Willie Jester's Valentine's Day 2012 @ Prayer Breakfast

Willie Jester became good friends with Mom and Dad and he enriched their final years. He was asked to speak at the BUMC prayer breakfast. Here are his notes ( with permission).

Prayer Breakfast – 2/14/2012 – BUMC
Good morning! How appropriate – Valentine’s Day a day of love yet….
• Did you know what we are doing this morning is illegal in 52 countries.
• Actually, what we do on Sundays is too….and that is worship.
Have no doubt…each of us is not only incredibly blessed to be able to worship freely as we do, we are also here with a purpose. Luke 12:48"To whom much is given, of him much will be expected."
I met Bill Absher in church. I came in and happen to take the seat in front of he and Jean (Reggie had not started the sermon yet, so Jean was awake). During an early part in the service we stood and Bill’s bulletin, full of propaganda as Reggie has called it from time to time, filled my seat. It was 3-4 sheets. I turned around and said, golly day, I have only been in church 10 minutes and you are already throwing things at me!  Well, that started it, because that smile Bill had was something you can’t forget.
Now, this was, of course, during  the early service. And this speaks to God’s engineering of circumstances far better than my own wisdom. …you see….as a single guy you are suppose to go to the regular service to meet girls, but apparently God wanted me to go to the early service and see the light of Christ instead. ….once you met Bill Absher, I believe you saw the light of Christ in his eyes.
And now what…you can give that up……Let’s see…the Light of Christ or the regular service…I went with Bill.
You don’t “get” Bill without his wife Jean. Without Jean, you don’t get the angel Barbara, without Barbara you don’t get to Archie.
God’s engineering is amazing to say the least
Without Bill and Jean I don’t get to Janis Perdue….who has become my mom. You see I had lost my mom, and here God was…knowing what we need.  Pay no attention to the fact I affectionately call her the witch.   God’s engineering
….now Archie was in the class of ’52, my dad’s class here at VPI.  Go one step further, when I applied to tech, Cliff Cutchin was on the Board of Visitors for Tech, and he happened to live down the street from me. He wrote a recommendation letter for me….addressed to Archie.
God works in mysterious ways to say the least.
Well, I started getting out of God’s way… when you get out of God’s way… you realize God just might be on to something.
I started to see how they (Bill, Jean, Barbara, Archie, Janis) were letting Christ out. I came to understand that it is ironic how God, through His Prevenient Grace beats nudges, pushes, pulls, you to let Him into your heart and accept Him and the Holy Spirit… once we do….the Holy Spirit (conscience on steroids) spends all of His time nudging us, prodding us, pushing us to let Out!. To put Him in the game. Christ, the Holy Spirit wants out, via the expression of your life.
Well with Bill Absher, he let the Holy Spirit be in the game, as a matter of fact he not only let the Holy Spirit in the game, he turned over all the coaching to Him as well. You see…. I learned  it is not about your ability, it is about your availability that makes a difference. Bill made himself available.
I saw this in Bill, and the Lord opened my eyes to see it among you…the Body of Christ…..made me see it in others…. Janis, Janet and Mike Sims, Steve and Mary Ann Cass, Steve,  Denise Walker, Charlie and Ellen Coale, Joey and Tracey Altizer,  Stuart Mease, Mike Day, all the men in Bible Study, the Parks, Pam and Tindal with Fun 143, Mary Korb leading non-Christians in a bible study and more….
I came understand the Body of Christ.  Making self available.
The Body of Christ is the Church and the church is made up of you…the hands and feet of Christ. And each of us have purpose and make an impact on others every single day.  Oswald Chambers “However small the visible measure of our lives – out of us will flow rivers that bless the uttermost parts of the earth.”
I have learned Christ makes a difference, when you make yourself available.
When you make yourself available, you:
• Exalt the Lord
• Edify the saints
• Equip people
• Encourage people
• Evangelize to the lost (Janis and tracts) – Janis makes herself available. Always!
When available you are:
• Salt that can be tasted
• Light that can be seen
• Influence that can be felt
• Testimony that can be heard – You make a difference
I have come to understand there is a choice you have to make between a cause and Christ. Christ didn’t have a cause other than to follow the will of His Father. John 4:34 – Jesus said “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me to finish His work.” Paul was devoted to a person (Christ), not a cause. Paul didn’t talk about the church’s he started nor the thousands he lead to Christ….Phil 3:10 – “that I may know Him”.
I have seen through Bill and you, the understanding of Acts 1:8 “ye shall witness unto me” – grasping what it means…. It is not to witness to what Jesus can do…but be a pure witness to the Love of Jesus Christ. Selfless.
Bill showed life is not one bit about himself.. He was instrumental in starting this prayer breakfast. Not only to lift others in prayer but demonstrating the fact that God does answer prayer.
Not what He does, but that He does it….. for us.
Oswald Chambers, “Everyone who is saved is called to testify to the fact…”
I have learned to take the focus from “accept Christ and have salvation”, although true, awesome and humbling in and of itself, there is something much more. As Jesus talks about Faith in Matthew 6:30  “will He not much more clothe you”, it is not faith in what He does, but that He will do it!
Oswald Chambers, “Abandoned to the love of Christ is the one thing that bears fruit in life.”   Bill Absher, Janis Perdue, all of you…you bear fruit.
Never forget the purpose you have and use the power you have by making yourself available to Him
Love wins…. because Jesus Lives!
I have also learned our Blessings came at an incredible price…God needs us like a hole in the head! HE created everything you see with a word. You don’t think He can snap His fingers and do it again?....... but He didn’t. He sent His Son, Selfless Servant to show His love…He died for us, then lived…for us.
When someone asks what is a Christian or what does a Christian believe, I can sum it up in two words…Jesus Lives. ….every monotheist religion recognizes Jesus Christ, but only we accept the fact that He lives…if he doesn’t live….there is no love. There is no light of Christ.
I saw light of Christ in Bill Absher. The light of Christ is in each of you….never doubt the purpose and influence you have….make yourself available.
We do not live in the minutes of our lives, but in the moments.
Jesus told Peter, “Feed my sheep”. What does that mean exactly? It is you “…being broken bread and poured out wine, that you have to be the nourishment of other souls until they learn to feed on God.”
Before I learned to feed God, I had to draw on it through others (my parents and family growing up then Bill, Jean, Barbara, Janis and you right here.
It evolves. . While your personal relationship grows with the Lord, you begin being poured out wine and broken bread of those around you. This epitomizes the church, BUMC, the Body of Christ.
Each time I see Cross, it is empty…. Gods’ Grace, Jesus Lives, and we have purpose, power and peace.
I pray
• that we may use our purpose to be the broken bread and poured out wine for others,
• that we use the power we have via the Holy Spirit to be strong in our witness, to exalt,  to encourage, to evangelize
• and that we have joy through the Peace . Peace in the fact that we do have Purpose and Power to make a difference.
I have learned it is not about ability, but availability.
Thank you, God Bless you as you continue to be available…..and make a difference as the Body of Christ.

A Special Valentine's Day

February 2007: I had been in Blacksburg with Mom and Dad, Jean and Bill Absher, for several days.  Dad was already confined mostly to his recliner and his movement restricted by Parkinson Disease.  Mother was confined as well since she gave up on driving after one lesson from Dad and an encounter with a fence in a pasture field.  That driving lesson preceded the 2007 Valentine's Day by more than 65 years- so the folks had lived through a lot in 68 years of marriage.
But Dad was aware of the day!  I was saying my good byes and he beckoned me to come closer.  He pointed to a  bouquet of roses in the Roanoke Times and whispered, " How about going and getting some for Jean."  My urgency to get back to my Valentine in Kentucky suddenly disappeared.  I hurriedly went to Krogers concerned that the roses would be sold out.  They weren't and I felt like I had discovered a gold mine, and maybe I had.   The love that was pure gold shone brightly that morning as Dad presented a dozen roses to his bride of almost 6 dozen years!

That is a Valentine's Day I'll never forget.

A Day of Remembering.

Today, November 6, 2011 has been celebrated in the church as All Saints Day.  Barbara  Jean had provided pictures of Mom and Dad to the Blacksburg  UM Church. They were displayed along with other church members that had died in the past year.  Pastor Reggie noted that some of the people being remembered had been regular attenders at the 8:45 service including Mom and Dad as well as Annie Tuttle (Barbara had provided her picture as well).  The title of Reggie's Sermon was " What Matters Most."
He talked about his own life and the unpleasant times that had been a part of his family.  But he talked about flash backs of moments when he felt love,  such as the memory of his dad hauling sand from the creek bed when he was maybe 4 years old and his brother carrying him after he had cut his foot at maybe 5.
The acts of love he remembered overshadowed unpleasant events he had repressed in his memory.  His closing was touching to us: he referred to scripture that exhorts Christ followers to aspire to have the mind of Christ.  He said that Bill and Jean Absher came as close to that goal as anyone he had ever met.

This picture was the one placed on the church altar.

Kaye and I went to Mom and Dad's Sunday School Class.  They commented how they liked the picture.
I had to tell them the rest of the story.  This picture was take about 4 years ago.  It was after Dad had quit driving.   It was Valentine's Day and I was going home.  Dad motioned for me to come closer-then he whispered a request that I get Mom some roses before I left town.  I did and it made them both so happy; the giver and the receiver.
    
Hospice had a memorial service this afternoon.  As they presented the deceased in alphabetical order, Mom's name came up first followed by Dad's.  Barbara had provided the picture of them together that had been made for the church directory.  Several Hospice workers spoke lovingly of Mom and Dad.

My main thoughts today were about our parents that had completed the race of life and had done it so well.  We got to experience the emotions of them crossing the finish line.

A Pair doesn't necessarily mean a Team.

Horses: Curtis, 3/20/2001

About 10 years ago I moved out of
the city to a rural non-farm setting. My new neighbor, Dan, had been waiting
for someone like me to “go out and play”. The play was with a pair of
standardbred horses that had been retired (not due to age) from the
track. Dan wanted to train them to plow. He had them harnessed
up but he needed holders to help the process get started. So my son , David,
and I went “out to play”. We backed the pair up to the plow and
steadied them until Dan got a pin in place to connect the double tree to the plow.
The click of the pin started the process.
The horses lurched forward. The plow wedged into the
ground, and since we’d started a little too fast, Dan jammed the plow
into the ground a little deeper to decrease the speed. That strategy
seemed to work for a moment, or until the hitch pin that had only been
partially installed, popped out. Get the picture? The metal double tree
slapped the horses quarters as if shot from a slingshot. The horses
bolted and David and I yelled almost in unison “let go, don’t get hurt”.
Well, it looked like I was trying to be a hero as I clung to my horses’
halter. I imagined the worst and then the horses suddenly stopped.
Dan and David scolded me for not turning loose. As they were lecturing
me I was almost overwhelmed by my apparent blind bravery. The real
deal was that the tongue of the halter buckle had penetrated the skin web
between my thumb and first finger. So my apparent bravery was out of
my control.
Morals:
A pair dosen't necessarily mean a team.
Bravery is sometimes blind!

Fidelity

As Dad did so many times, I went to his garden before breakfast- not just my breakfasts but before most of the neighbors. It was peaceful , cool and quiet since to -work traffic hadn't begun. I picked just-turning blueberries to beat the birds and then peas that  my brother-in-law Archie had planted.  Archie has planted Dad's garden for several years and this year, mostly after Dad had died.  Archie did it to satisfy Dad but also because Dad's garden plot was more productive than his.

Mom called this "Bill's Play Pen."  He had the chain link fence built to keep the deer out.  The t-shaped frames
were used to support a bird net and preserve the ripe blueberries. 

As I picked, I was wrapped in thoughts of Dad and a collection of essays by Wendell Berry, Fidelity. Wendell writes of people who demonstrate fidelity to their spouses, their friends, and their place ( their community and their land).

Dad could have been the main character in so many of Wendell's stories. Of course he was a solid rock companion to Mom for more than 71 years and a faithful father to Barbara Jean and me for just a few years less than that.  But his fidelity to his community, his church and his place is well demonstrated.  All the big rocks are gone from his garden spot but the remaining gravels keep the soil loose and well drained.  Kitchen waste weeds, pruned apple tree limbs and other organic matter had been turned into compost for may years and applied to make the hill-side garden a productive spot.

I told Grandson Joshua that when Dad purchased the original 3 acres on which he built his house and made our home the plot was lovingly called "Goat Hill."  But since we didn't have goats, locust brush, sassafras, poison ivy, and all other brushy undergrowth was removed by hand.

As I work around the place I am constantly reminded of Dad's frugality.  He usually fixed something rather than replace it. He did that for his hardware customers as well, and that was one of the things that kept his loyal customer base.  I guess that means he practiced fidelity with his resources.  That fidelity allowed him to die like he lived, debts all paid.

I just hope I can practice fidelity to Dad's principles and example and leave my "goat hill" a better place than I found it.

Reggie's Homily for Jean Absher

The Lady in The Window

A Homily for Jean Absher


When I asked Bill earlier this week if there was anything he wanted to be certain that was said here today, he remarked, “it’s hard, it’s real hard when you have to face it,” and then he said, “you’re never prepared.”  I was profoundly moved at how well Bill captured with a few simple words what we have all been experiencing in these last few days.  We knew that Jean’s time with us was growing shorter and we did everything we could to let her know how much we loved her and appreciated her.  She did everything she could to show us a beauty that has taught us about the power of God to be at work in our lives when we must move from this life into eternal life.  Yet, as Bill so rightly said, “it’s hard, it’s real heard when you have to face it; you’re never prepared.”  So we gathered here in this place that Jean loved so much to remember the God she served so well who cares for her now in ways that we no longer could so that we may honor the gift that God gave us in her as well as the gift of eternal life which she now lives with her Lord Jesus Christ.
My first memory of Jean Absher goes back to my very first Sunday at Blacksburg United Methodist Church.  She and Bill were celebrating a wedding anniversary that weekend, I guess it was their sixty-second anniversary, and I was struck by the mutual love so evident in their relationship as well as the love of their family for them.  I would come to have a much deeper respect for that love as it has been my privilege over the years to serve as the pastor of this congregation.  In those early years, I have vivid memories of Jean entering the sanctuary from the door that goes out to the lobby.  She was always beautifully dressed, but the most beautiful aspect of her appearance was her wonderful smile which literally brought light into the sanctuary.  She would use the side aisle to make her way back to her seat and she would stop every few pews to greet friends and share a laugh with them.  She made the sanctuary a very loving place to be by the way she loved the people in it.  People in this church experienced the love of God at work in this sanctuary because Jean was sharing her love with them.  I can remember how folks like Harry and Irene Harris waited with great anticipation to share words with Jean.  She would eventually make her way to her seat where Doris and Bob would sit in front of her and Barbara and Archie would sit beside her.  When the service was over, Jean always made it a point to give me a hard time.  She was the kind of person who could tease you and convey to you how much she loved you at the same time.  We’ve spent the last nine years teasing and loving one another.  I always looked forward to visiting with Jean because I knew that she was going to do her best to get me with some quip and she often did!  Our banter continued at the hospital and after they brought her home from the hospital.  She was not about to let her declining strength rob her of her joy for life and the people in her life.  I know that she gave this same kind of love to other people and it is why so many of us did all that we could to convey to her in these recent days how much we loved her and appreciated her.
Barbara commented that her mother was not vocal about her faith, but that she lived it.  We know that Jean Absher could not have spoken more powerfully about her Christian faith than she did with her beautiful example.  She didn’t have to talk about Christian faith because it permeated everything she said and did.  Curtis wrote an email while his mother was in the hospital about her pleasant personality.  He cited Galatians 5 where Paul lists the fruits of Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  She shared her beautiful smile even when her face was covered with a mask and she gave many “thank you Sweetie,” to the people who were providing her care.  This remarkable example in her most challenging days reflected a way of life that Jean had lived all her life.  Curtis and Barbara shared how she was raised not to complain, but to see the goodness of life and to celebrate it.  It was something she had learned from her own mother and she taught all of us about its power to transform life.  In the last few years, Jean had become even more affirming of her appreciation of life as she would declare that something that had been done for her was undoubtedly the best that she had ever experienced.  She was always positive and always appreciative.  She loved to brag about her caretaker, Mary, Janice, and Lodis and how great they treated her and Bill.  I think Mary, Janice, and Lodis would be the first to acknowledge that Jean made them better people.  You couldn’t help but be better when you were around Jean because she brought out the best in life with her love for people.
Of course, the people she loved the most and rightly so, was her family.  She and Bill shared 71 years in marriage and Jean loved to tell how Mrs. Wall had declared that their marriage would never last at the time that they got married.  Bill shared with me that he had said it before, that people that can get along like he and Jean did, that he wouldn’t trade it for anything.  Jean took care of Bill in a way that demonstrated how proud she was of him.  In an essay that Curtis wrote on his blog entitled “The Lady in the Window,” he recounts how his mother polished Bill’s brogan shoes and made certain that there were well starched creases in his work clothes.  Jean wanted to give her husband the best that was possible and she did it with a well-ordered home, with well-cooked meals, and with a love that left no doubt that Bill was the most important person in her life.  Even in recent weeks, she would continue to ask Bill if needed something, still doing her best to take care of him.  Jean gave this same kind of care to Curtis and Barbara.  Barbara said that her mother’s family was her career and those of us who know and love this family know what an outstanding job Jean did with her family.  The essay that Curtis wrote is a beautiful testimony to a mother’s love that did the very best she could for her children.  It recounts how Jean sewed clothes for them and polished their shoes.  She was very proud of her family and she wanted them to look their very best.  She took great pride in them and they gave her great joy.  Barbara told how a neighbor once commented to Jean after she had dressed after a nap, “Well, Jean, where is she going, to a party?”  While Jean dressed in a way that accentuated her God-given beauty, she was often seen wearing an apron.  The apron reflected her life of service in keeping her home in perfect shape as well as preparing food that couldn’t be any better.  Her grandchildren will long remember her macaroni and cheese and the care packages that she would give them when it was time to go home.  Karen, her granddaughter, talked about the barrels of boiled custard Jean made and took to people.  She made everyone’s favorite foods and that made everyone know how special they were to Jean.  Curtis shared that his mom once told him that her favorite things to do were to clean house and write notes.  When asked about that comment sometime later, she wasn’t sure about the cleaning, but she continued to affirm her joy for writing notes which became a source of joy for all of us who received them.  I know I kept those notes, which typically had a little quip and an affirmation of love, with notes that my mother wrote to me.  Jean was like a mother to me and many others.
I am confident that all of us will remember Jean’s beautiful sense of humor.  It was never cutting and it was  always loving.  Barbara and Curtis shared how their mom would call the church office and ask Janet Tabor to put her name on the list of jobs that Bill was doing at the church.  She enjoyed joking with everyone.  Jean and Kenneth McCoy loved giving each other a hard time.  Jean was comfortable with everyone because she loved everybody.  Jean’s sense of humor was a reflection of her enjoyment of life.  Karen, her granddaughter, wrote about something all the family will remember.  She recounted how Jean used to sing while she swept the floors, did dishes, whatever.  She wrote, “I don’t know that she even knew she was doing it and sometimes it was more of a hum.”  Curtis and Barbara recalled their mother singing “Oh what a beautiful morning” when she was starting her day.  I think Karen is probably right that Jean didn’t know that she was doing it.  It was as natural to her as breathing.
It is because Jean was such a remarkable, beautiful, loving person that it’s hard, real hard, to think that she is no longer with us in these life transforming ways.  Yet we know that she will always be with us in this way because her example will always challenge us to live with a greater joy and appreciation for life.  I am confident that Jean would want us to remember the life she now lives with God.  She remained secure in her knowledge of God’s love for her and for us until her last breath.  Because Jean was loved so well by so many, it was difficult for me to provide any real pastoral care.  But there was one night when Kaye was the only one with her at the hospital when I was finally able to engage Jean in a way that will forever confirm her deep faith and abiding trust in God.  I tried to lead Jean into a conversation about how difficult, about how frustrating, about how hard her situation was.  She genuinely didn’t see it that way.  I explored whether she was depressed or dismayed and she truly wasn’t.  She was so grounded in her Christian faith that the approach of death gave her no anxiety whatsoever.  She was perfectly at peace.  The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, taught us that we are to strive for perfection and he defined that as having the mind in us that was in Christ.  It is total and complete trust in God.  Wesley didn’t think that most of us experience perfection in this life, but rather he thought that most of us would experience it in the life to come.  Nevertheless he held out that it was possible for a few people to experience perfection in this life because he discerned it in a few people under his care.  If you ever want to understand this teaching of Methodist theology, you only need to remember the life of Jean Absher.  I have no doubt that she had experienced Christian perfection because of the way she lived and the way she died.  She has shown us what is possible in Jesus Christ.  Thanks be  to God for the gift of Jean Absher who was a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.  It’s hard, it’s real hard.  May we always understand our heartache as a reflection of the precious gift given in Jean Absher and may that always help us to appreciate the precious gift given in Jesus Christ.

Reginald D. Tuck
Blacksburg United Methodist Church
November 19, 2010

W. J. Absher, Final Chapter

The Unpreachable Sermon
A Homily for Bill Absher

We preachers know that there are some sermons that even on our best days we are not capable of preaching.  The truth of what we are trying to convey is too large, too deep, too thick, too profound for us to express with words.  The way that God has been at work is beyond belief and it makes belief possible; but the preacher knows that no sermon can fully express what has been experienced.  This is the situation that we face this morning as we gather to remember and give thanks for the life of Bill Absher.  There is no sermon that can adequate convey what we have experienced in the life of Bill Absher because his life was a sermon and it was much more powerful than anything that will ever be preached from a pulpit in a church.  The church was found wherever Bill Absher happened to be.  Some people talk about being the hands and feet of Christ; Bill Absher was the heart of Christ.  He was also the hands and feet of Christ, but the way that Bill used his hands and feet gave expression to the heart of Christ.  Bill was not holier than thou, but Bill was holy and his holiness allowed us to see and experience the beauty of God’s love.  When we celebrated Jean’s life in November, I shared my impression that Jean reflected what we Methodists call Christian perfection.  I thought the same was true for Bill.  When I related this impression to him during his last hospitalization, Bill commented something to the effect that he should have learned something in ninety years.  He had learned what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and his example taught us the deeper truths of our faith which was the greatest sermon that it will ever be our privilege to experience.  So I trust you will recognize and understand that I am not capable of preaching the sermon that was Bill Absher.  Rather I will simply recount some glimpses of a much larger sermon in the hope that it will remind us all of the God who was at work in and through Bill Absher as well as the way God cares for him and promises to help us.
Curtis observed at the prayer meeting this past Tuesday that a sociologist would have predicted a bleak future for Bill when he was a boy.  Bill’s father was killed when he was ten years old and Bill assumed responsibilities for his family that did not permit him to finish high school.  Bill had often dreamed of going back to school and he had often said that he would have liked to have been an extension agent.  Bill taught himself to be a successful business man which prompted George Allen, an extension agent, to call Bill an extension carpenter.  People in Blacksburg knew that they could go to Bill Absher for good guidance and fair treatment.  People would often bring some item to the store that they wanted to replace by buying another one.  Bill would examine the item and fix it.  People knew that they could trust Bill Absher and he built more than a business; he built a reputation that made him one of the most loved and respected people in this community.  Bill started his own business at age 51 after working as a carpenter at the arsenal in Radford where he was later hired as an employee.  While visiting Curtis in Kentucky, he bought a delivery truck, paint shakers, and shelves from a company that was going out of business to do something that he had contemplated for many years.  No sociologist would have predicted that a man who had to grow up without a father, did not have the benefit of finishing his education, and served his nation during the Second World War would turn out to be one of the most respected people in his community.  A sociologist would have predicted many other things, but Bill Absher was always predictably reliable and trustworthy.  I’m sure many of us remember how Jean loved to tell of the woman who had predicted that their marriage wouldn’t last.
Bill and Jean not only had a marriage that lasted far beyond what anyone would have predicted, but they enjoyed a relationship that made them predictable in their devotion for one another.  They were always there for one another and I know that Bill deeply missed Jean.  The depth of their relationship was given its most beautiful expression in the love of their family.  Barbara and Curtis cared for their parents in ways that left no doubt that they were deeply loved and appreciated.  I spent many times with Bill and Jean looking at photographs of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Bill and Jean were immensely proud of their family and they took great delight in the lives of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Mindy, Bill’s granddaughter, sent him a letter last week that read in part, “I love that I was able to share your home with my family!  There is no place where we all love to be like Blacksburg.  I know that having my grandparents around to get to know my children is a special treasure.  I am so thankful that you and grandma set such a wonderful example of love and life and that my children have had the opportunity to experience that as well!”  Beth wrote from Chile, “I want to thank you for living your ministry for the world to see, regardless of whether or not the world was watching.  You have taught me, and others, so much by your quiet example.”
It is impossible to talk about Bill Absher for very long without talking about his Christian faith.  It permeated his life and touched the lives of all who knew him.  Beth continued in her letter, “There has been much said in recent months, and I am sure much more to be said, about your life of service . . . to your family, to your church and to your community.  Thank you for that witness of giving oneself, of using the unique set of talents that God has given you in order to bring Him glory.  Yours is a life that has brought Him glory, and continues to do so through the lives of your children who also live lives of dedicated service to their families, their churches and their communities.”  Beth later wrote, “Other than reading the Roanoke Times, the only books I can remember seeing you read are your Bible and your Sunday School lesson.  In fact, one of my fondest memories of you is coming home from school one day when you were visiting us in Kentucky and finding you sitting under a tree reading your Bible.  It made quite an impression on me because I realized that if you were reading it, it really was an important book.”  Mindy recounted in her letter, “My first memories of Blacksburg are probably at your church.  How fitting is that?  I remember feeling so small while I looked up at that beautiful wood ceiling and thinking that it looked a hundred miles to the front of the church.  All my life, every time I go into a new church, I compare it to the Blacksburg United Methodist Church.  I’ve yet to find one as compelling!  I think though that maybe the reason your church is unparalleled is not because of its architecture but because of the people.”  As the pastor of this church, I know that a lot of the people are here because of Bill Absher.
Bill Absher will always be one of the most important people in the history of this church.  His love for this church is legendary.  Bill is the one who often found his way through the church basement in the dark to insure that the church was warm and comfortable on Sunday mornings.  Bill is the one who often did the hard work of starting some new ministry and never wanted a place of prominence in the leadership of that new ministry.  He helped to organize the prayer breakfast with Gunnar Teilmann.  Bill was told that if he would get the people, Gunnar and Richard Barker would see to the leadership.  Bill told them that they had a deal and Bill faithfully called people to invite them to be a part of that ministry.  Bill had a way of inviting people to join in ministry that was loving and compelling.  He never gave up on people, but persisted in his loving invitation.  Bill was an important part of the Murrill Bible Study and while he was well qualified to teach the class himself, he always took on the role of finding people to teach.  He had recruited Carter Elliott and Mark Smith in more recent years.  Bill was truly a servant of the church who understood the Christ who came not to be served, but to serve.  Curtis called him a talent scout who would figure out who could do what and then worked to make it happen.  I am confident that it would have been a whole lot less work for Bill to do it himself, but he understood ministry.  It is a lesson that I am still learning myself and Bill Absher was a master teacher.
As the pastor of Bill Absher’s church, it was my privilege to experience his witness of Christian faith in the most challenging times of his life.  Bill demonstrated the strength that is possible in Christ as he experienced Jean’s death.  He was always man enough to cry and he had studied materials given to him by Hospice about grieving the death of a spouse.  He kept those materials tucked in his chair and often studied them.  He did not try to minimize or ignore his grief, but he entered into it, trusting that God would meet him in that place.  He knew what we are experiencing this day and he would want us to know that God will find us even in this place.  As Bill’s condition became more difficult and he had to make a decision about going into Hospice, we had some serious conversations.  We talked soon after he made the decision to go into Hospice Care and he was quite clear with me that he was comfortable with his decision.  As Bill began to move into that place which is somewhere between life and eternal life, I would question Bill about whether he was having any dreams.  For a while, Bill reported that he was not having any dreams, but a few weeks ago, he shared with me, initiating the conversation himself, that he had had a dream.  He was here at the church digging a new well.  When I asked if he had hit water in his dream, he said no.  I shared my impression that the dream might be about how this experience was going to take him to a deeper place in his spiritual life since this experience was unlike any that he had ever known before in life.  Bill shook his head in agreement and he continued to report having that dream.  It is instructive that what was most on Bill’s mind was a project at the church; a project to provide water.  The images and the deeper meaning of a well and water reflect a depth of spirituality that is deeply grounded in the Biblical witness.  When I related the dream to my wife, she offered her impression that the dream might also be about the church.  She suggested that Bill’s dream might be Bill’s final lesson for us; teaching us to go deeper, to look for new sources of living water to sustain us in our life as a Christian community.  Curtis thought we might both be right.  Because Bill had periods in the last week when he would not sleep, I probed him about this situation.  I asked if there was anything on his mind and he indicated that there was.  When I asked him if he wanted to talk about it, he would begin to tell me how much he loved me.  I thought that was his way of avoiding talking about what was on his mind so we went through that sequence of conversation three times.  Wanting to be certain that I had given him every opportunity to express any anxiety that he might have about his approaching death, I bluntly asked him if was afraid.  He responded immediately and his response was a resounding and clear, “No!”  So I think what was truly on his mind was telling me that he loved me.  Then Bill turned to the subject of my mother saying that he was sorry that she had died as tears rolled down his cheeks.  Later Bill turned the conversation to my father saying that he knew my father and that he was a nice man.  He said something about my father having a delivery job.  Now Bill never knew my father or it may be more accurate to say that Bill did not know my father when my father made his home in this world.  As I listened to Bill, I began to discern that Bill may have come to know my father as he was moving into that place between life and eternal life.  So I asked Bill if he would take a message to my father.  As he shook his head affirmatively, I asked Bill to tell my father that I love him.  He agreed to give him the message.  Now do you understand what was happening?  As Bill Absher was dying, he was still doing ministry.  He was able to do that because he knew and served a living Lord.
When Bill Absher took his last breath, Lodis, his caretaker, was playing a CD and singing, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.  Until his last breath in this world, Bill Absher was focused on the love of God.  Thanks be to God for the sermon that was Bill Absher which has taught about and touched us with the love of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Reginald D. Tuck
Blacksburg United Methodist Church
April 7, 2011