Was gonna send this out sooner. But after reading the dedication page, just today as a matter of fact, it is most appropriate that Father’s Day is when I do it. Martin Bell, author and diplomat, wrote “The Way of The Wolf, The Gospel in New Images” and dedicated it to his father. The book was published in 1968, Seabury Press, New York. One of the writings is titled “On the Death of Colin Stuart”. To those of us who do not have our fathers or the men who were our other fathers with us today, I offer the following: Jesus said to his disciples, “Ye now, therefore, have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” He said: “Go now—have sorrow.” 1. Human beings do not belong to one another. We are God’s children. We belong to him. It is by sheer grace that we are together for a time—for a little while. We receive God’s gift of another person in our lives with thanksgiving. But we must realize that this person is a gift—we cannot hang on, or refuse to let go of one of God’s children when he calls. 2. Colin Stuart was a gift. One of God’s own tiny children. And, for a time, God gave Colin to the world. In order that two human beings might have a child. And, later, in order that a woman might have a husband. And some children might have a father. And some other children might have a grandfather. For those children Colin defined what it means to have a father, or a grandfather. And a woman came to know what it means to have a husband. And because of Colin, the world understood more fully the greatness of the love of God. God loved the world so much that he gave it Colin. And that was nice of God. 3. But now Colin Stuart is dead, and the world won’t see him again. God took him back. That’s painful. And there is no way under heaven to minimize that pain. Jesus said, “Go now, therefore, and have sorrow.” We do not sorrow because God is cruel or unjust. The world did nothing to deserve Colin. God gave him to us freely. Not because we deserved it, but because he loved us. We are not sorrowing because God is unjust. We are sorrowing because Colin is gone. And that’s right. That’s just right. Jesus said, “Go and have sorrow.” A part of us is dead. That part of us that we called our father, or our grandfather, or our friend. That part of us we called Colin is Gone. And we know the pain, and the emptiness, and the bitterness and the guilt, ant the heartbreak all too well. We will never be the same. And that’s right, too. We can’t be “the same” ever again. 4. We are here to say good-bye to one of God’s tiny children. Jesus said ‘Ye now, therefore, have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” He said, “When you pray, say ‘Father.’” God loves Colin. And he belongs to him. He always has. For a time he gave him to the world. And now he has called him. And how we know emptiness. That’s the way it is with human beings. We are here today, reluctantly, to offer Colin back to God. In so doing we are offering ourselves. We are here boldly—to dare to say “Our Father” and to pray “Thy will be done.” We are here to trust God, and to love him, and to realize how much he loves us. We are here to say good-bye to Colin, one of God’s tiny children. And today we must let go of his hand. But in so doing we give it over to that of his heavenly Father. We cannot hang on. We must let go. But God has hold of his hand. And he will never let go. Amen.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:22:58 +0000
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