A TRIBUTE TO MRS META THOMPSON by Rev Ivan Foster, her former minister before his retirement
Tributes were paid to two long time members of Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church who recently went to be with the Lord.
This service, at which Rev Jonathan Creane preached, may be viewed here.
Kilskeery FPC, Lord’s Day evening, 31st October, 2021.
She went to be with the Lord 28th August 2021.
“She hath done what she could,” Mark 14:8.
Very few funeral services may truly be called ‘A Thanksgiving Service’! The Bible clearly says that the majority depart this scene of time having lived a life, which before God, is not one for which to praise the Lord since it was lived in defiance and disobedience of God’s Word. In this dark age there seems to be no understanding whatever of what Bible Christianity is. The most wicked are commonly deemed to have gone to heaven, irrespective of how they lived or what they believed.
It was not so with Mrs Meta Thompson.
Mrs Thompson first started attending the meetings here in Kilskeery not long after I became minister in 1978. From that time, for some 40 plus years, she was a faithful supporter of God’s work in this house. She and her friend Mrs Jacqueline Johnston, a widow like herself, who passed away in February 2016 (see here) were to be seen sitting together in their pew each Sabbath. Mrs Thompson continued her faithful attendance in the absence of her dear friend and neighbour.
Her faithfulness was seen in the troublesome period in 2014, some 6 years after my retirement from the pastorate here, when some ‘walked no more with us’ but, though she was approached and encouraged to leave this fellowship, she refused to do so, having no reason, as far as she was concerned, to leave.
THE WORDS OF OUR TEXT WERE SPOKEN OF A FAITHFUL WOMAN WHO SAW IN THE LORD JESUS WHAT OTHERS DID NOT.
This is what makes a Christian different from the rest of humanity. They see in Christ what others are blind to.
“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not,” Isaiah 53:1-3.
So it was with Mrs Meta Thompson.
THIS WOMAN WAS AWARE OF THE SAVIOUR’S IMPENDING DEATH
How few give real thought to the meaning and the purpose of the Saviour’s death. Mrs Thompson, like this woman, was very aware that the Lord Jesus “came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many,” Matthew 20:28. He would give “himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father,” Galatians 1:4.
That placed this woman apart from many that day who were largely ignorant of that truth.
Likewise, Mrs Thompson believed and lived with that truth ever before her.
SHE WISHED TO HONOUR THE LORD FOR HIS WILLINGNESS TO DIE FOR HER
I believe that is what Mrs Thompson, by her faithful attendance in this house, right up until she was no longer physically able to do so, sought to do. She felt indebted to the Lord.
MRS THOMPSON, LIKE THIS WOMAN, WAS READY TO BEAR REPROACH FOR THE LORD
This woman was mocked, even by some of God’s own people for her actions. The Lord rebuked those who criticised her. “And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me,” Mark 14:6.
Today, I salute the memory of Mrs Thompson and recall with joy the many visits I paid to her home. To her family I say: your mother’s faithful actions will not be forgotten by the Lord even as He erected a memorial to this woman in our text.
“Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, [this] also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her,” Mark 14:9.
It would have been Mrs Thompson’s prayer and her desire to have all, family, friends and neighbours receive the Saviour as she had done.
Oh! consider her witness today and embrace her Saviour.