Chaplain Jynean Palmer Reid, a cancer survivor, can speak with authority on the subject of "Suffering"

Elder Jynean Palmer-Reid’s Sermon-“Why?”

This 2012 photo by Kenneth Hines Jr., being black & white, makes Elder Jynean look very Puritanical! But she frequently wears black, so her peerless propriety is no artistic illusion!  Buy this artwork HERE!

ELDER, EDUCATOR, MOTHER, CHAPLAIN, CANCER PATIENT

 

“Mrs. Reid,” as the students at Greater Atlanta Adventist Academy call her, has been operating under a serious handicap recently, as she was diagnosed with colon cancer, and has undergone lengthy and painful treatment for this condition. Her remarks to the congregation of Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church on 6/11/2016 were recorded by the media ministry, and were placed in YouTube Sabbath evening. By the time I got around to reviewing it on Sunday, an ominous message greeted me as I attempted to watch the service. This marked the second occasion in the last month that YouTube had displayed this message in relation to a Berean service. The usual link to the ENTIRE SERVICE, a traditional fixture of these posts, is now becoming a rarity! The copyright police are on the warpath. Satan’s involvement has been hypothesized by several people I have spoken to regarding  this frightening trend. In the old days, full-time church musicians like Bach used to cook up original material for worship services on a regular basis. This could represent one way of dealing with a future that permits zero-tolerance for copyright infringement. Songs written before 1923 are safe. The hymnal is full of these, but many others (“How Great Thou Art,” for example), while probably relatively safe to simply sing in church, are not legal when included in a video. It is a very curious thing, this recent crackdown!

 

 

Elder Jynean Palmer-Reid was the featured speaker at a recent Federated King’s Daughters Breakfast held in the fellowship hall at Berean SDA Church, Atlanta. I did not attend this event with the intention of summarizing her remarks, but a few paragraphs concerning them may be discovered in the middle of this POST. The speech was delivered just a day or two after the death of Ralph David Abernathy III, who had succumbed to the same type of cancer that the elder was, and is, engaged in a heroic battle against. The strong recommendations by the speaker, at that time, that all take urgent steps in order to modify their unhealthy lifestyles were not present in this Sabbath’s sermon, as the emphasis was on spiritual, and not corporeal matters. The cancer she endures, and the suffering that is a byproduct of it, have taught Elder Jynean Palmer-Reid some valuable lessons on how to best bear hardship, lessons she was anxious to share with the congregation.

 

The speaker was introduced by Berean Lead Pastor Fredrick Russell, who revealed that he had known Elder Palmer-Reid “way back in the last century.” He and the elder were among a group of 30 African-Americans (out of a total student body that numbered about 400) at Forest Lake Academy (I pray I have linked the correct one). Elder Palmer-Reid was one of a trio of coeds representing Berean Church, and the pastor noted that she and her compatriots “did an excellent job” of maintaining the honor of the institution. The pastor respected her seriousness, evident even in her youth, and felt that she was “headed for the pastorate.” He mentioned her husband of 25 years, James Reid (who would soon join his wife at the front of the sanctuary), and also praised her son Jyremy Reid, who is a product of both GAAA and Oakwood. He is now in school in California. Peripatetic Pastor Russell was about to head that way for the upcoming graduation at Linda Linda, and hoped he might run into Jyremy. Without further ado, GAAA Chaplain, and uber-Adventist Elder Jynean Palmer-Reid commenced her remarks.

 

A 2012 drawing by Elder Palmer-Reid’s son Jyremy. He was into art and photography as a student at Oakwood, but is pragmatic (perhaps with a parental assist) about earning a credential that will ensure future security.

“WHY?”

 

“I talked to God last night, and He told me to tell you, even if you don’t believe it, He’s coming again!” A reference to the speaker’s catastrophic health dilemma was provided at the outset. “In my darkest moments, when nobody else was up, Jesus was. I am not supposed to be here.” She noted that prayer has a language that is all its own. “Since I have taken a class called ‘sickness,’ as have many of you, I understand that language.” We were about to enter into prayer, in an earnest manner, and the elder had some prayer requests she wished to share with us.

1. “Pray that one person will come to know Christ.” She mentioned the world fame of recently departed Muhammad Ali (who perhaps did not know Christ), and the less known, but well respected by those who did know him, C.D. Brooks, who baptized 15,000 people in the course of his 60 year ministry (and who also died recently, of pancreatic cancer, perhaps the biggest “C” of them all).
2. “Pray for the church school. It is not perfect, but it is God’s school.” She mentioned her son’s experiences in California, alluding to an incident so potentially traumatic, that I suspect every Berean except myself had some prior knowledge of it: “I pray for my son. When that gun was in his face, the ACT and the SAT did not matter.” (This INCIDENT may been a contributor to her son’s duress.)
3. “Pray for yourself. Lots of things are going on right now. You need to talk to God, in this night of our existence.”

Elder Jynean Palmer-Reid prays, standing up.

As the chemotherapy that she had undergone had affected the integrity of her joints, she now enlisted the assistance of her husband, that she might be assisted to pray on her knees. The rest of the congregation was invited to join her in this supplicatory attitude. Some commentary on her long relationship with her spouse was provided, and her personal history is inextricably entwined with that of Berean. At a young person’s function, Elder Pearson (who could be non other than the irrepressible Walter L. Pearson Jr.) asked the kids to “come to the altar with the person you would like to go to heaven with.” James, her intended, came and stood by her side. “Our marriage has not been perfect, but you must try to make it [your’s] work.”

Second Corinthians 4:16-18 was referred to, the primary inspiration for the sermon to follow. It had been read at the beginning of the service by a pair of elders

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

“The title of my massage to you today is “Why?”    “Why?”

The elder was recently watching a service online. She heard the preacher state the following in the course of a prayer: “And Lord, please be with us who are still breathing.” The preacher had just lost his wife. Something irretrievable was lost to Elder Palmer-Reid when she learned of her cancer. “I asked the Lord why,” she confided.




In the Book of Mark, Chapter 9, Jesus asks three of His closest associates to climb a mountain with Him. After a long day of work, this represent a significant demand. Mountain climbing takes a lot of energy. When they reached their elevated destination, the disciples lay down and fell asleep. The radiance of heaven filled the scene, as Moses and Elijah descended to take their stations beside Jesus. Some references were made by the elder to Ellen White’s description of this scene in “Desire of Ages” [here is a LINK to Chapter 46 of the book, one entitled “He was Transfigured.” The speaker borrowed liberally from this chapter in preparing her remarks]. The elder stated that the presence of Moses and Elijah was on account of their concern for the souls of those who had not yet found God. Here is a line by Ellen White: “Moses and Elijah had been co-laborers with Christ. They had shared His longing for the salvation of men.”  The elder applied this concern to her listeners: “Today I am burdened by the soul of those for whom church is just a social club.” An analysis of Moses, one derived from another Ellen White work, “Patriarchs and Prophets,” was supplied. The elder revealed that, had Moses been able to maintain his composure, and had he been unfailingly faithful to God, he would have entered the Promised Land, and ultimately been “translated,” just like Elijah and Enoch had been.

The “transfiguration” complete, the disciples were surprised to discover that they were, once again, “alone with Jesus.” The speaker made a revelation. “That’s what I am, in my illness: alone with Jesus.”

“Transfiguration” (detail) by Raphael (1520)

The subject of mountains in the Bible was briefly touched upon. Many instances of important mountains, and the mighty events that they were witness to, were provided by the speaker. The litany ended with the last mountain in the Bible, one found in the Book of Revelation. John stands upon it, and witnesses a new heaven, and a new earth appear.

Christ “debriefs” His companions in the wake of His transfiguration. As He had previously done to demons, Jesus warned the disciples to “tell no one” of what has just transpired until after the resurrection. Elder Palmer-Reid declared that the disciples may have been taken aback just by considering the information the Jesus would die. Mark 9:10 reads “And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.” The glory of God had been present on the mountain. What transpired the next day, at the base of the mountain, was transcendently anticlimactic. “The Devil was waiting” for the return of Jesus, Elder Palmer-Reid related, but the difficulties he presented to Jesus were overcome easily enough. They had, however, presented an insurmountable obstacle to the disciples who were left behind. The particulars are noted in Mark, Chapter 9. The crowd was in some perplexity, and appeared restless upon the arrival of the Lord. Here is the narrative, as worded in the NLT:

“What is all this arguing about?” Jesus asked. One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk.  And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” Jesus said to them, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” (Mark 9:16-19)

“Jesus Exorcising a Boy Possessed by a Demon” from “Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry,” 15th century.

The speaker revealed, after Ellen White, that Jesus had allowed Satan to reveal himself to the crowd through the malignity of the spirit that possessed the boy. The sight of Jesus ignites the wrath of the Devil the same way that a red cape of a toreador does a bull. After a dramatic pause, Elder Palmer-Reid stated that the Devil is still revealing himself. She recalled that, not so very long ago, on bus trips the children would watch DVDs. Now, as “devices” are the norm, “you don’t know what kind of evil will come around you these days,” she said. The elder added that it was not just other people who were surveying questionable content, for we are ourselves also guilty of these indiscretions. Further admonitions decried hypocrisy. We looked like, but did not act like Christians. We play the lottery. We “run around” on the Sabbath. At work, we blend in like chameleons, as we are indistinguishable from our coworkers. There is no difference, whatsoever, between them and us. At church, we distinguish between the parts we like, and the parts we don’t like. But we should not conceive of worship services as places of entertainment [this notion would get revisited at the very end of the sermon].

Back to the story. An exasperated Jesus made short work of the exorcism. Elder Palmer-Reid mentioned that He had previously delegated much authority to the very disciples who had been unable to cure the boy in His absence. But faith is something they would have to contribute to the healing process on their own. The faith of the father of the afflicted boy was described by the elder. In verse 22, the boy’s father asks Jesus to help, “if He can.” Jesus was taken slightly aback by these last three words. “What do you mean, ‘If I can?'” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes,” reads verse 23. The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

When significant images are unattributed, nobody learns anything! This image is unattributed at THIS PLACE , and also unattributed at THIS OTHER PLACE!

Page 428 of “Desire of Ages” was referred to by Elder Palmer-Reid. Here is the relevant sentence: “There is no lack of power on the part of Christ; the healing of the son depends upon the father’s faith.” Pages 429 and 430 describe the faithlessness of the disciples. A verse from Matthew 17, which parallels the account of these incidents described in Mark Chapter 9, is mentioned by Ellen White in connection with the concept of “faith:” “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Some other scriptural references on the nature of faith were provided by the speaker.

The big “Why,” the title of the sermon, was revealed to pertain to the question “Why do we suffer?” The speaker asserted that “we bring a lot of suffering upon ourselves. We like to play ‘spiritual Russian roulette.'” We have all been to places that we had no business going to. By the grace of God, we are now out. Sin opens the door to suffering. But, Elder Palmer-Reid added, “there are those who have done nothing to deserve the suffering that they endure.” Children who are born with AIDS was provided as an example of this. The Bible, at this juncture, provides only partial answers as to why the innocent suffer [for we see through a glass darkly]. The sermon returned its attention to those that may be experiencing suffering as a corrective measure. Proverbs 3:12 was quoted: “For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” Revelation 3:9 was also cited: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” The speaker admitted that she does not have all of the answers on the topic of suffering, but she did assert that there was a real difference between the suffering of the godly (duress as a positive force) and the suffering of the unrepentant (duress as divine punishment). Some thought upon this matter by Charles Spurgeon were provided [a very “old school” way of embellishing a sermon].

C.S. Lewis is the new Charles Spurgeon, both of whom hold world records for providing the greatest number of quotes to ministers composing sermons. Lewis, when he gave his radio addresses, used a microphone. Spurgeon preached before the era of electronic amplification.

By experiencing suffering, our character may be developed. When we suffer, we are partakers in the suffering of Christ. Isaiah 53:3 was quoted by the elder: “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.” Elder Palmer-Reid stated, “if you are going to be like Jesus, you, too, will know grief.” Everyone who is going to heaven will have made their acquaintanceship with the subject. The elder said that this was the reason that God would be ready to “wipe every tear away” when we reached our destination.

What are the reasons  that we suffer? Some partial answers had already been provided. A more formalized, tripartite answer was now furnished.

1. “We suffer so that we will be able to show others how to get through it.” The elder noted that when we suffer, we are not the first to have ever done so, and will not be the last. A “cloud of witnesses” is looking on. A story about a mother who lost her child was told. The loss had caused the mother, ultimately, to embrace Christianity. When a second mother lost their child, the first mother, having experienced an identical loss, was well equipped to comfort the second in her hour of need. “It will be OK,” says the first mother. “How do you know?” asks the second. “Because I have been there,” responds the first. Another, similar story was also related.
2. “Sometimes we suffer in order to build our character.” There is a Psalm wherein David thanks God for the afflictions that he endures. A mother dealing with the loss of a child may fatalistically and hopelessly question, “Why has God made me this way?” The elder revealed that it is never a question of what God has made you, but of what God is making you.
3. “Sometimes we suffer to give God glory” Some references to the Book of Job were provided. Job 13:15: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” Job 19:25: “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” Elder Palmer-Reid said that Jesus did not ordain that this would be a murmuring world, but it seems, nevertheless, that  all we ever do is complain!

This may be a relatively modern depiction of Jesus’ agony in the garden, but could also be by someone like Goya, if not Goya himself. Who knows! The non-communicative source for it is this NEGLEGENT SITE.

The subject of raising children and adolescents is a very important one to the nurturing elder. She is not only a mother, but a professional educator as well. She now noted that it was advisable that, should you have children that had reached marriageable age, it would be a good idea that you speak with them about this important subject (you will recall that the speaker had already related some events concerning the preliminaries to her own marriage). She was very blunt: “The person you marry will have a lot to do with whether you will make it to heaven.”

Some remarks about the awesome love that Jesus has for us all were provided. “To bring this all together, let’s go back to the original text,” the elder said. The crux of this text is this: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” The speaker noted that suffering changes us. “Sometimes you have marks. I have the marks from surgery. But remember; Jesus has marks that he will bear throughout eternity!” We were to let God do his perfect work in developing our characters. The crosses that we are bearing are nowhere near the size of the one that Jesus had to bear. “Bear your cross,” Elder Palmer-Reid admonished us. “He did not ask you to drink His cup,” she added. A heartwarming, and thoroughly domestic anecdote was provided by the elder to illustrate the point she was tying to make. She remembered a time when she was caring for very small children. She would take some of whatever she happened to be drinking, and pour some into a child’s “sippy cup.” The elder stated that our problems are in a “sippy cup.” This notion served to put our sufferings in perspective, apportioned as they are by a loving Father. A allusion to the verse containing Christ’s instructions for us to become “as little children” was appended.

The unbelievably wholesome characters from “Veggie Tales” have a special song dedicated to the subject of Sippy Cups, which may be enjoyed by clicking HERE.

Matters of age are rendered obsolete in the vastness of eternity. “When you get to heaven,” Elder Palmer-Reid promised, “no one will ask you how old you are. Time does not matter, when life is eternal.” As a consequence of this hope, “We can endure…

• Cancer for just a moment. We can endure…
• Bad Marriages for just a moment. We can endure…
• Wayward Children for just a moment. We can endure…
• Bad Jobs for just a moment,” [A few more transitory cares were appended to this list.]

What can we do in order to cope with suffering? Elder Jynean Palmer-Reid offered us two significant strategies.

Read the Bible. The elder stated that the Bible holds over 3,000 promises. It is good for whatever may be ailing you. The Spirit of Prophecy was recommended as a wonderful supplement to te Word. A quick refresher course in the nature of the Spirit of Prophecy was offered by the speaker. Revelation 12:17 states “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Subsequently, Revelation 19:10 reads “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” How can we be sure Ellen White is a prophet? Elder Palmer-Reid noted that “the proof is in the reading.”




Pray. The disciples had failed to cast the demon out of the boy, but Jesus  succeeded. They wished to know the secret of His success, and asked: “…Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” (Mark 28-29: the “fasting” part is pretty much exclusive to the KJV). The elder related a story of a recent visit to California to see her son, who is in college there. Her son (Jyremy) had just lost his I.D., and was in some distress. “When a person is going through a trial,” Elder Palmer-Reid stated, “they don’t want a lot of bad advice, as was the case with Job and his friends. They just need you to pray with them.” [It is assumed that a prayer was offered up in regard to the missing I.D.] A professor soon arrived, in a golf cart, at the location where the elder and her son were standing. He was a noted scholar, and had in his possession young Mr. Reid’s I.D. Not only did he get back what he had lost; Elder Palmer-Reid now had the opportunity to make his acquaintance.

The speaker provided a statement that tied in to her academic life. The commencement of some background music by Luther Washington II signaled that the sermon was approaching its conclusion. “Anyone who has gone to school knows that it is hard to finish. Sometimes you are by yourself, and there is nobody but you and Jesus.” During the elder’s King’s Daughters sermon, she had related some circumstances surrounding the discovery of her cancer. There existed an extended period of not feeling right, and she struggled to persevere with her teaching duties while fast deteriorating as a result of her yet to be diagnosed condition. She now referred to the period after her diagnosis, wherein she strove to continue to teach, despite undergoing various surgeries and many extremely unpleasant courses of chemotherapy. In the still of the night, she was often awake, beset with pain, alone but for the presence of the Lord. She tried to maintain her routine most evenings, grading the papers of her students, but it was extremely difficult to do so. She prayed a desperate prayer: “Let me die! Let me go to sleep!”




An answer came to her from on high. “I did not send cancer to kill you. I sent it to get your attention.” It had certainly managed to do this. The elder asked a question” “Have you ever felt so bad, you have forgotten how it is to feel good?” She was quick to offer the best remedy. “That’s when you pray!” A quick recitation of some of the traumatic events that have afflicted those who are close to her was inserted, here at the end of the sermon, but the greatest of traumas was exclusive to the speaker herself. Her frequent, and continuing heartfelt prayer is “Lord, help me to endure.” In her previous, King’s Daughters sermon she related that her cancer was under control, but was nevertheless omnipresent. The elder now closed her remarks with a few of the same statements that she had opened with. The key scripture for this sermon was also brought to the congregation’s remembrance. Here, again, are the relevant verses from Second Corinthians:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

“I came here to today to tell you that Jesus loves you, and is coming again, soon.” The speaker produced a blank notebook, and invited everyone in attendance who was facing their own trials to enter their names into it. Elder Palmer-Reid stated that she intended, whenever her own trials started to overwhelm her, to take up the notebook containing the names of her comrades in affliction. She would mitigate her own troubles by praying for the troubles of others, the “names in the book.” She concluded the main body of her sermon with this sentence: “I did not come here to entertain you, I came to talk about Jesus.”

An appeal would follow the concluding song, as rendered by Roscille Angela Phillips (another Oakwood University musical prodigy, and a graduate of GAAA, Elder Palmer-Reid’s employer). The Appeal Song was  “Come Unto Jesus (He will give you rest)” (link is to an amateur video of the GAAA choir, under the direction of Jarret Roseborough).