Tom Marks

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
June 10, 2023

Tom Marks 

          “They will hunger no more, and thirst no more.  The sun will not strike them or any scorching heat…he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  These are words of comfort today as we gather to celebrate the life of Tom Marks.  Those words could also include “They will no longer forget and will remember all that they are told.  They will not tremble but stand firm and move quickly.”  The writer of Revelation promises us a time when suffering and grief will be no more.  But that time is not here yet, so we gather to celebrate a life well lived and to mourn the loss of that life.

          As much as the reading from Revelation gives us hope to hold onto, the reading from Isaiah reminds me so much more of Tom Marks.  The reading from Isaiah is the same reading Jesus read in the synagogue in Nazareth to describe his own ministry, a ministry of healing, encouragement, comfort, and gladness.  Today we celebrate the life of a man whose actions followed the pattern Jesus set for us.  Tom’s courage in the face of Parkinson’s, his quiet perseverance, his friendly welcome when he served as an usher at Christ Church, and his kindness and encouragement to his family, friends, and neighbors mirrored the words of Isaiah in Tom’s own way.  There is a passage in the letter to the Ephesians that also reminds me of Tom.  “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”  In my experience, those are words Tom lived by.  Tom was a faithful member of Christ Church for over 70 years, longer than any of our other parishioners, and Tom remembered serving as an acolyte in the chapel before he went to high school at the Academy and during his years there.  That would have been in the early to mid 1950’s as Tom graduated from the Academy in 1956.  Throughout Tom’s life, his persistence, his courage, his kindness and his faithfulness have shown us something of the steadfast presence of God.

          So we gather today to celebrate Tom’s life, to give thanks that he has been released from his suffering, and to think about the impact his life had on us.  But we also gather to mourn his death as the time has not yet come when there will be no more grief and God will wipe the last tear from every eye.  Scripture tells us that Jesus wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus, so we have no shame in shedding our own tears when we lose our loved ones.  Tom, however, would want us to hold together in our grief, to comfort and encourage one another, and to build each other up.  We honor Tom’s life when we live with the same kindness, encouragement, and patience that Tom showed throughout his life.

          In the reading from John, Jesus says “I am the resurrection, and I am the life.”  On this day that is full of joy at having known Tom and sadness that he has left us, on this day that we gather to celebrate Tom’s life and mourn his death, as Christians we gather primarily to proclaim Jesus’ victory over death.  In his baptism so many decades ago, Tom was joined with Jesus in his death and resurrection.  In his death on April 28, Tom was joined with Jesus in eternal life, in that place where there is no pain or grief, but life eternal.  Tom does not belong to death.  Tom belongs to life and for that, we join with all the angels in the reading from Revelation who sing God’s praise “‘Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever!”

                                                                             Amen.