Jan 18, SERMON: Reflections on Finishing Well, Rev. Karen Holmes

Nobody dies, anymore.

I don't know if you've noticed it.  I have.

No body, and I mean, nobody!  

              Dies.  

   Nobody.  Dies.     Anymore.

They all just....... pass away........ and............. ................ It drives me crazy!

So I just want to say here, that when I die, oh when I'm gone,  I will be dead.                                      

 I promise you, I will never  just pass away.
I'm gonna croak.
Shuffle off to Buffalo.
Take the big elevator to the basement.
Join the choir immortal.
Shuffle off this mortal coil.  
Kick the bucket.
I shall join the fertilizer business.
Perish.
Get a one-way-ticket.
 Give up the ghost.
Get my wings.

I promise you, I will never just pass away.  It's too...namby pamby.  Etherial.
Too....... insubstantial...... for words.  

When I die, I promise you,  it will not be without making a big rent in the cosmos.  When my heart stops beating, when all that is me is about to take off into the great beyond, I will do all that I can to hang on to the edge of  existence, to all that I love, to an atom of creation.  I will hang on so tight  with one hand that my leaving will cause a great tearing sound to be heard,  and, at the same time  I will reach out with my other  to hold the hand of God so fiercely that  it will be as if all of time has screeched to a halt and sped ahead out of control all at once.

If it is said that all I have done is "Pass Away"  I shall feel as if my death is being denied.          And with it, any possibilities for something new.
                 It would be as if  all that is awe-ful and holy about life and death all future possibilities   has been....
        has been....
disrespected.
           denied.
denied.
         Denied.

(did the rooster just crow?)

My death shall be a moment of great import.  Clocks shall stop,  stars fall from the sky.
                    All the colors will turn into one, and all the love I have known will pour out into eternity,  so that I will become part of those everlasting arms which hold us and all of creation,
hold us in  tender loving care.
 I will  become part of  God's  heart of justice,
          enter  the   passion from which all of creation springs.

Oh no.  There will be no passing away for me.
I shall cash in my chips,  
eat it,
dance the last dance,
 buy the farm,
sleep with the fishes.

And I will  become stardust, (We are not alone)
 I will be golden.  (We live in God's world, )

All shall be well.
(In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us,)
And all manner of things shall be well.

When I die I will find myself,
back in the garden.

Karen Holmes.  November  18, 2014.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     From my parents living room windows