Death Is Only A Sleep

Death is only a Sleep

This evening, let me first extend my deepest condolences to the family and in particular the children of our late brother Wilfred Kelly who was affectionately called “will” by all who knew him. I also would like to express my deepest sympathy to “Will’s Sisters Ruth and Beverly, his friends and to the residents of Port Nelson Rum Cay.

Here lying before us is a relatively young man. A man who has not reached 60yrs not to mention the three score and ten which God promises us. But he is here, not on his own strength but we’ve brought him here today to bid him farewell. At the end of this home going service, we all will perhaps leave here on our own strength; but not our Brother “will” our Friends from the Mortuary will have to move him and place him a the hearse and then take him to his place of rest. Which among us will invite “Our Brother “Will” to go home with us? Or to rest at our Home tonight? You don’t have to answer: That’s a rhetorical question. But I can guess not one of us even though we love him, we care for him and we wished he was alive; we would not ask the Mortician to take him and leave him by us.

Will is gone, and these sickly shores will know him no more. But we will remember that Will passed this way. His Children are witness to this fact, that he had met someone and they got together and God blessed him with two children. Will did pass this way. Jackie knew that will pass this way. Theodore Knows that will pass this way; Ruth and Beverly know that Will their Brother passed this way. His employer knows that he passed this way; the national insurance Board knows that he passed this way; Doctors and nurses at the Princess Margaret Hospital knows that he passed this way. George Gaitor, Madelyn Strachan; Kaye Wilson; Reverend Pearl Maycock and all the Rumcanites know that “Will” passed this way. I know that Brother Will passed this way. I know this man who lay here before us. I know him when he was merely a boy. He was one who never got in peoples way. He was never in fights as a young boy and he kept to himself. He grew up with his Grand Parents and he was brought up in the old fashion way. Will was not a person who got angry; but if he did get angry; you would know that he was not a push over. Will had an affectious laugh. He smiled first and then he would bust out into a loud laugh that was unique to “Will”. He was a loyal friend; if he was a friend to you. If he did not take to you; he kept his distance. As a man, Will became an entrepreneur and many will now say; that he had his house in order. He made sure that everything was in place for those he loved and cared for. I as one of his contemporaries salute him and bid him farewell; knowing that one day, I too will have to walk this same road.

This morning, for a few minutes let us reflect on the passage of scripture which says: “for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an arch Angel and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and then shall we ever be with the lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words (1thess 4:16-18)

This scripture assures us that God has a plan for his people. It also gives us the assurance that our love ones who have gone on before us, still exist in another place waiting for God to bring an end to all of the madness we see in this world today. We as believers and people of God are faced with much perplexities as we try to grapple with the death of our loved ones; or the pains of seeing our loved ones suffer from debilitating disease which strip them of their strength, vitality and their dreams. We often wonder why? I’ve come this morning to tell you, that even though pain, and suffering rocks our bodies and death snatches our love ones and friends from us; that God is still in control. I’ve come to remind us, that one day; time will be no more and our mortal bodies will be free from sickness and diseases.

Three points I will pull from this scripture and then conclude are: