This homily was preached at the Burial Service for Howard Wyatt Gardner (June 28, 1930 – January 8, 2025) on July 19, 2025 by Fr. Daniel London at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA.
Readings for the Burial Service
- Lamentations 3:22-26; 31-33
- Psalm 27
- Romans 8:14-19, 34-35, 37-39
- John 11:21-27
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, O Lord.
We gather this morning to celebrate and give thanks for Howard’s life, a life of loving devotion to his wife and family, a life of faithful service to his country and his county, and a life of steadfast commitment to his church and his God. I personally experienced Howard as the epitome and paragon of a churchman, a word that we don’t use so much anymore because of its gendered connotation and because the idea has mostly been lost to us. A churchman is someone who cares deeply for the church, who attends faithfully, who volunteers regularly, who gives financially, and who takes a role in the leadership and councils of the church; and Howard did all that. A vital aspect of a church’s health is not only having healthy leaders but having healthy members; and Howard made this parish healthy by embracing what he believed to be his God-given responsibility to this beloved community, and not just for a season, but for over half a century! This parish has been blessed with gifted rectors and priests over the decades, but I cannot think of anyone who has remained more consistent and constant in their leadership than Howard Gardner and I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to call these last fifty-five years of Christ Church Eureka the “Howard Gardner Era.”
When we celebrated our parish’s 150th anniversary five years ago, I spontaneously asked Howard to pose as a model for promoting our new church mugs with our 150th anniversary logo. You can see the picture I took on the cover of your bulletin. On one level, I felt that everyone would covet a mug with an imprimatur from Dr. Howard Gardner. And I was right. They went like hotcakes. But on another level, I felt that Howard was the true mascot for our sesquicentennial, embodying the motto which was “Steadfast and Growing Since 1870.” Howard was steadfast in his commitment to his church and his God since 1970, and his commitment did not lead to stagnation but to deeper and deeper growth in God’s love. We can see in his smile a joyful, tender, and abiding love that can keep growing forever. We can see in his smile someone who has lived (and is living) a full life and someone who is fully alive; and therefore we can catch a glimpse, in him, of the glory of God. Howard was born on the feast day of St. Irenaeus of Lyons (who studied under Polycarp, who studied under St. John the Evangelist), who said the glory of God is the human being fully alive. Look at the glory of God in Howard’s face! I know I will miss seeing that smile. I will miss serving Howard communion. I will miss shaking his hand each Sunday morning, and then chuckling with him over coffee. And I will miss his stabilizing, calming, quiet, joyful and consistent presence. And I will miss the way he looked so lovingly at his beloved wife Peg.
We gather this morning also to grieve. The very love we have for each other in Christ brings deep sorrow when we are parted by death. In our Gospel, we hear Martha, overwhelmed with grief, telling Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother Lazarus would not have died.” After the conversation between Martha and Jesus, Martha’s sister Mary approaches Jesus and also unleashes her grief and begins to weep. Jesus responds to Mary’s tears by weeping himself (John 11:35). The shortest verse of the entire Bible (“Jesus wept”) packs a powerful emotional and theological punch, revealing God as One who enters fully into our sorrow and grief. Jesus wept at the grave of his friend. So, while we rejoice that one we love has entered into the nearer presence of our Lord, we also grieve for as much and for as long as we need, knowing that even Jesus also grieved.
We grieve and we lament, but not as those who have no hope. In the middle of the biblical book of Lamentations, after pages and pages of grief and sorrow, the author bursts forth with these words: “but this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning: great is your faithfulness” (3:21 – 23). It was this steadfast love of the Lord that inspired Howard’s own steadfast love for the church, so steadfast that he managed to go to church and serve as a church leader even when he was out at sea. While serving in the Navy, Howard loved spending time with the Navy Chaplains, who entrusted him to serve as their backup chaplain for all the Protestants in the crew. Now as he sets forth on his final voyage deeper into the heart of God’s steadfast love, I hear Howard calling us together to worship (as he called his fellow shipmates years ago) because it is in worship that we join with all the company of heaven, the company of which Howard has now joined the ranks. And it is in worship that we continue to enjoy the blessings of Howard’s presence, and it is in worship that we bless Howard and the loving God who gave him to us.
Before the final commendation, I want to conclude my homily by offering these words of the poet Walt Whitman as a personal commendation to our beloved Howard:
Now finale to the shore!
Now, land and life, finale, and farewell!
Now Voyager depart! (much, much for thee is yet in store;)
Often enough hast though adventur’d o’er the seas,
Cautiously cruising, studying the charts,
Duly again to port, and hawser’s tie, returning:
— But now obey thy cherish’d, secret wish,
Embrace thy friends – leave all in order;
To port, and hawser’s tie, no more returning,
Depart upon thy endless cruise, old Sailor!
Sail thou forth, to seek and find
We must separate awhile
So long – and I hope we shall meet again.
Our life is closed – our life begins:
Joy! Shipmate – joy!
And in the words of the US Navy march song, Anchors Aweigh,
Until we meet once more
Here’s wishing you, Howard, a happy voyage home!
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 