Homily | Ann Eugennie Halsey
March 5, 1922 – Aug 11, 2025
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10.10
Earlier in this memorial service we heard from Psalm 91. Let me draw your attention to its closing lines: “With long life I will satisfy them and show them my salvation.” (Psalm 91.16) It’s rare to have known someone who lived as long as Ann. It’s rarer still to have known someone who lived as well as Ann. Jesus’ words in John 10 also come rushing to mind: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Life to the full. Scholars have debated, like scholars do, if Jesus meant this full or abundant life was a gift for our earthly here and now, or some distant eternal future. Is this full life promise for today, for our everyday, or for some unknown heavenly tomorrow, a life after life? It’s a tough one. Jesus’ words in John’s gospel are notoriously both simple and deep.
Life to the full. What does Jesus mean? The debating scholars have come to the conclusion, as best they can, that Jesus means both, and maybe more. Life to the full now, and life to the full later, and life to the full in ways we can’t comprehend until it’s experienced. And of course Jesus means both and even more. Do we really expect the river of God’s life to be so easily defined and banked? “I have come that they may have life, and to have it to the full”. That’s a phrase not predisposed to limitation.
It’s also a phrase uttered from Jesus as a promise. And we only know a promise come true when we see its fulfillment. And we only see the fulfillment of a promise like that, at least this side of eternity, by a observing a life of another – a life like Ann’s. Because Ann had life, and had it to the full.
Ann joined us here at Living Waters in her late 80s. As I got to know her over those first years in community, I was also invited into her home, always with a generous spread, always with warm stories and warmer questions. Eventually I was welcomed to Ann’s 90th birthday party, which, as many of you remember, was a riot. There were more visits and more warm moments in church, until eventually I was invited to her 100th birthday party. Pandemic and all, we found a way to celebrate. Many in our church loved Ann and have already shared with me of many life-giving and meaningful connections with her. Ann’s final years were of course limited, but no less full of God’s presence and grace.
When someone lives to 103 it’s natural to marvel at the amount of life enjoyed. Ann got more of life. And the volume is impressive. But she also got more of a certain kind of life, a good life, a life to the full life. A day like today reminds us that quality, even more so than quantity, is where we too might direct our attention. And you don’t need me to tell you of the quality of Ann’s life. You have seen it, touched it yourself.
Life to the full. Long and deep. Wide and rich. Ann herself would likely hasten to insist that both the quantity and quality of her life had the same origin – the river of life, which flows abundantly and eternally from her Lord Jesus. For Ann, Jesus was the cosmic and personal source of abundant life. She drank from those waters daily and they nourished her deeply.
But those waters have passed now, passed through Ann as she has passed on. She’s swimming now in even livelier waters. God’s life now surrounds Ann in ways, this side of heaven, we can’t yet grasp. Safe, whole, free, healed, alive with God and in God. She knows a even more profound meaning of the words “life to the full”. Imagine her for a moment. Imagine her alive in God’s waters, perhaps even floating on her back as she might have as a little girl. Is there a splash or two? Can you imagine her smile?
One day, we’re told in Scripture, this river of life will flow through all creation without end, bringing life abundant without precedent. And we are invited by the writers of Scripture to trust the source, the headwaters of life, the LORD Jesus.
For those of us younger folks, it’s easy to view our elders through a sweet and sentimental lens. And Ann was very sweet, and it’s hard not to get sentimental. But I would encourage us today to ask not only what sweetness ran through Ann, but also what truth and power. A life full of generosity, refreshment, integrity and just plain and pure love, does not spring up all on its own.
Ann’s was a simple and clear trust in Jesus, in the best meaning of those words. But just like we hear in Jesus’ words in John’s gospel, or as we see in a high mountain river pool, simple and clear can also be deep. And it was Ann’s simple, clear and deep trust in Jesus which sustained her to the end.
Many of you in the room today owe your very life to Ann. But if she were here now, she’d likely suggest an addition, if not a correction. Yes, we owe our lives to the ones who gave us life, but surely, ultimately, we own much more to the One who gives life to all creation: the stars, the redwoods, the deer at the stream, the stream itself, the fish spawning, the human fishing further down river. The trees out those windows, the ladybugs on the windowsill, the person sitting at your elbow. “In the beginning”, we read in Genesis, “God created the heavens and the earth.” Life is God’s nature. He made it. He gives it freely.
So let’s invite sentiment today, but let’s not get too sentimental as to miss reflecting on the big questions. Upon reflection of Ann’s long and deep life, let us honour her by not rushing past this moment, but to instead enter it, for it is holy.
Sit at the riverbank and watch closely. And as you sit, let me sit with you and ask if you are thirty or dry or long for cleansing. The waters of life run freely and are open to you now. Waters Ann enjoyed and drank from herself.
Let’s close with other words from Jesus in John’s gospel, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow…”
Luke Knight 