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Hello St. John’s Family,
While briefly scanning the headlines this morning, I came across a sad and troubling update: Stacy Wakefield died yesterday after battling pancreatic cancer. Though her name may not be familiar to you, Stacy was the wife of Tim Wakefield, a longtime pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Tim had recently passed away last October at the age of 57 after battling brain cancer. Tim and Stacy both worked diligently for many causes, including The Jimmy Fund that supports cancer research and treatment, long before their diagnoses. Now, their children (born in 2004 and 2005) are faced with preparing funeral arrangements for their mother only 5 months after doing so for their father. Troubling, to say the least.
I must note how the Wakefields weren’t merely philanthropists. They were committed people of faith, who took God’s call to live out their faith in Christ through word and deed very seriously. Tim Wakefield’s baseball career was a unique one; he was a knuckleball pitcher who experienced tremendous victories and agonizing defeats. While he won the World Series twice – including the 2004 Red Sox Championship that ended an 86-year drought - he also gave up a game-ending home run to the rival Yankees in game 7 of the American League Championship Series the year before. Through it all, his faith in Christ enabled him to maintain a humble, centered perspective – one that others around him readily noticed. Though that wasn’t always mentioned in his remembrances penned by sports outlets, it was widely known and captured well in a remembrance in Christianity Today last fall.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/october-web-only/tim-wakefield-death-baseball-athlete-evangelical-christian.html
As I read of Stacy’s death, I immediately thought of my children, who are essentially the same ages. I thought of the devastation the Wakefield children must be experiencing. I thought of the devastation Tim and Stacy must have experienced as their health failed, knowing they would be separated from the children they loved. I thought of how faithful this family was in serving God; how they exemplified the best of what it means to be a Christian… and how both parents are now, well, dead. That hurt. That made me angry, and in all honesty, it offended me.
These are the kind of experiences that we as people of faith struggle with. It seems incredibly unfair that two faithful and humble people died far too soon, while others with less than honorable intentions live long, fruitful lives – or are the ones that “beat” diseases like cancer. Why didn’t God act to heal the Wakefields, or at least allow treatments to work? Where is God in this mess?
This Sunday in worship, we’ll hear Jesus tell a large crowd who had chased him down “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51). When they – and his disciples – grumbled, Jesus asks: Does this offend you? The answer to that question seems obvious, then and now.
Jesus, though, wasn’t afraid to offend our sensibilities in order to reveal how there is no life in us apart from Him. While that reality may not be easy to accept, it points us to a life grounded in strength and peace that is so much better than we can ever imagine. A life that cannot be diminished by the worst diseases, and that, in God’s love, will never end. A life that Tim and Stacy Wakefield are now experiencing.
I hope you’ll read John 6:41-69 and then join me in worship on Sunday as we consider Christ’s arresting question: Does this offend you?
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Brad
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