JoAnn Hope Roullier
A eulogy for my aunt
March 22, 2014
Reading - John 14
Reflection:
Thank you for joining us here today. I am really pleased we are able to have a memorial service in this church because it was such important part of JoAnn’s life. When JoAnn’s son Bill, whom we still call Rusty, called to tell me of my aunt’s passing he knew he would not likely be able to come to Helena for a this service and he asked me stand in for him. I am honored more than I can say to do so. I am not only here on his behalf but I am also here for Jill, a privilege I share with her sons.
I am a guy who has been greatly blessed in life. Not only I do have a wonderful birth mother who is sitting right but there was a second wonderful woman who was a nurturing presence in my life from my birth to this very day and whose life we celebrate today.
While I was still on the phone with Rusty, chapter 14 of John, which I just read for you, flashed through my mind. I suspect the choice of John 14 was inevitable. I have been to three funerals since JoAnn died and the Gospel reading for all three services was John 14. Since there are no such things as coincidences in God’s world, I have taken it as a pretty powerful sign I should build my reflection of JoAnn around John 14.
As the chapter begins, the disciples are gathered with Jesus in the Upper Room for the Last Supper. Jesus has been explaining to the disciples what was going to happen in the next few hours and days. Some of the things they heard must have almost impossible to grasp. I can imagine the disciples were confused and frightened by what they were hearing. Jesus assured them, saying “Don’t let your hearts be troubled, you have faith in God, have faith in me.
In the face of the death of someone we love, we could be like the disciples, frightened, confused and but also deeply grieved by the loss. Of course we are sad about JoAnn’s passing and it is ok to be sad. Remember Jesus wept when Lazarus died and he was about to bring Lazarus back to life. Sad we might be but we are not frightened or confused because we know what Jesus said to the disciples is also true for us.
Please consider this. The first fruit of faith is hope. Our faith gives us hope our separation from JoAnn will be only temporary as was her separation from my Uncle Bill, my grandparents and all who have gone before us. And where have they gone? Jesus tells us his father’s house has many rooms and he went before us to prepare a place for us. He promises to take us there himself.
My mother has several times said if she were the one talking at this service, she talk about JoAnn and hope and how hope defined her life right up to her last breath. I promised to talk about hope because my mother is right. JoAnn’s name at birth was JoAnn Hope Trent. My grandparents named her for a special person named Hope but truly Hope became her middle name. She was foremost and always a person of hope.
Hope sustained her, it nourishes her, it bound her to us, it motivated her, and it carried her forward when the only direction that seemed possible was backward.
But because we live in a world of free choice and where both good and bad things happen to good people, our prayers of hope may not be answered in the way we expect or desire but our faith sustains us through the dark times and reminds us the troubles we face here are short lived and we should hope for better things to come. God’s promise to us is not for a perfect life on earth but he promises us the strength to endure whatever we must so we might experience perfect life with him on the other side of the veil.
So then the strength to endure comes from hope.
Where did the hope which defines JoAnn come from? The answer is obvious. It came from her faith in God, something inherited from her parents and grandparents and something bequeathed to us. Her faith as not a just a Sunday morning faith but one she grew, nurtured, challenged and shared all of the days of her life.
If any of you ever visited her house, you visited a home which was place of warmth. It was also an orderly place. She was a meticulous housekeeper. There were never crumbs on the table or coffee grounds on the counter. Everything had a place and everything was in its place.
There was another side to JoAnn’s house. She had stuff. Lots of stuff. An amazing, staggering amount of stuff that ranged from exquisite antiques and heirlooms to more than enough arts and crafts stuff to stock a fair sized hobby store. When it came time clean out her house we were all stunned by what she had accumulated over the years. But here was what surprised me even more. I knew she was a voracious reader but what I did not know was how much Christian based material she read.
Out of her house came every Max Lucado book ever written including some Max may not even known he had written. Along with the Lucado books was a nearly endless string of books on faith, spirituality and Christianity. There were books on Methodism, bible studies, discussion workbooks and seminar and class materials. Now I have a fair amount of that kind of stuff myself but the difference between her Bible study workbooks and my mine is hers were all filled out from cover to cover in her small, precise handwriting. Mine might have a couple of sentences scribbled in here and there.
Her faith came from effort, action, study and a lifelong desire to learn more about her God. It was from that faith her hope flowed.
Let’s come back to the gospel again. Jesus tells us where we are going we will know the way. Thomas asked the question we all want to know the answer to – how can we know the way? I love Thomas. I think he gets a bad rap – referring to that doubting Thomas nickname we all know him by. The thing is I don’t think he doubted Jesus. I think he was seeking Jesus the same way we all seek Jesus. He asked the question for us so we don’t have to ask it ourselves. How will we know the way? Jesus gives Thomas the answer we all crave to hear. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.”
I don’t need to tell you these things about our faith and our belief in life eternal for those who seek the father through Jesus are true. You know them to be true. Your presence here at this celebration of my aunt’s life is proof of that. We know they are true because we have faith in God and we have faith in Jesus.
We have come here to celebrate JoAnn’s life in this thing we call a memorial service. Yes we remember her, her sharp sense of humor, her devotion to this church, her life with her family and her love for all of us. I have memories enough to sustain me until we meet again.
The thing about grief and joy is this. Grief shared is reduced by half. Joy shared is doubled. So thank you for sharing our grief at her passing but also our sharing our joy for the life in Christ she lived all of her days.
As we leave here today to go from this house of God into the corridors of our lives let’s not go empty handed. JoAnn has left us measure of hope she would have us each take with us. Take as much as you might need. There is more than enough to share.
Thank you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Reflection:
Thank you for joining us here today. I am really pleased we are able to have a memorial service in this church because it was such important part of JoAnn’s life. When JoAnn’s son Bill, whom we still call Rusty, called to tell me of my aunt’s passing he knew he would not likely be able to come to Helena for a this service and he asked me stand in for him. I am honored more than I can say to do so. I am not only here on his behalf but I am also here for Jill, a privilege I share with her sons.
I am a guy who has been greatly blessed in life. Not only I do have a wonderful birth mother who is sitting right but there was a second wonderful woman who was a nurturing presence in my life from my birth to this very day and whose life we celebrate today.
While I was still on the phone with Rusty, chapter 14 of John, which I just read for you, flashed through my mind. I suspect the choice of John 14 was inevitable. I have been to three funerals since JoAnn died and the Gospel reading for all three services was John 14. Since there are no such things as coincidences in God’s world, I have taken it as a pretty powerful sign I should build my reflection of JoAnn around John 14.
As the chapter begins, the disciples are gathered with Jesus in the Upper Room for the Last Supper. Jesus has been explaining to the disciples what was going to happen in the next few hours and days. Some of the things they heard must have almost impossible to grasp. I can imagine the disciples were confused and frightened by what they were hearing. Jesus assured them, saying “Don’t let your hearts be troubled, you have faith in God, have faith in me.
In the face of the death of someone we love, we could be like the disciples, frightened, confused and but also deeply grieved by the loss. Of course we are sad about JoAnn’s passing and it is ok to be sad. Remember Jesus wept when Lazarus died and he was about to bring Lazarus back to life. Sad we might be but we are not frightened or confused because we know what Jesus said to the disciples is also true for us.
Please consider this. The first fruit of faith is hope. Our faith gives us hope our separation from JoAnn will be only temporary as was her separation from my Uncle Bill, my grandparents and all who have gone before us. And where have they gone? Jesus tells us his father’s house has many rooms and he went before us to prepare a place for us. He promises to take us there himself.
My mother has several times said if she were the one talking at this service, she talk about JoAnn and hope and how hope defined her life right up to her last breath. I promised to talk about hope because my mother is right. JoAnn’s name at birth was JoAnn Hope Trent. My grandparents named her for a special person named Hope but truly Hope became her middle name. She was foremost and always a person of hope.
Hope sustained her, it nourishes her, it bound her to us, it motivated her, and it carried her forward when the only direction that seemed possible was backward.
But because we live in a world of free choice and where both good and bad things happen to good people, our prayers of hope may not be answered in the way we expect or desire but our faith sustains us through the dark times and reminds us the troubles we face here are short lived and we should hope for better things to come. God’s promise to us is not for a perfect life on earth but he promises us the strength to endure whatever we must so we might experience perfect life with him on the other side of the veil.
So then the strength to endure comes from hope.
Where did the hope which defines JoAnn come from? The answer is obvious. It came from her faith in God, something inherited from her parents and grandparents and something bequeathed to us. Her faith as not a just a Sunday morning faith but one she grew, nurtured, challenged and shared all of the days of her life.
If any of you ever visited her house, you visited a home which was place of warmth. It was also an orderly place. She was a meticulous housekeeper. There were never crumbs on the table or coffee grounds on the counter. Everything had a place and everything was in its place.
There was another side to JoAnn’s house. She had stuff. Lots of stuff. An amazing, staggering amount of stuff that ranged from exquisite antiques and heirlooms to more than enough arts and crafts stuff to stock a fair sized hobby store. When it came time clean out her house we were all stunned by what she had accumulated over the years. But here was what surprised me even more. I knew she was a voracious reader but what I did not know was how much Christian based material she read.
Out of her house came every Max Lucado book ever written including some Max may not even known he had written. Along with the Lucado books was a nearly endless string of books on faith, spirituality and Christianity. There were books on Methodism, bible studies, discussion workbooks and seminar and class materials. Now I have a fair amount of that kind of stuff myself but the difference between her Bible study workbooks and my mine is hers were all filled out from cover to cover in her small, precise handwriting. Mine might have a couple of sentences scribbled in here and there.
Her faith came from effort, action, study and a lifelong desire to learn more about her God. It was from that faith her hope flowed.
Let’s come back to the gospel again. Jesus tells us where we are going we will know the way. Thomas asked the question we all want to know the answer to – how can we know the way? I love Thomas. I think he gets a bad rap – referring to that doubting Thomas nickname we all know him by. The thing is I don’t think he doubted Jesus. I think he was seeking Jesus the same way we all seek Jesus. He asked the question for us so we don’t have to ask it ourselves. How will we know the way? Jesus gives Thomas the answer we all crave to hear. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.”
I don’t need to tell you these things about our faith and our belief in life eternal for those who seek the father through Jesus are true. You know them to be true. Your presence here at this celebration of my aunt’s life is proof of that. We know they are true because we have faith in God and we have faith in Jesus.
We have come here to celebrate JoAnn’s life in this thing we call a memorial service. Yes we remember her, her sharp sense of humor, her devotion to this church, her life with her family and her love for all of us. I have memories enough to sustain me until we meet again.
The thing about grief and joy is this. Grief shared is reduced by half. Joy shared is doubled. So thank you for sharing our grief at her passing but also our sharing our joy for the life in Christ she lived all of her days.
As we leave here today to go from this house of God into the corridors of our lives let’s not go empty handed. JoAnn has left us measure of hope she would have us each take with us. Take as much as you might need. There is more than enough to share.
Thank you.
