Funeral for Patricia "Jolene" Mapel

Order of Service – Funeral for Jolene Mapel

Prelude:

Entrance: “How Great Thou Art” - Austin Casper (pre-recorded)

Call to Worship:
Gathered in Christ's name, let us praise God
who is our certain hope in all life's varied circumstances.
In the face of death believe the good news the scriptures proclaim:
As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.
(Isaiah 66:13)

Greeting:
We have come together within the strengthening fellowship of friends and family:
to praise God for the life of Patricia Jolene Mapel;
to share our grief with God and with one another;
to reaffirm our faith in God's unfailing goodness;
to hear again God's promise of resurrection;
and to commend Jolene to God's everlasting care.

Opening Hymn: In The Garden   No. 227    

Opening Prayer:
Gracious God, your love endures forever.  Your faithfulness is unfailing and all your promises are true.  The movement of your Spirit is evident even in our darkest moments.  Attend to us now in our grief as we trust you will.  
Speak words of comfort to our hearts.  Open us up to receive your hope.
O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our sister Jolene.
We thank you for giving her to us, her family and friends,
to know and to love as a companion on our earthly pilgrimage.
In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn.
Give us faith to see death as the gate of eternal life,
so that in quiet confidence we may continue our course on earth,
until by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Hymn:   “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me

The Gospel Reading:
Hear these words from Jesus:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places.
If it were not so,
Would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and will take you to myself,
So that where I am, there you may be also.
And you know the way to the place where I am going.
I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
But you will see me;
Because I live, you also will live.
I have said these things to you while I am still with you.
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
Whom the Father will send in my name,
Will teach you everything,
And remind you of all that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”  
(John 14:1 – 4, 18 – 19, 25 – 27)

Hymn:        When They Ring Those Golden Bells     (insert)

Message:  Pastor Roy Karlen – Woodlawn Christian Church
2 Corinthians 4:16-5:9
We do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling— if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

Patricia Jolene Mapel was born on June 24, 1933 at McCrary Hospital in Lake City to John and Blanche Sharkey.  On September 1, 1952 Jolene was married to J.R. Mapel here at Woodlawn Christian Church.  Jolene passed from this world and into the world promised to us by our Lord at 1:00 am on Monday, April 4, 2016 at Shady Oaks Care Center here in Lake City.

The life of a single individual is a maze of complex and complicated relationships with loved ones, friends and acquaintances.  Often at these types of services we listen to the words and we wonder where is the person that we knew in our lives... for you see, each of us had a different relationship with Jolene.  Each of us saw a different side or aspect of her in our encounters with her life.  Even siblings will often say, that's not the 'Mom' I knew... such was the case with Jolene.  The new mother to the oldest child simply isn't the mother that the youngest child encounters.  For better or worse, the relationships are different and distinct.  Each of us here finds ourselves mourning the loss of a slightly different Jolene.

Since last November when Jolene was placed into Hospice care, I've gone out to Shady Oaks from 3 to 4 times a week to visit with her.  Her condition was a series of ups and downs, and at times I was certain Jolene would outlive us all.  I found Jolene to be a very intelligent and engaging woman and I must honestly say that I will miss greatly our conversations, I truly enjoyed them all.  She was a very gifted conversationalist and seemed to me to just very much enjoy visiting.  I grew to be very fond of Jolene, she was a wonderful woman.

Jolene didn't live a perfect life, but none of us here has either, nor will anyone else ever do so.  In every life we have some shortcomings, difficulties and disappointments... some of us handle these burdens better or worse than others.  But, in life we all encounter these bumps in the road.  I'm told of the sadness that Jolene endured during her life and how she battled depression for so long.  We all have a purpose in life, and we all struggle at times to understand what it might be... for many of us I'm afraid to say we'll never know what exactly our purpose was to be.  I've often said that for all I know my sole purpose in life... the only reason I was ever born... the only reason I've endured the pain and suffering of a lifetime, was for me to maybe say that one thing... that one word... to a young child that impacts their life and they go on to become a great minister, or a researcher who discovers something vastly important to humanity, a lawyer, a politician, or maybe that child grows up to be a mother who teaches her children to love God; a word spoken in a youth group, or a service, or maybe in line at Wal-Mart.  Sometimes, it seems impossible for me to know... why am I here...

Near the end of a life, perhaps it's easier to see just what your purpose in life was.  

When I would pray with Jolene, I always thanked God for all that Jolene meant to her family and friends.  I thanked God for the impact that Jolene had in these lives, all the things she taught to them, all the people she touched with her life.  I thanked God... for Jolene...

When I finished these prayers I could always see a look in her eyes, and she would softly smile and say thank you.  I think at the end of her life, perhaps she understood why she had endured all the difficulties.  She survived them for all of you, and for me... her destiny was to impact all the lives in this room... to impact them all for the better.  The strength that I've seen in her children's faces as I've gotten to meet and know them... that strength came from Jolene... all her strengths... and all of her frailties, have strengthened you.

In just a little bit, you'll hear a few stories about Jolene's life, and then during our lunch here together, you'll hear perhaps even more stories.  Stories about a woman who really did so much, but perhaps felt she could have done so much more; a woman who was a driving force, perhaps the sole reason that it actually came to fruition... in a movement in modern agriculture.  I'll let family tell the story, but Jolene and her bright and able mind was the key to the story.  A woman that as she told me probably married too young, but who went on to create a wonderful family, in spite of not knowing at first how to be a wife and mother.  All in all she did the best she could, and who knows perhaps that was the best way for it to be.

She was a woman who always seemed so put together as her family said, but a woman who always hid her human frailties.  Jolene was a woman who professed to me that she had absolute faith in God; but, a woman whose eyes betrayed her and told me that she had her doubts.  For one day after praying with Jolene I told her “God Loves you”, and with a hopeful sadness in her eyes she said “I hope so”.  I told Jolene that there are very few things in this world that I profess to know with absolute certainty... but that I was certain beyond all doubt, that our loving and all gracious God loved her.  Our God loves Jolene, and He loves all of you as well.

This past Monday morning at the very early hour of 1 AM... holding the hand of her son Mark, Patricia Jolene Mapel walked up to the gates of Heaven, and only turning back long enough for one final hug... she turned again and stepped through that gate... and onto those streets of gold.  “God loves you Jolene”.

Eulogies and Reflections:

Closing Prayer:
Following the interment at Lake City Cemetery, the family invites you all to join them in further celebration of Jolene's life and a time of shared remembrances and closure, by gathering with them for lunch in the Church's fellowship hall. For those who do not wish to attend the graveside service, please feel free to remain behind and wait here at the Church.

Let us pray:
O God, our Strength and our Redeemer, Giver of life, and Conqueror of death, we open our hearts to you just as we are.  We celebrate your gift of life freely given, but are grieved by a sense of loss in the face of death.  The love which binds us to one another leaves us aching as ties are broken.  Accept our tears as emblems of devotion, and transform them into waters of life to nourish us in the days ahead.
We trust you.  We love you.  We know in Christ that your love is everlasting.  Nothing can separate any of us from your abiding care.  With you is eternal life.
With confidence, we now entrust Jolene to your unfailing love and overflowing goodness.  Through the power that raised Christ from the dead to live eternally with you, lift up this, your servant, to life fulfilled beyond our imagining.  We give you but your own, enfold her in your everlasting arms, hold her for she is your child.
Now strengthen us, through the gift of your Spirit, to face into the future with confidence that you stand with us.  Grant that the changes of life may leave us stronger as we journey through life.
Reassured of your abiding presence, help us to knit more firmly the ties that bind us one to another.  Renewed by your love, help us to love in ever larger circles so as to embrace your people everywhere till at last we are all united eternally through Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Benediction:

Postlude:  (How Great Thou Art)