Pat Clark Funeral Sermon
Nov 07, 2009
William Seth Adams
The Funeral Service Sermon for Patricia Blaze Clark, Class of 1995, given by the Rev. Dr. William Seth Adams, professor-emeritus of Liturgics and Anglican Studies, on November 7, 2009, at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin
Isaiah 25.6-9
Blessed be the Name of God
In the Book of Common Prayer, we have this treasure to pray:
O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; [BCP 819]
I have prayed this prayer many times but in this particular moment, on this particular morning, I understand this prayer in a much more striking fashion than ever before, and for reasons that we all share. Our dear Pat has died. Patricia Blaze. In an earlier generation, Patricia Blazejewski. Our dear Pat has died. On October 28 at 3:23 in the afternoon, at Christopher House, surrounded by friends and in the company of her beloved Don, Pat's last breath was spent. It was quiet, very peaceful, timely, in its own way, a moment of sorrow, a moment of rest. Pat died on the Feast of SS. Simon and Jude, and here we are, gathered to celebrate her life in the long shadow of All Saints' Day. During her life, Pat did indeed receive glimpses of the beauty of God, which, doubtless, she now beholds, as the prayer says, unveiled.
Pat accomplished so many things in her life. Amongst them all, her hymns were her most endearing and graceful gift. She knew so much about God! And has so much to tell us.
Last night, at the wake, we talked so richly and so warmly about Pat and all that she has meant to so many of us, and we sang her praise of the Holy One. This morning, with Pat's help, we will speak about God. To speak a eulogy is to speak a good word, that's what the Greek means. Wakes are times to eulogize, to speak a good word about the deceased. Funerals are times to eulogize God, a time to speak a good word about God.
For a good long while now and with some frequency, my wife, Amy Donohue, and I have shared evenings and meals with Pat and Don at a variety of really good restaurants around the city. Pat was very fond of sushi and our favorite spot for that was KaProw, a splendid Thai restaurant on Howard Lane in north Austin, not far from where we each lived. Don was and is very fond of oysters and he and Pat would often eat at Eddie V's in the Arboretum. In fact, they ate there often enough that Roger, the house manager, knew them by name, greeted them warmly and very often gave them preferential seating. After Pat died, Roger provided a fine meal to Don, on the house.
All this is to say that the reading from the prophet Isaiah is on the money! On the Mountain of the LORD, "the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear." In the older rendering of this passage, the meal was described as "a feast of fat things." Not a particularly tolerable image in a cholesterol conscious age but it still has its allure.
This long awaited meal, richly described and fully promised, is more than a glutton's delight. However sumptuous the offerings, the point of the story is not so much the food as the folks.
The promise that Isaiah announces is straightforward and undisguised. Isaiah announces the intention of God. This remarkable, long awaited meal will be set before "all peoples," everyone, everyone will be invited, given a place at the table. Every tear will be wiped away, every disgrace will be taken away. For each and every and all, death will be swallowed up-and we will all rejoice and be glad.
On the mountain of the LORD, there will be a banquet set for all the tribes, all the nations, all the peoples, all the clans, all the colors, and there will be food enough, wine enough. Everyone will get something to eat, no one will go hungry, everyone is welcome, no one will be turned away. Everybody we like will be there; everyone we don't like will be there. People who vote the way we vote will be there, and those who vote in the "wrong" way will be there, too. It will be that sort of occasion, something only God could imagine, much less pull off.
In her hymn "Come to the Banquet," Pat wrote about this godly meal:
Make no excuses and cause no delay;
Ready your soul in its finest array.
See that your mind, heart and hands open wide;
Welcome and kinship are waiting inside.
Come to the banquet: the table is set,
Guests are invited; come now and be fed.
Here at the table diversity reigns;
Wealth counts as nothing and losses are gains.
No sharp divisions, here class lines are blurred;
Servants are feted by masters who serve.
Come to the banquet: the table is set,
Guests are invited; come now and be fed.
[A Taste of Heaven's Joy, 13]
Pat knew, you see, she knew so well what God has said, what God has promised. She knew so well that the promise of God would outrun and outlast the powers of death the powers of darkness. Pat knew that life wins!
Pat died at 71. Was that the right time? Or, better, when is the right time? Over the past 18 months, Amy and I have celebrated the lives of many friends, celebrated in just this way. One person was 57, another 59. One was 45, one was 93, one 98. As the Chaplain at Round Rock Medical Center, Amy encounters deaths virtually every day. A man in his early 40's has a heart attack in the hospital waiting room and dies within two hours in the ER. A child, only minutes old, dies for lack of sufficiently developed organs to sustain life. When is the right time?
I know virtually for a fact, that our dear Pat must have seen and heeded a very popular sign, one often posted along fence lines on country roads. Hand painted in a rough sort of way, the sign reads, "Are you ready?"
Most of us would easily dismiss the sign and its intent, but I really think Pat took the sign seriously. And by her good example, I want to ask you to do the same.
Pat's readiness is illustrated by the preparation she invested in her funeral and the plans she made, with Don, for the end of her life. She made sure that the business she had to do got done. In fact, as her days grew fewer and fewer, and her lung capacity grew less and less, it seemed as if she was simply working her way through some imagined list, the accomplishment of which would allow her to exhale, for the last time.
Once the return and rapid growth of her tumor became a reality, she got busy. My plea for you is that you will follow her example, though not waiting for a compelling diagnosis to get you started.
Your death will come, as Pat's death did, in the midst of your life with God. That is a fact. That's exactly when it will occur. Your death will come in the midst of your life with God. Your death will not interrupt your life with God, though it will surely interrupt your life with your friends and family. God will be your companion through death as God has been in your life. Pat knew that on October 27, the day before her death, and she knows it all the more now. Death does not mean the loss of God. Death does not rescind the invitation to the mountain of the LORD.
But, in terms of the days and years of our lives, we simply do not know when that moment "in the midst of your life with God" will occur. But the sign still reads, "Are you ready?"
If there are medical decisions that you need to make about the end of your life, make them now. Almost every decision that will have to be made at the end of your life, you can make now. Make them and write them down. If you have ideas about your own funeral, write them down. What you've written, give to those you love, give them to the church office. Get it done!
Equally, if there are people that you love, make sure they know it, every day. If there is relational stuff that needs attention or repair, take care of it. Pat was able to do all this and I mean to hold up her example for you all to follow. "Are you ready?" If not, then get busy.
Pat's hymn "Come to the Banquet" tells us reassuringly about the extravagance of God, the generosity and hospitality of God, just as Isaiah does, in the time of the Great Meal. There is another of Pat's hymns that tell us not about the beginning but rather about the beginning, when the "Divine Musician" "sang creation into being." These words should have the last say:
O God, you sang creation into being
And then embraced it in the sacred dance.
You breathed your harmonies into its spirit;
Enchanted restless forces with a glance.
Divine Musician, you played us an Eden,
You filled its silences with notes divine.
But we grew deaf from discord we engendered
And heard no more your musical design.
Your melodies still hover in our beings
Like tunes that echo through a hollow reed;
Your Spirit's voice sets ready heartstrings ringing,
That choruses long buried might be freed.
Make us you instruments, tuned for your service;
Call forth a symphony of grateful praise;
Arrange our lives in rhythm with your music;
Sing us a new creation for these days.
[The Still Small Voice: Hymns by Patricia Blaze Clark]
Indeed! "...sing us," dear God, "a new creation for these days."
Blessed may you be.
Blessed be the Name of God
wsa
