A good friend, neighbor, and parishioner died this morning . . . and I am still a bit stunned by the reality of her demise. Thinking about her as I write these words, the irony stands clear: Clara has told me for years that she likes the way I do a funeral and that she always wanted me to preach her funeral sermon while she was living so that she could hear what a good person she was. Now she has passed and I am preparing the Celebration of Life, bringing bits and pieces of her story together, readying for Clara's own funeral sermon. Yet, truth be told, Clara has preached her own sermon all her life and all I can hope to do in the days ahead is remind people of the embodiment of Good News that she was among us.
Clara was known as one of those people who was a good neighbor, welcomed the stranger, gave a drink to the thirsty, fed the hungry, visited the sick, comforted the dying and, generally speaking, lived the nearness of the Kingdom. You would seldom see Clara outside her home with a Bible in her hand, but she always had Christ in her heart. You would seldom hear Clara tell others how to live, but she would always live before others as Jesus gave her grace to do. When someone felt marginalized or excluded, Clara would take them by the hand and lead them into the safety of community. When others criticized how kids today are being raised, Clara would simply involve herself with the kids and offer them another way to behave. Some people saw trouble, Clara saw life at its best. Some people complained, Clara smiled. Some people live for themselves, Clara lived for the Lord. No sermon I could ever write can adequately encapsulate the mediation of God's Spirit that Clara's life had become.
The mourning of these moments is not for Clara, she has entered the home in Heaven she has lived for here on earth. No, the mourning of these moments is for myself and everyone like me who will deeply miss this humble gift of God who has blessed our world for nearly ninety years. My mourning will be for the absence of her laughter, her delightful sense of humor, her smile and, of course, her cookies . . . her delicious homemade cookies that were her personal blessing and benediction upon those with whom she had a special relationship or had shared a unique adventure.
Tears will flow for now, but joy will come in the morning. I just pray God is ready for the adjustment Heaven will now have to make to accommodate this saint among all the angels. Most in this region will not notice her obituary in the paper, but the Church of Jesus Christ cannot help but feel the difference as this powerful part of the Body of Christ quietly takes her place in God's eternal home. Our comfort comes, not in living Clara's sermon of life, but in living the sermon of life God has made us to be, much as Clara lived hers: in faithfulness, integrity, love and hope, all to the glory of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
God bless you, my friend, and thank you for the way you preached your life. Such sermons are custom made for the worship service of life itself and you stood in the pulpit, capably and well.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Don
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