2011
Sermons
Dez 28 - Sorrow, Hope, and Fulfillment
Dez 25 - Et incarnatus est
Dez 24 - Extreme Humility
Dez 24 - Becoming Simple Gifts
Dez 18 - Annunciation
Dez 11 - Rejoice! Good News!
Dez 7 - Separated
Dez 5 - Greetings!
Dez 4 - Heralds!
Nov 27 - Look back, look ahead, look around
Nov 20 - Accountable?
Nov 13 - Encouragement of the Future Present
Nov 11 - Key Words for Veterans' Day
Nov 6 - To Pray without Ceasing
Okt 30 - The Spirit's Work Continues
Okt 23 - Holy Is and Holy Does
Okt 9 - Welcome to the Banquet
Okt 2 - Judgments Final and Otherwise
Sep 25 - Invitation to the Dance
Sep 18 - What kind of Life?
Sep 11 - Forgiven Living
Sep 4 - Debt-free
Aug 28 - Did Jesus say "Pick up your sox." or "Be who you truly are."?
Aug 21 - The Community of Storytellers
Aug 15 - Baptized into Hope
Aug 11 - Sacrifice
Aug 7 - Called and Sent through Water
Aug 5 - In Spite of Sorrow
Jul 31 - Extravagant Abundance
Jul 24 - Kingdom, Crisis, Opportunity
Jul 17 - It's God's Harvest
Jul 10 - Unexpected Results
Jul 3 - A Burden
Jun 26 - True Hospitality
Jun 19 - Gather in awe; go with resolve and joy
Jun 12 - Church Disrupted
Jun 11 - An Argument with God
Jun 10 - Abide with us, Lord
Jun 5 - Silent Action, Active Silence
Mai 29 - Hollow or Full?
Mai 22 - Stoned because of a Sermon
Mai 15 - Life Abundant
Mai 14 - And Jacob Was Blessed
Mai 13 - Fresh Every Morning
Mai 12 - Of First Importance
Mai 8 - Emmaus keeps happening!
Mai 1 - So Great a Treasure
Apr 24 - Easter Earthquake
Apr 23 - Storytellers
Apr 22 - Completed
Apr 22 - The Tomb, Jonah, and Jesus
Apr 21 - Anamnesis – Remembrance
Apr 17 - What Kind of King?
Apr 10 - Can these bones live?
Apr 3 - Nit-pickers, Wound-Lickers, Goodness-Sakers, and Arm-Wavers
Mrz 27 - Inside, Outside, Upside-down
Mrz 20 - More Contrasts
Mrz 13 - Contrasts
Mrz 9 - Stop...and Turn
Mrz 7 - We're So Blessed
Mrz 6 - The Fellowship of Fear
Feb 20 - Holy and Perfect
Feb 13 - Blessed, for what?
Feb 12 - Barriers Broken
Feb 6 - Salt and Light
Jan 30 - The Future Present
Jan 23 - Come and See, Go and Do
Jan 16 - Come and See
Jan 13 - Time
Jan 9 - Servant of the Most High
Jan 5 - Rise, Shine
Jan 2 - The World's No and God's Yes
Jan 2 - Word and words
Separated
Jean Gulliver Funeral- December 7, 2011
This is a day when the word “separated” looms large in our lives.
Separation from Charles and Jean, from each other, and from God.
A word about each in turn.
(1) The long years of relationship with Jean and Charles have come to a close.
We gathered here 9 years and 2 months ago for Charles' funeral, and now again today for Jean.
All of the twists and turns of the relationships of spouse and parents, neighbors, co-workers, or friends now cannot be modified any more.
Charles and Jean have nothing more to get out of this life, and that marks their separation from us.
(2) It is easy for us to become separated from each other, too.
We get wrapped up in our own activities and worries, and gradually or maybe suddenly each go our own ways.
(3) And we are always prone to be separated from God.
Jesus does not say that his word is good so long as we are handsome, witty, pleasant, or even just as long as we are breathing!
It is an unconditional promise which he makes: he intends to hold onto us forever!
And what a difference that makes with the other relationships which we thought were irretrievably broken also.
If the Lord God continues to hold onto Jean and each of the baptized, then our relationship with Jean and with each other continues,
through God's power and not our own limited resources.
One of the key times for us to experience this continuation of relationship is when we share in the Holy Communion.
Designated servers from the church visited Jean from time to time with a share of God's holy meal which we had received earlier that day.
And that was a good partial measure, to serve in the meantime.
But now, Jean can be full-time at the heavenly end of this same banquet table at which all the believers are fed.
Even though we can sometimes drift or run away from each other and from God,
the Lord God says, “Hey, wait! I'm not going to give up on you;
I have adopted you into my family in Holy Baptism.
You are mine, and therefore you are brothers and sisters to Jesus and through Jesus to each other, forever.”
You see, then, that this time of a funeral is not so much to focus on the precious things that we have lost in the death of Jean, those things which you know far better than I.
Rather, we are to focus on the even more precious things which continue.
Paul reminds us in Romans that
nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That is what we hold tightly, when other things come to an end.
With all of her long-standing infirmities, it seemed as though Jean drifted away from us a little at a time.
But it doesn't matter if death comes quickly or slowly, folks nearby never seem to be quite ready for it.
So we might say that a funeral is a time to say “goodbye.”
But that isn't quite the right word.
“Goodbye” is a contraction of a phrase, God be with you, a wish.
So Goodbye is a wish, and for Jean it is not a wish, but a certainty.
It seems that we really need a new word which says what we really mean:
God is with you.
It is a certainty: God is with you, Jean.
God is available to you and ready to be with you, family members and all the baptized.
God is available to us this day and always, and is willing and to share a good word of forgiveness and reconciliation with each of us, as he has already done with Jean.
Hearing that and responding to that can make all of the difference in our lives, now and forever.
Despite all of our sorrows, disappointments, regrets, and all of the baggage that all of us carry, on this dripping day near the end of the calendar year,
all of us are invited this day to hear and hold onto that word through St. Paul:
God is with you today, and nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him. |