The Reverend Donald L. Hamer
October 12, 2009

Proverbs 22:1-9      1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Psalms 121, 23      Matthew 5:1-11

This afternoon we celebrate the life and ministry of a man whose life was devoted to giving:  Giving of his time; giving of his love; giving of his resources; and really, giving of himself.  The passages from Scripture help us to understand Stanley’s life in the light of God’s word.

The passage from Proverbs is part of a collection of instructions on how to live one’s life in order to enjoy the blessings of life and avoid unnecessary trouble.  In Chapter 22, the author is attempting to make us understand things about life that may not be obvious to us, and to show how the choices we make in life, and how we act on those choices, can affect our lives and the lives of those around us.

I think Stanley really believed in several principles we heard in this passage:

 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.
 The rich and the poor have this in common:  The Lord is the maker of them all.
 The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.
 Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray.
 Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.

Now, I’m not saying that Stanley was remembering particular passages from Proverbs as he was living his life.  I don’t think God either expects or requires that of us.  But throughout his life, in his care for is family and in his passion for the needs of the poor and the homeless, Stanley was a living example of the truth of these passages.

In the passage from St. Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, we hear perhaps the best expression one can find about the power of self-giving love.  You will note that God is not mentioned anywhere in this chapter – but God is certainly at the center of it.  Paul is conveying the meaning and the raw power of love from his own experience and defining it as a life principle.  Paul here is taking a look at many of the things that people value in life or in the life of the church:

 Having prophetic powers and understanding all mysteries and all knowledge
 Having a profound faith
 Giving away all one’s possessions and even handing over one’s life
 Speaking in tongues

Paul says that even if you do all of these things or have all of these gifts, if you do not use them in love, they are only empty gestures.  He tells us how to recognize true love:  It is patient, it is kind, it is NOT envious or boastful or arrogant or rude; it does NOT insist on its own way; it is NOT irritable or resentful; it does NOT rejoice in wrongdoing; it rejoices in the truth; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Anyone who knew Stanley will recognize these characteristics.  A caring and loving father, a loving husband, a good provider.  A man who would go out of his way to do anything for anybody.  A man who loved life and delighted in sharing it with others.  It’s what Paul was writing about, and it’s what Stanley lived.

St. Paul’s letter about true love helps us to understand what Jesus is teaching in the passage from Matthew.  Jesus has been addressing the crowds on top of a mountain, in what is known as “The Sermon on the Mount.”  The sermon begins with what are popularly known as “The Beatitudes,” a series of Jesus’ reflections on what it means to be blessed – or, in St. Luke’s version, happy.  The sermon really provides a lens to discover the nature of God.  And what a surprise they are:  “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” he says, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  Another is “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”  Jesus takes a series of circumstances that people dread, and says that they are blessings.
 
And we ask ourselves, “How can we be joyful when we are mourning?  How can we be happy when we are unhappy, or sad, or poor, or hungry or thirsty?”  It’s been my experience as a pastor that those who are wealthy, secure and satisfied are less likely to seek God because their perception is that they don’t need anything more.  On the other hand, those who have lost everything according to the world’s values, or those who are experiencing some loss or need, are most open to God’s presence and God’s love filling that empty space according to kingdom values.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus reveals the meaning of true joy, and says that we can obtain that only by living a different lifestyle – one based on a moral outlook and set of values that reverses all conventional values like wealth, status and power being the most important things in life.

And this is one of the things that Stanley taught us.  In his love for his family, in his devotion and passion serving the homeless and the marginalized in society, in his joy of sharing and celebrating life with his family and friends, Stanley lived the values he believed in, and so taught us by his example.  He taught us that real love makes us look outside ourselves for happiness.  He taught us that real love causes us to sacrifice for others – not grudgingly or with a heavy heart, but with joy.  Just as Jesus gave his perfect love by emptying himself for us, so Stanley knew that it is only in giving of ourselves that we can receive love from outside ourselves.

We don’t know why Stanley died at this time and in this way.  We do know that sometimes, even with all of the miracles of modern medicine and modern technology, even they are not enough to sustain us in this earthly life.  Perhaps even harder, we don’t know why death has visited this family – suddenly and unexpectedly – three times in only two years.  Perhaps like Job in the Old Testament story, we wonder why such hardship befalls a loving, generous and hardworking family, and we struggle to find God in the midst of it all.  As Saint Paul reminds us in his passage on love: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.  Now I know only in part; then I will know fully . . .”

As we gather here today, we don’t know why Stanley died, but we DO know why he lived.  He lived life, and he loved life, to the full.  His life was exemplified by a generosity of spirit, an innate ability to give of himself for the benefit of others, and to do so with perfect joy and not as a hardship.  He lived to show us how not to let the obstacles in life get in the way, but how we can use those obstacles as openings to experience the perfect, self-giving love of God.  And so today we celebrate this remarkable life, and commit ourselves to keeping his spirit alive in our midst by living the lessons we have learned from him.  AMEN.

Copyright © 2009 by the Reverend Donald L. Hamer