May 30, 2009

Click for Tribute to Don Brown


May 30, 2009

10 a.m.

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

Burial Office and Committal

Donald Granville Brown

January 13, 1935 – May 26, 2009


Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia.

Friends, it is a sad privilege to stand here this morning, to say a word about the core of Christian life—about faith, hope, and love, about the Cross and the Empty tomb, Good Friday and Easter—as we come together with so many feelings, thoughts, memories, to give thanks for the life of Donald Granville Brown, who entered greater life this past Tuesday morning.

And Ann, David, Amelia, I do want to say to you a word of thanks and appreciation for you, and especially for these past few days, as you have come into such a difficult time with such a spirit of grace and gentle love, with dignity, care for Don and for one another, with compassion. And with courage. The word that comes to mind to me. Courage.

Ann, you and Don have shared this long life and marriage together, nearly half a century, and in these past months and couple of years, deeply sharing for both of you in this—what I think of as truly profound intimacy, living together with both the beginning and end in mind. What you have been going through together. And I continue as well to give thanks for what I would see as the good work that God’s Holy Spirit has worked in you through all of this.

I love very much the photograph you selected to be used in the newspaper this week. It is so often the case that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and it was touching to see Don’s great smile there, expressing his warmth, his good humor, the blessing and enjoyment of life. I was thankful to see that, a great reminder for today. And with thanks for the words and stories shared last night over at McCabe's and here this morning--and which I know will continue to be shared through the day and long into the future. And thank you Darlene for the sharing of music this morning. Simply to acknowledge and honor all the lives he touched.

Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. From the Pascha Nostrum, a very ancient Christian hymn for Easter, as we come today to the next-to-last day on the Church Calendar of the season, the Great 50 Days of Easter. A song of joy, triumph, victory. A song full of the promise of new life and life abundant fully transfigured and eternal, as we share with Christ in his Easter resurrection.

Some of the rich poetry in scripture and tradition will talk about death as “the old enemy.” But that’s really I think not quite right. As we affirm the precious character of human life and relationships, the love of marriage, the joy of being father and grandfather, creativity, the breadth and depth of emotional and intellectual experience, the adventure and joy of so many activities. As Christian people we would simply affirm in this moment that death has no power over any of that. No power at all. None.

Through the mystery of our baptism and through the power of what Christ has done for us at the Cross—in the words of scripture, “life is changed, not ended.” We move from strength to strength, in that greater life, the life of perfect service, that he has had in mind for us since the first breath and dawn and morning of the universe.

In my Father’s house are many mansions. Some contemporary translations give us this word from Jesus in John 14 as “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” Which I guess makes sense, and which may be truer to the pattern of Greek as it is heard not in 16th century English but at the beginning of the 21st Century. But I want to say this morning, as we commend a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather into the arms of our generous God, as we affirm our bonds in Jesus Christ for this life and the life to come, that there are mansions prepared for us. Of a grandeur and a glory and an abundance beyond anything we can imagine. The fullness of sharing with Christ. As he said, “that where I am, there ye may be also.”

As we express our friendship and sympathy today, acknowledging what is lost, may all that be embraced in a spirit of hope and expectation. That Easter not be just a day on a calendar, but the condition and reality of our lives. As we are born in him in baptism, as we live, as we die, and as we are reborn in his image and presence, to live in all fullness in the place--in the mansion--he has prepared for us.

And finally it seems just right to me here this morning that Darlene will sing for us as a reflection and meditation the Schubert Ave Maria, this wonderful hymn, beginning with the song of the Angel in St. Luke’s story, and as we can look across the Church at the Annunciation panel of the Nativity window, created by the glass artist and designer Clara Miller Burd, as it has graced St. Andrew’s now for a century.

A sign of the Father’s deepest benediction for us, each of us individually, and as we think of Don this morning, and all of us, all of humanity, all of creation, as the girl who would be the Mother of our Lord and in that way Mother to us all, is first addressed, and with such tenderness. Which would be the spirit to touch our heart this morning as well.

Again, may our Lord bless and keep him. Donald Granville Brown. May he rest in peace, and rise in glory. May his soul with the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace, and may Light Perpetual shine upon him. Amen.


Bruce Robison