Funeral Homily for Tina Norris

Funeral homily-Tina Norris September 7, 2018 If there is one single word that keeps coming up as people reflect on the wonderful gifts that Tina Norris had, then if would be “an angel.” An Historic Savannah Newsletter article from July/August of 1983 that was written about Tina as one of the tour guides for the Historic Savannah Foundation begins: “Mrs. Jack Norris-Tina-is one of those perfect sort of guides: knowledgeable, kind, friendly, and understanding-‘an angel’ says one of her colleagues.” And the article concludes with “…we are sure that Tina’s tour recipients hope that Tina will continue tour guiding for at least ten more years. Heaven surely must be missing an angel!” And even before that, Tina was nominated for the Wings in Heaven Award through Woman of the Year in Atlanta. Her family shared with me the delightful nominating form that reads “Why I consider the Candidate worthy of [the] Award: Because she is always pleasant. Because she has a ‘voice with a smile, and a suggestion of daffodils in the springtime.’ Because she is efficient without annoying anyone with her efficiency. Because we need more people like her.” She was an angel. But here’s the thing about angels. We often only think about angels as celestial beings who hang out with God. But the very word angelos is actually a job description. Angel means messenger. Angels are messengers of God. They tell people of God’s favor. They remind people, over and over again, to not be afraid of the work that God is doing in the world. Tina lived her life fully rooted in God’s love, and she loved well. She loved her family. She loved her friends. She loved her church. She loved Savannah. She loved sitting on her screened porch and drinking wine (she loved wine!) with her family and friends. In those ways, Tina was an angel, because she was a messenger to us of God’s love and of how to live this lovely life fully, with joy, delight, and kindness. We are so thankful for her presence in all of our lives. And we will miss her loving, light-filled presence in our lives most dearly. We gather today to mourn her loss, to celebrate her life, and to remind one another that even now, Tina is at home with the God that she loved, and she is feasting at God’s heavenly banquet. (I do hope God got the memo because apparently Tina, as a long-time caterer, had very strong opinions about how cucumber sandwiches should be made…) And we gather today to remember the hope of our faith: that death is not the end but a change; that our Lord Jesus Christ has gone before us, showed us the way to our eternal dwelling place in God’s kingdom, a kingdom where there is no sorrow nor sighing but only life everlasting. We remember that God has shown us, through Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, that God’s love is stronger than absolutely anything-even death. And we give thanks. We give thanks to God for the gift of Tina and for the message that she lived of God’s love for her and for each and every one of us. We will miss her; and we will see her again. (Close with the 2nd collect.)