The Church of St.
Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
January 25, 2020
The Funeral of Eric
Threatt
Wisdom
3:1-5, 9
Psalm
23
Revelation
7:9-17
John
14:1-6
The Story
For many of you the story I just
read may be a familiar one.
The
setting is what we call the Last Supper.
For some time, Jesus had been
predicting that he would soon be handed over to the authorities. Jesus had been
warning his friends that soon he would die, trying to prepare them for a
shocking and devastating loss.
But, you know how it is, right?
It’s hard to prepare – and even
harder to accept - that someone we love is going to suffer and leave us.
And so for quite a while Jesus’
closet friends and followers couldn’t or wouldn’t hear him.
But now gathered around the table
for one final meal, the hard truth must have been sinking in.
It would have been easy to just sit
around in fear and grief
But, instead, with time running out,
Jesus the Teacher squeezes in some final, most important, lessons:
He
washes the feet of his disciples and says that this is how we should serve one
another.
He
blesses the bread and the wine and says that he will always be present each
time his friends gather around the table just like this.
And,
finally, as we heard today, Jesus reassures his friends that he is going on
ahead to prepare a place for them – to prepare a place for us – where
someday we will all be reunited.
When
Thomas speaks for the others and says they do not know the way to where Jesus
is going, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
Jesus
is the way.
Amen?
Well,
we know what happened next.
All
too soon after the Last Supper, Jesus was abandoned by nearly everybody and
died on the cross.
It must have looked to everybody like his
story was over – just another tragedy in a world full of sorrow.
But,
of course, death wasn’t the end of the story of Jesus – and after the
unexpectedly empty tomb and the unimaginable joy of Easter, the disciples who
had been with Jesus during his life, who had been with him at the Last Supper,
they remembered what Jesus had taught them and they told the stories – they told
The Story – over and over again, handing it down to us here today.
We
are to serve one another.
Jesus
is always with us each time we gather together.
And,
Jesus is preparing a place for us so that someday we will be reunited, forever.
This
is Good News – this is the best news ever.
But,
this Good News does not mean that our lives will be free of trouble or sorrow –
and, just like all of us, our brother Eric carried his share – maybe more than
his share - of burdens.
But
in good times and not so good, Eric had heard the story – Eric knew the
story – and he shared the story, maybe sometimes through words, but definitely
with his warm smile, with his selfless service to our country, and, maybe most
of all, with his extraordinary ability to create and serve good food to hungry
people gathered around the table.
And
so, we have gathered here today with hearts that are somehow both broken and
full.
Our hearts are broken by the
untimely death of Eric, this much-loved son, brother, and friend.
And, our hearts are full that we had
the chance to know him and to love him and to be loved by him – our hearts are
full knowing that he has been freed of his burdens has returned to the loving
and merciful God who dreamed him up in the first place and was with him
throughout his life, in good times and not so good.
You know, for us today is a gray,
rainy Saturday in late January.
But,
for Eric, for Eric, it is Easter – it is the most beautiful Easter!
So, it’s appropriate that we while began
this story at the Last Supper, we will end it at the Resurrection, when love
defeats death once and for all.
So,
at the end of today’s service, even in the midst of our sadness, even through
our tears, we will make our song:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Amen.
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