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	"John was a lover of people. What a gift to us." Pastor Jim White
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	In Loving Memory of John Fa'aloataga Siofele December 22, 1983–July 15, 2002 Safe in the Arms of Jesus Memorial Service Homily July 22, 2002 Rev. James A. White For me, it began in the early afternoon… with a phone call from Pastor Joe. His voice was cracking. “Please pray for our family, we need your prayers so much!” At first I didn’t understand what he was trying to tell me. “John passed out this morning while driving…” (Passed out? Like he had a seizure? Or a stroke?) Wanting to know which hospital he was in, I asked, “Where is he now?” “His body is downtown on Iwilei…” “HIS BODY?!” And then they came… the tears… all week, they’ve come… and you all know exactly what I’m talking about, don't you? These past seven days have been a living reminder of Ecclesiastes 3… “For everything there is a season… a time to laugh, and a time to weep” (v.1, 4). This is a time for tears. And at least for today, no one needs to apologize for the shedding of tears… no one has to say, “I told myself I was not going to cry.” For our tears are a gift from God… Having said that, I’m not one who cries very often… Oh sure, I “get choked up” at a really touching movie… Like Braveheart, with Mel Gibson as William Wallace, the valiant Scottish warrior who seeks to free his native land from English domination… Remember the final scene, when Wallace is about to be beheaded… and both the executioner and the crowd are calling for William to forsake his past and beg for mercy from the King… With his dying breath, William Wallace cries out, “Freedom!” (And then the extremely moving instrumental music plays loudly in the background.) I guess I’m just a softie for those tear-jerkers. I’ve also noticed that from time to time I start to cry while preaching… and no, it’s not the times I realize that no one is paying attention to what I’m saying anymore… I heard a preacher once say that it’s his job to preach and our job to listen… so if we finish our job before he finishes his, just be patient, he’ll catch up with us shortly. I’ve discovered my tears in preaching while telling stories… stories that come from the pain, struggle and joy of real life, no matter who it is. But as I was thinking about my tears this week… and what my tears might be trying to tell me… I remembered two other moments from my past… The first took place when I was in the 7th grade at Mohave Elementary School, in Scottsdale, AZ. One of my classmates, Tiffany Butler, had been killed in a car accident. I wasn’t a close friend with Tiffany, but we knew each other. I still remember the day of her funeral… I had a baseball game that afternoon, but I had my dad drive me over to the funeral home for the service. I remember walking in and seeing her open casket… and when I got close enough to see her face, it just didn’t look anything like her. And immediately tears began streaming down my face… which lasted all through my baseball game that night. I didn’t know why I was crying so much at the time… but looking back, I think it had something to do with the beauty of youth that was no more. The second memory came from high school, when I attended Waiakea on the Big Island. I was helping with our school’s Leadership Camp… and I remember one activity called “Black-n-White.” It involved asking various questions, each which had two possible answers, and the participants have to physically walk over to the side they agree with (for example, “Do you like Coke… or Pepsi?”) Well the question I particularly remember was, “How many of you know that your parents love you… and how many have serious doubts about it?” I was shocked to see about a dozen or so youth walk to the side that expressed doubt about their parents’ love. The moment I saw that, my heart broke… and tears began to flow. As I’ve thought about these two incidents this past week… and as I’ve been shedding my own tears for John… I found myself with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I wept over the lost future that John will never have… the tremendous promise that his life held, which will never be realized now… When I think about that, and the fact that I’m no longer going to be able to be his pastor and friend, my heart breaks… And yet, at the same time, not a day has gone by this past week, that I haven’t been reminded of the incredible family John had. There is no doubt that not only did his parents, brother and sisters love him deeply… but that he also returned that love. And not just to his immediate family, either… but to aunties, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins, teammates, classmates, church family, etc. John was a lover of people… what a gift to us! A.W. Tozer once said, “The Bible was written in tears, and to tears it yields its best treasurers.” I’ve read with fresh eyes this past week 2 Samuel 18 and 19… when King David weeps over the death of his son (in spite of the fact that his son was trying to take over his throne!)… Or Genesis 7:11-12, when God wept over a lost humanity, by sending rains; floods over all the earth… and only Noah and his family survived… well, and also all those animals! Or Matthew 27:50-51… when God mourns the death of his son, Jesus… and the earth quakes tumultuously! The tears that we’ve cried this week… have been for reasons so pure and right and good that no force on earth could hold them back. And that’s how God intended it to be…through the gift of tears. In fact, it is often that our closest communion with God comes through the sacrament of tears… We connect with the Holy One through our tears in ways that mere words could never do… As Ken Gire puts it, in his book Windows of the Soul, “Just as the grapes are crushed to make wine and grain to make bread, so the elements of this sacrament come from the crushing experiences of life…” John’s death is indeed a “crushing experience”… I’ve heard some ask if it was God’s will that John die… I dare say that it was not! It was NOT God’s will for John to get into that accident a week ago today… But we, as humans, make choices every day… and every day those choices have consequences… I don’t believe that God wanted John to join him this past Monday… but I do believe that God can bring NEW LIFE, HOPE, and RESURRECTION out of any tragedy. And God has already begun to turn John’s death into an opportunity of new life for others! I also feel compelled to briefly address the way in which his autopsy report was so widely spread across the media this week… Alcohol was in John’s bloodstream when he crashed his car… And yet, I also firmly believe that none of us should be known or remembered by one of our mistakes… even our worst mistakes… For we serve a God of mercy and grace! And “there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord… neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rules, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation…” (Romans 8:38-39). After I got the phone call from Pastor Joe, I went down to meet them at the Medical Examiner’s Office on Iwilei road… There had to have been 60 of us (or more) gathered together in that small building that afternoon… Family and friends alike who had come to see John’s body… to see for ourselves if the incredible rumors were true… It was an afternoon of deep sobbing… Of stunned shock… And of free-flowing tears. In the midst of it all, a song began to rise from among the mourners… A song that I knew, even though it was being sung in Samoan… And as those frail voices suddenly echoed with power and strength, I began to sing along… “When peace like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, though hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.” It was a stirring moment of faith… As we gather here this morning, my friends… it may not be well with all our souls… but I do know this: it IS well with John’s soul! For nothing can separate John from the love of God through Christ Jesus his Lord. So let those tears flow… and let the gracious love of God meet you in those tears… Drawing you closer to the One who was the source of John’s strength, and hope, and joy. Thanks be to God for having given us John! AMEN.
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Aiea United Methodist Church

In Loving Memory of John Fa'aloataga Siofele

Memorial Service Homily