Five days ago, on the morning of May 19, Tim passed from this world to Glory.
Months before, May 19 was a date we chose at random as we planned a night for the family of 5 Redeemer churches to gather for the first-ever Redeemer Night. In hindsight, the date was never random. God, in his infinite kindness, knew the Redeemer family would need to be together that night. God knew we’d need to hug, cry, pray, trade stories, and worship together on the night of May 19. And that’s what we did.
The last song we sang that night was We Will Feast in the House of Zion. The theologically-rich lyrics, penned by Josh Moore and Sandra McCracken, are as follows:
Refrain:
We will feast in the house of Zion
We will sing with our hearts restored
He has done great things, we will say together
We will feast and weep no more
Verses:
We will not be burned by the fire
He is the Lord, our God
We are not consumed by the flood
Upheld, protected, gathered up
In the dark of night, before the dawn
My soul, be not afraid
For the promised morning, oh, how long?
Oh, God of Jacob, be my strength
Every vow we've broken and betrayed
You are the Faithful one
And from the garden to the grave
Bind us together, bring shalom
These words brought us back to a 1990 sermon Tim preached called, Lord of the Feast, which orients us to the truth God is the author of joy, celebration, and comprehensive satisfaction. In it, Tim recalls Jesus' first miracle, turning water into wine at a wedding banquet.
And today, as we mourn Tim's passing, we want to remind the family of God of the great feast that awaits us in Glory, seen in Revelation 19. Celebration is ahead of us and together we will feast, we will sing with restored hearts, we will tell of God's goodness, and we will weep no more.
Tim ends the sermon reciting Isaiah 25:
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
Let this imagery from the Word of God encourage your heart. God has gifted us with good, temporary, sensorial gifts here so we have just a sliver of a foretaste of the goodness that is to come. Ahead of us, family, is a celebratory feast unlike any we could ever imagine. And on that day, we will feast with Tim and our Lord.
Thanks be to God.
