Viola Baxter loved to say yes. It was her nature to agree to help
others. This is what she was most
certainly about—the selfless service of others.
When her husband was bedridden for 8 years, Viola said yes to his needs,
turning him constantly to ensure that he didn’t get bedsores, feeding him through
a tube, doing whatever was necessary.
She said yes.
When a coworker needed a ride to
work because she didn’t have a car, Viola said yes. When the Cub Scouts needed a den mother, it
was Viola who said yes. When family
needs arose, Viola said yes. Even when
her granddaughter needed someone to teach her to drive, she hoped Viola would
say yes, because it was Viola who could get from Ooltewah to the mall in 3
minutes, it was Viola who beat the ambulance from Chattanooga to
Murfreesboro.
Viola said yes, because it was in
her nature to be selfless.
So it makes sense that we spend
some time today focusing on where that selfless nature in Viola came from. Here, in 2 Corinthians, we find that her ‘yes’
is anchored in Christ’s yes to her. In
Christ, we find the ‘yes’ to all of God’s promises. Christ is the fulfillment of our greatest
hopes, and so when we look to him, we see yes.
When we look to Christ, we see selfless service and a desire to reach
out to others. When we live well, we
imitate this selfless love, and so when we celebrate what was good about Viola,
we are celebrating what is good about God, for when we are at our best, we are
imitating God.
God’s love is an amazing
thing. As a whole, humanity turned from
the worship of God and chose to put other things before him. As a result of this, sickness and death
entered the world. This beast has been
tearing at our weak underside, trying to get us to despair and give up hope.
But God refuses to give us over to
the powers of sin and death. God will
not simply allow his beloved, unique creations to be destroyed as a result of
our choices. Instead, God reaches out to
us in love, coming to us in Christ Jesus, a Savior who is stronger than death
and able to deliver us from the powers that ensnare us. Our captors do not suspect his power, and it
is too late when they realize that he is the Savior, the Deliverer, the one who
is able to redeem us from all that seeks to enslave us. In Christ, we are made free.
So when we gather to remember the
life of Viola Baxter, we also gather to remember the promises of God. This is where we remember the Easter story,
the Sunday morning when we stare into the empty tomb in wonder and
amazement. Jesus Christ has conquered
death, and because he lives, we, too, shall live. We shall conquer death. We shall wander through the valley of the
shadow of death and be not afraid. We
shall pass through death as though it were a shadow and come into the light on
the other side. This is the promise of
God, the promise to which Christ was the resounding ‘Yes!’ We shall not die, but shall live, and we
shall reign with Christ forever and ever.
In Christ, death is no more.
In Christ, life is eternal.
Today we celebrate that Viola has
passed through death into life, and in completing her baptism, she realized the
fulfillment of the ‘yes’ that Christ said to her.
May all who believe have confidence
in God because of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, and may we look
forward to the day when we, too, shall pass into eternal life.
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