I’ve known Phyllis for close
to 20 years now. I love her dearly, and she was a good friend
all these years. She was supportive of
me for all my pastorate here at Holy Trinity, and I enjoyed visiting with her
and taking her Communion at her home in these later days of her life.
I have come to think of her as cross between a bulldog, a drill sergeant, and Mother Theresa. I delightfully remember
how she would bark at me, just like she would everyone else, if I got in her way
in the church kitchen, or if I was just in her kitchen at all. Phyllis eventually had to give up serving the
parish in that way, and it was not easy for her. I fondly think of her when I walk through
the church kitchen to this day. I
instinctively walk fast through there thinking she perhaps is going to catch
me.
So, I enjoyed Phyllis and
her gruff, no-nonsense ways. All of us
will miss her servanthood among us.
I very much applaud Phyllis
for her servant’s heart, but interestingly and quite profoundly, her
servanthood is not what got her into heaven this day. It’s a reflection of what
did, but that is not what earned her a place at that heavenly banquet
table, to borrow from the great biblical imagery in Isaiah, Luke, Psalm 23 and
elsewhere. What opened the gates of heaven for Phyllis was simply her
relationship with her Lord. It was God’s loving
hand upon her life and her loving response to Him in return that has determined her
destiny. It’s not complicated. Phyllis didn’t have to be perfect. This is the simple and
true reality of God’s call on all of our lives and what it means to be "In Christ" as Saint Paul says in his Epistles.
So, Phyllis knew what it
meant to be a child of God. Phyllis’
sister, Virginia, picked our scripture readings for us today, and among those
readings is Psalm 139. I will paraphrase it a bit using Phyllis as the object of the psalm:
v1 O Lord, you have searched Phyllis and you know
her;
v4 You have enclosed Phyllis behind and before,
*and have laid your hand upon her.
v8 If she takes the wings of the morning
*and dwells in the uttermost parts of the sea, you are with her.
v12 For you yourself made her inmost parts;
* You knit her together in her mother’s womb.
v13 She is fearfully and wonderfully made;
* marvelous are your works, and Phyllis now knows it all too well.
God did not create Phyllis out of the dust of the earth
just to have her live three score and ten years, as the Bible puts it, and then pass
into oblivion. He created her out of
love, to be the object of His love, and gave her a spirit and a soul that is
capable of loving Him in return. She
chose to do just that. Death doesn’t
have the last word for Phyllis, God does.
In closing, a word about
this world Phyllis leaves behind: We now
live in a materialistic culture for which much of what I have said sounds untrue,
irrational and outdated. Secular
materialism is a belief system as Christianity is. Secularism believes that the material world is the only thing that exist, or
at least the only thing that matters. I
have lived my three score and ten just like Phyllis.
I am a rational person, scientifically trained, and love to explore the
intricacies of God’s amazing creation… but the only thing that makes sense of
the cold, hard, cruel, hating world is the loving God who calls us to something
better than secular materialism. Phyllis knew this.
So, today, we celebrate Phyllis and are here to give her a well-deserved send-off. We also celebrate God who lovingly created Phyllis and gave her to us for a season. To again paraphrase from the 23rd, thank you for calling Phyllis to dwell in your house forever.
Amen.
