Homily Celebration of Life of Steve Austin 1956-2014, Christ Church Bobcaygeon

This service is a celebration of the life of Steve Austin. You’ve heard the family’s memories of a man who was a respected and well liked husband, father, brother, worker, sportsman, outdoorsman.

We celebrate that life, which is full of good memories, as we mourn the earthly end of that life.

As Christians we believe death is not the end. We don’t know, and can’t describe what eternal life looks like, we confidently profess our faith that Steve is now in a place where is no more pain, no more dying, no more tears.

The reading from first Peter and the Beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel give us a way to understand death in a different light. It is part of the circle of life, death and resurrection that we celebrate each year on Holy Week, the week we begin today.

God cares so much for humanity that he came among us, only to be rejected and condemned to death, a death we know he freely accepted for our sake.
The empty tomb on Easter morning is a testament to the power of God to raise his Son to eternal life.

Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus, and when he saw how Lazarus meant to his friends and family.

Jesus weeps with Sheree, Brady, Riley and Joel and the entire Austin family as they morning the death of Steve, much too early in years.

What can be of comfort us in this difficult and challenging loss. I think it is in our memories of Steve, what he would have said, what he would have done, and simply being in his presence. Those memories will always be with us.

I’m sharing this from personal experience having both my parents die in the last decade. There are many times I think of them, and feel their presence in my own life. I miss them but God gives us the gift of memory to help ease the pain of absence of a loved one.

So please join in the rest of this celebration of Steve’s life, and pray for Sheree and the family as they move on in their life journey’s without Steve. One of things which is sometimes difficult after a death , especially of one so young, is that people don’t know what to say.

The best thing is to listen, to be a friend, to extend a helping hand, a warm gesture. Life won’t ever be quite the same without him, but faith calls us to care for each other, to help each other. We are our brother and sister’s keeper---contrary to the individualism which is all too common in our society.