Beautiful Life
God has made everything beautiful in its time.
Today I had the opportunity to preach the eulogy at my uncle’s funeral. It was one of those honors that you receive but never really ask for. Funerals are challenging for me, and I hate death and have become accustomed to loss in some of the most tragic ways imaginable. Though when my mother asked me to preach the message for her brother’s funeral, there was no way I could deny her. So I prepared, and I preached.
I spoke about the beauty we find in life and wanted to share my message with you all. So, I’ve decided to post the full text of my message below. I will post it in the same format I delivered without much editing. I don’t always edit my sermons for grammar, so often, they don’t read how it is delivered audibly. If you don’t know my family, then you won’t get every reference, but you will get a picture of a family that is on a journey to see the beauty in life. I hope that you are encouraged, comforted, and strengthened.
Please see the entire message below:
Sermon/Eulogy: Beautiful in Life
Occasion: Uncle Junior’s Funeral
Date: 01/14/2023
Passage Ecclesiastes 3:9-13
Outline:
My Grandfather, Mervin McGrew Brown, Sr. had one word to describe the things in life that brought him joy, and that word was beautiful. When family would gather together it was beautiful. When one of his grandchildren excelled at something it was beautiful. When he saw something that amazed him, and took his breat awy, it was beautiful.
Over the years I have seen my aunts, uncles, and cousins adopt that same word to describe moments in life. Whether at a wedding, celebrating as a family, or even in death this family has always found a way to see the Beauty in Life. They rally together to love, support, and comfort each other in their time of need. The Brown family is a well known family, if you talk to anyone in this city that went to Arhtur Harold Parker High School anywhere between the 1970s and 1990s they will know at least one Brown. The Brown’s are a people who love hard. They are a family that has been tremendously blessed with the gift of family and the gfit of life. They are truly beautiful.
As we gather here this afternoon to celebrate the life of Mervin McGrew Brown, Jr., best know to his family and friends as Junior, called by me Uncle Junior we gather to remember a beautiful life, from a beautiful family, caught up in a beautiful story.
In Ecclesiastes 3: 9-13 Solomon the writer of this book says, “9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.”
Beautiful Life: “He has made everything beautiful in its time…” Solomon is wrestling with the meaning of life, just like many of us have and will. He is questioning if life has value or if life is vain. He comes to the revelation that life is a gift given by God to be enjoyed and embraced. God has given each of us a purpose, Solomon calls it a “God-given task” this task occupies much of our attention and time. Those tasks include working a job, learning a skill, raising a family, loving a spouse, building friendships… Things that seem so mundane, and yet God has place beauty in the regular rhythms of life.
Now when you here me say beautiful life, don’t mistake that for perfect life. Life is far from perfect. Life is messy. Life can be both beautiful and broken. We experience immense joy and deep pain. We often have unanswered questions and unexplainable experiences. But God has made everything beautiful in its time.
As Black Americans, we have a legacy of finding the beauty in life even in the midst of brokeness. We are a people whose hope has been refined in the fire. A people who choose to love, believing that they were loved by God. A people who gave when they didn’t have much to give. People who cooked for the entire neighborhood and always had an open seat at the table to feed those in need, or those passing through. People who took seriously Hebrews 13:1-2 which says,, “Let brotherly love continue. 2 Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.” A people who sacrificed and fought for their children to enjoy a life that they could have only imagined.
This family stands in that legacy. Always willing to let love continue. Always willing to open up a seat at the table. Always willing to open their lives up to one another. Willing to bare one another burdens. They learned hospitality through a loving Matriarch named Dannie Mae Johnson Brown. Where no matter how many people are coming over for dinner there will always be enough. They learned hard work and dedication through a giving Patriarch named Mervin McGrew Brown, Sr. Teaching lessons about friendship, trust, and how to never leave your drink down, because somebody may put something in it.
Uncle Junior lived into that legacy. Not perfectly, but beautifully. His life had great meaning and worth. It was beautiful. He went to John Herbert Philips High School. A school that around the time Uncle Junior was born Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth shed blood to open up the opportunity for students of Uncle Junior’s generation to attend. My grandfather served this nation in World War II, and my Uncle Junior followed in his footsteps by joining the U.S. Army after high school. They were men continuing a legacy of not being afraid to fight for what they believed in.
Beauty in Family: Solomon goes on to say, “12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.”
These are lessons that I learned from my family. Lessons written in big bold beautiful colors. Lived out on a daily basis. Those lessons are: ENJOY LIFE. GATHER TOGETHER. WORK HARD. SERVE OTHERS. MAKE TIME FOR FAMILY. FORGIVE OFTEN. LAUGH CONSTANTLY. LOVE WHEN IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE. For there is nothing better. This is a true gift from God.
Beauty in God: “He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. (vs.11)
When God created man, He created him in his image and likeness. He breathed into humanity the breath of life. He gave Him a God-given task and purpose, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion…” The breath of life was breathed into men. But at somepoint God’s beautiful creation was corrupted, and things fell into chaos and brokeness. We saw how people turned against one another. How so many evil things entered into the hearts, minds, and imaginations of men. But the longing for God and his eternal work never left our hearts. In a world where we experience suffering, pain, loss, illness, and dissapointment it can be difficult to believe in a good beautiful God. We see life’s brokenness and question if there is true beauty in us, others, and this world.
Beloved while we see a world that is marred by sin we have a God who sent his Son Jesus to restore the beauty in the midst of brokenness. He invites those who are burdened and heavy to find rest for their souls. He tell us that in this world we will have trouble, but to take courage because He has overcome the world. He tells us to let not our hearts be troubled, you believe in God believe also in Me. In my Father’s house there are many manions, and I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you to Myself. He tells us that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through HIm. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”
Jesus, through giving his life invites us to live a life of beauty. Unchained from the nature of sin. Inviting us into comfort and peace. Inviting us into fellowship and love. Inviting the lonely into family. Restoring brokeness and giving us beauty.