Funeral Manuscript for Monica Gray, March 17, 2019

Order of Service – Funeral for Monica Gray 3/17/19
Prelude:  

Procession: 
All please rise.

Call to Worship:
O God, who brought us to birth,
and in whose arms we die,
in our grief and shock
contain and comfort us;
embrace us with your love,
give us hope in our confusion
and the grace to let go into new life;
through Jesus who is the Christ.  Amen 

Please be seated.

Greeting:
A loved one is a treasure of the heart and losing a loved one is like losing a piece of yourself, but the love that Monica brought each of you did not leave, for the essence of her soul still lingers.  It cannot escape your hearts, for it has been there forever. Cling to the memories and let them find their way to heal you. The love and laughter, the joy in the togetherness you shared, will make you strong. You will come to realize that your time together, no matter how long, was meant to be and you were blessed to have the precious gift of her love in your lives. Keep your hearts beating with the loving memories and trust in your faith to guide you through. Know that though life moves on... the beauty of love stays behind to embrace you. Your loved one... Monica has left you that love... her love, to hold in your hearts forever. 

Today, we have come together within the strengthening fellowship of friends and family:
to praise God for the life of Monica Joan Gray ;
to share our grief with God and with one another;
to reaffirm our faith in God's unfailing goodness;
to hear again God's promise of resurrection;
and to commend Monica to God's everlasting care.


Opening Prayer:
God who creates and re-creates us, God who laughs with us and weeps with us, God who walks with us each step of the way, carrying us when our strength fails, we gather today with hearts breaking with grief, with voices crying out words of lament. And so we ask that you would move in and around us today. As we gather to remember and say goodbye to Monica, be the shoulder we can cry on, the arm we can lean on, help us to see through the veil of tears that there is hope for life continuing. Gracious God, as mysterious and wondrous as you are, you are also a compassionate God, as attentive as a hen with her chicks, as tender as a mother with a newborn child, as watchful as a shepherd with the sheep, as protective as a father’s warm embrace. and so we come into your presence to grieve Monica's death,
asking that your Holy Spirit would be here to ease our pain. As we give thanks for all that she added to the lives of those around her, as we release our tears and sorrow, as we say our good-byes, remind us that we are not alone, for You are with us...  In Jesus’ all-gracious and all-loving name we pray, Amen. 

Music:  Memory – from Cats

Reading from the Old Testament:
Psalm 23  King James Version (KJV)
23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Reading from the New Testament:
2 Corinthians 4:16-5:9  New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
4:16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18 because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling— 3 if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

Music:  We've Only Just Begun - Carpenters

Message:  Pastor Roy Karlen – Woodlawn Christian Church
Monica Joan Gray, age 74, passed from this world and into the Kingdom of our Lord on Tuesday, March 12, 2019.  Monica was born on November 18, 1944, in Monterey Park, California to Paul and Mona Clinton.  On October 16, 1970, she married Robert Gray in Baldwin Park, CA. After their marriage, Bob and Monica lived in Temple City, California before moving here to Lake City in 1983. Bob had grandparents here and thus he had a fondness for Lake City, they moved here the day before Mother's Day as a surprise for his mother.

Monica and Bob loved Lake City, though for the first few years Monica did grumble a fair bit about the winters.  In July of last year, Monica was moved into the Shady Oaks Care Center where she lived until her passing.  When Monica moved to Shady Oaks, Bob was surprised to see that Verda Miller was living there, Verda had help tutor Monica for several years.

Monica collected bells and stuffed animals.  Stuffed animals of all sizes, she had so many in fact that one of the bedrooms in their home was dedicated to and filled with stuffed animals.  She had well over 1,000 stuffed animals, beanie babies, and all sorts.  Bob told me that her favorite animals among them all were her 'Kissing Bears'.  In addition to her own collections, Monica enjoyed watching Bob fly his radio-controlled planes which he does regularly with a group up in Rockwell City.

Bob and Monica also had a number of dogs during their marriage.  They loved their dogs and had a total of nine.  But perhaps their first dog was the most memorable, a Labrador and Great Dane cross.  A very large dog for such a small lady to deal with.  Bob remembered Monica having to deal with the dog's wagging tail smacking her around.

Bob told me that Monica was always a loving wife, she seldom had a temper, and she was always there for him.  He said that she was a 'studious' housekeeper, always cleaning.  She was always working with family photos, putting them into albums.  Bob said he will always remember her standing beside her roll-top desk fussing with the photos of all their outings and life events.

In 2016 Monica lost most of her voice and was barely able to speak afterward.  Still, she would visit on the phone with her sister Sherry, at least once every day.  For many years Sherry and Monica would read the Bible together over the phone.  Monica always enjoyed doing this with Sherry until Monica suffered her stroke last summer, the stroke ended this activity, unfortunately.  Sherry and Monica were always very close and Bob said years ago when you had long distant calling charges... he used to have to remind her to watch the length of the calls, after the advent of unlimited calling with cell phones he told her to talk all she wanted.

Monica's family had always been very religious and the Bible and obedience to Christ has always been very important to Monica.  Bob was a member of the Masons and Monica was active for many years with both the Eastern Star and White Shrine. Monica, I am told never cussed, drank, or caroused, she was always a very straight-laced lady.

I asked Bob how they had met out in California and he told me that it was through Monica's brother who used to drag race.  Bob also drove a dragster, a 1964 Plymouth.  Bob met Monica when he went over to their house to visit her brother.  After dating a couple of months, Bob asked Monica to marry him and she agreed and thus it all began.  Interestingly, Bob felt that Monica was literally heaven sent as he had been praying to meet someone and then along came Monica.  They had a common interest in drag racing and later with motorcycles, When they still lived in California, Monica rode with him a lot and Bob rattled off a string of different bikes that they'd had through the years.  For the sake of time... and because he can tell those stories so much better than I can relate them... I'll just leave it up to you all to ask Bob to tell these stories.

One of the memories that Bob also shared was about Monica's father Paul.  Paul had a boat and the family went every year to the Colorado River to fish.  Monica and her sisters would help with the cooking and such.  Among all the photos that Monica treasured were photos of these outings.

Bob also mentioned how Monica loved to dress up and how she kept all her dresses for many many years, long after some of them no longer would fit.  She had all her dresses from the formals put on by the Eastern Star and White Shrine.

Monica's family had attended a Baptist Church and she was baptized as a teen.  Bob was himself baptized after they were married at a Baptist Church in Baldwin Park, California.  Though they were not regular churchgoers, both Monica and Bob have always felt a strong religious conviction and tried to live out that conviction.

On Tuesday, March 12, 2019, Monica Joan Gray, passed quietly from this fallen world and into the glorious Kingdom of God, she is survived by her husband Robert, brothers Allan, Ray and Gary Clinton and sisters Sherry Taylor and Susan Danne.  Her family loved her and will miss her so, so very much...

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
13 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly,[b] but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Today we gather to celebrate the life of and mourn the passing of  Monica.  Though each of her family, friends and loved ones here today feel the heavy weight of sorrow in their hearts... each of us is at the same time filled with an overwhelming sense of joy and celebration for Monica's entry into Heaven, reborn anew in the Kingdom of the Lord she loved.  Praise be to God!

1 Corinthians 15:51-58  New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
51 Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?     Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Music:  Close To You - Carpenters

Closing Prayer:
Let us pray:
O God, our Strength, and our Redeemer, Giver of life, and Conqueror of death, we open our hearts to you just as we are.  We celebrate your gift of life freely given but are grieved by a sense of loss in the face of death.  The love which binds us to one another leaves us aching as ties are broken.  Accept our tears as emblems of devotion, and transform them into waters of life to nourish us in the days ahead.
We trust you.  We love you.  We know in Christ that your love is everlasting.  Nothing can separate any of us from your abiding care.  With you is eternal life.
With confidence, we now entrust Monica to your unfailing love and overflowing goodness.  Through the power that raised Christ from the dead to live eternally with you, lift up this, your servant, to life fulfilled beyond our imagining.  We give you but your own, enfold her in your everlasting arms, hold her for she is your child.
Now strengthen us, through the gift of your Spirit, to face into the future with confidence that you stand with us.  Grant that the changes of life may leave us stronger as we journey through life.
Reassured of your abiding presence, help us to knit more firmly the ties that bind us one to another.  Renewed by your love, help us to love in ever larger circles so as to embrace your people everywhere till at last we are all united eternally through Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Benediction:

Postlude: