To me Ed Sproat will always be the incarnation of James Arness, Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke and other movies. At six feet seven he stood tall, stood his ground, and was unafraid in the face of opposition and disagreements.
On the Governing Board of the Chapel he was never afraid of voicing his opinion even when he was in the minority. He never followed the herd but was assertive and questioned the wisdom of what was being discussed. He was a leader not just a follower. Let me share one story. When I was trying to get the Board to include funds in the budget for marketing, promotion and advertising so that the ministry of the Chapel would be noticed in the community and not rendered invisible by its secluded location, I suggested it could be included in the Outreach budget since it was an attempt to reach outsiders. Ed was chair of the Outreach Committee at the time. I could not get enough support from the Board for my proposal but Ed privately and anonymously donated a substantial amount to get it funded.
Ed loved Sandy and his family. He was an avid reader of history and biography. We exchanged books regularly and discussed their merits. We never lacked items for conversation over dinner. He read his Bible daily, devoured my Soul Food series when it was published, enjoyed his bicycle group and glass of Malbec wine. He was prepared for the next chapter in his life’s journey despite it coming unexpectedly and suddenly.
Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2)
Jesus bids us think of death not as a leap into the dark unknown, but as a journey to a prepared place. It will not be like arriving in a strange town in a foreign land, where you know nobody, nobody is expecting you and you haven’t even made a hotel reservation. No. Just as Jesus sent two of his disciples ahead into the city to prepare for him to eat the Passover (Mk.14:12-16), so now he would go ahead to prepare a place for them. In the familiar and true expression death is “going home” to a place prepared in our Father’s house.
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:3)
Here is a second promise of Christ calculated to reassure us. Having gone ahead to prepare a place for us, he does not expect us to travel there on our own. Instead, he promises to come back in person to fetch us. Christ comes to take us to himself. Is it fanciful to suppose that when the dying martyr Stephen said he saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand, Jesus has in fact risen from his throne in order to fetch or welcome him? Christ is our destination as well as our escort. He comes to take us, and he takes us to himself.
“I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)
It is a beautiful truth that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself our heavenly destination, is in addition our forerunner (who has gone ahead to prepare the way), our personal escort (who comes to fetch us) and the way by which we travel there. When his time for departure came Ed decided he would accept his physical condition, fall asleep in Jesus, and surrender his life into the Lord’s hands.
No longer is he afflicted with his lameness for “the lame will leap like a deer” (Isaiah 35:6). He has discovered that “to live is Christ and to die is gain – to be with Christ, which is better by far: (Phil.1:21,23). God has raised him up with Christ, and seated him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Eph.1:6). He has been rescued from every evil attack and has been brought safely to the Lord’s heavenly kingdom (2 Tim.4:18). Where there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Rev.21:4).
O Lord, support us all the day long of this troublous life, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then, in your great mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last; through Jesus Christ. Amen.
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