“One of the most important lessons to take with us from Powell Logan’s life is simply to remember how God has been loyal to us, has never let us down, has never abandoned us. ”
In celebration of the life of
William Powell Logan
June 6, 2009, 2:00 P.M.
Corinth Reformed Church
150 Sixteenth Avenue NW, Hickory, NC 28601
corinthtoday.org
Rev. Dr. Robert M. Thompson, Pastor and Soloist
Rev. William H. Howell, Associate Pastor
Dr. Peter B. Corneliussen, Organist
Elizabeth Logan and Blair Logan, Acolytes
Prelude
*Seating of the Family
*Call to Worship
Pastor: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
People: And also with you.
Pastor: Friends, we gather here in the protective shelter of God’s healing love. We are free to express honestly our thoughts of gratitude and feelings of loss as we remember the life of Powell Logan and as we comfort one another with the hope of Christ’s resurrection.
People: For whether we live or whether we die, we belong to Christ, who is Lord both of the dead and the living.
*Hymn, No. 87 Be Still, My Soul
*Prayer
Old Testament Reading Isaiah 40:27-31
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Solo His Eye Is On the Sparrow
New Testament Reading John 16:25-33
“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”
”You believe at last!” Jesus answered. “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
”I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Romans 14:7-9
For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
Meditation Pastor Thompson
It is always necessary for me in preparation for a memorial service to remind myself why we are here. Often this reflection happens as I prepare to write the meditation for a memorial service. Sometimes it seems important, as it does today, to share it with the congregation.
We are gathered today primarily as an act of worship. We are here to honor God, who gives us life and in whose hands we are in life and in death. We are here to give thanks to God and celebrate God’s gift of one particular life, Powell Logan, and what that life meant to his family, his church, and his community. And we are here so that each of us can ponder his or her own life and death and apply the lessons we learn from pondering the life of Powell Logan.
So our focus is vertical, on what God wants to say to us and how we respond to God. But much of our reflection may seem to be horizontal, as we talk about Powell Logan and our relationship to him. The connection between the two will be biblical, as we think about the Scripture passages he and his family chose for this service.
As I sat in Shirley’s living room on Wednesday, listening to various family members sharing stories about Powell, I needed 13 sheets of my legal pad to take all the notes. The memories just tumbled out. They all agreed Powell talked fast, but I think it might run in the family. I knew rather quickly there was no way I could incorporate all their stories or capture Powell Logan in a few minutes of meditation.
How does one summarize such a life? Powell Logan was “one of a kind.” Interestingly, that was a phrase Joey used to describe an R. C. Allen cash register Powell once tinkered with at a trade show. (Powell liked electronics. Shirley’s sister, Jewel, said Powell would push every button in a new car when they traveled. Elizabeth said he loved touch screens. And William remembers hours of watching TV with his Papaw as he hit the remote buttons, especially “mute” during the commercials.)
So Powell just started pushing buttons on this experimental model and, in Joey’s words, the cash register “blew up.” The company had to fly in technicians from Japan to get it running again.
I feel a little like that when trying to push the various buttons of Powell Logan’s “one of a kind” life. I don’t want to mess anything up when trying to describe a life that was both simple and complex.
How do you explain someone who loved cameras and pictures so much that his family still has thousands of slides and photos to sort through, many of which even Powell couldn’t identify? How do you distill the essence of a man who was happy flipping channels in his den but loved traveling the world? How do you clarify the paradox of a “people person” who turned any stranger into a friend, but was also intrigued by celebrity, and personally met Douglas MacArthur, Lawrence Welk, Colonel Sanders, Arnold Palmer, and Billy Graham?
People even knew him by a variety of names – Powell, Willie P., Leroy, Loganstein, and, of course, PaPaw. When Cindy was at home, some of her friends thought her grandfather’s name was “Why, Powell!” because of Shirley’s favorite expression when he said or did something that shocked or embarrassed her – probably to get that reaction. Like the time he chose a fancy Williamsburg restaurant for a spoon-flipping trick, with Prince Albert sitting at the next table. “Why, Powell!”
We could spend all day telling Powell Logan stories, and I’m sure most of you have your own. I hope you’ll share some of them with each other following the service as we greet the family. I’ll share some more myself, but again, our purpose for being here is primarily to worship the God who gave Powell Logan to us as a gift for 85 years, and to learn about God and about life from Powell Logan.
So we turn our attention to the Scripture. The texts we read this morning were chosen by the Logan family. They actually chose three individual verses and I chose to read them in context. Each one teaches a characteristic of God that we see illustrated in the life of Powell Logan.
Strength. Isaiah 40 says, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
There are a number of ways this theme of strength connects to Powell Logan’s life. Obviously I think of his service to our country in World War II. He spent his time overseas in Guam, one of a great generation of men and women who preserved and extended the freedoms we take for granted. It is fitting to honor Powell today, the 65th anniversary of the Normandy invasion that was a turning point in the quest to preserve freedom.
Powell was not only strong by being part of that generation, however. He was a person of stability, energy, and persistence. “No one could keep up with him” was the way Kyle put it the other day. Joey said he waited for no one on the golf course, and Cindy said even when he was bowling, he’d push people out of the way when it was his turn.
Byron and Powell’s parents divorced before they started school, a shaping experience far less common eighty years ago than today. It was perhaps those early years that made him determined to do something worthwhile with his life. At various times while growing up he stayed with his mother, grandmother, and father.
But he represented for his family during the six decades he and Shirley shared as husband and wife a strength and stability that they all respected. They knew he was there, and that he would do his best to provide for them.
In that way, he represented God to them. As their lives went up and down, they knew he could be counted on. “Those who wait on the Lord,” Isaiah says, “will renew their strength.”
The song writer paraphrased Isaiah 40:31 this way:
And He will raise you up on eagle’s wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of His Hand.
Powell Logan is a symbol of God’s strength. He is also a reminder of God’s compassion.
Compassion. The second Scripture reference is set in context of the night before Jesus died. Speaking to his disciples, Jesus said in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
I’m moved by how Jesus dealt with his disciples on the subject of the inevitable suffering they would face. He didn’t deny it or sugar coat it. “You will have trouble,” he told them. But he gave them his peace. He promised them he would be there and he would overcome.
Shirley said when things came up in their family and she became fretful, Powell would inevitably say, “That’s OK, I’ll take care of it.” It was part of his nature to face the difficult times head on and bring perspective and compassion into the midst.
Powell was also compassionate to any family member in trouble. He took care of his mother as her health declined, often losing sleep in the middle of the night when she called him. Mrs. Logan spent her final year at Pell Care, but Powell faithfully went by to see her every day after work. It wasn’t just his mother. He loved older people and showed compassion toward them.
Powell was also generous, sometimes to a fault. William and Elizabeth said they never left their grandparents’ home without some kind of gift in hand. For Elizabeth when she was younger, it was often a beanie baby to add to her collection.
And Powell was protective, sometimes overprotective. Cindy told a story that illustrated the combination of generosity and protectiveness.
Once when Powell and Shirley were visiting Cindy in Florida, a delivery man came with a new dishwasher. As the man left, Powell gave him Cindy’s pruner as a gift. When Cindy questioned him, he said, “You don’t need to be using that.” He gave away her chain saw for the same reason. She says he had no idea the things she did to take care of her place.
This quality of compassion also contributed to his effectiveness as a salesman. I loved the way Kim put it: “He knew little about the equipment, but a lot about the customer.” He cared about the people he served, and they knew it.
The point is that God is a God of compassion, and Powell Logan reflected the image of God.
Byron said that quality went way back in Powell’s life. Powell was about two years old when Byron was born prematurely while the family was traveling in Rome, Georgia. Because they were out of town, there was no family support while they had to stay in Georgia long enough for the new baby to stabilize.
Powell and Byron’s mother said that Powell, even as a toddler, would stay by his little brother’s crib for hours and rock him gently. The two of them stayed close throughout their lives, and Powell always felt he should look after his brother, his wife, his children and grandchildren, and anyone else who needed him.
“In this world you will have trouble, but it’s OK – I’ll take care of it.” That’s how Powell lived, and in that quality of compassion we see the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Loyalty. The third text is from Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 14, verse 8. We quote part of this passage in our liturgy at almost every memorial service. The whole paragraph is about Christians not judging other Christians in what Paul calls “disputable matters.”
In that context, Paul gives us a gem that provides not only great perspective but a good parallel with Powell’s life. “Whether we live or whether we die, belong to the Lord.” God is faithful, in life and in death. He is always there. We can count on him, in this life and in the next.
Powell’s first name was actually the surname of his mother’s family. The Powell name can be traced back to a family of loyalists during the Revolutionary War. (The Logans, by contrast, were Patriots.)
Powell Logan’s loyalty showed up in at least two major areas – his family and his work.
Powell and Shirley met on a blind date, introduced by Clark Pennell. Powell later set Clark up on a blind date as well. Both couples married, and both stayed together 60 years. That’s loyalty.
It wasn’t because it was easy. Their personalities often clashed. He was a people person; she was more shy and reserved. He was always in a hurry; she was more laid back. He loved attention; she preferred to be in the background.
But their favorite song was an Irving Berlin tune, “Always.” Here are some of the lyrics –
I’ll be loving you, oh always
With a love that’s true always.
When the things you’ve planned
Need a helping hand,
I will understand always.Always.
Days may not be fair always,
That’s when I’ll be there always.
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year,
But always.
Shirley, you both kept that promise to each other for more than sixty years. You should look back on that with gratitude and joy.
Powell also lived out his loyalty at work. Having gone to college at Asheville Farm School (now Warren Wilson College) and then watchmaking school, Powell joined Byron at what is now Carolina Office Equipment in 1953, and they worked together all these years. Byron said he’s never known two brothers who had the kind of relationship he and Powell shared all through their eighty years. They worked together for sixty years without a major disagreement. That’s loyalty.
That kind of loyalty is what Paul expresses in Romans 14. On God’s part, the loyalty never changes. In life and in death, when we are thinking of him and when we are too busy with other things, when we are faithful and when we are far from him, God is always there, always faithful, always loving, always concerned, always calling us to himself.
The final moments I shared with Powell Logan at the hospital on Saturday evening were moments of reminding him where his hope lay in life and in death. I shared with him Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” I quoted Psalm 23, beginning with “The Lord is my shepherd” and ending with “and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
The loyalty that Powell Logan displayed to his wife, his family, his brother, and his customers was a glimpse of the faithfulness of God to us. There were times that Powell’s loyalty to others was not returned to the same measure. There were customers, for example, who did not display the loyalty to him that he showed to them.
And so it is with the Father in heaven. One of the most important lessons to take with us from Powell Logan’s life is simply to remember how God has been loyal to us, has never let us down, has never abandoned us. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was how he provided for our salvation, but his faithful strength and compassion are on display in innumerable ways every day of our lives.
What should be our response to a God who is so good to us? We owe him our faith, our trust, and our service. More than anything else, that is the meaning of Powell Logan’s life. Amen .
Prayer
O God, our strength and our redeemer, giver of life and conqueror of death, we praise you with humble hearts. With faith in your great mercy and wisdom, we entrust William Powell Logan to your eternal care. We praise you for your steadfast love for him all the days of his life.
We thank you for all that he was to those who loved him. We thank you that for Powell, all sickness and sorrow are ended, death itself is past, and he has entered your presence. Keep us all in communion with your faithful people in every time and place, that, at last, we may rejoice together in the heavenly family where Jesus Christ reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever. This we ask in the name of the one who taught us to pray,
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
*The Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell, the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
*Hymn, No. 221 My Faith Looks Up To Thee
*Benediction Based on 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)
And now may the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort you in all your sorrows, so that you may comfort others with the comfort you yourselves have received from God. Amen.
*Postlude
That’s when I’ll be there always.
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year,
But always.