Life Is Short

Homily: Celebration of the life of Maxine Mahone (1919-2015). Grace Episcopal Church, Panama City Beach, Florida. Saturday, September 19, 2015. The Rev. Tom Weller

I begin with a benediction from the end, because that’s where we are this morning as we celebrate life and its ending: My friends, life is short. And we haven’t much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us. So be quick to love, and make haste to be kind.

This has been the week of my eightieth birthday, I turned 80 on Monday, September 14th, Holy Cross Day. Eighty years old instead of “39 again” as my grandfather Walter Gentry once teased me. We called him “Daddy Walt,” and he loved Jack Benny’s weekly radio show, and Jack Benny’s old Maxwell car that Rochester drove.

The Gentrys, my mother’s family, lived in Pensacola, and Daddy Walt rode a bicycle to and from work every day until 1923 or 1924, when he bought the family’s first car, a brand new Maxwell touring car. My mother said it was blue. Every year on my birthday I hear Daddy Walt saying “39 again,” especially for some reason, this week, this year, this time around as I turned 80, twice the 40 that I was when Daddy Walt died.

Eighty years old, and out of nowhere for some reason this week, there appeared on my bedside table a little book, The Courage to Grow Old. It’s a kind of book I especially enjoy, a book of essays, a favorite style of reading and writing. These essays are by the Reverend Barbara Crafton, an Episcopal priest and pastor who is more recently retired than I — so recent that Barbara probably is still in the stage of daily surprise at waking up every morning to what she does-not-have-to-do today — a surprise that stirs up both good news and sad.

Seeing the book The Courage to Grow Old under the lamp, on the table at my side of the bed, instantly made me think of Maxine. Of what Maxine brought to life, to her life and our lives, those of us who knew her and loved and enjoyed her, loved being around her. She was like springtime, full of life and love and hope. And courage, Courage is the word. Around the windows in the foyer as you come into the church this morning there are pictures of Maxine for us to look at and remember, and one of them is a snapshot of Maxine, probably in her nineties, on a motorcycle. I wasn't surprised! From the year 2000, when I came here as rector for a while and first knew Maxine, it never occurred to me that she would die, because there was nothing of death about her. Right up until these last days, only smiles: the laughter and sunshine of springtime. The Courage to Grow Old.

I do not know, you and I do not know what comes next after this wonderful life that God has gifted us, the wonder of being alive, and aware, to behold the beauty of creation; to love and gladden the hearts of those who travel with us. Even as Christians with our faith, even as we travel with our focused Christian theology of life everlasting, we do not know. But we hope, and we trust in John’s Gospel: Jesus’ promise, “In my Father’s house are many mansions. ... I go to prepare a place for you. And I will come again to take you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” A powerful promise.

In our prayer this morning you will hear a petition to God: “Give courage and faith to those who are bereaved, that they may have strength to meet the days ahead in the comfort of a reasonable and holy hope, in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love.” As I read the prayer aloud, as we pray that petition, I will not be thinking of you, or of us, the bereaved. I will be thinking of Maxine’s courage to live and love, her courage to grow old. As she is laid to rest with her husband in our nation’s most holy ground, I bless God for her courage in life; and I pray that she may truly realize that joyful expectation of eternal life with those she loves.

My friends, life is short. And we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us. So be quick to love. Make haste to be kind. Have the courage to grow old with holy hope and joyful expectation. And the blessing of Almighty God: Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, be with you and remain with you throughout the ages of ages.