Memorial Homily for Michael Clarke Rubel

--Rev. Clarke K. Oler, October 27th, 2007

There are so many of you out there this morning that should be up here instead of me. You built scaffolds and carried rocks to build the castle, you sat with him for endless hours swapping. stories and sharing laughter, or you rode the school bus he drove, or joined in the irrepressible frivolity of his countless parties and feasts.

I am Michael’s cousin, who didn’t know him close up until I moved to California in 1975. But I brought family and friends to meet this incredible cousin on many occasions. We sat on the balcony and smoked our pipes toether and enjoyed the pleasure of his stories and humor and his contagious joy of living his own unique life.

I knew enough not to bring up the subject of religion. He didn’t like conflict or dogma or relgiiosity But my heart told me that he had a faith that guided him - the kind of life-giving faith that God has in mind for all of us. It was a faith that preserves the careless joy of childhood, and encourages each of us to find our own path in life to celebrate our common humanity. He never talked about Jesus, but he was a Jesus-figure, and I believe at some deep level he knew that, although he never would have spoken of it.

I believe that Michael stayed away from church because he saw the contentiousness and hypocrisy in churches, as it is in all human institutions, especially those that presume to embody God’s truth. Instead, he lived the truth of Jesus as he understood it, and built his own castle, rediculous as it must seem to many, as a temple of God’s truth.

His close friend, Chriswell Guldberg, recently wrote, “He didn’t just build a castle; he gave us a place to experience life fully and to recreate ourselves.”How would God want more than that from any of us?

Another old friend, Ted Shepherd, wrote him a letter to thank him for building a place where “older boys and girls (that is, you and me!) can again be young and once more be charged with the energy of wonder and happiness that accompany children...” Wouldn’t that be what God wants for all of us? Some of you may recall the verse from the Psalms: “Unless the Lord build the house, their labor is but lost that build it.” Could that verse have lain hidden in Michael’s heart all these years?

But I also venture to believe that there was a little part of Michael that didn’t give up on the church, and when his brother, Chris, asked him if it was alright to have his memorial service here in Grace Church, where his father served as pastor for so many years, Michael said. “Yes, that’s fine.” - as though to say, “Yes. Take me home.” So here we are in the church where he went as a little child and where the chapel is named after his Dad. And where the banners that hang behind the altar of the church depicting the angel Gabriel were made by his beloved, Kaia.

In the bible lesson that I just read, Jesus said, on the occasion of his own death, “Let not your hearts be troubled. In my Father’s house are many mansions”. (I’m not sure there are any mansions in heaven that look like Michael’s castle, but who knows!) Jesus went on to say, “I go to prepare a place for you...and then I will come again to receive you unto myself, so that where I am you may be also.” I think that would be a comfort to Michael, and he is there now where he can do what he always did: be a child at heart, work hard and celebrate God’s kind of love. And I say, “Lucky heaven!”