had to ask them what that was all about.

It seems that in the middle of the song, Mary Faye had been walking down the hall and they could see her through the back doors.  It was a typical site as she was on her way to Sunday school class, but on this particular morning, she stopped and did a little dance to go with our song.

I don’t know if she had a walker or cane or was still mobile enough that she didn’t need either, but the dance was enough to catch the girls off guard.  They could go from one line of a song to a quick admonishment of someone sitting up front and never miss a note, but the Mary Faye Shuffle was more than they could handle.

I guess I should be thankful she did do it in the middle of the sermon.  When I lose my train of thought, I just catch the next train, so we could have been there a while.  I guess a sermon is harder to dance to.

And since I brought up a walker and cane, I will tell you that she knew how to deliver a message across a room just by the gestures that went with that stick.

Some of you may not remember, but a long time ago, I think 2007 Mary Faye preached for us.  She was supposed to preach twice that year but the ice kept her home for one of them.  I don’t remember the title but I know she spoke of love and had done her research and spoke what God had placed on her heart.

She had her own tractor and preached her own sermon.  How many of you ladies can lay claim to that?

Mary Faye and I had a few conversations over the years.  We didn’t talk about anything life shattering, but all that time she was making an assessment of me.

One day while we were in the fellowship hall, she signaled for me to come over to her table.  I wasn’t sure what she needed but I came over and she spoke to me words that I hold dear to my heart.

She said, “I think I have finally met my match in ornery.”

I have received medal and awards for various things in my life, but those words might just be my lifetime achievement award.  “I think I have finally met my match in ornery.”

One thing I knew about the Delp family was that they all gathered for dinner at Junior and Mary Faye’s house.  Most of us here do something similar on an occasional basis, but this was done on a regular basis and was a hallmark of the family.  I understand that there was some good fried chicken served at these meals among other things likewise prepared and received in thanksgiving.

Her family is blessed to have shared this time together so often.

I have proceeded thus far without a single scripture, but some of you know what is coming.

In the tenth verse of the tenth chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus speaks these words.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Mary Faye would have nothing to do with the thief but she had everything to do with living this life to the full.  I remember one girl who would come Wednesday nights just to get a hug from and enjoy the meal with Mary Faye.

Mary Faye understood the fullness of life.  She didn’t travel much but she gave much.  She was usually close to home, but Jesus was closer in her heart.

She loved God and studied his word.  She loved her family which included this church body.  She loved to smile.

I must share one more story before we wrap up.  I know that there are some hearing challenges in the Delp family.  I found out Tuesday that Mary Faye had thrown her hearing aids away.

I share a perspective from the pulpit that most have not seen.  I do try to practice viable speaking skills during the sermon.  That is I do try to make eye contact with as many people as is feasible.  If I look at someone too long it can make them uneasy, especially if I am talking about repentance or confession, but I do try to engage the congregation.

During any sermon when both Junior and Mary Faye were here and I looked across the congregation, if I looked at Junior first, I had to wonder what I had said to give him that look or if he was just constipated, or both.  It was a look that you did not want to dwell on.

So if I caught myself looking at Junior, I would quickly look at Mary Faye.  She was always smiling.  I don’t know if either one could hear me, but I would much rather look at Mary Faye if I wanted to maintain my train of thought.

I will tell you that by the end of the sermon—that’s normally when I wrap up the discipleship challenge and move to an affirmation of God’s love for us—they would both be smiling.  I don’t know if they could hear me, but they were smiling.

What else can I say about Mary Faye?

She has run the good race.

She has fought the good fight.

She has kept the faith.

There is now in store for her a crown of righteousness.

She would not want me to stop there, for there is also in store for you a crown of righteousness as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I think that most in her family already know that, but if anyone here does not, stay and talk with someone who does, and come to know the Lord, Jesus Christ.

There is a whole big celebration in heaven when one sinner comes home, and if that person happens to be you, know that Mary Faye and Junior will be a part of that celebration.

I don’t know what all she knows now.  It’s incomprehensible.  I don’t know if she is witness to this service.  She is in the presence of the Lord and our time here is just a passing instant to her.

But I believe that she would be smiling right now knowing that her service included and concluded with an invitation to know the Lord.  So, if you do not know Jesus as Lord, talk to me or another believer and don’t go to bed tonight in the same condition.

Mary Faye has run the good race, fought the good fight, and kept the faith.  There is now in store for her a crown of righteousness.

My prayer and I think hers as well is that you come to know the joy and peace and love and fullness of life that she knew during her life among us.

Amen.