Are we safe for the illustration I told you, JoAnne? Good! On behalf of the Martin family, but especially JoAnne and his sons Andy and David, I would like to thank you for joining us today as we mourn Jim’s death and remind ourselves again of God’s promises to us. I say again because we Adventers have lost a couple defining personalities or characters over the last few weeks in the deaths of Mary Clyde and Jim. If you are not an Episcopalian, you might be surprised at the readings. Truth be told, some Episcopalians might be surprised at the Gospel reading as it is not one of the suggested Gospel readings in our BCP. Of course, if you did not know Jim well, you might be surprised there is a Christian burial to begin with. Jim was not at all bashful about expressing his opinions about the Church and about the parish. If you took his comments at face value, you might think he hated the Church. In truth, Jim mostly wanted Her members to live as Jesus commanded and lived Himself. And sometimes, he said what he said because he knew it gave others around him an opportunity and the freedom to say what they wanted to say or ask what they needed to ask.
I only knew Jim 8 ½ years, so I cannot
speak to older Jim. I know some of you
present knew him from work or from art or from some other social gatherings. Jim was incredibly entrepreneurial, creative,
and inquisitive in the time I knew him. He
served on the Vestry while I was here.
He has sung in the choir for more than two decades. In fact, he was my co-conspirator in getting
the choir to sing for the early service on Easter mornings. He promised that as long as I pumped them
full of mimosas, he would make sure they came and sang joyfully! He was an enormous supporter of Body & Soul,
our food pantry, even though it caused him to question some of his own personal
assumptions about God, specifically those assumptions about how active God was
in the day to day life of humanity and individuals. I could never get him to do anything about
the drying up lake in Chad, of which he was quite passionate, but he combined with
Robert to launch a group which they later named Wrestling with Faith that tried
to do what its name suggests. All that
is to say that Jim had an active faith and membership which might surprise some
people, given some of the words that came out of his mouth.
From my perspective, Jim’s best criticism
was absolutely constructive. Jim had no
respect and little love for churches and Christians who publicly dressed
themselves in their faith with words but lived as if Jesus never gave us the
Lord’s Prayer or the Beatitudes, which, as y’all no doubt have figured out
brings us back to the Gospel reading today.
The passage is famous enough that many
non-Christians know it. It is often
referred to as the Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount. That latter name, of course, served as one of
Jim and my discussions over the “conflicts in the Bible,” as he would sometimes
describe them. Matthew writes that Jesus
went up a mountain to preach to the crowd; Luke writes that Jesus gave this
sermon on a plain. Jim’s big question
was “which version is correct or true?”
I reminded him that Matthew wrote from his own memories years after
Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension and that Luke wrote from his interviews with
the Apostles and early disciples. I also
reminded him as I do you now, our idea of a mountain in Middle Tennessee is a
bit different from many of those in the Holy Land. One of those modern tourist trap places in
Israel that claim to be the site of this sermon is more a hill than a mount,
but Sermon on the Hill does not have the same panache or cause people to travel
out of their way to spend their money. We
both agreed that humanity is so stupid that Jesus probably taught this
instruction in many different places and many different times, expecting us to
realize its importance because of His frequent teaching and His life. So, maybe both accounts are absolutely true. That the sermon is in two Gospels and ignored
by so many “Christians” certainly speaks to its importance in our Lord’s mind
and also to our own stubborn hearts.
For our part, we are often consumed with
the trappings of fame and power. To put
it in Jesus’ language, we are interested in the trappings of glory. Unfortunately, the glory that we chase, the
glory by which we are distracted, are those things which the world around us
pursues. We like the shiny, vain baubles
which dissipate quickly, and forget the lasting glory offered by our Father in
Heaven. Luckily for all of us, Jesus did
not forget.
Those whom Jesus taught were like us. When will the kingdom of God come? When will the injustices be corrected? How will the economy work? How will the social order be
constructed? Jesus’ answer to those
questions are surprising and, perhaps, nonsensical to much of humanity. How can those who mourn Jim’s death, or the
death of other loved ones, ever be truly comforted? How can the meek ever inherit anything? We have to fight for what is ours. And who wants to show mercy? Most of us, if we are truly honest with
ourselves, want the power to exact vengeance rather than the heart to show
mercy to those who have wronged us.
Good. I see some squirms.
Good thing I am not going to preach about
those who are persecuted for being jerks, huh?
In that, Jim found a kindred spirit in me. It drove us both nuts that Christians
complain they are treated “harshly” for being jerks – to be fair, Jim and I
used other earthy language in these discussion that might offend your gentle
ears. Jesus reminds us in this teaching we
are blessed when we are persecuted for doing what He commands. I meet too many Christians who can’t
understand why waiters and waitresses don’t like those fake $100 bill tips that
say “the best tip is Jesus” or why the should not berate service personnel for
trying to do their jobs or for giving the finger or cussing out drivers because
they are in a hurry. When you are cursed
for doing the things Jesus commands—mourning, being merciful, being a
peacemaker and the like--, you are blessed.
When you are cursed for being a jerk, you are not blessed.
Jesus’ teachings here and in Luke’s
version, of course, are counter cultural.
But His teachings instruct us in His ministry. You and I and all those who claim Jesus is
Lord of our lives are expected by Him to live as if that is true. We are called to help others, to live as if
we believe our Lord was serious when He described the Kingdom’s values. We are called to live as if we believe Jesus
is serious when He promises that all who are baptized in His Name die to themselves
and are promised a resurrection into His glory.
We are called to live as if we truly believe that the path to lasting
glory is the Cross and our own crosses.
Make no mistake, my friends, these are all crosses. They are hard. They are work. They are a struggle. Yet so many who claim the mantle of
Christianity forget the example that He set.
How many of us chase wealth, as if it is the only security we can have? How many of us chase power, as if our ability
to influence or command others is anything other than fleeting? How many of us Christians act and live as if
we are entitled to our glorious inheritance without first bearing our own
crosses? It was that hypocrisy that
drove Jim nuts. It was that hypocrisy
that caused him to criticize churches and the Church and those who had the
bully pulpits of this world. What do I
mean?
Those of you paying close attention might
have heard me asking JoAnne if we were ok to use an example before I
started. Good. I see some nods. When JoAnne came in to talk about the
readings and expressed her desire to use the Sermon on the Mount rather than the
reading she had chosen begrudgingly, I told her I already had a Beatitude
sermon illustration or two involving Jim.
I told her what I am about to shared with y’all, but I told her I was
worried about the other party in this story showing up. I did not want him and his relationship with
Jim negatively impacted by learning the truth.
JoAnne promised to help me keep an eye out for whether he showed up for
Jim’s funeral. But, just in case he is
here, neither of us have seen you, if you are here. I will not use names and too many identifying
details. And please understand Jim was
trying to be a true friend to you, honoring both your own attitudes and
feelings and meeting a need in your life.
I have said repeatedly, and many of you
have nodded, of Jim’s lack of tolerance for those self-identified Christians
who ignore the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer as they live their lives. Those who knew Jim superficially might well
have thought he hated Christianity, given his criticisms and a lack of
context. In fact, a few acquaintances
and others have decided its their job to worry about Jim’s salvation and my
participation in a burial service for him.
And, by the way, were he with us today, you would find yourself in his
ire. More importantly, those taking that
decision upon themselves are being the very hypocrites that both Jesus and Jim
liked to call out. But it is appropriate,
as we remember God’s promises to Jim that we remember our Lord’s instructions
to us. Our job is not to judge the
salvation or state of the soul or eternal destination or whatever you want to
call it of any other human being. Our
job is to glorify God in our lives, and He reminds us this day, through Matthew’s
recount of the Sermon on Mount, that we glorify Him chiefly by mourning when
appropriate, feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, exercising mercy, making
peace, and all the other instructions contained in these twelve verses. That’s our job. The rest is up to Him. And thankfully, because Christ was raised
from the dead on that third day, we know the Lord has power and will to do the
rest!
Back to our job, well, Jim’s really. I had a few backup illustrations of how Jim
lived his life in accordance with what he understood from a few decades of
Scripture readings and sermons, a enormous number of hymns sung in worship, and
even some discussions with Adventers and strangers about God. But when JoAnne asked about the Beatitudes,
an easy one jumped out.
About a year ago, a friend of Jim’s lost his
job. I learned of it because Jim called
to tell me and had a plan. If he sent
the friend over to the pantry, would I meet him and pretend not to know him or
his needs. Jim’s plan was to tell him
that he supported Body & Soul but never used it. This friend could in his place. My job, according to Jim, was to see how else
we could help him. Jim’s big worry was
that the friend would not want to accept help.
Jim’s worry was that this friend needed assistance but was unwilling to
ask for or accept help.
To make a long story short, I “bumped into”
the gentleman at the pantry. When I
asked how he was doing, he shared what had happened and how hard it was for
him. Jim had tossed me the alley-oop, so
I just dunked the ball and asked if there was any way we could help. After some . . . let’s call it passionate
discourse over whether everybody needs some help from time to time, the friend
agreed to let my church help him. He
would let my church pay a cell phone bill while he looked for another job.
What nobody else knew, of course, was that
Jim was reimbursing my discretionary funds to make this possible. For about a year. Jim went so far as to call our financial
admin and have her set up an automatic withdrawal because he might forget to
pay the bill from time to time. Looking
around, I am pretty certain that few people knew Jim was like that in his
faith. I see your elbows and whispers
and shocked expressions. For all his
frustrations with the Church, for all his love of science and explanation in
favor of miracles, Jim took seriously the commands of our Lord. A neighbor was in need, and he was in a
position to address the need. When so
many of us Christians would choose to ignore the need and step over the
unfortunate, Jim literally put his money where his heart was and is. Best of all, he did it in a way that only His
Father in Heaven, his priest, and his wife knew. Jim helped the friend because he loved him
and trusted God. He knew how such experiences
can crush a human spirit, and he tended even to that in his friend.
There are, as I said, many other such
stories by which I will remember Jim. Some
may come out over the years; some may not.
Jim’s cantankerousness was easy for me to take because it was motivated
by a love of God and a love of the parish and a love of those around him. I found it a wonderful and joyful irony that
a man who could be so . . . well, Jim, wishing the Church would quit paying
attention to the unbelievable miracles of Scripture, could be so moved and
bathed in God’s Holy Spirit that he missed the miracle happening in his own heart
and his own life. And what I wouldn’t
give to have seen the look on his face when he learned that all those miracles,
all those promises of God, were true! But
I strongly suspect we will all have that same silly look for a few centuries
after our own resurrections, as God is always doing more than we can ask or
imagine.
Jim’s family, I hope you know he loved and
treasured each one of you. Jim fussed
and fumed about those things important to him.
He shared some of his frustrations, some of his hopes, and some of his
failures with many of you. In some ways,
if you found yourself on the receiving end of Jim’s rants or arguments, you
have some knowledge of how much he cared for you. That is not to say he was a perfect father, a
perfect husband, a perfect brother, a perfect grandpa. He knew he was not, and his failures
frustrated him far more than each of you did him.
Adventers, and especially members of the
choir, I know this has been a tough season.
We have lost steadfast members, steadfast characters and personalities, whose
journey is no longer the same path as our own.
Yet it was for moments like this, seasons like this, that our Lord came
down, in the ultimate expression of steadfast love, that we might stand at the
graves of loved ones, certain in the hope that we will all one day be reunited
with them and God, and sent back out into the world out there to do the tasks He
has given each of us to do.
For those of you who are struggling with
the questions with which Jim wrestled, those who are seeking God, maybe even
those Christians who have forgotten that the path to the glory we are called to
seek is available only through cross-bearing lives, through lives that reflect
the teachings of our Lord, I encourage
you to pay more attention to Jim’s actions in your life than perhaps his
words. Yes, his words were sometimes scandalous
and sometimes confusing, but insofar as they related to God and faith, many of
those spoken words served God’s purposes, allowing those struggling the freedom
to ask questions they were afraid to ask and leading those perhaps too self-righteous
to a bit of self-examination. Our
Anglican luminaries have taught us that real faith is an inward conviction that
involves the whole activity of a human being.
I think it fair to say Jim’s activities reflected such a faith. For all his bluster, for all his opines, he
was washed in the waters of baptism, he was nourished by Christ’s Body &
Blood in the Sacrament, he led us in joyful praise and singing, he was a true
lover of his friends and neighbors, he led his parish when called, and he was not
afraid to repent when he realized his errors or sins—for decades! My friends, his activity among you
demonstrated his faith and his longing, that those promises of God are
true. Would that when our lives are remembered
when death has called us home, that the same will be said of us.
In Christ’s
Peace,
Brian†
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