Funeral Homily for Mark Case

Funeral Homily_Mark Case

November 7, 2020

        Mark Case is one of the reasons I am here, in this church, in Savannah, Georgia.  Mark worked on the Search Committee that called me, and my first memory of Mark was the golf cart tour of Isle of Hope that he and the search committee organized when I came to visit.  We were spread out on two golf carts.  Mark was driving the cart I was in, and he had me riding shotgun.  We started off through Isle of Hope with the other cart behind us and Mark confessed that he was so excited to be giving me the tour, and that he had printed off a whole sheaf of notes about the history of Isle of Hope.  As he drove, he shuffled through his many pages feeding me historical tidbits.  This ended abruptly, however, when much to the alarm of the people on our cart’s back seat, the cart behind us bumped into us when we were stopped for Mark to point out something of historical significance to me.  I’ll always be grateful for his work in that group that helped us all hear the Holy Spirit’s call in our lives during that season of transition.

Mark Case was an exceptional man.  He was a loving son, a faithful husband, a proud dad.  He was a gifted educator, a passionate mentor, a steady coach.  He was a solid, cheerful friend, a member of this church who was steadfast in his faith while also being curious to continue to grow more and to seek deeper. 

        In all that he was truly exceptional.  And yet there was something else about him that bears mentioning.  When the Holy Spirit was doling out spiritual gifts (like the list mentioned in our Romans reading for today), Mark was one of only a handful of people I know who was given the spiritual gift of exhortation.

        Exhortation—it’s an old-timey kind of word, and yet it fits.  Because I bet every one of us can think of a time when Mark Case saw something better in us than we had ever seen or known about ourselves, and he, through his words or actions, encouraged us, invited us to live into, to grow into that better version of ourselves.  I know he did that for me—all the time, and he definitely did that for this church.

        The spiritual gift of exhortation like Mark had is so rare because it isn’t just a cheerful optimism; exhortation is fed by a deep, deep well of hope.  Mark was a hope-bearer; he would dip his bucket down into that deep spring of hope in his soul that had as its source his relationship with God.  And he would draw out the water of hope for us and share with us little sips of its cool refreshment.

        He gazed at us with eyes of hope, and he encouraged us to grow into that hopeful vision.  He shared his gift freely, abundantly, and he made this world a better place with each individual life he helped shape in and through that hope. So many people have been changed by Mark’s love, by his hope.

        We gather today to give thanks for Mark’s life even as we mourn the loss of his bright soul in this world and in our lives.  And we gather today to remember the source of our hope:  that death is not the end but a change; that Christ Jesus, who is Mark’s friend and not a stranger, has gone before Mark through death into resurrection, and that before all is said and done, we will all feast together again at God’s heavenly table.

        In the meantime, as a testament to Mark’s life and witness, to the ways that he helped us all be better versions of ourselves, let us try to look at the world through Mark’s vision of hope and offer that loving vision to others.