"Welcome home, good and faithful servant ..."

The following, spoken at Timm's memorial service at Trinity Covenant Church in Salem on April 21, is reprinted here with the permission of Pastor Chris Haydon. It was obviously delivered from deep in the heart from one who knew of Timm's passion for his faith and its mission.

For a photo, I thought a sunrise picture would be more appropriate than one taken at sunset -- in order to celebrate the life to come -- yet didn't find any that were so titled. Lots of sunset pix but none from the other shore of day. Maybe Timm wasn't an early riser. So instead I include the photo that was the screen saver on his laptop, taken at a Salem World Beat festival in late June 2007. The little girl's smile comes directly through the lens to us; I bet Timm loved the picture for its shared moment of innocence and delight -- perhaps a knowledge of joys to come past the farthest shores of a life, that place where Timm has gone ... Perhaps he smiles for us ...

Note: In the sermon Pastor Haydon struggles, defiantly, with the spelling of Timm's chosen last name; perhaps fittingly, he still doesn't get the spelling right.

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Service of Witness to the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ
in loving memory of
Timm Worden O’Cobthaight
April 21, 2008


Introduction:

We gather in this holy time, this place made sacred by our love, our hope, our faith, to grieve deeply because we have been deeply loved and have lost so much. We gather to give thanks that in that gift of love we have known the friendship of God- and it is our God Who will keep that love alive in us until the day when Christ shall come and wipe away every tear and we shall be together forever.

For Christians there can be no such thing as funerals. We celebrate the Witness to the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Death does not exist for us as it does for the rest of the world, for those who do not know the life of God. The darkness, fear, emptiness, unknown, and finality of dying are insignificant for people of faith. For us death is even a welcome friend at the end of a good life well lived, the doorway into Heaven, the new beginning of the life that will not end- with Christ and all who have loved Him. This, by the grace of God, is the new life of our beloved brother, Timm.


Sermon/Tribute:

When you love someone enough to let them go, and know that they will always be with you; when you have been loved so well that you know it was the love of God and so will never leave you; when you know that the one you love has cherished the life he shared with you, and leaves this life without regret, except the parting; when you are convinced that his work in this world will never be forgotten, for it is the stuff of God’s Kingdom, and lives on in you; when you realize that his precious body could no longer contain his magnificent spirit; when faith and hope opens your soul to see Timm strong and new in the eternal life and love of his Lord, then we can celebrate together the precious gift we have been given in the faith and life and love of Timm O’Cobthaight.

Before I continue, allow me to share my personal refusal to attempt to spell Timm’s last name. Around here he was simply and affectionately known as “Timm O”. Timm explained that he had researched his family name, “Cohea”, and found its origin in the Gaelic “O’Cobthaight” ((sic)), which looks, to any normal person, like “O-cob-thate”. But he assured me that is was pronounced “O’Covay”. I told him I wasn’t buying it, and he became “Timm O”, much to everyone’s relief. But Timm was drawing on an ancient wisdom when he chose to change his name. Sometimes we have to go back to our roots to find a place for a new beginning. In that sense, “O’Cobthaight” is OK.

One of the sacred joys of being a pastor is to sit with an old friend, a sister or brother who is nearing the end of their days, and to speak of holy things, like their life, their loves, their joys and regrets, their hope for heaven. We would speak of living and dying, of serving and believing and trusting that it is all in God’s hands as we plan for their dying.

Another sacred joy is to sit with a sister or brother whose heart is filled with love for Christ and His people, whose spirit is bursting with the desire to serve His Kingdom purpose, to bring hope and help and healing and new life to God’s people- to plan for living, and giving ourselves away for the passion God has placed in our souls. That was the joy I shared with Timm this week, huddled over lunch, planning a Men’s retreat, Timm sharing his passion for men helping other men to heal, to grow in faith, to find their heart. Timm would always say in some way that we are all broken people, and we all need help to heal, that no one can go it alone, and no one should have to, and that if the Church doesn’t create people who love enough to do that, then what are we doing here?

In fact, that was one of the things I loved most about Timm- besides the loving, passionate heart that we all know so well, besides the kindness, the gracious spirit that welcomed us in- I loved the way Timm first looked me with such sincerity in his eyes and a wry smile on his face and said, “Oh yeah, I’m a mess inside. But with God’s help and some good people, I’m working on it.” I said, “Me, too. Let’s have lunch.” And there began a friendship with a fellow-servant, a walk with a humble brother in Christ that has blessed my life and touched this Church in wonderful ways.

I told my people yesterday that Timm was seeking God’s guidance for the next phase of his life, that he deeply desired for his life to be used for Christ’s purpose, that he was passionate about helping people in broken places find healing and hope, about helping them find their true life, their real heart in God’s love. Any one of us can lie to other people about who we are; we all pretend at times to be someone we’re not. But who lies out loud to themselves, who would pretend in their own private journal- unless they really needed medication? You can read an intimate and revealing excerpt from Timm’s journal in your bulletin. It says, “It's about a life of service. Taking the actions of love to touch the lives of all I meet. In that I am being the "person of God" or "persona of God" to all I meet. It is acts of love that melt the ice and crack the stone that surrounds men's hearts.”

Why did God let that man die? Why give such a lover of God and us a spiritual heart so full of faith and passion, but a human heart that could not contain it? How can we trust in Christ for our life and our meaning when our life’s purpose and potential can be so quickly taken? Could there be any purpose of God in the death of such a beloved son, and such a precious brother to us? I’ve lived with those questions all my life, and have seldom found an answer. It seems, at times, that our faith is meant to have us ask more important questions.

Timm and I often spoke of Romans 8:28, trusting that “God works for good in all things”- which dos not mean that God’s has an intended purpose for every tragedy and pain we suffer, but that God will work for our good and His purpose through the worst of what we must experience. But Timm and I agreed that the second part of that verse is the most crucial: “God works for good in all things- with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” It is only those who love God who can trust enough to seek Him in the worst of times, to learn of His grace even- especially- in our suffering, to find our life’s purpose renewed as Christ’s calls us out of that place- and because of that place- into a new way of serving Him and loving His people.

Throughout his life, through the worst of times of wandering and wondering, of accident, injury, addiction, rejection, and brokenness and loss, Timm struggled to trust in God’s love and seek His guiding, to learn from his hurt and grow into the man, the son, the servant, the lover Christ called him to be. In that trust he found Jesus shaping his soul into the man we have come to know, to trust, to love- still broken, as we all are, but “working on it”. Timm used those places of brokenness to heal others. He found in his own hurt a heart of compassion for others. He found in the reality that he needed help with his heart a conviction to spend his life helping others on that journey towards healing, freedom from addiction, wholeness in themselves, and love for God and each other.

So maybe some of the better questions we will learn to ask because of our faith in God and our love for Timm are like these: How will I live my life now, knowing that my days may be precious few? Will I follow my faith, my love, my passion to serve as my brother did? Will I finally stop focusing on my brokenness and fear and all that holds me back, and be glad for the goodness of God in me, and gladly give it away? Can we trust, even here in the valley of the shadow of death, that Jesus Christ is here, calling us to life, to love without counting the cost, and to spend that love helping someone else to heal, to hope, to believe, to begin again- just as we need that help from others, too?

We cannot know why Timm died so soon. But we do know why he lived, and that he loved each of us more than he was able to say. Timm doesn’t have to wonder about his journey anymore. He has found his heart’s home in His Father’s love, in the presence of the God he served so well. But you go ahead and wonder what Timm would want for you- a heart full of faith, a life full of love, a spirit meant to serve that finds it’s joy in giving itself away- creating healing and hoping, and making something beautiful- like a new life.

This day our brother Timm has heard the voice of his Savior, saying, “Welcome home, good and faithful servant. Welcome into the joy of your Master”. Live by faith, serve well and wait for the Day, and thank God for His Son, Jesus Christ, and for His servant, Timm O. Amen.