All Kinds Of People

Prelude 9:45

Song

It is Well With My Soul

Invocation texts

Psalms 33

Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous;

it is fitting for the upright to praise him.

Praise the LORD with the harp;

make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.

Sing to him a new song

play skillfully, and shout for joy.

For the word of the LORD is right and true;

he is faithful in all he does.

From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind;

from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth--

he who forms the hearts of all,

who considers everything they do.

We wait in hope for the LORD;

he is our help and our shield.

In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.

May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,

even as we put our hope in you.

Rev 7:16-17

Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Today is a Celebration of Life

(Personal remarks about the deceased)

She left behind many who loved her and whose lives were richer because of her presence.

Poem: My Body

My body is a bit of dust

In which the “I” of me resides

For the time of my earthly tenantry;

When I cease to need it,

It will return to earth and be no more.

The “I” of me will return to God

Who gave me this bit of body

Through which to try my powers.

In it I have learned the lessons

Of weight, extent, direction and control;

And of suffering, sorrow, and self denial.

These skills become part of me,

The sense of them can never leave me.

They are mine for all eternity.

They enable me to enjoy my house of dust,

And through it to glorify my Creator,

Here on earth as well as in Heaven.

Thus, I have loved my body,

As if it were eternal,

Knowing well that it is not so,

I do not wish to part with my body,

Though it is old and worn and weak,

But God has promised me a new body

That will never grow tired, or sick, or old!

How wonderful! I think I will go see

What skills and lessons I can learn

Through the use of this new body.

You who know me here

Will know me there when you come,

For that spiritual body will be “like”

My earthly “bit of dust” only it will be

Free of pain, and know no Death!

- Bertha Mason Fuller

Message

Have you ever gone to a place filled with people and just watched them go by?

Airports, Malls, Parades, Office Buildings, and Train Stations. Filled with all kinds of people.

Small, tall, dark hair and toothy smiles. Broken, stooped, round shouldered and pudgy. Radiant and delightful. Bouncy, flouncy, and full of spice. Successful, confident, purposeful, quickly they pass you by, Wall Street Journel in one hand and cell phone in the other held to the ear as they conduct their important business.

Our world is filled with all kinds of people. Most of them sadly have not learned the secret of being content. Connie had learned the secret of being content.

She had knew how to be content while jumping into a pool of water. She knew how to be content while sitting in church or doing the two-step. She knew how to be content while on the back of a motorcycle clutching to it and to Ed. She was content when the surgeon said “there is a tumor”. She knew how to be content when she and Ed traveled the four corners of the earth. She was content when lying in bed, her body tired her spirit unconquerable. Connie learned the secret of being content in every circumstance.

It is not a new secret. It has been around a long time. You can’t learn it through wholistic medicines or by repeating a mantra. You won’t find it by surfing on the world wide web or looking behind the hale-bopp comet.

A man named Paul knew the secret first. He taught Connie. She learned it well. With this secret safely hidden in her soul she was undefeated in life and she remains undefeated in death. Oh, I know that she lost the battle with cancer, but she won the war with death. Because Connie understood the secret of being content in life.

Paul learned the secret in life while facing death. He was old and tired when he wrote these words. He was in prison facing a trial before the head of the greatest nation on earth. It was at this time that he penned these words in a letter to a church in Philippi.