I needed to include this somewhere, so I thought I would blog it here, but below is the sermon I preached at the memorial service for Dorothy Daniell. The readings are from Romans 8:31-15, 37-end...
323334What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.* Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor 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.
and St. John 14:1-6...
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe* in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?* And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’* Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 3537383923456
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In the name of Jesus Christ, who carries our burdens, and gives us rest. Amen.
The Dorothy Daniell that we are here today to remember was in death as she was in life - gracious, graceful and generous. A slight frame belying a wisdom accumulated through a full and diverse life and a passion for people. Time spent with Dorothy was time well spent. It was time that was rewarding, sometimes challenging but always enriching.
Dorothy’s graciousness, gracefulness and generosity I believe, rose out of her quiet, still God-filled centre. It is that centre in others that she spent her life helping articulate, accept and respect whether in social work or psychotherapy and in friendship and relationship. She graciously listened like you were the only person in the world. She was graceful in her dress, her manner and her words were full of the grace and compassion of Christ. She was generous of herself, of her time and her talent, all arising from her trust in a God who was ‘for her’, to use Paul’s words, and for those with whom she spent her life working.
What can we say about the faith in God that lay at Dorothy’s centre? She trusted in a self-giving God - who shared His very self with us in Jesus Christ. Calling us into a life-changing love relationship through Him. She trusted in a God who justifies, who shows us to be worthy of love and respect, who does not judge or condemn us. She trusted in a God, who when we turn to Him, will never turn from us and from whose life transforming love will never be separated - not in hardship, persecution or distress. Dorothy, with us, will not even be separated from God’s love in life nor in death.
It is that quiet certain faith that was Dorothy’s centre and it is that same faith that calls to us as we celebrate her life today. ‘Do not be troubled’ says Jesus to His closest friends as they are confronted with the realisation of his imament death. ‘Continue to believe in God and all that you have seen and heard in me.’
‘Do not be troubled’ says Jesus to us as we are confronted with Dorothy’s death. Continue to believe in the same God she did. Continue to listen to and live out in your lives, all the things she saw and heard in her relationship with me.
I am in no doubt my friends that Jesus has prepared a place with Him, for her. How can I be sure? Because in her graciousness, gracefulness and generosity we met again and again a remarkable woman in every way. In those encounters we met a woman at whose heart, in whose quiet centre was a graciousness - the kindness and simple human courtesy that found a place in all of her relationships, but which has it’s roots in God. In those encounters we met a woman at whose heart, in whose quiet centre was a gracefulness - the favour, the attention she showed you as you spent time in her company - true in all her relationships, but which has it’s roots in God. In those encounters we met a woman at whose heart, in whose quiet centre was a generosity - the giving of herself in every way that found a place in all of her relationships, but which has it’s roots in God.
Dorothy’s faith was no intellectual exercise. It impacted her life and therefore ours whether we recognise it or not. As God made his way into our world in Jesus Christ, revealing the truth of God’s life transforming love for us, and offering each of us the chance to have our lives transformed by love - so He did also in Dorothy. We are not the same because of her and better for it thanks be to God!
With St. Paul I am sure that ‘...neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor 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...’ Love we have come to know in Dorothy. Amen
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