Every life holds joy and accomplishment but also sadness and loss. All of us accumulate both wisdom and wounds as we pass through our time on earth. If you live for over nine decades, as Clinton did, you have a lot of time and interactions in which you can help others, but also many opportunities to hurt others - whether you meant to or not.

Sometimes one pats someone on the back and then forgets all about it- but the other person remembers it for the rest of their life and claims that it set a lasting tone for their success. Many of you may have such stories about Kinks.

Other times one speaks in anger, in judgment, or without much thought, and the other party feels excluded or diminished. Sometimes one is silent, leaving the other to assume what they will. One moves on, thinking the encounter over, but the other goes forward with a limp. There are probably some of these kinds of stories about Kinks, too.

Every life has its glorious deposit given to the common good. Every life has its troubling residue with which others will need to come to terms.

We will be disappointed if we are expecting something different of Clinton's life, or of our own when the end comes. What is needed is some way of pulling back the lens to see a picture bigger than the individual successes or slights, larger than the people and the personalities.

What is needed is a way to celebrate all that was good and to offer everything else up to be redeemed. Christ is that way, that truth, and that life that leads us from what is to what will be.

There is an anthem from the Gospel of John that rings out our hope, even at the grave.
Listen to this stanza-

As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives
And that at the last he will stand upon the earth.
After my awaking, he will raise me up;
And in my body I shall see God.
I myself shall see. And my eyes behold him
who is my friend and not a stranger.

Clinton is at peace -whatever struggles he may have encountered- or caused- they are over for him. For him, redemption is a present reality.

That same possibility exists for us whether we are mourning him, wrestling with difficult memories, or simply stunned.

Kinks has already crossed the swift moving river that is still before us. Christ is in the boat, on this near shore - as teacher, leader and guide. We are invited to travel in the company of others as fellow passengers, not as the master of the vessel. But if we choose to join the expedition we can know with certainty that no matter the storms and waves along the way, we will arrive safely on the other side, in God's good time.

Earlier this week a small group of us committed Clinton's ashes to the ground at Greenmount Cemetery. There is a tradition in the Pitts family that "Crossing the Bar", a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, should be read at such times. And so we stood under a darkened sky, next to raw earth and heard Tennyson's lyrical pronouncement of faith in the face of death.

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.

If we join together the twin streams of wisdom from the Scripture and Tennyson's poem, we will come to see that love is the river that carries us, even 'oer the rapids and the rocks. This love takes us to the throne of God that waits on the other side. We do not earn our passage. It is a gift. All we have to do is get on board. Christ is the vessel that plies the tides and, ultimately, delivers us to our home. Christ comes not as a stranger, but as a friend who loves us. Where Christ is, Clinton now dwells.

The Book of Isaiah describes the freedom that comes when we let Christ lead us into a new way of engaging life and understanding death - the oppressed are freed, the brokenhearted are comforted, prisoners are released and ashes are replaced by garlands; death gives way to life and joy comes in the morning.

Kinks lived a full life. You know many more stories than I do, but I can trace the journey; from the heights of the carillon tower of Christ Church, Baltimore to the top of Mont Blanc, Franc. Kinks leapt from one local spire to another as he moved from St. David's, Roland Park to Trinity, Towson and on to St. James, Monkton. He went from hunting mountain lions near Yellowstone to chasing precedents in the law library in Baltimore. He rode the rails out West though sagebrush and sand-for a little while-but rode horses, served as a master of hounds, and otherwise enjoyed the Hunt for 65 years. Kinks spanned the gambit of employment from cowboy, to bank teller, to lawyer.

Kinks has been described as "a very imposing gentlemen who was friendly and always gracious." He was very active in promoting his profession and helping others find their way in it. Many have commented on his integrity. He was certainly a man of many accomplishments- a partner in a law firm that bore his name, past president of the Baltimore County Bar Association, past Chair of the State Bar's Trust Fund.

Kinks was also a human being. Like all of us- he made mistakes of various sizes and consequences, was unable to resolve some interpersonal conflicts, and may have on occasion been pig-headed, judgmental or abrupt. And yet, God loves Kinks- a sheep of His fold, a lamb of His flock, a sinner of Christ's own redeeming.

Let us celebrate all that was good in the life of our parishioner, father, relative and friend.
Let us celebrate the grace and mercy of God toward Kinks and all of us.
Then let us allow the river and redemption to free us from fear,
to release us from sin, and to carry us all a little closer to the God who loves us.