In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We're gathered here
to offer our condolences and support, and to
share the grief, shared grief, for this family
of this pious and sweet woman that lies before
us. We're gathered here to pray that God receives
her. How many times have we said, Lord, have
mercy, that her sins be forgiven. That she walks
in the way that the Lord has given her. So many
times. And this is our prayer. This is the reason
for a funeral. And it may seem like nothing's
happening. You hear choir sing. You hear the
clergy say some things. And the choir. And the
back and forth. But there's a lot happening.
When a person dies, it looks like nothing has
happened. From that point forward. Except bad
things. Decay. And destruction. And then sorrow
and then grief and all of that that comes. No
matter how old a person is, we feel and we should
feel grief. No matter how pious and well a person
lived, we should be sorrowful. For God has not
created us for death. One of the hymns we sang
says, I'm an image of thine, O Lord, ineffable
glory. even though I bear the marks of sin. And
this is an important thing for us to recall,
that we are created to be a reflection of Jesus
Christ himself, who is the image. We are an image
of the image. And when you see someone in the
tomb, in the grave before you, when you see someone
suffering in the hospital, when you see someone
grieving and afraid, whatever it might be, You
say, where's that image? But it's there. We bear
the marks of sin. Our task, brothers and sisters,
today, of course, is to pray that her image is
bright. Because it's impossible for us to know.
We judge people all the time upon their appearances.
I think it's C .S. Lewis says something like,
you might see a person while waiting for the
bus. And God's destiny for that person might
be ineffable glory so that they will be brighter
than any angel. And it's kind of frightening
that we just look at people and pass them by.
So the image of God in her and us is something
we have to celebrate. We have to nurture. But
as she has died and now her soul is with the
Lord, We celebrate that life. We move from grief
to glorification of God. In between, we're praying
for her. So something is happening here. Quite
a lot is happening here as we are praying. And
we stand still. And maybe in our hearts and our
souls, something will ignite and come alive so
that we're not just standing still and not listening,
but we are being enveloped. participating in
the life of heaven and the kingdom of God. There's
a prayer that we said, the psalmist said to the
Lord, how many are my days, O Lord? And another
prayer, another statement, O Lord, I have love
like commandments. They're my meditation all
day long. And that was true of her in the final
years. in her way and you may say well she was
retired she had nothing else to do but brothers
and sisters we can meditate how often do we fill
our minds with things that are kind of pointless
and distracting and fill us with anxiety and
anxiousness while we could say to the lord i
love thy law oh lord it is my meditation all
the day long in between everything else i do
it's what holds it all together and so we have
an example of that with her And so we give glory
to God for that. And this phrase, O Lord, how
many are my days? There's two ways at least to
take it. How many days do I have so I can keep
doing this other stuff I'm doing before I need
to take things seriously about my faith, about
my life, about my relationships, about my passions,
about my sins? How much longer can I go until,
like, you know, D -Day? Or we say, Lord, how
long is it until you come on the clouds of glory,
appearing in your ineffable mercy and love? Love
that's a burning, all -consuming fire of love.
How many days before that? That's what we should
say so we prepare ourselves for death. Perhaps
he did that too. But in any case, we ask God
that he will, on the day he does come in his
glory, when he appears to all, and when we say
he will come, it doesn't mean he's gone. Why
else would we be here if he was gone? What would
we be doing here if he was gone? No, we stand
in the midst of the Lord. But when he does come
and appears in his glory with the hosts of angels,
we ask that he will take her up and she will
ever be with the Lord. And with us, death will
be destroyed. We will rise to glory and be ever
with the Lord. May the Lord answer that prayer
for her and for each one of us. I offer you,
dear family, my condolences and my love. And
my admiration for your sacrifice as taking care
of her, which is not a sacrifice. It was a labor
of love. It was a gift of God to you to do that.
And I admire her for her life and her faith.