Jerry Stott

A Homily for the Occasion of a Celebration of Life for Jerry Stott.         November 4, 2014     Thomas E Wilson, Rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Southern Shores, NC.

Revelation 7:9-17        Psalm 23          John 14:1-6

Jerry Stott

There were a lot of losses this week. The University of Virginia football team went down in defeat, again, as did the Washington Redskins, yet again. There was no greater fan than Jerry Stott of the Redskins or UVA be it basketball, football, baseball or soccer, and the way Bill tells it, if there had been a UVA tractor pull match, she would have cheering them on. They still tell the stories of when the UVA Basketball team was in the NCAA tournament out on the West Coast, and she went out until 2:00 in the morning for a party to watch the game. She would have hated to see those losses for she was loyal to those she loved.  Even when they disappointed her, she remained loyal. She would have been sad, but she would have said “there is a game next week”, or “wait until next season”.  There will be another game, another season, but Jerry’s voice will no longer be heard in support, and UVA has lost their best fan.

The All Saints’ Choir and the Outer Banks music scene have lost a voice that sang the descants and carried the songs. She could be counted on to hold the rest of her fellow musicians to a higher standard and to sing out of the soul of the music. She loved music, and if we had been able to play all the music and sing all the songs and anthems and solos she wanted, we would be doing a marathon of song for several weeks. There will be other members of the choir that will take her seat, but none will take her place. We have lost this splendid talent.

Her family has sustained the great loss of this passionate person who could give as well as she could take. There will be other meals and other gatherings, but there will be a place missing in the give and take of opinions and love.

Jerry was so well organized that she could bring order out of chaos. She used to work in business and in her first year, through her organization and planning, she saved the office the equivalent of her yearly salary. She will be missed by her clients who would bring all their tax stuff to her. I remember last year in the months before tax time, she was so sick that I thought we would need to plan for a funeral soon. I told her that she needed to take it easy, but she told me that her friends - for her clients were seen as friends that she was helping out - her friends needed her, and she got to work helping them. Someone else will get those clients, but they have lost a friend.

After years of fighting cancer, Jerry’s body let her down. Cancer killed her body but not her life. We as Christians have a belief that there is an energy which continues on a deeper level of life. What that level of life looks like I do not have the wit or the words to describe, but I have seen glimpses and heard snatches of that deeper and higher level as people gather together to sing. That lesson from Revelation to John for today has the angels, elders, and living creatures casting down their crowns and singing: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

This is John’s dream and dreams always speak in symbols. To cast down crowns or fall on their faces is a way of saying that they have emptied themselves out of their own sense of importance and give themselves fully to sing the music of the heavens, the praise of the one they love. I have heard this heavenly choir sing when our earthly choirs forget about the idea of the strutting of their own egos in performance for their own glory and begin to empty themselves out in love for the power greater than themselves by singing God’s song. God’s song is not about the notes we are able to hit but about the space between the notes that are filled with the sacred presence of God. I have heard Jerry sing that way, all that energy of her soul singing in worship. St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the Gospel and if necessary use words.”  Jerry’s soul sang the Gospel and when necessary she used musical notes

.

That is what I think about when Jesus says that are the many places that have been prepared for us. My vision of this next life is all of this energy that has been freed from our bodies bursting together in one song, each voice of energy adding their own unique tone and complexion to this cosmic masterpiece of music in this world and the next.

All of us will miss Jerry and we have all lost a great deal, but if you wish to have mercy on the world’s, and your own, grief, here are some options. (1) Sing with a group of people and don’t worry about being the star.  Empty yourself out of your ego and enter the sacred space between you and your neighbor where you honor each other and God and let the inner music of God connect you before and after you sing. After all, singing is nothing more than breathing with attention to the sound that your soul makes. (2) Or if you are like me and get self-conscious about your singing talent, get into the shower and passionately bellow your joy in knowing a person like Jerry.  (3) Work with others to help bring order out of chaos in order to help those who are swamped with the difficulty of daily life.  (4) Be passionately supportive of the ones you love even when they disappoint you. And (5) Keep on fighting, keep on partying, and keep on trusting the song that God is singing in you until it is time for you to go to join a larger choir on a different shore - but with the same song.