Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
May 7, 2022
Shirley Veale and Nancy Styer
We do not often have the opportunity, the privilege, of
celebrating two lives at the same time.
Yet today, we celebrate the lives of both Shirley Veale and Nancy Styer,
who were equally sisters and friends.
Both gave generously of their time to a variety of organizations,
including their churches. Both had
tremendous senses of humor and loved bridge. Both had friendships that went back for
decades. They were both deeply devoted
to their family, and, I would say, their family was deeply devoted to each of
these women to the very end of each of their earthly lives.
As we gather to celebrate the lives of Shirley and Nancy
and to commit their eternal lives to God, to hear powerful readings from scripture
and sing some of the great hymns of the church, I am reminded of the way we
gather on All Saints Day in November of each year. On that day, we celebrate the lives of those
who have gone before us. We try to
notice what we have learned from our loved ones and the saints of the church
about being the people God calls us to be, both as individuals and
collectively. Today, as we gather to
celebrate Nancy and Shirley both individually and together, what might we hear
about the people God calls us to be?
In the reading from Isaiah, we hear about the feast God
will make for all people. Later in Isaiah,
we are told that God will draw people from the north and the south, the east
and the west, from all over the earth.
God’s desire is that we go through life in community with other people,
connected with family and friends, as well as the whole human family. So much of Shirley and Nancy’s life was about
that connection. Humor binds people together,
sometimes in ways too deep for words. Bridge
is not played alone but in community with others. The generous giving of their time to their
family and the organizations and churches that were important to them connected
them with both friends and people beyond their immediate circles. The reading from Isaiah reminds us that in a diversity
of people coming together, we experience a taste of salvation, or as the
reading from 2 Corinthians puts it, a taste of the mortal being swallowed up by
life. In their love of family, their
love of friendships, their love of a good laugh, and their love of drawing people
together, I believe you experienced that taste of salvation.
Nancy and Shirley both lived long, happy, loving
lives. There is so much to celebrate and
you have many stories to tell. But we
also gather to grieve this double loss.
The reading from Isaiah also promises a time when God will wipe away the
tears from all faces and will swallow up death forever. But that time is not here yet. Mortality has not yet been fully swallowed up
by life. You, Shirley’s and Nancy’s
family, have lost two women that you have known your entire lives, who loved
and nurtured you in good times and hard times, and through whom you experienced
something of the love of God. Jesus wept
at the tomb of Lazarus, his friend. So
we have no shame in shedding our own tears at the loss of loved ones, no matter
how long, or rich, or full the life. We
gather to grieve together just as you have gathered to mourn other losses
together and to celebrate so many things together. Shirley and Nancy taught us the power of
being together.
Lastly, we have gathered as people of faith to proclaim the
resurrection of Jesus from the dead and to give thanks that in their baptisms
decades ago Shirley and Nancy were joined with Jesus in his death and
resurrection and have now been raised to new life in him. In the gospel reading, we heard Jesus say
that he is going to prepare a place for us, so that where he is, there we may
be also. In their deaths, Shirley and Nancy
have joined Jesus in that place, together.
The challenges of recent years are over.
What was mortal has finally been completely swallowed up by life. For that, we give God thanks and praise.
Amen.
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