Memorial Service
This was my homily at the Fall Memorial Service at Baptist Hospital of Miami -- I'm a chaplain there. We have a Memorial Service every quarter for those family members who would like to return to where their loved one died and remember. A very powerful experience. At every service, people come up to me and remember me with great affection, but I do not remember them. I was with them in one of the most important events of their life, but for me it was an ordinary day.
I am the man who has experienced affliction from the disciplining rod of his wrath. He has driven me into captivity, and made me walk in deep darkness.
He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has made me cower in ashes. I am deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. So I said, “My endurance has perished, I have lost all hope of deliverance from the Lord.” Just thinking about my impoverished and homeless condition is bitter poison. When I continually think about this, I become emotionally depressed. But this I call to mind, therefore I have hope: The Lord’s many kindnesses never cease, for his great compassion never comes to an end. They are renewed every morning; your faithfulness is abundant! I said to myself, “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance; therefore, I will put my hope in him.”
[Lamentations 3:1-2; 16-24]
I did not understand what it means to fall in love until I fell in love. People told me about it. I saw my parents and many others, I understood something, but not really. It’s not the kind of thing you can learn by reading or watching, you have to participate. I did not understand what it means to fall in love until I fell in love.
I did not understand the thrill of victory until I scored the winning goal in a crucial high school soccer game. People told me about it. I saw my teammates and many others, I watched the Olympics, tennis, baseball and basketball on TV. I understood something, but not really. It’s not the kind of thing you can learn by reading or watching, you have to participate. I did not understand the thrill of victory until I scored the winning goal in a crucial high school soccer game.
I did not understand the faithfulness of my God until a very close friend died. I had studied about the faithfulness of God, I had seen his faithfulness to others, and to an extent, I had seen his faithfulness to me, but God becomes the most real when we need him desperately. God’s faithfulness is not something you can learn by reading or watching, you have to participate. Most of us here have participated.
In our scripture reading, the author has recently witnessed the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, the capital city, by the infamous Babylonian army. The fall of Jerusalem came after a long, hard, bitter war where God’s people were slowly deprived of life. It was a time of monumental suffering in a nation known for great suffering. Our author has witnessed the slow and torturous murder of tens of thousands of people, many were his close friends and family.
And he is so honest. It is hard to understand how he can say, on the one hand, “He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has made me cower in ashes.” And on the other hand, he can say, “The Lord’s many kindnesses never cease, for his great compassion never comes to an end.” In the one hand, he holds despair, pain, suffering. In the other hand, he holds kindness, grace, compassion. This makes no sense to me. And yet, it makes perfect sense to me. I cannot deny the presence of either hand. Some days, I see one hand more clearly than the other. But they are both there, always, and that’s ok.
Some days God sends friends at just the right moment to extend grace and compassion. And other days, it seems never to be the right moment. Some days I find great hope in the resurrection, but others, I struggle greatly.
This evening, as we remember those who have died, let us hold on to both hands. We can, at the same time feel the pain of what God has allowed, and see the great compassion he has for us. At one moment, we may ask him why he has done what he has done, and in the next we can praise him for his faithfulness – because aren’t both hands real? Do you not feel pain as you never felt before? Do you not see God’s compassions as you never had before? In the midst of our pain, are we not learning of God’s faithfulness to us?
I am the man who has experienced affliction from the disciplining rod of his wrath. He has driven me into captivity, and made me walk in deep darkness.
He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has made me cower in ashes. I am deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. So I said, “My endurance has perished, I have lost all hope of deliverance from the Lord.” Just thinking about my impoverished and homeless condition is bitter poison. When I continually think about this, I become emotionally depressed. But this I call to mind, therefore I have hope: The Lord’s many kindnesses never cease, for his great compassion never comes to an end. They are renewed every morning; your faithfulness is abundant! I said to myself, “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance; therefore, I will put my hope in him.”
[Lamentations 3:1-2; 16-24]
I did not understand what it means to fall in love until I fell in love. People told me about it. I saw my parents and many others, I understood something, but not really. It’s not the kind of thing you can learn by reading or watching, you have to participate. I did not understand what it means to fall in love until I fell in love.
I did not understand the thrill of victory until I scored the winning goal in a crucial high school soccer game. People told me about it. I saw my teammates and many others, I watched the Olympics, tennis, baseball and basketball on TV. I understood something, but not really. It’s not the kind of thing you can learn by reading or watching, you have to participate. I did not understand the thrill of victory until I scored the winning goal in a crucial high school soccer game.
I did not understand the faithfulness of my God until a very close friend died. I had studied about the faithfulness of God, I had seen his faithfulness to others, and to an extent, I had seen his faithfulness to me, but God becomes the most real when we need him desperately. God’s faithfulness is not something you can learn by reading or watching, you have to participate. Most of us here have participated.
In our scripture reading, the author has recently witnessed the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, the capital city, by the infamous Babylonian army. The fall of Jerusalem came after a long, hard, bitter war where God’s people were slowly deprived of life. It was a time of monumental suffering in a nation known for great suffering. Our author has witnessed the slow and torturous murder of tens of thousands of people, many were his close friends and family.
And he is so honest. It is hard to understand how he can say, on the one hand, “He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has made me cower in ashes.” And on the other hand, he can say, “The Lord’s many kindnesses never cease, for his great compassion never comes to an end.” In the one hand, he holds despair, pain, suffering. In the other hand, he holds kindness, grace, compassion. This makes no sense to me. And yet, it makes perfect sense to me. I cannot deny the presence of either hand. Some days, I see one hand more clearly than the other. But they are both there, always, and that’s ok.
Some days God sends friends at just the right moment to extend grace and compassion. And other days, it seems never to be the right moment. Some days I find great hope in the resurrection, but others, I struggle greatly.
This evening, as we remember those who have died, let us hold on to both hands. We can, at the same time feel the pain of what God has allowed, and see the great compassion he has for us. At one moment, we may ask him why he has done what he has done, and in the next we can praise him for his faithfulness – because aren’t both hands real? Do you not feel pain as you never felt before? Do you not see God’s compassions as you never had before? In the midst of our pain, are we not learning of God’s faithfulness to us?
posted by William Sofield at 12:28 PM
1 Comments:
Willy
Thank you, I needed these words tonight.
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