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.
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