SERMON PREACHED BY THE REVEREND DR. HAROLD T. LEWIS, RECTOR
CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
AT THE FUNERAL OF GEORGE NEVIN WOODSIDE
WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2009
“Jesus said to Martha, ‘Do you believe this?’” (John 11:26)
The 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life” is doubtless one of the top ten favorites among aficionados of the American cinema --- and it’s not just because of the heartwarming scenes of Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed and their children around the Christmas tree. It’s a favorite because it speaks to all of us --- our joys and sorrows, our family crises, the challenges and the opportunities and disappointments and accomplishments we experience in the course of our lives.
One of the most memorable scenes in the movie, I think, is when George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart’s character) laments to Clarence, the man who saved his life (by making it look like George had saved his and who turns out to be an angel in disguise) that he wishes he had never been born. Clarence the angel, in the wish-granting business, takes George Bailey at his word and rewrites history, casting a play-within-the-movie in which he carefully edits out George from every experience, every event, every scene in his life in which he had ever played a part. The result is that George Bailey comes to understand, by looking at what life would have been without him, just what a great effect he had had on his family, the people of Bedford Falls and the world beyond.
Today, we gather in this holy place to commit to God’s never-failing care and providence not a fictional George, but a real one – George Nevin Woodside. His friends would have described him as quiet and unassuming, a man who brought little attention to himself and would have preferred that no fuss be made over him. Yet we give thanks today not only for George’s life but for his legacy. For he leaves to mourn a loving Sarah. He can look with pride on his devoted sons Nevin and Dwight, and their wives Louise Kay and Tracy, who were more George’s daughters than daughters-in-law! And if the laid-back George was boastful about anything, it would without question have been the quartet who were the collective apple of his eye – Lowrie, Sarah, Graham and William. You see, although his obituary indicated that George was retired, this was not entirely true. In his final years, he took delight in a new profession --- that of grandfather, baby-sitter and nanny. It was George, lest we forget, who when Weez-Kay was great with child with Sarah, cheerfully and dutifully brought Lowrie to pre-school here and picked her up every afternoon.
And in the intangible department, George’s legacy includes a wry sense of humor --- I would have referred to that humor as “wicked” but that’s probably an inappropriate adjective to emanate from the pulpit when describing anything about the deceased! George’s wit could spark a conversation, enliven a party, and most of all bring a smile to the lips of anyone within earshot.
In this morning’s Gospel, we read the story of the death of Lazarus, and how his sisters, Mary and Martha, reacted to it. The reason, as I have often said, that the Bible is the all-time best-seller, is that we identify with its characters, characters like Mary and Martha. They complain to Jesus that he had arrived in Bethany too late. Had he only come earlier, they suggest, he could have whipped up a miracle, and prevented what they clearly understood to be their brother’s untimely death. “If you had been here, “ they rail at Jesus, “our brother would not have died.” We also complain to God, we rail at God, sometimes we even shake our firsts in his face when things don’t go according to our plan. We even blame God for taking away our loved ones too soon. Or conversely we beat up on ourselves: if only we had done such and such a think, death would not have come, or at least would have been easier for us, or our loved one, to bear.
To all of this, Jesus basically tells Mary and Martha =--- and us --- that our concerns don’t ultimately matter. He assures them: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” Then he asks the question: “Do you believe this?” Martha speaks for all of us when she says, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.”
Now people express their faith in different ways. George was not one who in life would have won a gold star for church attendance. We might well look in vain for evidence that he led the Bible study group or served on the altar guild. We are here this afternoon, however, not to keep score, to tally up good deeds, or to impose a Santa-like theology determining who has been naughty or nice. We are here today because of the belief of the community of faith that surrounds George, and because we, taking Jesus at his word, are entrusting George to God’s loving embrace --- in the words of the committal, “in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life.”
The George we remember today belied his quiet exterior. He was a multifaceted individual. If he was a cultivator of orchids, he was by definition both patient and creative. He appreciated the beauty of God’s creation. If he played bass in a jazz combo, he knew something about tempo, rhythm, cooperation, improvisation and flexibility, all good lessons for life. He knew something, too, about living, both literally and figuratively, in harmony with others.
We seldom know the final thoughts of our loved ones, but we can well imagine that George’s had to do with the pain of being separated from his family. So we take heart in the words of a great hymn, alas, no longer in The Hymnal:
O then what raptured greetings, on Canaan’s happy shore,
Where knitting severed friendships up, where partings are no more.
Then eyes with joy shall sparkle, that brimmed with tears of late,
Orphans no longer fatherless, nor widows desolate. [Hymnal 1940, 590]
Rest eternal grant unto George, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace and rise in glory. AMEN.