ANGELS AMONG US
Nathan Attwood
Pastor, Marianna First United Methodist Church
"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some people have entertained angels without knowing it." Hebrews 13:2.
A truly great, truly unique, amazing person who was a Marianna resident passed away just recently. Her name was Martha Hyles. I'd like to share a little about my friend Martha.
Martha Hyles grew up in a preacher's household. Her father was a Methodist preacher, as was her grandfather before him, as were five of her brothers. I was blessed to befriend one of her late brothers, Rev. Joel Jones, when I lived in Montgomery. Martha was the youngest of thirteen children, all dedicated Christians, most of whom gave their lives to ministry in the Alabama-West Florida Conference in the Methodist Church (which became the United Methodist Church in 1968).
A very notable Methodist pastor named John Ed Mathison went to high school with Martha, when his dad, Si Mathison, was pastor at Opelika First Methodist and Martha's dad was pastor at Pepperrell Methodist in Opelika. He once told me that Martha was the smartest person he'd ever known. He said he sat next to her in typing class because she was such a good typist that she would destroy the curve, so he would randomly tap on her typewriter to create mistakes during the test.
Martha told me that her future husband, Frank, was an aspiring preacher who came to speak at a revival at her dad's church. At the time she was dating someone else, but when she met Frank she broke up with the other fellow. She and Frank eventually got married and lived their lives as partners in ministry for over fifty years.
Dr. Frank Hyles retired from active ministry from the church I serve, Marianna First United Methodist Church, sometime in the 1990s. In retirement, he continued to serve in a part-time role as the pastor of the United Methodist Church in Altha. One Sunday morning, Frank wasn't feeling well and asked Martha to fill in and preach for him. She was hesitant, but she did it. She did it really, really well. When Frank passed away, though she had no official certification of any kind, the District Superintendent made Martha the pastor. After all, she had been functioning as the pastor already for some time. Martha served Altha effectively and faithfully for over twenty years until she passed away at 87 years old last week.
At one point years ago, I was the head of the board that oversees our emerging pastors, our licensed pastors, and our uncredentialed "supply pastors." I called her once to tell her that we were trying to get our supply pastors to move toward getting a license. She told me she wasn't going to do that. The superintendent and the church needed her more than they needed her to be credentialed. As a matter of fact, the superintendent decided to grandfather in all the currently serving supply pastors rather than risk losing Martha. Martha did, however, show up to the meetings with the committee as a personal favor to me as long as I was chair.
Martha talked fast and long. She had boundless energy and creativity. She often would borrow music from our church's music library to put on seasonal cantatas at Altha. She was able to get that little church to do big things.
Martha was incredibly fun. She always made me laugh. She was every bit as comfortable dressed to the nines for the preacher's district Christmas party as she was in her sweatpants at Walmart. Martha was a gifted singer and played the piano beautifully. Her gifts and graces seemed boundless. I'm going to miss her terribly.
Perhaps you live in Marianna and you didn't get to know Martha. If so, that's a shame. Everyone who knew her loved her, so I'm quite sure you would have loved her, too. She lived right around the corner from me in Indian Springs. If you missed her, you missed a treasure.
I wonder who else in our community is also a treasure of a person we may have missed? Maybe the person next to us in the grocery store, or the person who sits on the other side of the sanctuary at church, or the neighbor around the corner we never met? I've come to learn that many people, maybe most people, maybe all people, are a marvel of gifts and graces, experiences and personality, if we take the time to notice them and get to know them a little bit.
The writer of Hebrews says to pay attention to the people we encounter. He says that when we open ourselves to connect with the people in the neighborhood, the people around us, the people we are in danger of missing, that we might just be entertaining an angel unawares.