Category: Michael D
In Memoriam
A short snippet of my words for Steven’s Memorial Service. I will miss my friend.
A Kedging Life
Steven Johns-Boehme. Our phone conversations often began like this. “Rabbi, what’s happening?” His response, “Hey punk what’s happening with you? Read a book lately?” Steven, he was something of a renaissance man, knowledgable about a great diversity of things, and skilled in many areas. You didn’t have to know Steven long to realize that he didn’t do anything “half way.” No, he studied, practiced, and perfected though I don’t think he is considered himself a perfectionists. He could present as “OCD” depending on the project that caught his attention. Don’t do anything halfway. It is the foundation that his parents gave him: a father’s print shop precision and mother’s Jill-of-all-trades.
Steven would indulge us the feelings of grief today, and in the days ahead, but he would prefer the stories and laughter about the time we spent with him. Gratia reminded me that Steven would not want any of us to be anxious about today. When we listen to the liturgy of this service that Steven wrote, and allow the music and lyrics to seep into us, we hear the melody of his faith, and the authenticity of a person comfortable with himself. It is best summed up in the theme of Alizah’s college essay, “It’s not about academics. It’s how you live your life and who you impact.”
Steven was one that preached good news, and sometimes he even used words.
Click here to download the entire homily.
Remember
O sing to the Lord a new song, for the Lord has done marvelous things:
The Lord gifted some to be doctors and nurses that mend, that care, that journey with the terminally ill;
guide the hands and spirits of those that tend our healing.
The Lord gifted some for the work of rescue and recovery;
be present, O Lord, with the people searching, listening, hoping while moving debris from storms and from shaking ground.
The Lord gifted some for the work of teaching;
give an extra portion of patience and strength, O Lord, for the grading to be done, for the struggles with regulations, for the words of ‘goodbye’ to graduates.
The Lord gifted us to be good news;
examine our hearts, O Lord, and help humanity uncover your image within us to make justice happen, to love as you love, and live as though we meet you in the face of friend, stranger, and foe alike.
The Lord will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.