Many of us in the church today knew Lana well, and for many years. Sarah has spoken eloquently about her mother. And all of us will have stories to tell at the reception. The many pictures of Lana and the beautifully appointed tables and abundant hospitality at the reception will prompt stories from all of us and crown our celebration of Lana's life with a feast.

So the point of the homily at times like this is to direct our gaze to where God is in all of this; to weave the lessons that have been read this morning with the life we have observed over all these years. It is important to know that Lana, like any good teacher, had a lesson plan prepared even fro this day. This burial rite is the end results of conversations she and I had over several months. Lana planned her own funeral. This is not a morbid act but a gift of grace to her family. Nor was planning her own funeral a means of exerting inappropriate control- it is rather a statement of faith given to all of us.

When the horizon between this life and the next began to be a clearer reality Lana asked to join Satin James Church. She wanted to buried from the church in which she had shared so many chapels with students throughout the years. The sacred places she had inhabited with beloved colleagues, month after month, year after year. She and I went through the catechism.

See, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? (Job 36.22)

Isaiah 50.4:
The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher,*
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens-
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.

Ecclesiasticus 34.9:
An educated* person knows many things,
and one with much experience knows what he is talking about.

Mark 10.17:
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, 'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'

John 13.13:
You call me Teacher and Lord-and you are right, for that is what I am.