I Corinthians 13:8-13 (Funeral - Myles Knape)
St. John, Galveston 
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Myles Berthold Knape was born on March 10, 1931 in Houston, Texas. He was taken to his eternal rest on Saturday, December 16, 2023, at the age of 92 years.

Myles is survived by his wife of 58 years, Frances Ann Medley Knape. He is also survived by his three sons, Eric Stephen Knape and his wife, Kim of Uvalde, Texas; Noel Cabot Knape and his wife, Vania of Houston, Texas; Carlton Christian Knape and his wife, Rebecca of Austin, Texas. Myles is also  survived by his 8 grandchildren, Alex & Jessica, Summer & Logan, Sophia & Nicholas, and Myles Wayne and Wren. And finally, surviving Myles are his brother, Maury Knape and his wife, Evelyn; their children Kevin and his wife, Elizabeth; Laurie Knape Rathburn and her husband Lloyd Rathburn, by his nieces, Donna Medley Ulrich and her husband Carter and their two children, Cameron and Lauren, by Dina Medley Benkauski and her husband Laurent and their children Derik and Evin, and by his niece Debra Medley, as well as numerous other family members and friends.

Dear, Fran, Eric, Noel and Carlton, family and friends of Myles, friends in Christ, grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please accept my sincere condolences as you grieve Myles passing. While death is a portal through which the faithful in Christ pass from this world to heaven, and though Myles wasn’t afraid to die, it is still a difficult time for all of us.

I have so much I want to say today. I’ve known Myles for a long time, both as a friend and as his pastor. I don’t know if you are aware or not, but for a pastor to be friends with his parishioner’s is often a difficult dynamic. In fact, at the seminary, we were often told, “you can’t be friends with the members of your congregation.” Perhaps that was a bit of wisdom from times and generations gone by, but there is a delicate balance to maintain to be someone’s friend and also their pastor. Myles, I have to say, made it easy for me. He was always bringing gifts from his extensive travels. Few Pastors, I should think, have been given a book by one of their church members titled, “Drinking with the Saints, the sinners guide to a holy happy hour.” Myles made things easy for me. In fact, I’m pretty certain that if he were able, he would be writing me a letter to me right now apologizing for passing away during Christmas week.

In many ways, Myles, and Fran too, have been one of my grounding points, if you will, over my years in the ministry. I remember especially the year after hurricane Ike hit in 2008. We were all displaced, our homes having flooded from the storm. Myles and Fran were living in a travel trailer out back behind their house. That was a tough year for all of us. But I found a place of refuge and solace at Myles and Fran’s trailer. I could always stop by for a cup of coffee and some conversation. It was a nice distraction from an otherwise tumultuous and stressful year.

As I’m sure most of you know, Myles was a very deep thinker. He often had questions about life in general, but also about faith and God. Many of those questions he would pose in Bible Class. He especially didn’t understand all the wars and battles in the Old Testament. The Book of Joshua was particularly difficult for him to read. I recall at one point drawing on a bit of wisdom from Martin Luther, who said, when you’re reading the Scriptures and you don’t understand it, or it bothers you, pass that section by and give glory to God. Myles said, “Pastor, I have a lot of difficulty with the Book of Joshua.” I said, “Well, Myles, you probably shouldn’t spend too much time reading it then.” Pass it by, and give glory to God.

As you grieve Myles passing, I’ve chosen to speak to you today based on a passage of Scripture that may seem a bit odd for a funeral message. In 1 Corinthians 13, St. Paul wrote about pure and perfect love. You often here this passage read at weddings. I think we generally take the words of 1 Corinthians 13 as setting forth a standard that we are to strive to live up to. “Love (we are told) is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Those certainly are words to live by, but they’re so much more than that. The love of which St. Paul speaks is actually the love that God has for the world. The love He has for you and me. The love He has for Myles.

And so, “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. (And then Paul says these words, that especially have me thinking of Myles.) For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Again, Myles was a deep thinker and there were a lot of things he didn’t understand about life and about God. As I’m sure most, if not all of you know, he had that terrible boating accident many years ago here in Galveston. He was almost killed as his boat ran over him. He often said to me, “Pastor, I don’t really know why God saved me.” “Have I missed something in terms of what He wanted me to do with my life?” It was a very sincere question, but I would always answer him the same way. “Myles, I’d say, God saved you to be you. To be a husband to Fran, to be a father to your sons, to be a grandfather to grandkids. God saved you to be you. To be a blessing to others as you most certainly have been.”

Myles soul has been taken to heaven to be with God, but I can assure you, he isn’t asking questions in heaven right now. There are no questions, because as he stands before Jesus at the throne of God’s grace, Myles sees fully the things of God. There is a profound silence in heaven, a silence of knowing and of being known. Myles is at peace, safe in the hands of the Lamb who was slain for him.

The committal, the laying to rest of Myles body, won’t be today. It will be a couple of days from now. The question is sometimes asked, if Myles body will soon be laid rest, how is it that he is already in heaven? Well, clearly God takes the souls of the faithful to be with Him at the time of their death. As Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “today you will be with Me in paradise.”

Myles body will be laid to rest, to sleep, as St. Paul often wrote, to await the last great day, the day of the return of Jesus, and resurrection of the dead in Christ. This body that we will soon lay to rest, will rise again and there will be on that day a great celebration. A celebration of all those who passed from this world trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. A celebration of those who will see Jesus face to face, of those whose questions will be quieted because they will know then, even as they will be fully known.

I wish you all God’s peace in Christ Jesus this and all the days ahead. And also a blessed Christmas where we first “beheld God’s glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full grace and truth.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +