Hanna's Funeral

 I've never seen anything like it.

I did the beginning of the burial office in 20 minutes--including my sermon. The next thing on the program was 'remembrances'. The service started at 2 and the 'remembrances' went until 4!

Dozens of people wanted to tell what they had experienced with Hanna.

I know two things--I've never seen anything like that at a funeral and that it would have embarrassed the hell out of Hanna to have people praising her for over an hour and a half.

The priest at St. Paul's/St. James did away with the celebration of communion. We put Hanna's ashes in the columbarium and sang two verses of a song and we were done by 4:15.

Bern and I skipped the reception to get home to our hungry and needing to pee dog, Brigit. She was usually fed at 2 but yesterday it was almost 5. She swallowed it whole!

Good-bye, Hanna. I will miss you so, so much.

A long strange Labor Day Weekend

 Tomorrow is Hanna's funeral. She was 98 but died too soon.

Then church on Sunday.

You already have both sermons.

I hate funerals for people I loved.

It's hard to hold it together when that's true.

And being at St. Paul's/St. James, a church I served over 30 years ago makes it worse.

I'll see people I haven't seen in decades and have to deal with their feelings about me and Hanna.

Going to Trinity, Milton on Sunday will be a relief from that.

But presiding two days in a row at my age is no fun.

If you're not old like me--76--you, hopefully, will be, then you'll know what I mean.

 

This week's sermon

 

    I want to talk about the lesson from Exodus today for a while.

 

        I want to talk about the lesson from Exodus for Moses is  watching Jethro’s sheep quite a way out of Egypt. He is at Mount Horeb, known to Jews as ‘the mountain of God.’

        I hope you’ve seen a burning bush that the fire did not consume, but I never have.

        And I’ve never heard the voice of God out loud.

        I pray I’ve heard God whisper to me—but never like what Moses heard.

        He took off his sandals—one approaches God bare footed—and knelt down.

        What is really remarkable about this very remarkable passage is that Moses resists going to free the Jews in Egypt and has the audacity to ask God’s name!

        And God tells him: “my name is Yahweh”, God says.

        Yahweh in Hebrew means “I AM” and that’s how it is translated today.

        God “IS,”

        There was nothing before God created it except God. And all God created came from his ‘being’, his ‘is-ness’, his existence.

        God is the great and eternal “I AM!”

        And Moses followed “I AM’S” instructions and led the people of Israel out of slavery.

        The Hebrews thought it was disrespectable to say God’s name. And many places in the English translations of the Bible, “Yahweh” is translated as “Lord.”

        But it really means “I AM.”

        Jesus is the second person of God’s being and in today’s gospel he tells his disciples about his fate—that he will be tried, crucified, and rise on the third day.

        Peter doesn’t like that and says so.

        Jesus tells Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!”

        He then says to them—and 2000 years plus later to us: “pick up you cross and follow me.”

        What is the cross we should pick us?

        It is the cross of ‘doing good’ in this darkening world.

        Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, healing the sick.

        We are the agents of “I AM” in this world.

        We must do the work God has given us to do.

        We must tell Satan to ‘get behind’ us and do good.

        You at Trinity do good—lots of it.

        But our work is never done.

        So, keep at it.

        Keep at it.

        Keep at it always.

        Shalom and Amen.

 

 

Funeral sermon for Hanna Howard

 

Hanna Howard

      There is so much to say.

      Hanna was Hanna Haeter  when she came here from Berlin in 1950.

        She lived through World War II, losing her mother to the Nazi’s and her home to bombing.

        She came to America, to Yale School of Music on a scholarship and met Lee Howard there.

        One thing always amazed me about Hanna and Lee, because they were divorced when I met them, but divorce usually means someone loses the church. But not only were they both here—Hanna was in Lee’s choir.

        Ponder that.

                What can I say about Hanna?

                She was one of the most gentle, thoughtful, and wonderful people I ever met.

        I kept in touch with her after I left what was then St. John’s, which I didn’t with lots of folks. When a priest leaves a parish, he or she is supposed to break the ties and let everyone move on.

        But I couldn’t break the ties with Hanna.

        She came to our house for Thanksgiving for several years. She taught our daughter, Mimi, piano. I visited her in her apartment in Hamden.

        We would talk and share memories and eat cookies on those visits.

        I saw her a couple of times in the care home.

        She was always so gracious and loving. Those are the words I would use to describe her: ‘gracious’ and ‘loving’.

        I will miss her more than you know—more than even I can know.

        Goodbye, Hanna. I love you and honor you.

        You make me hope there is life after death and that you are in the ‘good place’ and full of joy.

        That’s my hope and prayer for you.

        You are in the ‘good place’ and full of joy.

        That is my deep and abiding hope for such a sweet and gentle and wondrous person as you, Hanna.

        Good bye and I pray I’ll see you again on the other side.

Shalom and Amen.

 

Birds...So Many Birds

I'm sure I wrote about them before--there are so many birds in our back yard.

I was out on the deck at 5 or so this evening and counted 15 birds out there--all kinds.

We have a bird bath that attracts them.

The bigger birds took it over and wouldn't let the littler bird in to enjoy it.

That's the way it goes, with people as well as birds....

It's not fair either way.

 

Mimi and Eleanor are here!

 They came yesterday at dinner time and will leave tomorrow sometime.

It is great to have them--I love them so.

Bern is so good with Eleanor. I watched them in the back yard for a long time while Brigit ran wild around them!

I don't know about you, but time with children and grandchildren is precious to me. I should be with them now instead of writing this.

I think I'll do that.

Coming up

 September 5th will be our 53rd wedding anniversary!

I asked Bern what she'd like to do.

She said "go see Barbie."

I was hoping for a dinner at a seafood restaurants near us.

I was hoping for raw oysters and white wine.

Instead we'll go to a movie I really don't want to see though friends have told me it's really funny.

We'll see.

We'll see.

53 years is a long time.

And it has been wondrous--most of the time.

I love her so I'll go see a movie I don't want to see for her.