Other have spoken fine words abut Betty, and they have done so from the vantage point of knowing her as kin or with a deep understanding of Betty's place in the pantheon of those who go out on horseback. You all know those stories frontward and backwards. What you did not read in the press, you heard in the stable. The stories and traditions are important to you, and you understand the effort that goes into achieving the stature and success that Betty enjoyed.

So let me speak instead of the value you might find in the other stories we have heard this morning. Let me invite you to a closer look at another tradition - one large enough and old enough to include horse and riders, prophets and Kings.

The words of the Old Testament are thousands of years old but still worthy of our hearing. Why? Because they give assurance that there is more going on than just this life. The Psalm makes clear that our help, in this life and the next, comes from God. Whether we are strong, good-looking, wealthy or wise, the root of our outward flourishing is in the Spirit that God breathed into us in the beginning.

It is that understanding that enables Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians to claim that we do not need to be disheartened when our bodies begin to fail and our strength departs. The bulk of our existence is yet to come, Paul claims. This life, as engaging as it seems, is prelude to something more glorious than we can even imagine. That is why Paul states his desire to please God and to thereby grow ever closer to God. For those who pursue this path, Paul says, death need be no more trouble than changing one's clothes. And, if the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a heavenly Banquet, wouldn't we want to show up dressed for dinner?

Can we really hear Paul's words? Do we realize what freedom is within them? The deepest fears most people have are centered in two categories: the fear of oblivion, and the guilt we carry over things done and left undone. Consciously, or unconsciously, we spend huge amounts of energy trying to ignore, obscure or bury these fears. Some of us drink, others drive too fast, jump too high, or live too hard - but none of these actually work. I know this for a fact... and so do you. So, is there no hope, is there no way other than the dead ends to which I just pointed?

Yes, there is! It's a question of training. If a horse like Fort Devon, whom Betty called "mean as a snake," could go on to become the 1977 winner of the Hunt Cup - and also bow, shake hands and state his age by tapping his hoof - can't we, with some instruction, at least learn to bow to God and shake hands with faith?

If Betty could, as a daily discipline, stand on the rim of a water bucket to strengthen her thighs, couldn't the rest of us fall on our knees, daily, to strengthen our souls?

I commend the traditions and disciplines many of you follow that strengthen your bodies and bring order out of chaos in horses that once were nasty, dangerous or wild. It is thrilling to watch a well-trained and beautiful animal soar weightlessly through the air. Such poetry in motion brings credit to the horse and to the trainer.

I noted with interest in the brochure about Betty that a trainer is said to have "made" a horse. Think what pleasure God - the maker of Heaven and Earth - must get when we internalize instruction and are able to soar in this life, leaving fear and gravity behind. Imagine how it would feel to leap over the fear of death, to leave the weight of earlier mistakes behind. There is a way.

There is no jump higher, but more satisfying to clear, than the leap of faith. There is no hunt more exhilarating than the search for God. We are promised that if we look we will find. That message is in the Gospel we heard today. The Way is a person, not a road. The truth was born in the straw. The life that never end begins when God prepares a place. But we can't see it, or ride there under our own wisdom. We need a trainer. You are sitting in the place where that training takes place week after week. In a few minutes we will walk out to bury Betty's remains. It is a good tradition to honor her life with a burial from the Church. There is a place for Betty in the graveyard. And there is a place for you in this Church. Christ the trainer welcomes all horses. Come and see what He can do.
AMEN