Sally Stevenson

Sally Stevenson, July 11, 2018
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 23
Romans 8:14-19, 34-35, 37-39
John 14:1-6

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 If you mention the name Sally Stevenson around St. Timothy’s Church, people will tell you two things:  Sally was amazing with kids, and Sally walked everywhere.  They didn’t always know where Sally was going, but Sally knew.  Both these things that everyone knows about Sally happened  before my time at this church, but they are still what she is known for.  Being great with kids, and walking everywhere.  If that’s the kind of thing people remember about you and me, we will have done enough with our lives.

By the time I got here, two years ago, Sally was already spending her days at Amherst Meadows, where I would visit her.  Sometimes she was at Mercy hospital for some sort of treatment, and I would visit her there.  As I sat with her, she would tell me about what worried her, and her hopes for other people’s futures.  But she always spoke with confidence about where she was heading, and that she would one day be reunited with her brothers, Tom and Bill.  Sally knew where she was going.

In the gospel reading we just heard, Jesus tells the disciples that he is leaving them, and not to be afraid because they know the way.  And Thomas speaks up and says, Lord we don’t even know where you’re going.  How can we possibly know the way?  And Jesus tells them, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  The disciples did know the way, just as Sally knew the way.

Sally was amazing with kids, and she walked a lot, and she knew where she was going, because she knew the way.  And as Jesus says to the disciples, do not let your hearts be troubled.  In God’s house there are many dwelling places, and Jesus has come to walk with Sally to the place he has prepared for her, because she knows the way.  May God give us the confidence to know where we are going, and the comfort to remember that we know the Way.

Amen.