Companion: Gratitude

Afterward, Companion Gratitude slugged him on the arm and said, “Well you had the opportunity to serve in a way that took advantage of your interests and capabilities, and here you are, safe on the other side.

What do you have to say to that?

And Ralph had some stories to tell.

There is an old line “Man proposes; God disposes”.

Notice how that happens in our First Lesson today.

David the King, flush from all his recent victories, announces that he wants now to build God a house, a proper temple, to replace the tattered tabernacle tent they have been using for so long.

He is acting like the typical politician concerned about his “legacy.”

God says “Forget it, David.”

And then in a play on words, God adds, “Instead, I'm going to build you into a house, meaning a family-line, a dynasty.”

God is more interested in people than in stones.

A good thing to keep in mind.

Our Ralph was a builder...and a story-teller.

Even as Elda would gently and very politely sigh a bit when he started,

over the years I heard the complete story of how he managed the insulation and heating runs , cabinetry, and a dozen other projects in the house on Third Ave.

It genuinely pained him to give up those tools and shop space and activities when peripheral arterial disease robbed him of his legs.

He dealt with it just like everything else, as a problem to be handled.

And Companion Gratitude was still present as we shared Holy Communion in that hospital room in Hershey at surgery-time.

Ralph was building more than a house; it was in supervising vocational education that his influence has had widest impact.

It didn't take much prompting to get Ralph started on a story, and he had so many.

There were good students whom he could congratulate, and poor students whom he could either motivate or expel.

He had so many ways to try to get through to students.

There were good and poor teachers and administrators across more than half of Pennsylvania that he supervised.

But in none of those stories did I ever sense the malevolently gleeful exercise of power.

Rather, it was how to get the students and staff to accomplish their best.

One of the last stories Ralph told me several weeks ago was of a group of persons who went out of their way to come back to him and offer their thanks to him for his guidance and sometimes stern admonitions.

Companion Gratitude was not only hanging around Ralph but was sliding over to accompany those students whom he touched as well.

What a wonderful thing to happen!

We would expect Companion Gratitude to be around at graduations and at his marriage with Elda, and at the birth of their 3 children, 6 grandchildren, and other such events.

If you go through the family album, you would see Companion Gratitude smiling there in the background in all those photos.

But Paul in Ephesians gives a nagging little verse that says: “...always and for everything give thanks.”

Hasn't he overstated it there?

Always? For everything?

For today?

What do we want to say to Companion Gratitude today, this day of a funeral?

“Don't call us. We'll call you.”

The Companion will look us straight in the eye and with a voice that mimics our parents from long ago responds,

“Say 'thank you' to the nice God.”

That's a poor joke, with no sense of propriety or occasion!

But Companion Gratitude won't listen to our protests.

And by the time we get over to Fellowship Hall, someone will shortly remember the story about how Ralph hardly was retired before he was drafting the entire family to help paint and fix up Fellowship Hall that weekend 30 years ago.

And another person will remember the story of how Ralph supervised a whole group of troubled persons in working off their penalties by teaching them skills here around the church in the following two years...and still other stories...

And Companion Gratitude will be right there with our tears and our laughter.

The Companion will help us sing our hymns today and kneel beside us at the communion rail.

The Companion will remind us of the promise of our Baptism, that Jesus will hold onto us forever.

Companion Gratitude will help us treat each other gently on this noteworthy day.

St. Paul was right: It is not only possible, it is necessary that we should “always and for everything” give thanks.

Companion Gratitude transforms everything from darkness to light, even today.

Death was just another problem Ralph faced, together with Companion Gratitude and associates.

He would say, with our forebear Martin Luther:

Let this world's tyrant rage

In battle we'll engage!

His might is doomed to fail;

God's judgment must prevail!

One little word subdues him.

He cannot win the day.

The Kingdom's ours forever.!

[LBW#229]

That is pointing to the right kind of rock for a foundation on which to build and live a life.

May it be our resolve to recognize and receive that connection with the Lord Jesus and live within it

so that we do in fact have Gratitude as our Companion, and Memory and Anticipation as close friends.

So even today on this saddest of days in the middle of grief, we can join with Companion Gratitude and the Apostle Paul in

...giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Say 'thank you' to the nice Companion Gratitude; and

say 'thank you' to the nice God for us, Ralph.

Amen.

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.