Grieving With Hope

Homily for Elaine Beardsley Memorial Service - May 6, 2024

1 Thes 4:13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

This is a very difficult moment, a painful moment. It is a moment when we come together to recognize and reflect on the passing of someone who has been so very important in our lives. There is sorrow in this moment.

There may be regret in this moment. In the early stages of grief, every new day's awakening, is a new breaking of the heart. Even now it’s been many months since Elaine passed, but even now, the loss of dear Elaine stings. It hurts.

Elaine was graced with family members and friends who loved her. Elaine was graced with people who could truly see her.

And isn't that an amazing gift, people who see us and who choose to love us. Sometimes we live without being seen, truly seen. But it's no fault of the sun if the eye sees not its beauty.

Elaine has friends and family and important people in her life who saw her and who walked with her. People who initially were professionals in her life, who were so drawn to her that she developed personal, lasting relationships with them.

It is a gift when we have people who choose to journey with us, be it for small portions of our lives, or for long stretches that include joy and suffering.

So I want to acknowledge this moment, this suffering and grief, the pain associated with this day of remembering and finally saying goodbye to Elaine.

Of course, as we have heard, I want to acknowledge that there was much suffering and sorrow and hardship in Elaine's life.

But it's clear to me that, despite all that she suffered, Elaine held on to, and held out for a profound hope.

Elaine was a person of faith, faith in God, who had genuine hope in God. Elaine was not a church going woman.

People who have faith sometimes avoid church communities because of negative experiences they’ve had in church, because of social anxiety, or because it’s just never been part of their pattern of life. Nevertheless Elaine was a person of faith.

Elaine trusted in God and specifically because of that, her trust in God, her belief in Jesus as her Saviour, WE do not need, as the Scripture ____read states, to grieve like those who have no hope.

Particularly if we believe, as Elaine did, that Jesus died and rose again, our grief becomes a mixture of sorrow at her loss, but also and very importantly hope and even joy at her current circumstances.

So instead of thinking of death in hard, blunt terms, the Scripture encourages and challenges that understanding.

We are to think of her as having fallen asleep in Jesus, as one who sleeps in death. That’s our perspective. Her perspective we can say, through faith, is that she is enjoying the presence of Jesus.

All that she hoped for when she exercised hope in this life, she has realized and is experiencing as we speak. She is experiencing being held, being loved, being in the presence of the God she loved. Her hope is fulfilled.

So may we take hope, we who remain. May we look forward to the future when we also will cross these portals, and be transplanted from the garden of this world into the garden of God.