Sermon for Carol Lou Flowers’ Celebration of Life - John 14:1-7

When Carol Lou and Rocky’s daddy was the rector here, he began each sermon with three jokes. I think he did it to warm up the crowd. But it was also to help people trust the preacher, so that they would go where he wanted to take them, which was to the heart of the Gospel. Today feels like a good day to give that method a try, in honor of the Womble family. I don’t have three jokes exactly, but I do have funny stories. It was actually kind of difficult to narrow it down. But obviously the first thing we have to talk about is the snow tubing.

Of all the stories, this one was noteworthy enough to be included in the obituary. For her 80th birthday, Carol Lou decided to go snow tubing for the first time. She took her family to Kansas City, where, in their words, “she quickly became the life of the party on the mountain and endeared herself to members of the ski patrol who enthusiastically cheered her on.” That would be awesome enough, but the best detail is found in a video of the event. As they’re headed down the mountain, you can hear Carol Lou exclaim, “I am not a fuddy duddy!” Indeed, she was not and she proved it.

After snow tubing, the next thing to mention is her love of mischief. You could count on Carol Lou to wear blinking lights or reindeer antlers in the office this time of year. She was a consummate jokester who always wanted to make people laugh. One of the best staff stories is about the time she and our organist Steve Bullock went looking for a new mattress for Steve. Instead of mentioning that they were co-workers, Carol Lou spontaneously volunteered that they were a married couple testing out mattresses together. It must have been confusing to the poor sales associate as to why they were in hysterics in the store. But hands down, the greatest story about Carol Lou’s love of mischief is from her younger rebellious years. She knew how to push her daddy’s buttons. One day she marched right up to him and declared, “I don’t believe in Jesus!” And she took off running, fast.

My third offering this morning has to do with nicknames, those she gave and those she received. She went by several, including Marcia. A member of the downtown AA group would come through the office to get the key to the meeting room in the basement. She would greet him warmly and call him John, which was not his name. I thought she was being sensitive to the anonymous part of AA, but it turns out she just couldn’t remember his name so she made one up. And he played along, calling her Marcia for years. She had that effect on people. I’ve lost count of all the men she referred to as her boyfriend. I’m sorry if any of you here thought that you were the only one. She did give one special nickname to Larry when he was elected bishop. She started calling him Holy Father. She was the only person in the world who could get away with that. I trust that he knows what a term of endearment that was. And, of course, the most important nickname Carol Lou went by was the one her family used, which was Honey. There’s nothing fuddy duddy about that one. She cherished that name the most.

Since we are following the Rufus Womble method of preaching, you’ll note that I’ve tried to warm up the crowd with three funnies, snow tubing, mischief, and nicknames. And now it’s time to take you where we need to go, to the heart of the Gospel. When we lose a loved one, that’s when we need to hear the good news the most. On this day, we can take Jesus at his word. In John’s Gospel, Jesus promises that he had already prepared a place just for Carol Lou, and has taken her there. Of course, she already knew the way there because she loved Jesus. She was only messing with her daddy. We can trust that she is now at home in heaven. To her list of many nicknames, today we add one more: she is Christ’s own.

I imagine she is catching up and laughing with her parents and so many loved ones in heaven. Including Bettylee Green, with whom she worked for decades. The thing they most had in common was an impressive stubbornness about not wanting to ever retire from Christ Church. Which brings me to my final word this morning for Carol Lou’s wonderful family. We know that she worked all the time, which can be frustrating for a family. And we know that she loved this place dearly. She watched over every penny and over every one of us, and her ministry changed this place for the better in more ways than we can count. She showed us the love of Jesus all the time around here. We thank you for sharing her with us for so many years. We offer our deepest thanks for the life of our Carol Lou, your Honey, and Christ’s own forever.