If you are visiting with us today and wondering at the white and gold, it is the Anglican tradition that this is a celebration of the promises made to Hilda by God being fulfilled. The Paschal Candle is always lit at the funeral of one who has been baptized into Christ’s death and promised an inheritance in His Resurrection. Likewise, the white and gold reminds us of the fact that she is now with the Lord, waiting until His return and making those sad things untrue, as CS Lewis famously wrote. There are other signs, and many are encouraged in your Orders of Worship. Feel free to ask an Adventer or me about any after the service.
That celebration is not to say we are not mourning with her family at the loss of Hilda. Though Hilda was a private woman, she had good friends at Advent and participated in a number of ministries. She had a heart for those suffering in the world, so it was appropriate that the food pantry continued its work even as we shared our stories about Hilda before the service in the Parish Hall. Hilda also served several years as one of our youth teachers, sharing her faith and love with what is now an adult generation.
I was asked by a couple astute Adventers if Rosemary and I conspired to use last week’s Isaiah 25 reading to jump start a sermon today. Rosemary will attest that neither of us were looking that far ahead when we met about the readings. Our funeral service gives us a lot of opportunity for personal touches, and one of the better ways to personalize services is through the choices of readings and hymns. I entourage individuals to plan their services in advance of their deaths as a last testimony. Failing that, though, I encourage families to choose those readings that are important to them or their loved one.
The feast on the Holy Mountain provided by God and prophesied by Isaiah is certainly a wonderful passage. God promises that on that Glorious Day He will swallow the shroud of death that has covered His people and provide a feast of sumptuous foods, well-strained wine, and great desserts. Those who are expecting a McMansion in an agreeable HOA in the sky might be surprised by the imagery, but God is rather insistent that He calls all of us to the Wedding Feast and that our job is to invite others in His Name.
For my part today, I was drawn to our reading in John. I was drawn to a word study, of sorts. That part made sense to me since Hilda and a number of the family are wordsmiths. Many of them enjoy good books and good poetry, but not all of us gathered here today do. It also seemed a bit weird, as I would expect God to want me to focus on the promises made to Hilda and all who proclaim Him as Lord. Part of the problem, I confess, was that I was really struggling with the illustration for the sermon. I have learned over more than two decades of doing this that God always shows up, even though I wish He would sometimes make it clearer sooner. Today the sermon made sense to me just after 10:30. Her son shared the story in the Parish Hall that helped illustrate what I thought God had taught Hilda, what Hilda shared with those whom she loved, and what we were supposed to realize today. So thank you for sharing that story with those of gathered.
Our passage from John’s Gospel comes from what theologians describe as the Farewell Discourse of John. What we think of the Eucharist has been instituted; Jesus has predicted His betrayal by one of them whose feet He has washed; Peter has famously pledged his loyalty only to hear his Lord prophesy that he, too, will betray Jesus; He has foretold His departure; and He has commanded His Apostles and disciples to love one another. We, of course, know how this story will end. His betrayal will lead to a false conviction by the Sanhedrin, His Crucifixion and Death on Good Friday, and His Resurrection that first Sunday. His Apostles and disciples, however, have no understanding of all that, despite His instructions to that effect. All they understand is that He seems serious that He is going to leave them, and they are understandably unhappy at the prospect.
Jesus tells them in the midst of their concern not to worry, that He goes to prepare a place for them, and that He will return for them. Better still, Jesus reassures them that they know the way to the place He is going. Thomas protests that they do not know where He is going and that, because they do not know His destination, they cannot possibly follow. We all understand Thomas’ complaint. We need addresses to put into Waze and other map Apps, right? Jesus reminds them what they have seen, what they have experienced, and what they have learned during their time with Him, that He is the way, the truth, and the life. It’s that reminder that serves for the basis of them having no worry and an understanding of who He is, particularly on the other side of His death.
Twice in verse one, Jesus tells His disciples and us to believe in God and to believe in Him. The Greek word, pistuete, is usually translated as belief or faith. Often, as our translators render it in the passage today, this verb form is treated as an imperative verb, a command. It can just as easily, however, be an indicative verb reminding the disciples that they believe in Him and need to keep believing in Him. The problem for us in English is that we think of faith or belief as a kind of theoretical acceptance. That command to believe in Him nudges us to that intellectual assent understanding, almost like we force ourselves to accept certain principles or maybe the Creeds.
Jesus reminds His disciples and us, however, of those works that He has done which have attracted them and us to Him, which testify to who He is. They know, perhaps even better than us, Jesus’ love of the hungry, the poor, the hurting, and the outcasts, because they have lived it. They have seen the lepers healed. They have seen His anger at death and His power to overcome it. They have seen Him exercise His authority in the Temple and on the Sabbath. Thinking of believing in Him as simply an intellectual assent misses His instruction. Some of us, like Hilda, have that same draw to those whom God loved. It is in that work we begin to experience God’s love of those on the margins and His power to redeem all things, even sinful human beings such as ourselves. So, how do we translate that verb better, so that we understand Jesus’ instruction or observation?
Thankfully, James shared that when they were younger, Hilda bought a Volkswagen bus. The bus that she purchased lacked the middle bench. So Hilda had a bench running from the driver seat to just in front of what should have been the third bench. Then she had a table put in there. Apparently, the kids used the table for homework and, during trips, for games. I know, I know. Those of younger generations would be appalled. No anchored captains chairs? No seat belts? A table just sitting in the van? No way to anchor youth seats? Some of us here today are old enough to remember when there were not such things as baby seats and youth seats, right?
James shared that the kids would claim their seats, as children of any generation are wont to do, and he would often sit on that Hilda-installed bench. Now, I know a lot of the family and their friends are in the medical world. As traumatized as the younger doctors might be at this arrangement, keep in mind the Hilda-bench ran the length of the driver’s side of the VW bus. You know what that means? If mom or dad took the corners like Mario Andretti, the bench would tilt. An unsuspecting passenger might be thrown from the bench, much to the amusement of those others in the bus with them. I am certain that none of these angelic children that Hilda raised ever put a friend on that bench hoping to see them freaked out by the wobble later, right? lol
James shared that a few friends might have been tossed about, but it became his preferred seat, tipping and all. And, as you might imagine, the lightbulb went off in my head. When some of us were children, we did things that kind of defied common sense. We rode in the back of pickup trucks. On the highway. We rode our bicycles without helmets. We played lawn darts. We even placed benches facing the wrong direction and unanchored in VW buses and rode around on those seats. The youth of today marvel that we survived, and some of us probably do marvel ourselves at some of the things we did. But some of us were blessed to be raised by parents whom we could trust. My guess is that the kids knew when mom or dad might be a bit angry or a bit rushed and hung on a bit stronger to the bench. Most of the time, though, those who could trust their parents had no reason to think of such an arrangement as anything but a solution to a missing bench. It did not occur to us that drivers like those we encounter on the roads in Nashville could get a driver’s license. Mom and dad were in command of the vehicle, and they would keep us safe. And now you know the good practical way to understand pistuete, trust.
Just as the kids trusted mom and dad to get them safely from destination to destination, Jesus is reminding His disciples that they have trusted in Him and should continue to trust Him. Has He ever failed them? No. Has He ever abandoned them? No. As these next events unfold, they need to remember those experiences and continue to trust He is who they think He is, that He is the Christ, the Messiah, sent by the Father for the redemption of the world. Just as He always has, He will get them where they are going!
You and I live in an equally crazy world. We all laughed as I mentioned how the youth today perceive such actions from our own childhood. How could we be so naive? It is worse in their family because so many are doctors. They are, by and large, intelligent risk averse people, and they understand better the possible injuries. And, yet, they rode around in that bus confident that mom or dad would get them to their destination safely. In some ways, it was a different world, but Hilda was a mom who demonstrated her character to her children constantly. It probably never occurred to her or them that there was any danger. Better still, as Hilda faced those crazy turns and potholes in the experience we call life, she continued to trust in the Lord who demonstrated the character of her Father in Heaven who created her and who longed to draw the world back to Himself in that intimate relationship for which He created us all back in the Garden. And she modeled that behavior for her own family and for her friends. Like her kids on the turns or bumps in the road, she trusted that He would see her through her trials, her mournings, and her celebrations. And she passed that trust on to her children as well as those who counted her a friend. And now we celebrate that she is with her Lord who has always proved Himself trustworthy, confident that He has proven Himself most trustworthy as that shroud covered her.
In fact, even as we mourn her death with the family, we know our Lord has taken her to where He is, where now she joins the great cloud of witnesses and makes intercessions on behalf of all whom she knows, but especially for those whom she loved. Now, I do caution the family that, if they receive another e-mailed petition purportedly from her for them to sign that it most likely belongs in the trash bin on your computers. Sorry, that is a bit of an inside joke for them. But we remind ourselves even as we mourn that she partakes of the Feast of which this bread and this wine is just an appetizer, a pledge of our own inheritance. We remind ourselves that, when we pass from glory to glory as Hilda did, that same trustworthy Jesus will take us where He and all the saints are, until that time when He swallows up the shroud that covers humanity and serves the Feast that He promised to Isaiah. Best of all, we remind ourselves that as we travel our own bumpy and curvy roads of life, that same Jesus will prove Himself trustworthy again and again, that we might become heralds of His Peace, His Joy, and His promise to unmake all that is sad, just as our beloved Hilda did in her life.
In His Promises,
Brian+
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