Celebrating Christiane
John 14:1-6
Every month, I go to two senior’s lodges to worship with the members. I begin each worship by introducing our worship leadership team, Marnie, Gordon, Louise, Loraine, Edith, Beryl, Valerie, and any others who come to help. It would be a simple duty to lead the worship; it becomes an honoured duty when we see and appreciate such a welcoming congregation waiting for us. They welcome us, accept us, cheer us on, and say things that are very encouraging - “Good worship” “Good job” “Thank you”, “Come back!”
Worshipping at Senior’s lodges is not just a duty - it’s a joy, actually a huge joy, because even if we might sing the same songs over and over each month (there are songs that are in high demand, like I Love to Tell the Story, What a Friend We Have In Jesus, Jesus Loves Me, and Amazing Grace) there’s such faith and love in the faces of the singers. I have trust in the singer’s heart. When you look a person in the eye while you sing and she sings, there’s a shy but happy encounter in the brief eye-contact. There’s a warm human connection, without condition, without judgement, without labeling or prejudice. Worship is heart-to-heart communication.
Christians was that kind of person. If you have ever been to a service at River Park Gardens, you couldn’t miss her; she was always in the first row. Christiane looked at you. She smiled for you. She sang with you. You just had to notice her presence, her energy that her body, her whole self, expressed without self-consciousness. Christiane shared with us something very positive - like the light that is brighter because it knows the meaning of the shadow. Her spirit of positivity was a tangible thing that brought me and my worship team joy - it’s the reason we go back every month, to sing and worship with the good people at the Lodges. Now we’ve lost Christiane and her smile, and we will miss her.
In our first scripture reading from John, we hear Thomas say, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.” Jesus had already offered an answer before Thomas asked. Jesus said, “ (I am going) to my Father’s house; it has many places to dwell, and I’ll prepare a place for you.’
What place is this that Jesus prepares for all to come and dwell?
Our second reading describes the ‘holy city’. The key is not “city” as an actual built-up place that takes up physical space somewhere inside the universe. Rather, the importance must be given to the place’s 'sacredness'. I believe joy is sacred. Not just a candy-flavoured joy that only lasts for a temporary moment, a sweet thing that fades easily. It’s not the kind of joy that follows worldly achievements, either. Joy is not the same as pride. The full-time, all-encompassing joy that doesn’t cease, that doesn’t decay, is the nature of God. Joy isn’t blind to human sorrow, distress, agony, struggles, challenges. Joy comes as the ‘culmination of being’. When we are around a person who knows this joy, and knows how to live it, even going through hard life circumstances, we are blessed by the fruit that this virtue produces in that person - wisdom, courage, fortitude and gratitude.
I believe that Christiane has left us and so many people a legacy we will remember: love. Brene Brown says,
“Joy is a light that fills you with hope and faith and love.”
It is true that we can only love others as much as we love ourselves, and what Christiane taught us and her family is the courage to love oneself, as she so loved us. Christiane’s family emphasized something as they shared their memories with me last week: “She has given us unconditional love.”
The “amazing teacher, who loved amazingly” Christiane, is parted from us for now, joining the place that Jesus prepares for her and for all - the holy city of joy, the home of God - where death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more; where the first things passes away. With Christiane, with us, even now, our new becoming is being born and blossoming into the cosmos, into the future, in the hands of God - the Eternal.
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