Book Bound, Free Spirit
Sermon
Life Everlasting
The Essential Book of Funeral Resources
Object:
For a librarian with a free-spirit life
Book Bound, Free Spirit
Isaiah 43:1-4
Books were Sue's life. Professionally and personally. She read them, reviewed them, dusted them, cataloged them, and repaired them. Sue held a degree in library science and pursued a career working for several public libraries. She also was employed in the shut-in service department of the public library taking books to people confined in their homes and to the area hospitals. She engaged in other work endeavors between libraries, yet always returned to the house of books. Sue was book bound. Books were her love. She read extensively to a neighbor bedridden by a stroke. She was always reading fiction, biographies, and about world events in her evening hours. A longtime Sunday school member, she bound her life to the Word of God. Yes, we can say Sue was book bound; yet she lived a free Spirit life.
Sue was her own person, a caregiver to others. She was a woman ahead of her time, pursuing college and a career when history proved it more fashionable to be a stay-at-home wife and homemaker, which she also did most effectively. Sue's free spirit found her mowing the lawn, doing home maintenance, engaging in athletic endeavors, once considered only appropriate for men. She was an adventurer, a traveler. She hosted clambakes. As a result of her endeavors, she exemplified the women of Proverbs. Sue looked well to the ways of her household. Her husband, Tom, called her a saint. He trusted in her and had no lack of gain. She laughed at the time to come and raised children who rose up and called her blessed. Wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, and friend. Book bound, free spirit, she lived a long and fruitful life.
In Sue's work as a librarian, her duties were to catalog books and other library resources. This process is done by one of two systems. The Library of Congress or the Dewey Decimal. To the professional librarian, each book is known by its name, title, and author. Each book is given a topic category and placed in a specially prepared place, in one of many rooms of the house of books. Books are given a number; it becomes theirs and theirs alone. The number becomes, for a book, its fingerprint or DNA -- its personal identity.
As books were unique and special to her, Sue was special to each of you. She was unique to God. Each of you here today are also unique to God. The prophet Isaiah proclaims:
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.
-- Isaiah 43:1-4
Your loved one was book bound by her career, a career she loved. Yet in her laboring days, she was a free spirit, freed by God whom she loved and who loved her.
When one we love as a mother, grandmother, relative, or friend dies, our lives become bound by the book of grief and loss. Yet, because God has called us by his name, we know that God will be with us as we pass through the pages of our grief. God will save us from the chapters of our sorrow, because we are precious in God's sight. From the day of her birth and her baptism, God had called Sue, your loved one, by name. As people of faith we can say with confidence that Sue has passed through the valley of the shadow of death, and has entered the place, prepared and promised by Christ for her, in one of the many rooms in the house not made with hands in the heavens. Sue is no longer book bound, but through the light and life of Christ has truly become a free spirit. This is what we of faith, hope in and hope for: to be truly free. As God's promise is given to your loved one, God's promise is given also to us. Therefore, you, too, this day, can move out and move on. Because God knows you by name and claims you precious, you need not any longer feel bound by the book of grief and sorrow. You can now be free. Free to turn over the page of the next chapter of your life and again feel free in spirit, as of God's own in the story of the book of life, in the library of God's kingdom. God's blessings and peace be with you always. Amen.
Book Bound, Free Spirit
Isaiah 43:1-4
Books were Sue's life. Professionally and personally. She read them, reviewed them, dusted them, cataloged them, and repaired them. Sue held a degree in library science and pursued a career working for several public libraries. She also was employed in the shut-in service department of the public library taking books to people confined in their homes and to the area hospitals. She engaged in other work endeavors between libraries, yet always returned to the house of books. Sue was book bound. Books were her love. She read extensively to a neighbor bedridden by a stroke. She was always reading fiction, biographies, and about world events in her evening hours. A longtime Sunday school member, she bound her life to the Word of God. Yes, we can say Sue was book bound; yet she lived a free Spirit life.
Sue was her own person, a caregiver to others. She was a woman ahead of her time, pursuing college and a career when history proved it more fashionable to be a stay-at-home wife and homemaker, which she also did most effectively. Sue's free spirit found her mowing the lawn, doing home maintenance, engaging in athletic endeavors, once considered only appropriate for men. She was an adventurer, a traveler. She hosted clambakes. As a result of her endeavors, she exemplified the women of Proverbs. Sue looked well to the ways of her household. Her husband, Tom, called her a saint. He trusted in her and had no lack of gain. She laughed at the time to come and raised children who rose up and called her blessed. Wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, and friend. Book bound, free spirit, she lived a long and fruitful life.
In Sue's work as a librarian, her duties were to catalog books and other library resources. This process is done by one of two systems. The Library of Congress or the Dewey Decimal. To the professional librarian, each book is known by its name, title, and author. Each book is given a topic category and placed in a specially prepared place, in one of many rooms of the house of books. Books are given a number; it becomes theirs and theirs alone. The number becomes, for a book, its fingerprint or DNA -- its personal identity.
As books were unique and special to her, Sue was special to each of you. She was unique to God. Each of you here today are also unique to God. The prophet Isaiah proclaims:
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.
-- Isaiah 43:1-4
Your loved one was book bound by her career, a career she loved. Yet in her laboring days, she was a free spirit, freed by God whom she loved and who loved her.
When one we love as a mother, grandmother, relative, or friend dies, our lives become bound by the book of grief and loss. Yet, because God has called us by his name, we know that God will be with us as we pass through the pages of our grief. God will save us from the chapters of our sorrow, because we are precious in God's sight. From the day of her birth and her baptism, God had called Sue, your loved one, by name. As people of faith we can say with confidence that Sue has passed through the valley of the shadow of death, and has entered the place, prepared and promised by Christ for her, in one of the many rooms in the house not made with hands in the heavens. Sue is no longer book bound, but through the light and life of Christ has truly become a free spirit. This is what we of faith, hope in and hope for: to be truly free. As God's promise is given to your loved one, God's promise is given also to us. Therefore, you, too, this day, can move out and move on. Because God knows you by name and claims you precious, you need not any longer feel bound by the book of grief and sorrow. You can now be free. Free to turn over the page of the next chapter of your life and again feel free in spirit, as of God's own in the story of the book of life, in the library of God's kingdom. God's blessings and peace be with you always. Amen.
