| Funeral Address for Sharon Beshenivsky:
11 January 2006 The Very Revd David Ison, Dean of Bradford. |
Love is strong as death. What do we do here, today? Among all our thoughts and emotions, there are three particular things. We celebrate the life of Sharon Beshenivsky; for all she meant to us and to so many others. We're thankful what she gave to her family, her friends, her colleagues, her community. And above all we celebrate in her the gift of love; love given and received, love expressed in laughter and compassion and care, in how she lived the whole of life as well as how she did her job. Some people have told me of the way in which Sharon made a positive impression, even on some of those whom she had to arrest because of the care with which she handled them. Of all that Sharon was and did, it's her love which makes a lasting impact on us and on the world. Love is strong as death. But a funeral is rather more than the celebration of life. It's also the last thing we can do for Sharon as a whole person. In this service and the burial which follows, we hand Sharon over, we let her go: her body, to the ground from which we come; her soul into the hands of God who gives us the gift of life. And that also asserts the strength and power of love, love which goes with Sharon through and beyond death, love which isn't only ours but God's love too. And love isn't all that we feel, is it? There's a sense of bewilderment, of anger, that someone full of life and love should be killed so casually. We grieve for what might have been for Sharon and her family. We look human tragedy in the face and struggle to make sense of it. The Christian message is one of hope beyond tragedy. We speak of a God whose love is so strong that he sends his Son in Jesus Christ to suffer and die alongside us, cruelly and unjustly, a life also cut short in his thirties by the malice of others: but in Jesus a life which death could not contain, whose resurrection from the dead is the promise of a new heaven and earth where, beyond the power of pain and death, love and life and justice will be there for all. Love is strong as death. Today we celebrate Sharon's life and we commend her in death. And we also affirm the vision for which Sharon died. Throughout the centuries, Christians have been able to face suffering and death because of the vision which Jesus left them, the vision of heaven coming down to earth, of the love of God which they'd met in Jesus coming to touch and change the world and all people in it. People talk today about the need for a renewal of vision. We have so many things, that we lose sight of what really matters. All of us in Bradford, in the whole nation, were shocked by Sharon's murder. It happened because some people think that money, and things, are more important than life and love and hope, are even worth killing for. But Sharon joined a police force which stands for quite the opposite. It stands for a vision of the world in which there is love and justice for all, where everyone's treated with respect and care, whoever they are and whatever they may have done. This is a vision worth taking risks for, and even dying for, because we don't give death ultimate power or the last word. We as a community are enormously thankful to Sharon, and Teresa and her colleagues, for the sacrifices made on our behalf. We honour them, and together before God we affirm our commitment to the vision which underlies what they do, and what we should do also. What do we do here, today? We celebrate, we commend, we affirm: that love is strong as death. |