The sermon shared at the memorial of our beloved Ken Brookefield stands as a testament to his unwavering faith, boundless kindness, and the enduring legacy of love he left behind.
May this reflection offer comfort and inspiration, reminding us of the values Ken cherished and the light he brought to all who knew him.
Sermon – Ken Brookfield – St. John’s – 2024
In planning for today Alison made it very clear that this service was to be a celebration of life. And so, it is a celebration of the life of Ken Brookfield and what a life, what a wonderful life in so many ways. He lived for 101 years and for most of that time in very good health. As a young man he met the love of his life Hanna and they would spend the next 60 years as the apple of each other’s eye, raising a wonderful family together. He ran his own successful business and had many interests including calligraphy, nature and classical music. Ken lived in his own home right up until the last week of his life and he died peacefully with family by his side and his favourite Mozart music gently playing. In a way, should we all be so blessed, so blessed of a life well and truly lived.
Also, in planning for this service I can tell you the three readings were very carefully chosen and all three are as inspirational as the life we celebrate today. The love passage from 1 Corinthians teaches us that love never ends. Love was there in the beginning, is now, and will be forever the force that abides with us, that reminds us how wonderful life can be, and that ultimately guides us to our loving creator. Ken, as a great man of faith knew that. Ken, as a wonderful man of life lived that.
“The Dandelion Has My Smile” by Thich Nhat Hanh is a powerful reminder that the wellness of our very being is shaped by our actions, even seemingly so simple ones such as a smile. Alison also told me that the dandelion was her Dad’s favourite flower, and that makes a lot of sense. In all my interactions with Ken, I remember him always having a smile. And with his smile I always felt a great gentleness, a great understanding, and a great awareness of the endless capacity of love.
This rather nicely brings me to the Gospel passage from John. It’s very short, but it’s meaning can, has and will continue to transform humanity until God’s kingdom is formed here on earth. Jesus says that the new commandment he gives is that we are to love one another. One could ask, was that really new? Don’t the ten commandments say we should love our neighbours as ourselves? It is a new commandment because Jesus adds this, “Love one another, just as I have loved you”. Don’t just love one another, – but love as I have been an example for you. A love that always forgives. A love that never gives up. A love of stranger, a love of enemy, a love of creation, a love of those in need, in pain, in suffering, in grief, in captivity. It is a love that is unconditional and infinitely abundant. It is a kind of love that is hard to live up to, but Jesus calls us to do our best. When we do people will know that we are a disciple of Jesus. With his faith, with his hope, with his smile and with his love I always knew that Ken was a disciple of Jesus.
I have many fond memories of Ken, but there is one in particular I would like to share with you all today. After covid started St. John’s organized our Telephone Ministry where the team, the phone angels I call them, would telephone everyone in the Parish at least once a month and see how they are doing. It tuned out to be, and still is I believe, a very enriching ministry.
My memory is one of these phone calls I made to Ken. We exchanged salutations and pleasantries of course and then I asked Ken how he spent the day now that he was relatively isolated due to covid. This led to a long conversation about his calligraphy. He told me for example that he spends at least one hour every day practicing it. I was a little surprised by this as I assumed it was a little like riding a bike. Once you have got it, you’ve got it. But no, Ken explained, it is an art and an art is a craft and like any craft the more you practice the better you are at it. So I delved further and asked about the reasons why he does it and what specifically he gets from this form of art.
What is that calligraphy can do? Ken told me it develops eye-hand coordination. It requires sound composition and harmony of design. In order to produce beautiful calligraphy that contains these elements of harmony and form, the calligrapher must learn how to give expression those characteristics in him or herself. Given all this you could say calligraphy is similar to performing meditation, or tai chi, or any other areas of personal growth that combine outward physical activity and inner sensitivity to your thoughts and feelings. I admitted I had never thought of that, but of course it makes sense.
Ken continued that it is important for the calligrapher to be physically grounded and emotionally centered. You might not think it, but the whole body gets involved. You acquire the skill to carry the motion throughout the body. It starts at the feet and moves into the back, then the shoulder, then the arm and finally to the hand and into the pen. The final result is a kind of living visual sign of the inner processes of mind and body. That kind of blew me away. One final reward of practicing calligraphy, Ken told me, is that you view great compositions of calligraphic art with a much greater understanding and respect, and of course, it keeps your mind sharp. I left that conversation feeling like I just accidentally but very happily dropped into a university lecture on the topic and I wanted to immediately go out and buy some nice paper, a bottle of ink and a bunch of quills. I learned a lot in a very short period of time.
One more short story if I may, and it is not so much a memory but an acknowledgement of a very special gift. Remembrance Day is very meaningful day for a lot of people and it certainly is for myself. For one Remembrance Sunday Ken, with his artistic hands, wrote out John McCrae’s poem In Flanders Fields. Ken wrote it and we photocopied it and gave it to parishioners that Sunday. Northrop Frye, the great Canadian academic, once said, “The written word is far more powerful than simply a reminder: it recreates the past in the present, and gives us, not the familiar remembered thing, but the glittering intensity of the summoned-up dream”. With the calligraphy handwriting of Ken Brookfield, In Flanders Fields, I can assure you, is not a familiar remembered thing, it takes on the gravitas of a man overlooking over the freshly dug graves as he writes this poem and the horror of the tragedy of the price dearly paid in war. Ken’s In Flanders Fields has a glittering intensity that is moving and transformative. It is a work of art. It is a work of fine art, and I cherish it so. Thank you, Ken.
In 1 Corinthians St. Paul talked about a genuine kind of love and that kind of love is very much present with us today. I cannot think of a more profound and lasting legacy for a person than the memories of Ken we share today. Ken’s deep love and affection and devotion to his family and friends will continue to have a deep and meaningful presence in this world. I did mention that Ken lived in his home right up until the last week of his life. A very big help in that regard was Alison’s unwavering support and many hours every week supporting her Dad. I did want to acknowledge that, and I know Ken appreciated that greatly.
And so we do indeed celebrate the life of Kenneth Leonard Brookfield. To Ken’s dear family and friends here and abroad, I know that his death will forever change your lives. Losing a loved one is an extraordinarily difficult experience to go through and it takes time to find your new bearings. But please also know this – that the love you have shared together and held for each other is still there. The true and profound magic found in the genuine love of Husband and wife, of parents and children, of family and friendship never really dies; it gets passed on to others in all the stories that you tell, in the journeys that you take together and in the fond memories that are held in the album of your heart. Finally, I believe to the core of my being that this life is not the end. I believe Ken is now in a place where there is no struggle, no pain or anguish or illness – only peace, love and light and the music of Mozart. This wonderful child of God is now truly home and this husband, Father, Grandfather, Great Grandfather, this lover of dandelions, this devotee of classical music, this calligrapher and artist, this engineer and entrepreneur and friend, this centenarian, this wonderful gentleman who believed in God and in genuine love is now in the arms of his loving creator. The love of family and friends is forever, and it is so very precious, and Ken wonderfully reminded us of all of that. May Ken rest in peace and in the hereafter may all our paths magically cross once again. Amen.