ANOTHER FAMILY TRAGEDY - THE THIRD IN NINE MONTHS

BROTHER-IN-LAW

Thomas Wooldridge

January 23, 1945 - January 15, 2019

We lost my sister last April to a brain tumor, my brother-in-law, Paul, to an infection of the aorta in December and my second brother-in-law to a sudden heart attack last week.

THOMAS WOOLDRIDGE FUNERAL HOMILY

Rev. Ronald Knott

“We accept good things from God; should we not accept bad things?”

Book of Job

We have had so many family funerals of late, I am running out of things to say! However, it seems that God always comes through especially if I stop long enough to listen and reflect. I am not the type to go running to see if I can find a good funeral homily in some book somewhere. I like to let God speak to me and give me a few insights that people might find helpful.

It occurred to me that there are two things we, as a family, can take away from the readings that came to me as I sat down to write this homily. First, we have been a very fortunate family overall. We have accepted many good things from God over the years. Now it is our turn to accept a few challenges. Second, we are a family of over-achievers and under-achievers all mixed in together. Regardless, of our accomplishments or lack of them, whether we have been highly visibly or almost invisible, God gives each of a full day’s pay of love no matter what!

First, we have been a very fortunate family overall. We have accepted many good things from God over the years. Now it is our turn to accept a few challenges. In a way, our family has been a bit like Job’s family. Job had life by the tail. Things were going well. His family was thriving. They were free of many of the ordinary problems that many people around them had to face: chronic illnesses, grinding poverty and disastrous losses. He had almost come to expect things to always be good the way they have always been!

For Job, things could not have been better. Then it started! First, his fine herd of 500 yoke of oxen and 5000 donkeys were stolen right out from under him. In the process, those who tended them were put to death by the sword. Second, a fireball from out of the sky came down and killed his 7,000 sheep - and the shepherds looking after them. Third, bandits made off with his 3,000 camels and killed the servants caring for them. As if that was not bad enough, a tornado hit the house where all his children were gathered, the roof fell in all of them were crushed to death! It gets worse! Poor Job comes down with boils all over his body, from head to feet!

Distressed to the point of a breakdown poor Job tore his cloak, cut off his hair and sat in ashes. His wife even suggested that he curse God and die. Job responded to her with these wise words, “We accept good things from God; should we not accept bad things?” The story ends with these words, “In all this Job did not sin, nor did he charge God with wrong!”

When I was trying to think of an appropriate reading for this funeral. The story of Job came to mind. In many ways, Tom has been a Job-like character. His father died a tragic death when he was a young man. He, himself, had a tragic accident many years ago that had left him in tremendous back-pain and several surgeries that offered him little relief. His pain radiated out into his family who were at a loss as to how to help him.

In the last nine months, it seems the story of Job continues to unfold in our family. We lost Kaye to a brain tumor last April, Paul to an infection of the aorta in December and now Tom to an unexpected heart attack. As if all this isn’t bad enough, Randy Smith, Nancy’s husband is in the hospital even now.

In spite of all this, we have been a very fortunate family overall. Other families have had it much worse. We have accepted many good things from God over the years. Now it is our turn to accept a few challenges. During the trials that have come upon our family in the last nine months, I have heard the phrase “we are so thankful” many times over. Kaye was spared years of painful treatments and surgeries – and maybe extended nursing care. Paul was spared another round of excruciating pain and experimental surgeries. Tom had always said, that if he ever had a heart attack, he wanted the “big one.” He has been spared more chronic back pain that could have gotten much worse as he aged. I believe that the consensus of our family are the words of Job, “We accept good things from God; should we not accept bad things?”

Second, the gospel has another message for us as a family and for those of you here today to show your support! Some of us have lived our lives in the public eye – out there for all to see. Like the vineyard workers, some of us have lived our lives quietly, out of sight, simply doing our duty. In the gospel today, those who “worked in the heat of the day,” those who were most visible, assumed that they would be loved more by God. Those who “started at finishing time,” those who have barely been noticeable, assumed they would be loved less. This startling parable has a shocking conclusion. “Give them all a full day’s pay! I love them all without condition!”

There’s one thing I know for sure. I may have been in The Record every week for fifteen years, I may have been pastor of the Cathedral and I may have traveled all over the world leading priest retreats, but that does not mean that God loves me any more than people like Tom Wooldridge who have lived their lives pretty much in obscurity. As my family goes to God, one at a time, I am confident that God will say to us, one at a time, “Give them all a full day’s pay! I love them all without condition for I am generous.”

My friends, when it’s all said and done, it’s not what we do for God that counts, but what God does for us! Yes, it’s not what we do for God, but what God does for us!