September 29 Memorial Service For Gerry Rush

Geraldine Wilcox Rush 1/12/42--9/17/18

I first learned to know Gerry when we were both students at Eastern Mennonite College in the early '60's, and she was an assistant dean of high school dormitory girls and I had a similar role with high school boys. Since then we both taught at Eastern Mennonite High School, have both been involved with Highland Retreat Camp and Gemeinschaft Home, and she and her husband Jim were members of Zion Mennonite Church during our twenty years there.

Both Jim and Gerry have been very supportive influences in our lives, and we were deeply saddened by the recent reoccurrence of Gerry's cancer and by her death on September 12. Hundreds of her friends and colleagues gathered for her memorial service at her beloved Zion Church near Broadway Saturday.

Here is the message brought by her pastor Mike Metzler, which he entitled, "Thinking of You."

Introduction

We’re thinking of you, Gerry Rush.  We’re here today to remember your life, to grieve our loss.  

Together, we cry out to the Living God, the One who guided you, to find new purpose for our own lives in this difficult time of loss and change.

As we think of you, we remember through Jim that you were the “thinker,” Jim the “doer” in your marriage.  And we marvel together at the places you’ve been to, the people your lives touched in your 76 years of life.
One of the people your life touched was me. After your death, I went back to the blackberry patch where you led a group of us from Zion Mennonite Church during our annual retreat 2 months ago.  Your energy and sense of adventure surprised me. We walked together up the steep hill to the field at Highland and found, to our delight, that the blackberries were ripe.  We explored the patch - going deeper and deeper to find and enjoy the delicious fruit. This is how my children remember you - as the woman who led us in search of blackberries at Highland Retreat.

Stories from Gerry’s Life:

I’ve learned much about you since your death.  You were baptized as a young teen, responding publicly to God’s love, dying to yourself and receiving new life through Jesus, committing yourself to a life that responded to God’s grace through costly discipleship.  In college, you demonstrated that the family of God transcends cultural barriers by choosing to room with an African-American woman. Your actions were risky in 1959. The dean of the college met with you, attempting to dissuade you.  But your thinking mind was set. You pressed forward.

In your first year of marriage with Jim, you spent the summer in New York City at the World’s Fair.  Doing what? Day after day, you and Jim represented the Mennonite Church by interpreting a piece of modern artwork that depicted Jesus as the light of the world.  After giving birth to Amy and Jon, you decided that God was calling you to make disciples at home! So, while your children were young, you stayed home with them - investing your life in these two wonderful gifts that God gave to you and Jim.  But during summer breaks, you and Jim headed to the mountains where you both invested your lives and gifts into the camping ministries of the Church at Spruce Lake in Canadensis, PA for 8 years and down the road at Highland where you served as director for 7 years and on the board for 33 years.
Accounting was your second career.  Your thinking mind enjoyed analyzing, understanding and playing with numbers!  Though accounting was a men’s profession when you started your career, you were not only hired but also promoted as you excelled as an accountant.  Yet your legacy is how you mentored other female accountants to thrive in this profession.
During Jim’s breaks from teaching, you and Jim led your family on adventures with God.  In your mid-30s, you enjoyed 2 years teaching chemistry at a high school in Nigeria and english at a college seeking to equip pastors for ministry.  Your own life was enriched as you listened to the stories of pastors who rode their bikes marathon distances from village to village to share the good news of Jesus the Messiah.  At age 55, you served as hostess, accountant, and bookkeeper at a guesthouse in Pakistan. Here, on the border with Afghanistan, you heard stories of health workers who risked their lives going into Afghanistan and then came to the guest house for renewal.  After this, you and Jim led your family to Jerusalem where you spent 3 months studying Jesus’ life, Judaism and Islam, and the conflict over the land. Before the wall was built there, you watched from the Notre Dame study center as 1,000s of people crossed through the back gate of the school to avoid border police.
As you learned by seeing, hearing, and experiencing life in other cultures, you grew in wisdom and courage and applied this in your life back home.

Christ Glorified In Our Weaknesses:

We all know that you weren’t perfect - especially those closest to you, as is the case for all of us! Two months ago at Zion’s annual retreat, you confessed in your testimony during worship your tendency to get too busy.  You expressed your desire to slow down, to spend more time listening to God in prayer. In your confession, you gave leadership to the congregation reminding all of us that living in God’s way involves both being and doing.

In the weeks leading up to your death, I heard stories of you apologizing to your children and asking for their forgiveness of ways you felt you had not acted like Christ to them.  You called in co-workers as well, asking them to forgive you for words or actions done out of frustration rather than love. As death approached, those closest to you saw fear in your eyes.  Was this due to your medications, or were you like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane pleading with the Father to take this cup of suffering away?

Pointing Us To Jesus -

Yet even in your weakest time, we saw you pointing us to the One far greater than you, the One you followed each and every day.  

Your life was fascinated by Jesus, God in the flesh.  Your thinking mind pondered the reality of Jesus - fully human and fully divine - for your entire adult life.  Jesus captivated your imagination. Who is this light of the world? What does the Bible teach us about his life, ministry, death, and resurrection?  And how are we then called to live in the light of God’s revelation to the world?
In your last years of life in your mortal body, you borrowed two books from me: 1) How to read the Bible for all its worth, and 2) Scripture and the Authority of God: How to read the Bible today by N.T. Wright.  You were a lifelong learner and therefore disciple of Jesus. As we remember your life today, we find you persistently looking towards Jesus. The Light of the world illumined your life. The Spirit of Jesus empowered you.  The Creator God gave you creativity and wisdom that impacted each of us here today and many more……

Conclusion: Living & Dying Well In Christ

Like Mary who grieved and wailed in lament as she watched her beloved Son Jesus die on the Roman cross, we grieve that you suffered in your last days and hours in your mortal body.  But even in your suffering, you pointed us towards Jesus. Your last breaths took all of you. Yet as Amy testified to me, you were filled with gentleness and kindness until your last breath in this mortal body.  We are grateful for your courageous life and your courageous death in Christ. In your living and your dying, you imitated the humility and passion of Christ. You ran the race of faith with wisdom and courage.

And as I imagine what Gerry might want me to say to everyone gathered here today, I am drawn to the words of Paul in Philippians chapter 3 verse 17: “Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.”
And, later in verse 20 Paul reminds the Church, “But our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends.”
May God, the One who Gerry adored through her words and actions, the One raised Jesus from death to new life, meet us in our lament and grief today and give us new life.  May God strengthen our faith and help us trust that in all God, all things are possible - even resurrection: new bodies, new heavens and a new earth. May God empower us today to turn towards the One who guided Gerry’s life, Jesus the Messiah, and find fullness of life, as Gerry did.  Amen.