Saturday, October 15, 2011

Aunt Jean... Life-lines and Legacies...

   Aunt Jean… logical, hardworking, sensible, practical… winsome, lovely, athletic and calculating… I suppose we all could think of adjectives that would accurately caricature Jean Zirkle at any one point in time along her journey. She girded up the Zirkle’s, arranged the becoming Hague’s, and entreated herself to the Augsburger’s! The last girl of a large clan, Aunt Jean developed a sensitivity and stature that would serve her well over the course of a long commitment to ministry and family…
   81 years and an obituary with a newspaper-limit can muffle off a few accomplishments without ever appreciating the real enduring contributions that a person leaves behind – that Jean left behind. Hers is not an edifice or an endowment, not a bible store or a bike ride – we are her legacy and she was our life-line.
She devoted so much care an attention to our details constantly bugging us about our bills and choices; our friendships and loves; our notions of conservatism and whether or not we were eating well. “You are too skinny”. “You are just trying to get out of work”. “Money doesn’t grow on trees”. “The Bible is not just about Genesis”. She adapted and became for us what we needed when we needed it, saying what she thought regardless of how it might come across.
   Though I have many friends who would grow tired of the stories that were told about war-time, the happy 50’s and so on and so forth. She had a way with her stories, these personal-bits: momma making underwear ‘cause there was no money for it; daddy dying in the factory and leaving us to defend for ourselves; baseball with a stuffed cloth and a stick; imaginations ignorant of boredom; a 25 dollar prize for daring a big-rig bike ride; sisters and brothers fighting over principle; Bible school and Erma; Ministry and Baptists; gossip and gossip that could never dissolve their commitment to the local church; Uncle Ivan’s visits; Mom and Dad, before they grew to love each other; Uncle Richard and the toilet lid; baseball news and church drama somehow proverbial in nature… Stories and stories with big moments and morals…
   These and countless others are the messy-tales told with truisms that have given us all a more attuned perspective to the way things are. After all life is not fair, and whether or not you like your situation you have got to play the hand you are dealt. Her contributions are pent up in her commitments – her commitments to people. No matter how annoying or intolerant or misunderstood, family is family, friends are friends and at some point you learn to love them or risk living without them.
   May God be praised! Here’s to a Christian woman who lived well! May her memory be blessed.

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for your good words... I hope you don't mind I read some of them by way of introduction at the Funeral. They were greatly encouraging to all of us. Miss you lots but thank you for sending your thoughts out!

October 17, 2011 at 8:20 AM
sethhague said...

Thanks, Caleb. I heard really wonderful things about the ceremony... Hope that you and the family are well! Blessings,
seth

October 19, 2011 at 10:48 PM

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The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.


http://www.creeds.net/ancient/nicene.htm

Symbolum Nicaenum A.D. 325

Πιστεύομεν εις ΄ενα Θεον Πατερα παντοκράτορα, πάντων ορατων τε και αοράτων ποιητήν.

Πιστεύομεν εισ ΄ενα κύριον `Ιησουν Χριστον, τον υ΄ιον του θεου, γεννηζέντα εκ του πατρος μονογενη, τουτέστιν εκ της ουσίας του πατρός, θεον εκ θεου αληθινου, γεννηθέντα, ου ποιηθέντα, ΄ομοούσιον τωι πατρί δι οϋ τα πάντα εγένετο, τα τε εν τωι ουρανωι και τα επι της γης τον δι ΄ημας τους ανθρώπους και δα την ΄ημετέραν σωτηρίαν κατελθόντα και σαρκωθέντα και ενανθρωπήσαντα, παθόντα, και αναστάντα τηι τριτηι ΄ημέραι, και ανελθοντα εις τους οθρανούς, και ερχόμενον κριναι ζωντασ και νεκρούς.

Και εις το ΄Αγιον Πνευμα.
Τους δε λέγοντας, ΄οτι ΄ην ποτε ΄ότε οθκ ΄ην, και πριν γεννηθηναι ουκ ΄ην, και ΄οτι εξ ΄ετερας ΄υποστάσεως η ουσιας φάσκοντας ειναι, [η κτιστόν,] τρεπτον η αλλοιωτον τον υ΄ιον του θεου, [τούτους] αναθεματίζει ΄η καθολικη [και αποστολικη] εκκλησία.

Martin Luther - 16th century

"O Lord, we are not worthy to have a glimpse of heaven, and unable with works to redeem ourselves from sin, death, the devil, and hell. For this we rejoice, praise and thank you, O God, that without price and out of pure grace you have granted us this boundless blessing in your dear Son through whom you take sin, death, and hell from us, and give to us all that belongs to him."