Funeral Manuscript for Tammy Green-Magner, March 6, 2019

I have attached below the manuscript from the Funeral that I performed for Tammy Green-Magner.  God's strength, courage, and love to her family and loved ones.

In Christ,
Roy

Order of Service – Tammy Green-Magner, March 6, 2019

Welcome:
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 Tammy 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... Tammy, 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 Tammy Jane Green-Magner ;
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 Tammy to God's everlasting care.


Opening Prayer:
Let us Pray:
Gracious God, your love endures forever.  Your faithfulness is unfailing and all your promises are true.  The movement of your Spirit is evident even in our darkest moments.  Attend to us now in our grief as we trust you will.  Speak words of comfort to our hearts.  Open us up to receive your hope. O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our sister Tammy. We thank you for giving her to us, her family and friends, to know and to love as a companion on our earthly pilgrimage. In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn. Give us faith to see death as the gateway to eternal life, so that in quiet confidence we may continue our course on earth, until by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Let us hear now a 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 for ever.


Let us hear now a reading from the New Testament:
2 Corinthians 4:16 - 5:9  New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
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 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.

Pastoral Prayer:
Let us please pray: God our Father, Your power brings us to birth, Your providence guides our lives, and by Your command we return to dust.  Lord, those who die still live in Your presence, their lives change but do not end. I pray in hope for this family, relatives and friends, and for all the dead known to You alone.  In company with Christ, Who died and Who now lives, may they rejoice in Your kingdom, where all our tears are wiped away. Unite us together again in one family, to sing Your praise forever and ever.  Amen.

Message:  Pastor Roy Karlen – Woodlawn Christian Church

Tammy Jane Green-Magner, age 51, died Friday, March 1, 2019 at Stewart Memorial Community Hospital in Lake City.  Tammy was born on May 17, 1967, in Lake City, Iowa, to Gary and Lavon Green.  She graduated from Lake City High School and on December 21, 1995 Tammy married Robert Magner.

Tammy is survived by her husband Robert, daughter Janie, step-children Bobbie, and Brian, by 6 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild.  She is also survived by her mother Lavon, her brothers Gary Jr, and Terry, her sister Tina and by many nieces and nephews.  She was preceded in death by her father Gary.  Passing from this world at the all too young age of 51, Tammy had been suffering from failing health ever since 2003 and recently had taken a turn for the worse.

When I asked the family to provide me with some thoughts about Tammy they told me that she was a 'People-Pleaser', that she even when she wasn't feeling well always tried to keep everyone happy.  They mentioned her love for cooking, her love for flowers of all types but her special fondness for roses.  She loved birds and would spend hours watching them, she knew when the different species would be coming and she was ready for them.  Her favorite birds were the hummingbirds and Janie talked about the hummingbirds coming and sitting on their shoulders and arms. Tammy loved to be outside at the Lake and loved to be out in the sun just soaking up the sunshine.  

They told me how she enjoyed going to Red Lobster for the lobster and crab but her mother mentioned that Tammy usually ended up ordering the shrimp.  Tammy also enjoyed going to the casinos in Council Bluffs when she was able.  The family mentioned that she enjoyed driving and seeing the scenery and they told of taking her out to Wyoming and the Black Hills back in 2010 which was after her health had already started to decline.

In this world, we are saddled with imperfect bodies, bodies that age, become ill, and all too soon deteriorate and begin to fail us.  None of us escapes this decline but for some of us these bodies wear out so much sooner than for others.  Our bodies just like everything in this world of ours are temporary, our time in them and our time here in this world is limited and fleeting.  In his letters to the Church in Corinth the Apostle Paul talks about these bodies, and compares them to the resurrected bodies that we are promised through the teachings of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15: 35-44
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Today we know that Tammy no longer suffers from illness nor infirmity, she is no longer in an earthly body but now resides in a spiritual body... a perfect, immortal body.  Together we celebrate this new life and we lift up the life that Tammy lived here and all that she meant to her family and friends. Praise God for the promises of Christ and the gifts God gives us through our lives with our family and friends. Though today we celebrate Tammy's life, and all that she meant to each of you, we must also be honest and acknowledge that we do indeed mourn and mourn deeply her passing from our lives.

When you lose someone you love, your life becomes strange, the ground beneath you becomes fragile.  Your heart has grown heavy with loss; and though this loss has wounded others too... no one knows what has been taken from you when the silence of absence deepens.

Flickers of guilt kindle regret for all that was left unsaid or undone.  There will be days when you wake up happy once again and inside feel the fullness of life... until that moment breaks and you will be thrown back into the black waves of loss.  Days when you will have your heart back, and you are able to function well... when suddenly with no warning, you become ambushed by grief.  It becomes hard to trust yourself, and all you can depend on is that sorrow will remain faithful to itself.  More than you, it knows its way and will find the right time to pull back the curtain of grief.  And when the work of grief is done, the wound of loss will heal and you will have learned to wean your mind from that gap in your heart and be able to enter that deep place in your soul where your loved one has awaited your return all along.

Though all of you gathered today shall miss Tammy, you should all rest assured that this is only a temporary parting and that you'll each get to see Tammy's smile once again when you are reunited in Heaven.  Praise be to God.  Today Tammy is reunited with all of her friends and family that have gone on before her, and today she is in the very presence of our almighty and all loving God... Praise be to God indeed...

Music:  Willie Nelson – Bring Me Sunshine

Closing Prayer:
The family invites you to spend time together in fellowship and remembrance by joining with them after the ceremony at the graveside for a luncheon in the Fellowship Hall at Woodlawn Christian Church.  For those that do not wish to travel to the Cottonwood Cemetery for the interment you may go directly to the Church and wait for us there.  Please however wait for the family to arrive at the Church before you begin the luncheon, we will have say 'Grace' before the meal once the family has all arrived at Woodlawn.

Let us pray:
God of life, and light, and hope... with Your whole Church in heaven... and on earth... we bring to You our thanks, we offer to You our praise... for all that You have done for humankind through Jesus who is the Christ.   You sent Him, Your Son... to live and die for us. You showed Your plan for the world and proved that Your love has no limit, and on that first Easter when You raised Jesus from the dead You promised that all humankind might share His resurrection life. For the hope of our faith, for the good news of Your Kingdom, and for all those whom You have welcomed into Your loving presence, we thank You, gracious God... But especially now, we thank You for the life of Tammy whom we loved. 

We thank You for all the ways in which Tammy became special and precious to each of us who knew her; for the values and standards she set by her example and her life; for her sense of what was good and right and decent; for her warmth and humor and sense of family; for every life that she enriched and all that she invested of herself in our lives; for the faith by which she lived and in which she died. 

We thank you for the glorious treasury of memories that are ours to keep, to hold on to and to enjoy – the moments that were deep, special and personal, the times that rang with laughter and fun, and for the ordinary days when affection and love, trust and respect, grew and were deepened. We thank you for the courage shown, and for a life fulfilled, and for all that Tammy reflected of Your goodness and love. And now though we mourn... we also are glad... for we celebrate today that Tammy has found peace and will neither suffer nor mourn again... she has laid her burden down before You and is with You... safe, happy, whole, and welcomed by those for whom she once mourned. Help us to hold on to what we should... and to let go of what we must. Help us not to cling to the past constantly brooding for what might have been, but rather to take forward what she gave us for the rest of our lifes’ journey. Help us to trust and to know that Tammy will never be far from us till that day when we all stand together in Your presence. 

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 Tammy to Your unfailing love and overflowing goodness.  Through the power that raised Christ from the dead to live eternally with You, lift her up 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:

Music:  Dancing In The Sky – Danni & Lizzy


Committal Service
Selfishly, we as mortals wish to hold on to Tammy. It brings great pain to let her go. Living in the resurrection hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the trust of a loving God and in the promise of eternal life, we now commit her body to its place of rest. We will continue to mourn Tammy, but now her smile and laughter will warm the kingdom of God. We will continue to love Tammy, but God will now take care of her. We will continue to carry Tammy in our thoughts, but she will be kept safe in God's hands. Receive her in the arms of your mercy, O God, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of all your saints.

Let us hear now these words taken from the 14th Chapter of the Gospel of John
Hear these words from Jesus:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places.
If it were not so, Would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, So that where I am, there you may be also.
And you know the way to the place where I am going.
I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me, But you will see me;  Because I live, you also will live.
I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in my name, Will teach you everything, And remind you of all that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
I do not give to you as the world gives. 
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”  (John 14:1–4, 18–19, 25–27)

Believing in the Resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, we now entrust Tammy to the care of Almighty God and we ask Our Father to open the doors to his mansion and lead Tammy to the room made ready just for her. As we now commit her body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we commend her spirit to its new home. Rest eternal grant her, and let light perpetual shine upon her.

God has blessed and enriched our lives in giving us Tammy to know and love here on this earth. Though our time together was not nearly enough, in committing her body to the earth, we give over to God the care of her spirit, and we acknowledge that we will one day reunite with her in God's Kingdom. The Lord bless her and keep her; the Lord make his face shine upon her and be gracious to her; the Lord look upon her with favor and give her peace.

Let us now pray together the prayer that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ taught us to pray... Our Father...

This concludes our graveside service.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may His strong arms encircle you and uphold you in your hour of grief.  God's peace and strength to you all.  Amen