The words from Romans “The life and death of each one of us has its influence on others, if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die we die for the Lord...” seem very appropriate for Jean's funeral.
Jean our mother, sister, grandma, great grandma and friend.
To know Jean was to know someone who had inherited a very strong Christian faith from her father. She did her best to put that faith into action. She wasn't a saint by any means but what she did understand was that at the heart of the Christian gospel is the overwhelming transforming power of love. To simply love other people has an influence. The kind of love a Christian has (they call it agape) simply does invite a response.
This isn't the eulogy – we will come to that later. I just want to try and explain what motivated my mother to be the person she was. If I understand correctly ( and I think I do) her life's motivation came from knowing her father Harold Wesley Bardwell and knowing Jesus.
They say faith is caught not taught. She caught her faith from her father. And I think that she would want me to explain (briefly) about Faith Hope and Love.
This isn't the eulogy – we will come to that later. I just want to try and explain what motivated my mother to be the person she was. If I understand correctly ( and I think I do) her life's motivation came from knowing her father Harold Wesley Bardwell and knowing Jesus.
They say faith is caught not taught. She caught her faith from her father. And I think that she would want me to explain (briefly) about Faith Hope and Love.
St Paul famously said “to have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things that we cannot see.”
Faith is not a step into the dark. It is a step into the light. From the faith giving moment we go forward, shakily at first, like a child taking first steps. But the amazing thing is the more we walk in faith the more steady we become and the more we experience God's love and the certainty that there is a God who cares about us. It is something that you have to do for yourself before you can be truly convinced about the truth of what I am saying. She was always supporting people in their faith. In quite a discreet and kind way. Always willing to chat about the difficult subjects and very sure Jean's certainty was that there is life after death.
She chose today's gospel and pretty much all the hymns we are singing. She wanted you to hear those words from Jesus “ I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die; and those who live and believe in me will never die.”
Jean had quite a few experiences that made her convinced that there was a life after death. That when she died her life would change but not end. We talked about it a lot over the last few months. When it came to it she was ready to die and unshakeable in her faith. We can take consolation in that. She believed what Jesus said about the resurrection. I share that faith with her. Her great joy would be in you sharing it too.
She wouldn't want us to be especially sad at her passing and would want us to be glad for her in our tears. And she would want us to know love and to give and receive it today.
May your hearts be at peace. May you find consolation in your grief. May you find hope in the resurrection today as we celebrate the Life and love of Jean Frances Cockshutt.
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