The Geatest Morning in History
The Greatest Morning in History
Funeral meditation for Janet Davis Dowling
Saturday, January 26, 2013, eleven o’clock in the morning
The Reverend Tom Weller,
Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida
Scripture: John 20:1-16. Music: “I Come to the Garden Alone”
You may be seated.
Just over a hundred years ago, in 1912, telling about writing his hymn In the Garden, C. Austin Miles wrote, “I read the story of the greatest morning in history -- ‘The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene very early, while it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher --’ Instantly, completely, (writes Miles) there unfolded in my mind the scenes of the garden of Joseph of Arimathea.
“Out of the mists of the garden comes a form -- a woman -- halting, hesitating, tearful, seeking, turning from side to side in bewildered amazement.
“Falteringly, bearing grief in every accent, with tear-dimmed eyes, she whispers, ‘If thou hast borne him hence’…
“He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing. Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ Just one word from his lips, and forgotten the heartaches, forgotten the long dreary hours….all the past blotted out in the presence of the Living Present and Eternal Future.”
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Wherever, whatever you may be in life, clerk, scientist, physician, teacher, loved, lover, business executive -- you may be a carpenter, an electrician, a Naval officer like me, a soldier, a mother, a plumber, or one who pours concrete. But this is not our day, this is not your day or my day; this is a day, this is a morning for beautiful things, a morning for love, and art, and poets and gardeners, for musicians and for Jesus. And this is Janet’s day, Janet who in a long, wonderful, very private conversation with me one evening a few weeks ago sang and hummed a bit of Austin Miles’ hymn with me, I Come to the Garden Alone, and told me how she had grown up in Brundidge, Alabama loving the Lord as she put it, and singing his songs. Janet and I prayed to the Lord that night, a long rambling prayer of love and thanksgiving and joy, and there were tears and a bit of laughing in our prayer, and God laughing and crying with us. It was a prayer of thanksgiving for all that life is, for the Lord’s breathing into us the breath of life, for all that Janet’s life was for her and all the love that she knew in life in God’s garden, growing up in Brundidge with her parents, and she talked in prayer about her father, and about life and love with George, and with her children and grandchildren, and the joy and blessing of five great-grandchildren.
It is my testimony to you this morning that in our very private conversation and prayer that night, Janet renewed her faith, and we prayed that she might claim the Church’s hope of eternal life with those she loves, and did love, and loves still and forever.
God’s promises are rich and wonderful and, passing Janet's thoughts through me to you, If you have not claimed those promises through the baptismal covenant of accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, maybe this is your morning after all, maybe you will let this be your morning in the garden while the Savior is here with us as we commend Janet to God’s eternity for the ages of ages. This is your invitation to grace, the amazing grace of God.
The greatest morning in history.
Austin Miles is right. The birds are singing, and the flowers are fresh and fragrant, and the Lord Jesus comes, and all is hushed in holy reverence. And this is the greatest morning in history.
Let us pray.