This week has been busy and heavy. Thankfully, it’s been busy and heavy with sacredness. Last Thursday, I was on the T heading to Logan Airport in Boston. I was flying to Los Angeles to join Cassie there, who was working in LA during the week. The reason for the trip was twofold: to celebrate my mother receiving an alumni seal award from our alma mater and to lead a private, family graveside service for my maternal grandmother in San Pedro, who passed in May.
So, the upcoming events were on my mind as I rode the T toward Logan. Celebration. Mourning. Mundane travel in planes, trains, and automobiles. God in the midst of celebration and mourning and the mundane.
That’s when I got the call. Our church secretary, Karen, said “Charlotte Dell passed away. Her family wants the funeral on Wednesday at 11am. Can you meet with them Monday?” Great, I thought, On my way to lead my first unofficial funeral, I get the call to plan and lead my first official one. “Yes, I can meet with them Monday, and Wednesday at 11 works.”
I had never met Charlotte. As insensitive as it sounds, she was just a name on Thursday. But after flying back from LA Saturday, I heard countless stories of Charlotte at church on Sunday. Stories of love and laughter (and food, lot’s of food). Then Monday, I met with Charlotte’s two children, who so clearly loved their mother and had wonderful memories and stories to share. I realized, with more than a little embarrassment, that Charlotte was so much more than a name. She was a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was a prankster. She was a deacon at our church who paid special attention to feeding hungry people and to the sanctuary details (she dusted the sanctuary every Saturday and folded the bulletins). She was a wonderful woman.
I was struck by the power of storytelling that made Charlotte known to me. I met Charlotte through the stories of her children and friends here at the church. It gave me a profound thankfulness for the ritual of funerals, which provide special opportunities to tell both the story of a person’s life and the story of eternal life and resurrection in Christ. It was an honor to lead the service, both at the church and graveside, because it was so apparent that Charlotte honored the Lord.
Pastor Drew's Desk 