Lola Michaud's Funeral Meditation

Lola Michaud’s Funeral Service Jan 17, 2008

God's Love Endures Forever Romans 8: 35, 37-39

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ....” 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.


Jan, Sharon and Debbie our thoughts and prayers are with your family as you place your mom to rest. We hope that our gestures of love and compassion help lift the yoke you bear. We will do our best to just be with you and not say things because we don’t know what to say. Like our Good Shepherd, we are here to walk with so you don’t feel isolated in your pain. This journey of grief and bereavement is longer than many of us ever anticipate. Life will not just go back to normal in a few weeks. As a congregation, as family and friends, we walk with you all the way.
One of my favourite lines from the movies is, “We say never say goodbye, only see you later.” As Christians we understand that when we received the waters from this font, we participated in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We were born again in these waters of Jordan, so death no longer has a hold on us. Jesus has signed, sealed and delivered our passport to eternity. Paul wrote, “Death where is thy victory, where is thy sting.” Yes, we grieve but these tears in the context of knowing where we are going when we Passover into the New Jerusalem. It’s not goodbye, its see you later. No more tears, no more pain. Celestial choirs, placid lakes and all of our friends and loved ones waiting with our Good Shepherd to embrace us again.
When Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome he was ending his
ministry.Paul knew what was in store for him. His colleagues warned him not to go to Jerusalem but he kept on, knowing the risks he would face. The very people Paul once led, are now after him to silence his voice and the truth he could not help but shout from the roof tops.
Paul knows something about death. He oversaw the group that killed Stephen, our first Christian martyr. It can be hard for us 2000 years later to appreciate the hardships that our ancestors went through before we became the official religion of Rome. Paul is writing to a people who face the very real threat of losing their life for their faith. Paul is being pastoral to a community very anxious about their own mortality. They are human, having second thoughts and doubts are part of our humanity.
It’s in this context that Paul reminds us that God is good, and God is faithful. God came to us in Bethlehem and liberated us once and for all on Calvary. This storm is over. We never have to wonder if God will follow through. When we read God’s holy Word we see how God has kept his covenants with Noah, Abraham, David and now with Jesus our Redeemer.
If there was any question of whether God will follow through Jesus’ departure from the empty tomb and reappearance in the Upper room helps us resolve any doubts.
Lola and Jim are together again. They are watching over their family and friends. Like that scene in Our Town, they are looking back over their lives and seeing more of what life is really about. There are so many opportunities that are before us. Take the time to be with one another. Lola and Jim are with the cloud of witnesses’ nudging us to remember our baptism and trust that God will follow through on his promise when our times come to join them.
Lola came into this world when cars were starting to fill the streets. She was only six years old when the depression hit. The family gathered around the radio to listen to FDR give fireside chats. A reassuring voice in anxious and difficult times. She was part of the greatest generation who led our nation through the war to end all wars. Lola and her generation can teach us something about how we can of triumph over adversities.
We live in anxious times. Yet we walk on with hope and assurances because we know who holds the future, and who holds us in eternal love.
One of the things that stood out for me when I heard some of Lola’s life review was that she was Lutheran and Jim was Catholic. I guess being Presbyterian was the goldie-locks option right in the middle. AHP's first campus on Edgerton was just a block away from where they raised their girls.
When Lola and Jim chose AHP they wanted to be part of a neighbourhood church. These denominational differences did not matter so much. Jim made sure that the girls got to church on Sunday. Lola and Jim have modeled for us the unity that we are called to live out as humble servants in Christ’s body. We are all parts of one body. Branches leading out from the one true vine.
No matter where we started, we come together to appreciate all that we have in common. AHP continues to be a neighbourhood church that embraces folks from many backgrounds. I have a hunch that Lola and Jim were part of the building of this come as you are hospitality. No one has all the right answers. We just want our children to grow and learn how to love their God and their neighbors as themselves. We come together to learn how to love one another as God loves us. We will never reach the top but we keep our compass aligned with how Jesus lived and what he continues to teach us.
Brothers and sisters this is the Good News. God’s promise to us will never fail. God’s love will hold us forever. The Good Shepherd will never abandon his sheep. Lola has passed through her darkest valley and the Shepherd has carried her through to calmer waters and green pastures.
Her life and legacy lives on in you. Tell each other the stories about Lola. I bet there are new things you will learn about her. Remember her for the entire life she lived. Well done good and faithful servant. Be at peace.