Eulogy for Tawney Remmel --07/09/2008

Eulogy for Tawney Remmel, Jr.
Psalm 23
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Service at Rucks Funeral Home, Baltimore, MD
Wednesday, 9 July, 2008
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 Tawney Remmel was not a person that you got to know real well. He was quiet and unassuming, and even as his health problems mounted, he did not complain. During worship at St. Mark’s, he used to sit at the back of the sanctuary and just smile. He usually left right after church without attending fellowship time, and he didn’t talk much on his way out the door. But before worship he would play the organ for us, a prelude of several hymns. I think this was his way of speaking, his way of being in communion with the congregation.

Mr. Remmel, as we knew him, once told me how he came to attend our little church, St. Mark’s United Church of Christ. He said he used to walk past the church on his trips through the neighborhood, and he promised himself that one day he would go in. About a year after he began walking past us, he attended worship for the first time, and he kept coming back. When his health began to deteriorate he came less and less often, and by the time of his death we had not seen him for many months. However, he was never far from our thoughts. We lifted him up in prayer every Sunday, and several members expressed sadness that we were no longer able to enjoy his organ playing.

Despite his quiet demeanor, Tawney touched the people around him. He had that little smile that somehow reached out and said, “You are a child of God.” He acted out that love when he would help those less fortunate than him. He would give the shirt off his back if he saw someone in need, and his health problems were less important to him than the wellbeing of others. Even when his body was falling apart he could lift other people up.

I believe Mr. Remmel’s tremendously giving nature stemmed from his deep faith in God. He had I don’t know how many Bibles and devotional books, and he read them all. He expressed his faith quietly, as he did everything, but little things he would say would indicate to me how strong his faith was.

Tawney continued to smile that gentle smile throughout his illnesses, and I always thought that projected great strength. But I think it also expressed his deep faith that his suffering would eventually give way to peaceful embrace in the arms of God. Now that time has come. Now he no longer has to deal with the dialysis, kidney problems, heart problems, and the long list of other illnesses that plagued him. Now, for perhaps the first time in many years, he is truly comfortable. He doesn’t have to smile despite physical discomfort. He can smile and express the true peace he has finally found.

Those of us who are left behind will miss him, and that’s natural. Even as God embraces Tawney, God also embraces his friends and loved ones as we grieve. God holds us close, even as God embraces Tawney in that final embrace. But God also lifts us up with the words of Scripture.

Mr. Remmel embodied the 23rd Psalm. The Lord was truly his shepherd. Even when he walked through the darkest valleys of his illness, he feared no evil; he was comforted by his faith in God. But now that table that God was preparing has been set with a bountiful feast (buttered popcorn and all), and Tawney can dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Let us find comfort in the words of the Psalm, let us find thanksgiving in our memories of Tawney, and let us pray.