We gather today to commend our departed friend and brother Stu Phillips to the keeping of almighty God, to give thanks for the blessing of his life, and to pray for his family and those closest to him and for all who mourn. Fr. Stu was a faithful priest of the Church, but before that he was an accomplished musician and artist, who managed to combine in himself both vocations. Our prayers are with his family who have lost a husband and a father.
Today I give thanks for his leadership as a priest in at least five congregations of the Diocese of Tennessee, in a ministry that stretched over many decades of service in our diocese. In the New Testament, St. Paul often begins his letters with an expression of thanks for the ministry of the people and churches he’s addressing. “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world” (Rom. 1:8), St. Paul writes in Romans. “I thank my God every time I remember you… because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1:3,5), he says in the letter to the Philippians. Here and elsewhere, St. Paul is giving thanks for the ministry of these congregations, and for the abundant blessings of God that have been showered upon them. Those blessings have been manifested in works of ministry and leadership, and Paul is eager to give thanks to God for them.
Sharing the gospel, the “good news” of Jesus’ death and resurrection, is a privilege, that blesses the bearer as well as those who hear it. No one takes up the work on his own, but receives it as a commission from the Lord through the hands of others. It’s not “our ministry” but work that we’ve been called to. The work is not a burden but it does demand our best. God gives us the grace that we need to stretch ourselves and to be stretched in turn. We hear the call and we step onto the stage of gospel ministry.
It’s right for us to give thanks for Fr. Stu’s ministry because of the blessings that have been manifested in it. It took patience and persistence to pursue a theological education in the midst of a vocation as a musician. Once ordained, there were challenging times in the congregations that he served, that required the same gifts of patience and persistence. In my time, I can testify to his good judgment and wise counsel in at least one difficult situation in a congregation: a great gift to a relatively new bishop! So, I give thanks for his ministry, and the blessing he has been to our diocese.
Today, on this occasion, we connect these threads of a ministry that has been accomplished, with the gospel hope of new and unending life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What God has done in raising Jesus Christ from the dead is the mainspring of all ministry. Jesus says in our Gospel today, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live” (Jo. 11:25). That’s the hope, straight from the Source of all hope.
With God, nothing is ever lost: no work of love, no act of service, no tie that binds us together. These things are not the ground of our hope, which is in Christ, but they are the threads that are caught up and brought together in our redemption. No sheep is lost, no coin goes missing; the prodigal is always found.
Jesus is the ground of our hope, for eternal life with God, and the resurrection of the dead. He is the resurrection and the life. May God give us renewed hope today as we mourn for Stu Phillips, join in prayer for him and his family, and give thanks to God for the blessing of his ministry.