May the words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.
Amen.Please be seated.
I’m going to do something that my homiletics professor would be furious with me for.
You’re not supposed to let anything come between the reading of the gospel and the preaching of the homily.
There’s a theological reason.
Those two things are connected.
But there’s also a rhetorical reason.
That is the one moment where you have everybody’s attention, which is exactly why I want to say now what I want to say rather than saying it later in the service when I might not have your attention.
And that is that yesterday afternoon we had the Requiem Mass for Jim Hill.
And throughout the day at the reception and even afterwards, people kept either saying to me in person or texting me, thanking me for the service and telling me how lovely it was.
And here’s the thing.
When you’re the celebrant at a Requiem Mass, the prayer book does all the heavy lifting for you.
It really got that service right.
And in the role that I had, all I have to do is read what’s in front of me, not mess it up, and it does its job.
But the whole service was lovely. The music, flowers, the reception, the altar. We had a tent set up outside in case of rain, which then protected the family from the sun. There were gracious people here to greet guests and the family as they arrived.
And that is the eighth funeral here since I got here at the beginning of the year.
And they have all been like that.
Those services have been lovely because of the work and presence and love of the people in this congregation.
And I really want to thank you for that. On behalf of all of those families, you are a gift to them, you are a gift to God, and you are a gift to me.
And while I had your attention, I wanted to give credit where credit was due for what happened yesterday and during all of those other services.
Originally delivered as a preface to the sermon on June 21, 2026