Freda Alkins Celebration of Life Sermon
We sing Alleluia even as we weep into the grave. These are some of my favorite words from the early church’s burial rite. I find them to succinctly express the raw emotional truth and the faith of the church on a day like today; a day when we celebrate the life of an amazing person, Freda Alkins.
We sing Alleluia even as we weep…
We are sad and have tears and yet, even now we celebrate. We Christians are an odd people aren’t we—we express this strange dichotomy of celebration and tears. Why?
Let’s start with our weeping.
We are sad and grieve because of what each of us has lost personally; even after a fairly long life lived well it is far too soon to say good bye for now especially to Freda. So often, we hear the word saint thrown about—all God’s people are saints, So and so is a saint and this person and that person… but Freda, she’s the real deal. Prayerful, faithful spiritual unconditionally loving and extraordinarily funny.
I can still see our beloved Freda as I knew her in humanness-- with her perfectly coiffed beautiful hair, always neat as a pin. We’re sad because this woman is a prayer warrior and being in her human presence was a privilege because she is so generous with her love and caring.
How many times over the past year I’d go for a visit and the first thing out of Freda’s mouth after greeting me was how’s so and so doing—I’ve praying for him or her… she genuinely cared for others. People, I think intuitively knew that Freda was extraordinarily faithful and loving. People were naturally drawn to her because of the ways that she allowed herself to be an instrument of God’s unconditional love.
I’ve often joked with people around St. Benedict’s that I wanted to print up t-shirts with the letters WWFD (What Would Freda Do)?
I came to this idea shortly after I arrived here. I began to notice the most unique phenomena at church pot-lucks and other events. It reminded me of this funny TV advertisement from my growing up years— this commercial for this stock brokerage firm. There was this room full of noisy people talking and then suddenly this one person began to speak softly and everyone was absolutely quiet as could be to listen and the announcer would say, “When so and so talks, people listen.” That’s how it was with Freda here. Freda would come into a noisy parish hall and would sit down have her pot luck supper and suddenly she’d begin to speak and before I knew it everyone was listening rapt and enthralled because what she had to say about her faith in God was amazing. People wanted to hear what she had to say because it was so real. So often after speaking to Freda, I felt like I had been to the best tent revival ever. She preaches the gospel at all times and when necessary she uses words. And people knew that about her—people knew that she lived what she believed with every fiber of her being. Its why we love her so much and we’re sad today.
Now I know with all my heart that if I ended my sermon right here, that Freda with every ounce of spiritual warrior that she could muster would haunt me until the 2nd coming. Because all I have spoken of is the Freda we knew – the personality that was… not the Freda that is now. . She wanted us to celebrate today her eternal spiritual rather than merely remember her mortal one. She knew from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet to the very core of her being that the most important thing that any one of us could say about Freda Dorothy Alkins is she’s a Christian, a lover of Jesus Christ, a spiritual being.
And this brings us back to our phrase, We sing Alleluia… the Alleluia that we sing today—the celebration that we gather for today and every Sunday is a love song to whole of the cosmos. The cancer did its worst but it couldn’t destroy love.
One of the last things I remember Freda saying to me was love is more powerful than death.
Judy told me that the last words the family heard from her were, “You’ll realize today that God blesses you all.
Freda more than any other message wanted us to understand that We sing alleluia because the last word is not death. The last word is resurrection. It is too easy for us to think that Resurrection is a story that happens only for Jesus. But this is scripture and resurrection is something that is universal. It happens for all of us; every single day we are given a glimpse of the resurrection, this extraordinary power we call love. We see it in ourselves and others. We see it all the time. We see it right now today.
I see it in the tears in your eyes—those tears are a living testimony to the depths and power of love. If death were the final word, then there would be no tears in our eyes, no love in our heart. Death would simply swallow up Freda and she’d be gone. We continue to love because love is so much stronger than death. Death couldn’t hold Jesus and because God’s love was so strong it can no longer hold any of us captive. Our tears and our grief are a sign, a glimpse into the power of love that each of us holds in our heart. Our relationship with Freda goes on today—even though she is physically no longer present, she is still deeply present within us and around us. Our relationship with her continues.
Freda has joined that great cloud of witnesses that she loved so deeply. She surrounds us with her prayers and her witness of love and is held forever in God’s deathless embrace. That eternal embrace of the divine means that she is one with the source of all life, it is in that perfect state of immersion into the divine source and creator, the state of fullness of life, the state of conscious confluence with the Cosmic. This is why we sing alleluia because Freda is not dead. Oh yes, her physical body as we know it has expired but she lives on within our hearts and more. She lives on and is one with all the witnesses and watchers throughout eternity. The prayers that we will hear at the table in just a little while remind us that because Jesus Christ rose victorious from the dead, life is changed not ended when our mortal bodies lies in death, there is prepared for us a dwelling place eternal.
Freda knew this reality so well. Months ago she and I talked about this day—and I can still hear her voice telling me that her memorial service would be a Eucharist and when we came to time of the Sanctus, the Holy holy holy, Freda would be here singing with us present and alive in God through Christ, transitioned she told me, not dead Brother Mandus, one Freda’s favorites, writes,
“In the infinite Spirit of God all life exists and he is the life within our own beings. Therefore we know that he has prepared this world for us to live in that he leads us through it safely and lovingly and that a wonderful life awaits us in the heavenly kingdom to which we go when he calls.
Because of God’s love, there is no separation. We know that in this moment we are in communion with God and through God with all our loved ones in heaven. Even as they have found their liberation in the greater life, so do we patiently know that these blessings are prepared for us also. Our great joy and our security lies in the knowledge that we are eternal beings. We recognize that we are spiritual beings and that this is our eternal life. This day is part of our necessary experience and we accept gladly and gratefully every event which comes our way. We allow God to move in the midst of every circumstance, knowing that God is manifesting that which perfect for our highest unfolding.”
Freda was keen on having this day be about the Eucharist and our spiritual eternal being because she knew that this supper table is our glimpse into the eternity and our place of immersion into the mystery. We come to this table and are fed with crumbs of bread and a tiny sip of wine and we are satiated in ways that are incomprehensible to our small frail human minds. We come to this meal stand alongside Freda and we will taste eternity. This meal is our window into that feast that is the supper of the lamb, that party where there’s a place for every man woman and child where all are fed and feast with joy, it is a glimpse into our deepest abiding hope and joy that is the heart of God. There is a place prepared with your name on it within the heart of God and at that table.
This is our love song that we sing; a love song of hope, a love song that teaches of the deathless love of Jesus Christ who is Lord of the universe and it is our love song to the cosmos. It is a simple song that I hear Freda singing over and over again, Alleluia , Alleluia, Alleluia.