July 30th, 2026: Funeral for Frances Ann Brown Homily

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We're gathered here

to offer our condolences and support, and to

share the grief, shared grief, for this family

of this pious and sweet woman that lies before

us. We're gathered here to pray that God receives

her. How many times have we said, Lord, have

mercy, that her sins be forgiven. That she walks

in the way that the Lord has given her. So many

times. And this is our prayer. This is the reason

for a funeral. And it may seem like nothing's

happening. You hear choir sing. You hear the

clergy say some things. And the choir. And the

back and forth. But there's a lot happening.

When a person dies, it looks like nothing has

happened. From that point forward. Except bad

things. Decay. And destruction. And then sorrow

and then grief and all of that that comes. No

matter how old a person is, we feel and we should

feel grief. No matter how pious and well a person

lived, we should be sorrowful. For God has not

created us for death. One of the hymns we sang

says, I'm an image of thine, O Lord, ineffable

glory. even though I bear the marks of sin. And

this is an important thing for us to recall,

that we are created to be a reflection of Jesus

Christ himself, who is the image. We are an image

of the image. And when you see someone in the

tomb, in the grave before you, when you see someone

suffering in the hospital, when you see someone

grieving and afraid, whatever it might be, You

say, where's that image? But it's there. We bear

the marks of sin. Our task, brothers and sisters,

today, of course, is to pray that her image is

bright. Because it's impossible for us to know.

We judge people all the time upon their appearances.

I think it's C .S. Lewis says something like,

you might see a person while waiting for the

bus. And God's destiny for that person might

be ineffable glory so that they will be brighter

than any angel. And it's kind of frightening

that we just look at people and pass them by.

So the image of God in her and us is something

we have to celebrate. We have to nurture. But

as she has died and now her soul is with the

Lord, We celebrate that life. We move from grief

to glorification of God. In between, we're praying

for her. So something is happening here. Quite

a lot is happening here as we are praying. And

we stand still. And maybe in our hearts and our

souls, something will ignite and come alive so

that we're not just standing still and not listening,

but we are being enveloped. participating in

the life of heaven and the kingdom of God. There's

a prayer that we said, the psalmist said to the

Lord, how many are my days, O Lord? And another

prayer, another statement, O Lord, I have love

like commandments. They're my meditation all

day long. And that was true of her in the final

years. in her way and you may say well she was

retired she had nothing else to do but brothers

and sisters we can meditate how often do we fill

our minds with things that are kind of pointless

and distracting and fill us with anxiety and

anxiousness while we could say to the lord i

love thy law oh lord it is my meditation all

the day long in between everything else i do

it's what holds it all together and so we have

an example of that with her And so we give glory

to God for that. And this phrase, O Lord, how

many are my days? There's two ways at least to

take it. How many days do I have so I can keep

doing this other stuff I'm doing before I need

to take things seriously about my faith, about

my life, about my relationships, about my passions,

about my sins? How much longer can I go until,

like, you know, D -Day? Or we say, Lord, how

long is it until you come on the clouds of glory,

appearing in your ineffable mercy and love? Love

that's a burning, all -consuming fire of love.

How many days before that? That's what we should

say so we prepare ourselves for death. Perhaps

he did that too. But in any case, we ask God

that he will, on the day he does come in his

glory, when he appears to all, and when we say

he will come, it doesn't mean he's gone. Why

else would we be here if he was gone? What would

we be doing here if he was gone? No, we stand

in the midst of the Lord. But when he does come

and appears in his glory with the hosts of angels,

we ask that he will take her up and she will

ever be with the Lord. And with us, death will

be destroyed. We will rise to glory and be ever

with the Lord. May the Lord answer that prayer

for her and for each one of us. I offer you,

dear family, my condolences and my love. And

my admiration for your sacrifice as taking care

of her, which is not a sacrifice. It was a labor

of love. It was a gift of God to you to do that.

And I admire her for her life and her faith.