A SERVICE OF DEATH AND RESURRECTION for George A. Williamson

GATHERING

Dying, Christ destroyed our death.

Rising, Christ restored our life.

Christ will come again in glory.

As in baptism George put on Christ,

    so in Christ may George be clothed with glory.

Here and now, dear friends, we are God's children.

What we shall be has not yet been revealed; 

   but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him,

    for we shall see him as he is.

Those who have this hope purify themselves

    as Christ is pure.

THE WORD OF GRACE

Jesus said, I am the resurrection and I am life.

Those who believe in me, even though they die, yet shall they live,

    and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

I died, and behold I am alive for evermore,

    and I hold the keys of hell and death.

Because I live, you shall live also.

GREETING

Friends, we have gathered here to praise God

    and to witness to our faith as we celebrate the life of George .

We come together in grief, acknowledging our human loss.

May God grant us grace, that in pain we may find comfort,

    in sorrow hope, in death resurrection.

PRAYER *

Let us pray.

O God, who gave us birth,

you are ever more ready to hear

    than we are to pray.

You know our needs before we ask,

    and our ignorance in asking.

Give to us now your grace,

   that as we shrink before the mystery of death,

   we may see the light of eternity.

Speak to us once more

   your solemn message of life and of death.

Help us to live as those who are prepared to die.

And when our days here are accomplished,

   enable us to die as those who go forth to live,

   so that living or dying, our life may be in you,

   and that nothing in life or in death will be able to separate us

   from your great love in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE

OLD TESTAMENT LESSON

Selections from Isaiah 40

Isaiah 40:1–8 NLT

1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned. Yes, the Lord has punished her twice over for all her sins.” 3 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! 4 Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. 5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!” 6 A voice said, “Shout!” I asked, “What should I shout?” “Shout that people are like the grass. Their beauty fades as quickly as the flowers in a field. 7 The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord. And so it is with people. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.”

Isaiah 40:28–31 NLT

28 Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. 29 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. 30 Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. 31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

NEW TESTAMENT LESSON

Revelation 21:1-7

Revelation 21:1–7 NLT

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” 5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 6 And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.

GOSPEL LESSON*

John 14:1–4 NLT

1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”

John 14:18–19 NLT

18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live.

John 14:25–27 NLT

25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. 27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

SERMON

We often approach the Bible as if it were written about alien people in an alien time.

Now, I am not suggesting that we think the Bible was written by extraterrestrial aliens…I’ll leave that interpretation for the so-called History Channel...

But alien as in foreign…

as if the Bible were written by foreigners in a time so far off

that it can’t possibly bear much relevance in today’s time.

Yet, when read, the Bible proves to be profoundly relevant

and the lives of those who wrote it were struggling with the same human fears, losses and pains…

they were seeking out the same kind of answers as we find ourselves seeking today.

In the Gospel reading, we find Jesus assuring his disciples that they should not be worried…

that their hearts should not be troubled.

But, let’s be honest, how could their hearts not be troubled.

Seriously?!?!

How could their hearts not be troubled when Jesus just told them that he was going to be handed over to the Romans and put to a humiliating death on the cross?

How could their hearts not be troubled when they’d been following him for three years,

after leaving their families and friends behind,

their hopes and dreams, their livelihoods,

their very futures behind with the hope that Jesus was the Messiah who would kick the Romans out of Israel?

How could their hearts not be troubled…

when everything they had done up to that fateful night seemed to be utterly and tragically in vain?

Yet, Jesus’ words echoed out into the silence…Let not your hearts be troubled…

With such confidence, Jesus utters words that seem to fly into the face of everything we know.

Yet, Jesus utters his words boldly…why?

Because Jesus knew that God was with him in his hour of darkness…and that God is with us in ours too.

The one promise that God consistently gives us throughout the scriptures is this…

FEAR NOT for I am with you.

I will not abandon you, forsake you or fail you.

Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

While I, unfortunately did not get to know George the way you all knew her/him…

I can say with certainty that behind every person is a story…

And every life is spent interconnected in the stories of countless people.

So, in order to understand who George was, I thought it would be beneficial to look at the era she was born in...

And to do that, I turned to the second most powerful source of knowledge beside God…GOOGLE.

George was 69 when he passed away, meaning that he was right around my mom’s age,

and had to have been born no earlier than June 25, 1952 and no later than June 24, 1953...

a few short months after my mom was born.

I feel like Mr. Watson would be questioning the how I, Sherlock Holmes, knows this...

To which I would respond, elementary my dear Watson!

So, here is what GOOGLE has to offer for what happened during that time period that George was born.

I know that I just mentioned aliens and the History Channel before...

Well, as it turns out, from July 12 through July 28, 1952...

a series of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings were reported in Washington, D.C., and later became known as the Washington flap, the Washington National Airport Sightings, or the Invasion of Washington

More importantly, perhaps, Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the United States of America.

I am biased about this one, but on September 30, 1952, the Revised Standard Version of the Bible was published.

Consequently, this was the very translation I was given as my first Bible from given to me by my church through Sunday School.

On November 1, 1952: The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed “Mike”,

in the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific.

At some unknown time, probably around November or December,

13 year-old Jimmy Boyd’s record, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, was released.

On January 20, 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower was sworn in as the 34th President of the USA.

On March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin suffered a massive stroke, which killed him 4 days latter.

To foreshadow the 1960’s and the band The Doors...

Aldous Huxley first tries the psychedelic hallucinogen mescaline, inspiring his book The Doors of Perception.[8]

Finally, on more a MORE normal note…and certainly a major historical one.

Queen Elizabeth II took the throne on June 2, 1953.

I bring these historical events up because they no doubt affected George’s family, like so many others,

and they no doubt shaped him into the family-oriented, loving son, friend, life-partner, father (and yes, stepfather most definitely counts), and grandfather he was.

But George was more than the things I just listed.

He was a man who knew who he was

He was a man who LOVED his family more than life itself.

George worked hard, made sacrifices

and loved the simple things in life, including hunting…

So, here we find ourselves remembering the life of George,

a man whose life is a story that is interconnected with so many other stories..

Here we find ourselves remembering a life that was interconnected with, and touched, so many lives.

In the midst of the uncertainty of death, we have this hope…

GOD is greater than death…Amen?

In death there is an end; however,

In God, there is no end…for God is eternal.

Amid the uncertainty of life and death, we have THIS GREAT HOPE…

That God conquered death through our Lord Jesus Christ…

And that victory, in Jesus Christ, has been given to us…

Our Lord does not give, as the world does, only to take what was given away…

Rather, Jesus has given us eternal life and never-ending LOVE.

God loves George so very much and, it is my strong conviction, that George is experiencing the fullness of that LOVE and that LIFE right now in the care and presence of God.

What’s more, GOD LOVES YOU TOO…and will not leave you alone, or abandoned…

But will fill your hearts with the assurance of the ETERNAL LIFE awaiting you if you but keep your eyes on God,

And your heart set on LOVE.

LOVE is God’s essence.

LOVE is where we find Name’s legacy,

and LOVE is the foundation you can build your legacy upon too…

So do not let your hearts be troubled…do not let them be afraid.

For GOD is with you, and LOVE will guide you. Amen.

REMEMBERING GEORGE

It is at this time that I would like to invite up and family or friends who would like to share a BRIEF memory or two of who George was to you.

COMMENDATION

PRAYERS *

God of us all, your love never ends.

When all else fails, you still are God.

We pray to you for one another in our need,

   and for all, anywhere, who mourn with us this day.

To those who doubt, give light;

   to those who are weak, strength;

   to all who have sinned, mercy;

   to all who sorrow, your peace.

Keep true in us

   the love with which we hold one another.

In all our ways we trust you.

And to you,

   with your Church on earth and in heaven,

   we offer honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

O God, all that you have given us is yours.

As first you gave George to us,

   now we give George back to you.

Receive George into the arms of your mercy.

Raise George up with all your people.

Receive us also, and raise us into a new life.

Help us so to love and serve you in this world

   that we may enter into your joy in the world to come.

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING *

God of love, we thank you

   for all with which you have blessed us

    even to this day:

for the gift of joy in days of health and strength

   and for the gifts of your abiding presence and promise

    in days of pain and grief.

We praise you for home and friends,

   and for our baptism and place in your Church

   with all who have faithfully lived and died.

Above all else we thank you for Jesus,

   who knew our griefs,

   who died our death and rose for our sake,

   and who lives and prays for us.

And as he taught us, so now we pray.

THE LORD'S PRAYER *

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 

Give us this day our daily bread. 12 

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. 13 

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.1

1 The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Mt 6:9–13). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

DISMISSAL WITH BLESSING *

The peace of God which passes all understanding

   keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God,

    and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

And the blessing of God Almighty,

   the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

 be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

A Service of Committal follows at the final resting place.