Sermon for Bill Stroop's Memorial Service
Bill Stroop 1952-2009
We have gathered here today to remember and to celebrate the life of Bill Stroop, father, husband, priest, microbiologist,
research scientist, and friend to many here today. As so often happens, we’re here well before we expected to
be, Bill having recently celebrated his 57th birthday. He was born in Oregon; most of us knew him in Arkansas; and he
died in Florida. His trail covered the whole country. At some level that speaks to the way Bill lived his few
years on the planet. Big. Big and energetic and always on the move to the next project.
I confirmed Bill when he was a fairly new member of St. Margaret’s Church in Little Rock. At the time he was a
professor of Microbiology, Immunology, Pathology and Ophthalmology at UAMS. In his spare time he was a research scientist
and biologist at the Veteran’s Hospital. But he had always been on a deep spiritual journey even while immersed
in the world of science. That journey led him to seminary and to ordination and never did he find the conflict between
science and religion that some today so agonize over. In one of our pre-seminary conversations I remember Bill saying
that he was fascinated with scientific research because it was like studying how God got things done the way they’re
done.
I wasn’t surprised to learn that the gospel reading chosen for today came
from the great Prologue of John’s Gospel…”In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the
Word was God.” And later in the Prologue: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen
his glory…” That’s big. That’s big…the kind of big concept Bill would love to
get his head around.
But more than concept….it’s a big truth from which we can take comfort today as we’re
feeling the loss of this man. Because we know what Bill knew….that God chose and God chooses to take on the flesh
and blood realities of life where we live and where we move and where we have our being. The Word of God that was and
is God is known to us. This creative energy of God that was revealed in Jesus is life, says John….”What
has come into being in him was life…
Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, came teaching
that life, real life, was not measured in length of years or in worldly success or even in the legacy left behind. Real
life was life connected to God. Real life was discovering that every one of us is connected to a cosmic unfolding that
we can’t begin to comprehend.
The Psalmist knew the same truth that John
did. “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit and when I stand. …You
are acquainted with all my ways. ….Where can I go from your presence?
I think
Bill’s fascination with science grew naturally into theology because in both fields we come to same place. It’s
a place where the great mystic, Meister Eckhart, arrived 700 years ago. “In the end, there is only God.”
We live immersed in the creative life of God. We breathe that creative life into our bodies with each breathe.
And in the end, we find ourselves still in the creative energy of God.
We gather together
for many reasons when a loved one dies. But mostly we gather because a life lived is always too big to be remembered
alone. Bill’s life is no exception. It was a big life and so we gather to tell some of the pieces and to
laugh and cry and remember. At the heart of our remembering, let us remember that whether we live or die, whether we
can be seen in this life or disappear into the next, real life comes from God’s own life shared abundantly with all
of creation.
