Guest Post Of A Funeral Message To Ponder and Remember

Pastor Phil Kniss

For those of you unable to attend the memorable funeral service held at the Park View Mennonite Church Monday, Pastor Phil Kniss gave me his kind permission to post his meditation here. I experienced his words as profound and powerful.

REDEEMED. AT FULL VALUE.

Romans 8:35, 37-39; Philippians 4:4-9; Matthew 11:28-30

Let’s be honest.
    This room is packed to overflowing.
    And there is not a one of us who wants to be here.
        This is the last place we want to be,
            and the last thing we want to be doing.
        I believe we all would have given our right arms, literally,
            if it would have prevented the tragedy
            that brings us here together today.

Chris had once
    been so full of life and love and creativity and energy,
        had accomplished so much good,
        had built friendships that changed people
            and launched institutions,
        had quietly and persistently tried to do his part
            to live out the values of the kingdom of God.
His tragic death has ended all that doing good,
    and the future good he still wanted to do.

But even more,
    his death has plunged a whole community,
    and especially those he loved the most,
        into the deep waters of agony and grief and brokenness,
        where no one should ever have to go. Ever.

At times like this,
    when our own feeble words fail us,
    we people of faith flee to the words of scripture.
We go to the Bible,
    and we look for comfort for our anguish,
    we look for answers to our questions,
    we look for words to make sense of the confusion,
    we look for light to penetrate where it’s too dark to see.

But if we dip into the well of scripture,
    expecting to draw up words explaining this tragedy to our satisfaction
    we will come up dry.
If we go to scripture,
    looking for an answer as to why this happened,
    we won’t find it.
If we go to scripture,
    asking for words to make sense of this for us,
    we will be disappointed.

There will be those who try to do that.
    Who try to quote scripture in a way that makes it sound
        that God had some mysterious reason for this,
        that God directly or indirectly had his fingers
            in these horrible events.
    Family—Lynette and children especially—
        if, and when, well-meaning Christians come to you,
        trying to comfort you by implying that this was somehow
            part of God’s master plan,
            don’t pay them mind.
        You can pity them, you can love them, but don’t pay them mind.
    That is not the kind of God we worship.
    That is not the kind of God that Chris loved,
        and devoted his life to.

There are, and will remain, deep questions on our minds
    that we might wish words of scripture
    could answer clearly, definitively, finally.

But the Bible is not that sort of answer-book.
    It doesn’t so much reveal everything we wish to know.
    It reveals what we need to know.

Life is sometimes a deep and profound mystery.
There is so much we don’t know.
    So much that remains hidden.
And apparently, God is comfortable leaving it that way.
    God does not expect or need us to learn all the intricate answers.
    God seems most interested in knowing
        whether we are willing to receive and return his love.

So these questions are left hovering there without answers.
    Why does such deep human suffering go on and on,
        without God intervening to stop it?
    How is it that a good man’s body, and mind, and spirit,
        can so deeply desire to be whole,
        yet remain so fragile, diminished, and disordered?

There is so much we don’t know today.
    We don’t know exactly how this devastating disease of amyloidosis
        was affecting his body and brain and spirit.
    We do know it changed him, radically,
        sapped his energy,
        robbed him of his creative, life-loving self,
        caused him to disengage and withdraw,
        altered his ways of thinking and being with people,
            even with his own family.
    We wish we knew more,
        because, we reason,
        knowing more might have helped us save his life.
    But we don’t know.
        And our questions may remain unanswered
            for the rest of our days.

    There are many other people in this world
        living with the same sort of questions, day after day.
    There is so much pain and suffering and evil in this world,
        that simply goes unexplained,
        cannot be given meaning or purpose.

But I do not wish to dwell on what we don’t know.
    I am here to remind us of what we do know.
    I am here to proclaim the Gospel.
        The Good News of God’s character and God’s work.

One thing we do know from scripture,
    is that disease and devastation,
        and anything that diminishes or destroys life,
        is neither God’s will, nor God’s doing.
    God is the creator and sustainer of all life.
        Always.

Another thing we know about God’s character,
    is that God is love.
    That is the core component of God’s character and agenda.
        To love people to himself.
        That love is constant, and persistent.

So I turn to scripture to remind us of what we know.

First of all, I want us all to hear, and remember,
    that God is near to those who suffer.
Psalm 34 says,
    “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,
        and saves the crushed in spirit.”
    We worship a God who is not removed from suffering,
        who is not dispassionate, or unfeeling.
        No! When there is suffering, our God moves closer!
        Chris was close to the heart of God.
            Of that we can be certain.
        Right in the middle of his mysterious brokenness,
            when no one else could reach him,
            God moved in.
            God was near, when no one else could be.
        So up to his last moment, Chris remained,
            and ever will be, close to the heart of God.

    The psalmist also proclaims in faith,
        “The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
            none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.”
        Chris did take refuge in God.
        Chris was not, and is not, condemned.
        Let no one suggest otherwise.
            No, it was not God’s will for Chris to take his own life.
            But neither is it in God’s will or God’s character,
                to turn his back on anyone who takes refuge in him,
                even when disease and disordered thinking take over
                    and lead someone to terribly wrong
                    life-ending decisions.
        The Lord redeems the life of his servants.
            Chris was a servant of God.
            And today, friends and family,
                Chris’ life is redeemed.
                That is, his life is returned to God, at full value.
                    Redeemed. At full value.

And then there is Romans 8,
    a text that Michaela wanted to be sure that we read today.

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
    Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
        or peril, or sword?”
    “No! Of course not!” Paul declares.
    “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 amyloidosis, nor depression,
            nor disordered thinking, nor suicide . . .
        nor anything else in all creation,
            will be able to separate us from the love of God
                in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This is one scripture that we are allowed to add words to.
    We have permission, right there in the text,
        to add our own words.
    Because Paul assures us that in this list of things
        that will not separate us from God,
        is “anything else in all creation.”
    Nothing can separate us from God’s constant and persistent love.
        Nothing. But nothing.

Then there are Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11.
    A text that Isaac mentioned yesterday,
        that gave him comfort.
    So we read them this afternoon.

    “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,
        and I will give you rest.
        Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
            for I am gentle and humble in heart,
            and you will find rest for your souls.”
    Chris was carrying a very heavy burden.
        Only he knows how heavy.
        Now, because of his death,
            we must carry this heavy burden.
        Lynette and the children more than anyone,
            but it’s a burden we all share.

    But the invitation from our loving God is,
        “Come to me, weary ones.
            Come to me with your heavy burdens.
            Take my yoke, instead.
                It is bearable.
                For I am gentle.
                You can carry my yoke, and still find rest for your souls.
                Because my yoke is carved from love.”

And there is the passage from Philippians 4,
    which Michaela named,
    because she included it once in a note to her father.
We also read it today, and I repeat, in part . . .
    “The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything . . .
        And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
            will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus . . .
        Beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
            whatever is just, whatever is pure . . .
            think about these things . . .
            and the God of peace will be with you.”
_____________________

As I said, none of us want to be here today.
    And there is nothing good, nothing God-directed,
        about the horrific event that brought us here today.
    But there is Good News to be proclaimed.
        God’s love is constant.
        God’s love is persistent.
        God’s love cannot be removed from us.
        God’s heart of love is moved toward
            all who suffer,
            all who carry heavy burdens,
            all who need rest.
    Lynette, Michaela, Sylvia, and Isaac—
        may God’s love wash over you today,
            and tomorrow,
            and every day.
    And know that even if one day
        your heart is filled with God’s love,
        there is still more love to be had.
    For those days to come when your heart seems empty,
        God’s love is never-ending.
        There is more love somewhere.

—Phil Kniss, January 27, 2014

P.S.  Phil's meditation was followed by the song in Sing the Journey, "There is more love somewhere". The music in the service was beautiful beyond belief.

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Out Of Darkness, A Brand New Dawn

(From Chris's Millworks Lighting website)

I like this bit of rabbinic wisdom I ran across some time ago:

"Every one of us will die twice, once when we breathe our last and are buried, and once when people no longer speak our name."

If that is true, the life of a long time friend, age 47, whose funeral I attended at the Park View Mennonite Church yesterday, will continue for a long, long time--not only in the eternal realm, but among the hundreds who will always remember and speak his name.

Chris was a founding partner and owner of numerous enterprises, and was a widely respected businessman. He was also an avid outdoorsman, an accomplished craftsman and a talented musician.

Chris's greatest legacy, however, was in the love he invested in his family as a devoted father of Makaila, Sylvia and Isaac, and the loving husband of his high school sweetheart Lynette. He was also memorialized yesterday for the way he used his considerable entrepreneurial skills in the service of such causes as Our Community Farm, Habitat for Humanity, the Fuller Center, and Eastern Mennonite School, to name but a few.

Tragically, Chris fought a losing battle with amyloidosis in recent years, a rare and debilitating illness that sapped him of his energy and led to a level of despair that resulted in his ending his own life.

Pastor Phil Kniss addressed all of that head on in his powerful message that did not minimize the tragedy in the least. Addressing the crowd of hundreds who filled the auditorium and the adjacent fellowship hall, he began with, 
 

"Let’s be honest.
This room is packed to overflowing.
And there is not a one of us who wants to be here.

This is the last place we want to be,
and the last thing we want to be doing.

I believe we all would have given our right arms, literally, if it would have prevented the tragedy
that brings us here together today."

But Kniss went on to boldly affirm the good news (from the eighth chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans) that "neither life nor death... nor anything else in all creation--including tragedies like amyloidosis and suicide--can separate us from God's love".

Nothing. Ever.

What a gut wrenching day for all of us, but especially for Chris's family. Our heartfelt prayers go out to each of them and to all of his many friends who will miss him terribly.

As a postscript, my wife found the following poem in the 1984 Eastern Mennonite High School yearbook, the Ember, written by Chris and his friend Mike Bender when they were  seniors:

A Brand New Dawn

It's time to move on
Time to look toward a new day
It's a brand new dawn
Lord help me find my way

Looking over my shoulder
Looking over my yesterday
I know its not over
Even though I'm gone away

Because you gave us a melody
A reason to live
How it turned to harmony
When we learned to give

Leavin' so much behind
But there's so much yet to find

When Death Feels Like An Untraveled Tunnel

Pennsylvania Turnpike's Allegheny Mountain Tunnel

I had the privilege of speaking at the memorial service yesterday of Tim Federowicz, age 50, who died of lung cancer at his home a week ago. I first learned to know Tim as a shy little kid growing up in a single parent home with his mother and four sisters, a part of a family our church helped from time to time.

Tim was a hard worker on a dairy farm most of his life, and never got to travel much, but his nephew Jonathan Smith asked him some time ago to go with him to Pittsburgh to pick up a truck he had bought. Tim had never been on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and when they approached their first tunnel, Tim expressed concern, wanting to know all about what this tunnel was like.

"How do we know it's safe?" Tim asked. "What if it would collapse while we're going through it?"

Jonathan tried to explain that thousands of people had gone through it safely without anything like that ever happening.

That little story seemed like a metaphor for the almost certain death Tim faced when he learned he had an advanced case of cancer. He was facing a dark and fearsome tunnel indeed, and of course one he had never traveled before.

It was a blessing that Tim, in the last decade of his life, had come to experience a faith that helped him deal with his fears, a realization that even though he, like all of us, must go through the dark "tunnel" of death, that he need "fear no evil". And that he didn't have to be on that journey alone, and that there was new light and a new land on the other side.

In spite of how hard this was, Tim experienced the touch of an unseen hand to shepherd him when things got especially dark, along with his having the love and support of good people like his nephew Jonathan.

State Sponsored Killings Have Come A Long Way

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the execution of Hans Landis, an Anabaptist martyr who happens to be one of my wife's direct ancestors. At age 70 he was publicly beheaded for the crime of holding illegal church meetings in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and for providing pastoral care to a growing group of so-called "re-baptizers" who refused to have their children baptized as members of the state-supported Reformed Church. His wife Margaretha Hochstrasser, age 60, witnessed the gruesome killing, and his son Felix later died in prison in 1642 as a result of inhumane treatment, as did his daughter Verena one year after that, in 1643.

In light of that history we have come a long way from a time when thousands of my spiritual ancestors were martyred for simply advocating that all adults should be able to freely choose whatever religion they wished, a freedom we now take for granted. And thankfully, we have come to rule out the more barbaric means of capital punishment used in cases of people indicted for crimes, such as burning them at the stake, drowning them to death, tearing them limb from limb on torture racks or condemning them to spend the rest of their lives as galley slaves.

That was, after all, four centuries ago, and most of us are glad to see a progression from these more horrific to less cruel forms of killing. But any execution of a relatively healthy adult requires some extreme violence. Human bodies are not designed to give up life easily.

The recent death by injection of killer Dennis McGuire carried out by the state of Ohio has added to the humanitarian concerns held by many opponents of the death penalty. Because of a shortage of the most commonly used drug pentobarbital in states like Ohio--due to major suppliers refusing to make it available for the purpose of killing people--authorities in the state used a combination of two other untried drugs, the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphon. The condemned man appeared to gasp several times and took an unusually long time to die, nearly 25 long minutes.

McGuire's lawyers have argued that he experienced the kind of "air hunger" that could cause him to suffer "agony and terror" while struggling to get his breath.

Of course many believe McGuire deserved all of this and more for his having cruelly stabbed to death an innocent pregnant newlywed. I fully understand that. His was a horrendous crime, and if reverting back to the practice of torture is our goal, our legislators need to empower our judges to sentence accordingly. But civilized societies have come to believe they are better than that, and our own U.S. constitution rules out “cruel” or “unusual” punishment, no matter how heinous the crime.

Today the U.S. is among the few industrialized nations that still executes criminals, and 18 states and the District of Columbia have abolished the death penalty entirely. Among the 32 states that still practice capital punishment, its  application is uneven and there is no evidence that Texas, which holds the record of having executed over 500 offenders (Virginia is second), is any safer than New York or California, which no longer executes any.

In a very recent development, members of Virginia’s House of Delegates, by an overwhelming majority, have voted to take a step backwards to again approve the use of the electric chair as a means of execution should the state experience a shortage of pentobarbital.

Is this really the direction we want our Commonwealth to go? If so, if we were faced with a power shortage, would we revert to hanging, or if a hemp shortage, beheading? In what direction do we really want to go as a society?

For me, on both moral and religious grounds, being pro-life means seeing all life at all stages as precious.

Model Prisoner Repeatedly Denied Parole

For some months I've been in correspondence with Jonathan D. White, a 54-year-old inmate at the Powhatan Correction Center who is now in his 33rd year in prison. Mr. White has been repeatedly denied parole in spite of having created an impressive resume since his incarceration in 1981. This is in part due to Parole Boards granting very few releases, especially in recent years. The last Board appointed by Governor McDonnell granted parole to only about 3% of cases reviewed, compared to a rate of nearly 40% during some previous administrations.

Here are some of Mr. White's educational accomplishments:

• Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology from Liberty University
• Associate in Arts and Science Degree in education from Paul D. Camp Community College
• Career Studies Degree in supervision from Paul D. Camp Community College
• Advance HVAC/R Technicians Certificate, Penn Foster Technical Training Program
• Climate Control HVAC/R Trade Completion Certificate, Commonwealth University
• Universal EPA HVAC Certifications 608, 609 and 410A , ESCO Training Services
• OSHA Construction Safety and Health Certifications
• National Association of Home Builders Basic Principles of Construction Certificate
• Blood Borne Pathogen Safety Training Certificate, Commonwealth of Virginia
• Cook - Journeyman Certification, Commonwealth of Virginia
• Custom Shoemaker - Journeyman Certification, Commonwealth of Virginia
• Industrial Sewing Machine Repair - Certification, Commonwealth of Virginia
• Wastewater Operations Training, Sacramento California Wastewater School
• Lithographic Computerized Digital Training, Commonwealth of Virginia

He has also taken an active part in the following:

• Alcoholics Anonymous
• Substance Abuse education
• Anger Management
• Advanced Anger Management
• Sex Offender Counseling and Therapy - SOPAC
• Breaking Barriers
• Life Skills
• Productive Citizenship
• Commitment to Change
• Christian Fellowship Services (leadership in worship and community services)
• Speaker for Steer Straight (teen and youth crime prevention service)

In addition, Mr. White has been infraction free throughout his incarceration, with no new convictions or crimes on his record, and has earned favorable recommendations for parole from the PCC staff and commendations for rendering helpful assistance to staff in critical situations. He has also received numerous recommendations from community supporters willing to assist him in the transition to reentry to the community and in maintaining conditions of parole.

In his own words:

"The Virginia Parole Board's responsibility is "to release on parole those persons who are considered suitable for release and who will not present a risk to the community". 

"I have met these criteria of suitability. My life is forever changed from the failures of my past youthful wrong decisions, and I have been sufficiently punished for the crimes for which I have been convicted and incarcerated.

"To everyone who has been affected by my past actions in life, victims, family, friends, associates and community, I humbly apologize to each of you. I am sorry for any hurt or pain and suffering I have caused to anyone as a result of my actions.

"Respectfully, I seek the privilege of parole at this time. I am deserving of a second chance in living my life as a responsible, productive, law-abiding citizen of the Commonwealth, and I fully acknowledge my responsibility to uphold this granted privilege.

"I want to be a success story of which you can be proud. Most people in my situation become very bitter here because of the injustices they have to endure.  Prison life is a major hardship, and when a person loses everything worth living for, such as mother, father, friends and status in society, it is hard to hold on to the sanity of doing right regardless of circumstances. But I thank God for redeeming my life when all others have abandoned me to these prison walls."

Jonathan Darryl White #1161021 - INM#128952
Augusta Correctional Center
1821 Estaline Valley Road
Craigsville, VA 24430

Annual Celebration Promoting 'Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy'

"Retired National Football League players experience a shockingly high rate of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.... Former players ages 30 through 49 had memory-related diseases 19 times higher than the rate in the national population....  which also found that 6.1 percent of former NFL players 50 and over had been diagnosed with a form of dementia, a rate five times higher than the national average of 1.2 percent." 

- from a 2009 NFL-authorized study

I find it interesting that the U.S. is the only country in the world in which football is the number one spectator sport. Canada and Australia each have professional football leagues, and there are other nations with amateur teams, but in none of these countries has the sport gained the kind of avid following it has here. 

Can any of this be associated with our national culture being more violent in other ways, in our extraordinary investment in military might, our dreadfully high rates of murder and assault, and in our national obsession with firearms? Of course, when it comes to rigorous contact sports, wrestling, boxing, ice hockey and rugby are anything but benign, and even soccer, the most favorite national pastime in many countries, is not without its share of injuries.

American football, however, is known to exact an especially heavy toll on its players, many of whom suffer from a serious form of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Should this give us pause during Superbowl season?
   
I believe it should. What do you think?

Cantrell Avenue Officially Dedicated As...

Here is the text of a speech EMU's President Loren Swartzentruber gave at today's MLK Day dedication ceremony:

I am honored to share these comments on behalf of the faculty, staff, and students at Eastern Mennonite University.

April 4, 1968, is etched in my memory forever. Martin Luther King, Jr, was brutally gunned down at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis TN. His was a most articulate voice for non-violence, rooted in his faith as a follower of Jesus. A voice that was silenced at the young age of 39, silenced by a violent act committed by James Earl Ray. For reasons we can only imagine, Martin Luther King’s assassin was obsessed with racial prejudice and hatred.

Thirty years later, in 1998, Jules Witcover wrote a book entitled, The Year the Dream Died: Revisiting 1968 in America. Witcover walks us through the year 1968, month by month, a year in which every month seemed to embody the worst of our humanity. He began with January—the launching of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam; in March President Johnson shocked the nation with his announcement that he would not seek re-election; in April the untimely death of Rev. Dr. King.

On the day before his death, in what would be his last sermon, Dr. King said, in eerily prophetic words,

"We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop...And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

In what would shortly become words filled with irony, Robert F. Kennedy, speaking in Indianapolis on the night of April 4, said this:

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization -- black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.

Exactly nine weeks later, on June 6, Kennedy was murdered after a campaign speech in Los Angeles.

1968 was the year that many historians have dubbed “the watershed year in American history.” Many books and papers have been written about that year—I’ve read some of them, and I’ve been disappointed that no author has yet noted that it was the year that my wife and I graduated high school. (Smile)

All of us who came of age in the tumultuous years of the 60s were profoundly impacted—of course, not all in the same ways. I can only speak for myself, as a white male of middle-class origins, born in a small community of southeast Iowa which was very homogenous racially, shaped by the jolting awareness in the 60s that all is not right with the world. (For the record we scandalized some of our elders by singing “We Shall Overcome” during our Commencement Service. We were absolutely naïve but we were committed to making our world a better place.)

I learned from Dr. King and others in my own theological tradition that one cannot separate one’s faith from the call to social justice for everyone in our world. As Menno Simons, for whom my church tradition is named, put it so succinctly,

"True evangelical faith clothes the naked; it feeds the hungry;
it comforts the sorrowful; 
it shelters the destitute;
it aids and consoles the sad;
it does good to those who do it harm;
it serves those that harm it;
it prays for those who persecute it."

Here we gather in a community demonstration of solidarity all too rare in our polarized and divided society. I am proud to lead the first (white) university in the Commonwealth of Virginia to enroll students of color. Martin Luther King would have been pleased that my predecessors stood up to the prevailing opposition of their time to such a move. In the context of our current divisions I take great courage from Dr. King and from others who dared to stand tall in the face of conflict.

But, we are painfully aware that our work is not yet done by any stretch of the imagination and it is abundantly clear from the historical record that Dr. King would have continued his prophetic witness for a more just society.

I understand why Whitcover’s book was entitled, The Year the Dream Died, but I pray that all of us can today co-author a living book more hopeful for the present and the future, The Year the Dream was Revived.