March 17, 2018, 11:00 AM
Duggan’s Serra Funeral, Daly City, CA
Welcome and Call to Worship
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. (Psalm 90:1; Romans 14:7-9)
I welcome you as family and friends of Madeline Findlay who was born on March 17, 1919 and returned to God on February 27, 2018 having lived for almost 99 years. Today would have been her 99th birthday. Our time together is to remember and celebrate a life well lived.
Let us pray. We thank you, God, that nothing in all creation—nothing in life and nothing in death—can separate us from your love. Fill us with your Spirit in this time of suffering and loss, and remind us that Christ is Lord of both the dead and the living. May we trust God to rescue us from all destructive powers and show us the way to a new and everlasting life. Amen.
Suffering Produces Endurance
All the times when I was fortunate to meet Madeline Findlay, she was in a wheelchair. To be bound in a chair tells us that “in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:3b-5). The Apostle Paul shared these words of encouragement with the Roman Christians.
Against great obstacles, Madeline persevered when her children were very young. She became a single Mom and remained resourceful to the end. With little formal education that she was able to attain, she worked to provide for her family as with any dedicated and loving mother would do. She is known for her strong independence doing what she can do for herself believing that resilience is what she can teach her children by the way she embraced life and its circumstances.
We can say that with today’s modern conveniences and comforts that it’s becoming harder and harder to find people who can really confront adversity in the face with courage. We either pay for an app to do that for us or call a handyman to fix it. Madeline Findlay turned lemons into lemonade and her children were refreshed. She saw the cup half full and not half empty and was able to feed her children to grow up as mature adults.
Recently, I saw a blacksmith “tempering” metal. I learned that tempering iron or steel is heating the metal to achieve greater toughness. The heat decreases the hardness and increases its ductility. Ductility means that the metal is more flexible and no longer as brittle. Madeline Findlay’s suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and her flexible character ultimately produces hope that is not brittle for every day in life and hope in her children that life in the end is good.
One of the events in Jesus’ ministry is the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Scholars have said that this miracle happened because it’s recorded in all four of the Gospel accounts. You remember that after a long day of healing and teaching, Jesus wanted to retreat with his disciples to the mountain. But his miracles met so many of the people’s needs that 5000 people followed him. The day was coming to an end and the people had not eaten. Like what we would do, the disciples told Jesus to send all the people to go into town to get their own dinner. Jesus asked them what they could find among the people. There was a boy with 5 loaves of barley bread and 2 fish. Jesus told the disciples to have all the people sit down and a miracle happened. When the bread and fish were distributed, all 5000 people ate until they were satisfied. And when they collected all the leftovers, they ended up with twelve baskets full.
Jesus taught us that against great odds, miracles happen. Madeline Findlay accepted her situation but like Jesus never gave up when faced with life’s challenges and obstacles.
At her workplace, she met her husband Donald Findlay and they were married for over 45 years. His love for her completed her life as her love for him completed his.
I heard that Madeline was an avid sports fan. She loved the Warriors, the Giants and the 49ers. She may not have been able to shoot 3-pointers like Curry or hit homers like Bond or throw a pass like Montana but from her wheelchair, she was never far from the action. She taught us that she was always in the game of life. When the effects of polio during her adolescent years manifested in later years, Madeline compensated for her limitations. She remained as mobile as she can until the very end.
All of us can hope and pray that we would be blessed to live for almost 99 years on this earth like Madeline Findlay did. During these many years, she taught her children life lessons. By her strong independence, she model that no physical disability would stop her from being a resourceful and contributing human being. By her willingness to be flexible and adaptable in facing life circumstances, she taught us that in every cloud there’s a silver lining. By her caring words and deeds, she showed us that even in times of suffering, there’s always a time to be compassionate and to love.
In spite of challenging circumstances, Jesus fed 5000 people. In spite of challenging circumstances that Madeline Findlay had to face in her life, she was a faithful wife, a caring mother, and a child of our Creator God.
To live for 99 years means that Madeline Findlay lived through the civil rights movement as we are living today during one of the most contentious periods of our country’s history. During the civil rights movement, many activists were arrested and imprisoned for their beliefs about justice and equality.
We know that whenever these activists were in prison, they would sing. The guards would come in and yell at them and sometimes beat them, demanding that they stop. The guards felt the prisoners’ songs were dangerous, and in a way they were right. These courageous protesters were singing of joy in the midst of sorrow, freedom in the midst of imprisonment, life in the midst of death. The singing insisted there was more potent truth than jail or oppression.
And so they would sing. Their singing upset and disturbed the jailers; it meant they had not been broken. They had not been defeated. In the larger game of power, the jailers had lost to the relentless hopefulness of singing. The prisoners would keep on singing because their songs were their spirit. And their spirit would not die.
This is how we live, knowing we will die. We are in prison, bound by the bars of our mortality. And still we sing. Singing helps us remember who we are—children of the spirit, people of God, here for a short time, and then gone. What else can we do but sing?
Victor Low will lead us to sing, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”
Announcements
If you wish to make a gift in memory of Madeline Findlay, the family has requested that you can make donations to the organizations listed in the back of the program.
When you exit, you will be given two small envelopes. The white envelope contains a piece of candy to symbolize sweetness in a bittersweet situation. The red envelope contains a coin for you to buy something on your way home to suggest that you will continue to prosper and to have a healthy life.
After you have come forward to pay your last respects, the family invites you to a Memorial Luncheon at the Moonstar Buffet where the family looks forward to fellowshipping with you.
Benediction
Remember, beloved brothers and sisters, God has promised to bless us and keep us in this life and in our new life with the Lord.
The same God whose face now shines on our friend, Madeline Findlay, has promised through the Lord, to forgive us and shelter us throughout eternity.
I charge you to find your comfort and peace in these gracious promises of a loving God.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.