Remarks
For Betty and Walt
I AM the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord. All who believe in me, though they be dead, yet shall they live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
You do not know me. My name is Thomas Carroll Weller, Jr. Tom. I’ve never before been billed as “Bubba” but I like it and will explain. In the family I am First Brother so my name is Bubba, Uncle Bubba. I am Walt’s brother, Walt is my brother. Over the years people have asked if we are twins. Walt and I don’t think we look alike, but grandchildren have sometimes not been able to tell us apart in person or on the telephone, or the sound of our voice from the next room. At supper last night I even found out that both of us have been stopped and asked if we were Vice President Dick Cheney.
We are not at all the same: growing up, or ever. To see us as biblical characters, I am Jacob, quiet, reserved, stay-at-home. Walt is Esau, outgoing, life of the party, hunter, athlete, fisherman, gun expert. Walt can do anything with his hands. Walt, whom all our grandchildren, nephews and nieces adore, while I am in the shadows! We’ve been “mirror twins” for 78 years, and my brother, who is everything I wanted to be as a boy and a man but never was, my brother is the other half of my soul. I cannot bear to see him grieving, hurting like this, the loss of Betty. We are devastated, stunned. The phone call while I was at church Sunday morning (I too am a pastor, an Episcopal priest), I still cannot believe it.
Yet for all the sadness in our family, there is Good News because we are Standing on the Promises of God. Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, many rooms, many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I AM there ye may be also. And where I go ye know, and the way ye know.” Thomas saith unto him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I AM - - the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.”
God whose Word cannot be broken, God is keeping his promises: Jesus has come and taken Betty home where she has for so long been ready to go. We, and you, Walt, my brother, and all who love you and all who love Betty, grieve her leaving us, and there will be many more tears. But in Betty’s heavenly lodging, no more tears, no more pain, no more sorrow, no more death, for the old things have passed away. Easter morning has come for Betty. And we pray the Lord to give courage and faith to us who are bereaved, that we may have strength to meet the days ahead, in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those we love.
++++++++++++++++
Remarks as best I can reassemble them, intended and ad-libbed, at the funeral of Betty Weller, Thursday morning, 21Sep 2017, Revival Temple Church, Walker, Louisiana. The Rev. Tom Weller.
I AM the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord. All who believe in me, though they be dead, yet shall they live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
You do not know me. My name is Thomas Carroll Weller, Jr. Tom. I’ve never before been billed as “Bubba” but I like it and will explain. In the family I am First Brother so my name is Bubba, Uncle Bubba. I am Walt’s brother, Walt is my brother. Over the years people have asked if we are twins. Walt and I don’t think we look alike, but grandchildren have sometimes not been able to tell us apart in person or on the telephone, or the sound of our voice from the next room. At supper last night I even found out that both of us have been stopped and asked if we were Vice President Dick Cheney.
We are not at all the same: growing up, or ever. To see us as biblical characters, I am Jacob, quiet, reserved, stay-at-home. Walt is Esau, outgoing, life of the party, hunter, athlete, fisherman, gun expert. Walt can do anything with his hands. Walt, whom all our grandchildren, nephews and nieces adore, while I am in the shadows! We’ve been “mirror twins” for 78 years, and my brother, who is everything I wanted to be as a boy and a man but never was, my brother is the other half of my soul. I cannot bear to see him grieving, hurting like this, the loss of Betty. We are devastated, stunned. The phone call while I was at church Sunday morning (I too am a pastor, an Episcopal priest), I still cannot believe it.
Yet for all the sadness in our family, there is Good News because we are Standing on the Promises of God. Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, many rooms, many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I AM there ye may be also. And where I go ye know, and the way ye know.” Thomas saith unto him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I AM - - the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.”
God whose Word cannot be broken, God is keeping his promises: Jesus has come and taken Betty home where she has for so long been ready to go. We, and you, Walt, my brother, and all who love you and all who love Betty, grieve her leaving us, and there will be many more tears. But in Betty’s heavenly lodging, no more tears, no more pain, no more sorrow, no more death, for the old things have passed away. Easter morning has come for Betty. And we pray the Lord to give courage and faith to us who are bereaved, that we may have strength to meet the days ahead, in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those we love.
++++++++++++++++
Remarks as best I can reassemble them, intended and ad-libbed, at the funeral of Betty Weller, Thursday morning, 21Sep 2017, Revival Temple Church, Walker, Louisiana. The Rev. Tom Weller.