This weekend I did the funeral for a man named Mark who had been murdered by a family member. As you can imagine, it was not the typical eulogy. Still, I managed to tell a resurrection story. Here is what I said:

I am going to start today by telling you all the things that I am NOT going to say. I have no intention of telling anything like:

        “Everything happens for a reason.”

        “God does not give us more than we can handle.”

        “God wanted Mark because he needed an angel.”

        “You need to get over this.”

If anyone has said any of these things to you in the last year, let me just say I am sorry.  Even if I have said this to you, let me apologize as well. I am sorry. This is bad theology. These are not adequate sentiments to express all the emotions that we all have felt over the last few months, but I think there is a reason why we say these things.

Because losing someone like Mark Novak…. The man who served God and country, who loved his “bride” and his children/grandchildren… The man who not only coached the football team, but ran every lap with his players… the man who put a T-box on his back deck so every player on the golf course would stop for a drink or a snack… When we lose them too soon…. When we lose them to tragedy… it opens our hearts and tears at our vulnerability, and it lays bare some of the most challenging existential questions we will ever struggle with. Questions like:

“Why does God allow suffering?”

“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

“Why can’t God redeem us from the brokenness of mental illness?”

I don’t know which questions have kept you up at night, but those are a few of mine.  And we struggle with them because these are the questions that will have no concrete answers as long as we are on this side of heaven.  Our scriptures tell us that…. “For now we see only dimly, as if in a mirror.” But one day, we will know fully, just as we will be fully known. 

This will be one of the first mysteries I’m gonna want to fully know the answer to: how do you take someone like Mark Novak so soon?

Because everything about Mark’s life spoke love into this world. His kindness. His joy. His passion for people. His constant hospitality. Only Mark could end up in a rainstorm in the boundary waters with only Jake and a tent, and end up laughing uproariously. Laying in 2 inches of water, but full of joy.

Only Mark would trap his kids in the car and drive all the way to Grand Marais and back – in one day – for Fathers Day.  Because he love his kids. And he loved Grand Marais. And he loved Father’s Day.

Only Mark would go to McDonalds and order ALL the burgers.

With someone as passionate for life as Mark was, it is hard not to ask the question…. Why? 

But instead, I want us to think about this.

The story of Jesus was not about crucifixion, but resurrection.

And the story of Mark is not about his death, but rather about resurrection and transformation as well. And yes, we can believe that Mark has returned to the arms of the ever-loving God. We can believe in his resurrection and the knowledge that one day we will be united together at a heavenly banquet.  

Of that there is no doubt.

But today I want us to believe in another kind of resurrection as well.  For while I DON’T believe God causes or revels in our suffering, I DO believe that God works for good in all situations… and that God can bring about redemption in even the most terrible tragedy.

And so I want you to consider this: that each one of us in this moment can experience a sort of “resurrection” as well.  That we can be transformed by the life and the love that Mark shared with each of us along the way.  And in allowing that love to grow in our own hearts, that we can find redemption even in this story.  The way that Mark has touched this world, through his kindness, passion, joy, and love can resurrect even his death. 

And so let this be Mark’s legacy of love:

So that each of us be transformed and might learn better…

…how to find the laughter in the rainstorm,

…how to run that extra lap together, as a cheerleader and a coach,

…how to reconcile with our difficult situations and people,

and how to offer a table of hospitality for everyone who likes to eat. (On the golf course and off.)

Let us become people who love recklessly our children and our grandchildren (because Mark REALLY loved his grandchildren.) Let us trap them in cars and drive to crazy destinations.

Let us run to McDonalds and order ALL the burgers. (As long as your cholesterol allows.)

Let the love that Mark shared with this world shine through such darkness that we can’t HELP but experience redemption and reconciliation in the here and now.  Let Mark’s love – and joy, and kindness, and laughter – show that God can and does work for good in all situations.

When all else falls away, these three will remain: faith, hope, and love.

And the greatest of these is love. Love never ends.

Let the love that Mark shared with each and every one of you transform your hearts for the good of the world. Let that be the resurrection story of today.

Love never fails. Let THAT be Mark’s story… let that be the story that we tell.

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In memory of Mark A. Novak ~ January 19, 1949 – August 24, 2023

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1 Corinthians 13 

If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast^[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹ For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, ¹⁰ but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹² For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³ And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.