Eileen Damonze - Funeral Sermon
We are meant for a better world. We can look around us and see that plenty is going wrong. In the midst of this, we recognize this feeling in us, this longing, this desire for something more, something better. This is a natural feeling because we are meant for something else. Eileen felt this too. Whether in South Africa during the apartheid, or in Canada, Eileen knew that we were meant for something else and that this world could be better. She strived to make her home, her friendships, her family, her neighborhood as close at it could be to what we long for. Yet, there is still more we are desiring after. There is a psalm that says, “When deep calls out to deep”. There is this part deep within us that is calling out, that is reaching out for the deepest part of God. We long for a relationship with our creator, who created everything to be good, and who meant us for that good and for him.
It all starts with a relationship and that shouldn’t surprise us, even if we might resist a relationship with God. Remember, Eileen, who was so dynamic and engaging, who reached out to connect and engage, who did so much for those around her, especially those closest to her. All of this good came from being near her, from a closeness, from a relationship with her. Now, only imagine what a close relationship with God could mean and we are just getting hints of the grandness God has meant for us.
There is something special about being known and I mean when someone really knows you. When they know all of your good and bad and they still hold onto you. As we grow closer to someone we experience this, as we share more, and give more, we invite them to see us more. The Psalm we read together, Psalm 139, reminds us that God is the only one who knows everything. He knows everything you are, everything you have ever done. He is the only one who truly knows you. “God, you have searched me and known me. You know my words even before they come off my tongue. You have encircled me and laid your hand upon me”. Again, only imagine what this means for intimacy, closeness, and the joy of being wholly and fully embraced.
A relationship with God is where our longing and hope point; everything else truly good pours out from there. Our other two readings direct us to the new world we long for and can put our hope in. It is through a singular relationship with Jesus who overcame sin and death, that we and this world can be and will be transformed.
1 Corinthians speaks to our being transformed. Yes, this personal transformation is through a kind of death. That death can be physical like Eileen’s, but it should also be spiritual, because we all need to experience the death of former things, so that we might be transformed into a new thing, and reborn. If we always have our hands full, how can we ever receive the far better things God is trying to give us? At communion, we come to God with open hands so that we might be able to receive what we truly need. In dying we die to what was, so that we might receive what we are meant for, so that with Jesus we might overcome sin and death forever. We are meant for far more than what we hold onto.
In 1 Thessalonians we hear about our being lifted up with those who have died before us. This points us toward the transformation that we long for this world, we long for heaven on earth. We long for this physical reality to forever be changed and linked to the heavenly realities of the peace, abundance, love, mercy, and justice that ultimately come from God. We long for heaven on earth. That is why we pray, “God, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.
We know within our being that we are meant for something greater than this world. Now, in this life we have three things to do. 1st, we are to prepare ourselves for this other world. 2nd, we are to prepare others for this new world and 3rd, we are called to join with God in creating this heaven on earth right now. Eileen was doing some of that work in her life preparing the way and now she has gone ahead of us, we have the choice to join with God in continuing that same work - so that we might begin to experience heaven on earth as we invite others in. AMEN
