Funeral Homily for Dale Hendrix

Dale Hendrix funeral homily July 3, 2019 “Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul; love you neighbor as yourself.” Not surprisingly, this was Dale Hendrix’s favorite scripture. But he would also add a line to it. “‘Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul; love you neighbor as yourself.’ Then everything else will fall into place.” It’s the gospel according to Dale; truly how he lived his life. I don’t need to tell any of you that Dale Hendrix loved well. He loved God, who was “his friend and not a stranger”. He loved Genell, with whom he created a wonderful life and family together for 62 years. He loved his children, his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren. He loved this church, and her people; he loved his friends. When you were loved by Dale, you knew it, not because he was loud or showy about it. He loved you in a quiet sort of way. He cherished you. I suspect every one of his family can easily call to mind a specific time when they felt cherished by Dale. For his grands and great-grands, perhaps it was in the ways that he was always your biggest fan. For his children, perhaps it was in how proud he was of you, how we relished spending time with you, how he loved your spouses as if they were also his children. For Genell, perhaps it was in the millions of small and large things he said and did. Genell told me about the time when she came to work for the company, and on her first day, Dale had put a fire extinguisher by her work station. He told everyone in the office that Genell was “going to set the world on fire!” He cherished you. In his love, he treated you like the rare and precious gift he knew you to be. And that is a rare and exceptional way to love. Dale was a leader who inspired people. He was incredibly successful in business because of his giftedness in leadership, and also because he lived by his word and a handshake. He was honorable, and because of that, people trusted him. I could go on and on—about the little nicknames he gave those he really cherished; about his gracious hospitality-- when I would visit Dale and Genell in their home, he always wanted to get me a drink (or often another drink) or walk me to my car; his humor, his deep joy for life. He was a wonderful man, and his loss to all of us is most grievous. We will miss him terribly. Today, even as we remember Dale, as we give thanks to God for his life and his love among us, as we mourn his loss in this life, we remember the hope of our faith, the “everything else will fall into place” part of Dale’s own faith. That is that through Jesus’s death and resurrection, God has shown that death is not the end but a change; that when our mortal body lies in death, there is a dwelling place prepared for us in God’s kingdom; that through Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, God has shown, once and for all that God’s love is stronger than absolutely anything….even death. So even as we mourn, today we give thanks. We give thanks to God for Dale. And we give thanks that we will, someday, all feast together again at God’s table. In the meantime, “‘Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul; love you neighbor as yourself.’ Then everything else will fall into place.”