January 15th, 2004
Funeral for Mary Jane Headley

Ro 8:35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Mary Jane and Earl and I first met in a hospital room at Rappahannock General Hospital, in Kilmarnock, towards the end of June of last year. I’d just come to Jerusalem, and that particular visit was my first as Pastor of the church. I was nervous, to the point that I mispronounced her name and called her Mary Jean throughout the visit. I don’t know if she and Earl caught it, since I was not speaking much louder than I am now, but either way, they graciously did not correct me.

That graciousness at that first visit set the tone for our entire relationship. When she found out that we have 3 children, her eyes lit up. She always asked about them, what they liked, how they were enjoying living here.

A few weeks later, it must’ve been a Monday or Tuesday evening, the front doorbell rang, and it was Karen Veney, her daughter, and Mary Jane, coming back from a trip to town. They had stopped by one of the vegetable stands and brought us several pounds of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and a huge watermelon.

When the County Fair came around, she gave us money to let the kids go – and they had a blast. Caleb has a cast-iron stomach. If the ride twirled, spun, or flipped, he was on it. He went through me and Leslie and another friend before he got tired of riding himself.

Graciousness combined with generosity. There’s a name for that in the Bible – the gift of helps, the ability and the willingness to provide for others, to gift others, and to find joy in that.

By all accounts, Mary Jane lived life fully. She told me in the fall that one of the things she missed most was good food, and how she loved to cook. She shared about vacation trips to Myrtle Beach, and of how much she loved to spend time with friends and family.

She loved her work as well. It is telling that, yesterday while I was waiting to pick up our daughter Hannah from school, one of the women waiting to pick up her granddaughter commented on Mary Jane’s passing, and said that she worked under her for 15 years, and that she was the best boss she ever had. I believe those of you who are here as former coworkers can attest to that as well.

But it would be less than truthful to say that all of her life was joy. As with all of us, her life was a combination of joy and sorrow, celebrations and wounds. That is what comes with living in a broken world. Mary Jane accepted that as the reality that it is. She grieved it, and tried to change it, to mend and reconcile as much as she could, but she understood and accepted it with deep, deep sorrow. They joy she found in life and family made those points of sorrow that much more evident.

There’s a benediction, from the 4th century, that goes like this:

May the Lord Christ go before you—to prepare your way;
Christ beside you, be companion to you, everywhere you go;
Christ beneath you, strengthen and uphold you – when you fall—or fail;
Christ behind you, finish and complete what you must leave undone;
Christ within you, give you faith and courage, love and hope;
But mostly --
Christ above you, bless and keep you, now and evermore!
Amen!

Mary Jane has left things undone – both in the best sense of the word and otherwise. She set so many of us on good paths. It is our task to follow those paths – to follow her example, and to never forget that, as Paul wrote to the church in Rome so long ago- neither trouble or hardship or persecution, famine or nakedness, danger or the sword, neither death nor life, nor angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, height nor depth—nothing in ALL creation will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let’s pray.