A Gospel Service of Comfort, Hope and Joy

In Celebration of the Death and Life

of

Patrick Hurd Morison

April 14, 1937 – December 6, 2003

Call to Worship                                  

Psalm 117

Hymn

Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness #520

Responsive Reading                             

Psalm 103 – page 821 in Hymnal

Reading

A Dialogue Between a

Christian and Death

by George Herbert

Christian:            

Alas, poor Death, where is thy glory?

Where is thy famous force, thy ancient sting?

Death:   

Alas, poor mortal, void of storie,

Go spell and read how I have kill’d thy King

Christian:            

Poor Death! and who was hurt thereby?

Thy curse being laid on him, makes thee accurst.

Death:   

Let losers talk; yet thou shalt die;

These arms shall crush thee.

Christian:            

Spare not, do thy worst.

I shall be one day better than before:

Scripture Reading

Revelation 5:1-14 – Our Hope and Joy

Hymn

The King of Love My Shepherd Is

#184

Sermon

Romans 8:28-39– The Gospel of Victory

Hymn

And Can It Be That I Should Gain

#455

The Lord’s Supper

Hymn

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

#252

Prayer for the Family & the Church

Hymn

All Hail the Power of Jesus Name

#297

God’s Blessing

Hebrews 13:20-21 –

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,  the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen.

The Valley of Vision

LORD, high and holy, meek and lowly,

Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,

where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;

hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox

   that the way down is the way up,

   that to be low is to be high,

that the broken heart is the healed heart,

that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,

that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,

that to have nothing is to possess all,

that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,

that to give is to receive,

that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,

And the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;

Let me find thy light in my darkness,

   thy life in my death,

   thy joy in  my sorrow,

   thy grace in my sin,

   thy riches in my poverty,

   thy glory in my valley.

 from  a Collection of Puritan

Prayers and Devotions

__________________________________

   That’s how most obituaries begin. With the facts. Pat was born in 1937 in Baltimore, Maryland and grew up there. In 1959 he married Jane Hilker.  In 1962, after graduating from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, he was ordained into the ministry.  Children came along: Jennifer, Jo, and Sam. They grew up and brought home his sons-in-law Barry Hendrix and Darik Taniguchi and his daughter-in-law Karen Burke.  And then his beloved grandchildren arrived:  Danielle, Kevin, and Tyler Taniguchi; Katie and Margaret Morison; Taryn and Abby Hendrix. All of whom will grieve his absence at the weddings, births, celebrations, and memorials yet to come.

   Those are the facts that outline a biography; they are easily written and just as easily forgotten. They don’t tell the story of a life anyway.  Pat would have said that his  life began before he was born and that it continues at this very moment in unimaginable joy.

   God’s grace may have shone brightest on Pat on a day in 1954 when he came to faith in Jesus.  But God’s grace was never so deep or so powerfully present as in the last months of his life, when his suffering burned away all the trappings of  ordinary life. It was as if God were stripping away the biological facts that held him here in this time and place, and revealing more and more of his real life.  It was hard for him to talk at the end. He saved his breath to say, “I love you.”

   Shortly before he died, Pat wrote in his journal, “The   sinner’s life flourishes like a wildflower and then is gone.  But the sons of God were not created to be forgotten.” Even when we are no longer here to remember him, Pat will never be forgotten, because the Lord will remember him forever.