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"Thanksgiving for the Life of Susan
Grant"
The Rev. George D. Smith
Sunday, May 24, 2009
St. Mark’s, Glen Ellyn
We are gathered here this afternoon to give thanks to God for
the life of Susan Grant. We are also gathered to work together
in a liturgy that we have inherited from our forbearers, which
guides us today as it did for them in times of great sadness
and deep emotion, including hope and a search for reconciliation
and meaning. The prayers, hymns, Eucharist, silences and words
work together to shape a way that we stand before and with God
in humility, love and mystery.
I had hoped the day would come when _______? Fill in the blank.
For me, I had hoped the day would come when my father would
stop smoking cigarettes. For another, it might be: I had hoped
the day would come when the Cubs would win the World Series.
And for another: I had hoped the day would come when there was
peace in the Middle East. I had hoped the day would come when
Christians would love one another. From the profound, to the
personal, to the passionate, we can all find many things to
fill in the blank. And at this time, the blank is filled with
thoughts about Susan. This liturgy is a time when we fill in
the blank, expressing those things that are not fulfilled, things
that we have longed and hoped for ourselves and our loved ones.
Filling in blanks is the work of a lifetime. This may be one
reason that the puzzle page is the most looked at section of
a newspaper. The Chicago Tribune offers a daily trifecta of
a crossword puzzle, Sudoku and a word game called Jumble. 1
Across – has a gift for…, eight letters. excelsat.
1 Down – cornerstone abbreviation…., four letters.
estd. 2 Down – message home from a shy freshman. sendcash.
Some are masters at crosswords, filling in each square with
the correct letter without so much as a pause, completing the
entire puzzle in just a few minutes. For others, not so fast
– each correct answer a small victory. How to rearrange
the letters WICTE, into a recognizable word. Not TEWIC, not
CITWE…you may already know that a solution begins with
T…and then W…ICE. TWICE! How simple. Sudoku –
all straightforward logic at the easier levels, and then stubborn
dead-ends as the difficulty increases. And then, a flash of
insight, a breakthrough, and the remaining numbers fall into
place.
A crossword, a jumble, a Sudoku – designed to be solvable
in one sitting, or one day, and if not, the answers are available
in the next day’s edition. Not so with the puzzles of
our lives and those we love. It would seem that Susan’s
life is a puzzle, Sudoku and jumble at the highest level of
difficulty. What might be some of the clues? 1 Across –
said the chief enemy of creativity is good sense – PICASSO.
1 Down, the Gaelic for Scotland – ALBA. These are easy,
and then there would be countless clues relating to literature,
painting, theatre and beauty. But Susan’s puzzle isn’t
confined to black and white, two dimensions – and we would
realize three and four dimensions, not only letters and words
but thoughts, sighing, conversations, memories, and relationships.
As difficult and perhaps maddening for anyone to solve the
puzzle, we are reminded that it isn’t ours to solve. It
isn’t that we aren’t allowed to try and shouldn’t
try. But if Susan’s life was a puzzle, and a difficult
one at that, ours are too, and through it all, we are reminded
by Paul that the puzzle is not ours but God’s. God has
literally picked up the puzzle that is humanity – which
is the spirit of adoption that Paul speaks of. Having been picked
up, we are never put down. I am convinced that the hard work
of the Christian faith is not belief in God but to come to terms
with the reality that nothing is able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ. Expressed in another way, words of the
opening Anthem proclaim, “So, then, whether we live or
die, we are the Lord’s possession.”
I had hoped the day would come when______. When we all would
be together. When our relationships would be repaired. When
there would be understanding. When there would be reconciliation.
That this has not happened yet or the ways we imagined is not
failure or tragedy. Although Hollywood may encourage such expectations
with formula happy-endings, they are always too easy, too soon,
too uncomplicated. There is trouble all around, as the psalmist
reminds us… shadows and enemies. The Scottish castles
that Susan loved are a symbol of this. They are beautiful, solid,
majestic in their heather-clad moors and frigid rocky beaches,
but they exist because of and out of trouble, evil and the shadows
of conquest and war. But the day has come when the castle is
a thing of inspiration, when it was for centuries a crucible
of defense and death.
Yet nothing is lost and all will be well. In the reading from
the letter of 1st John, we heard this morning that “God
gave us eternal life. Whoever has the Son has life.” And
we have life – Susan’s life, and all of its many
dimensions. And Susan like us has life, the mystery of life
in Christ. In God’s good time, this life is transformed
and redeemed. Repair, reconciliation and restoration are our
destiny, and it is through Christ alone that we will see it.
Jesus says, “I will raise them up on the last day.”
Being raised, there are no more puzzles, jumbles or Sudokus.
It will be all beauty, all love and all together.
Amen.
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