What Donne said was part of a famous meditation which included words referring to the 'passing bell' which is still often rung at funerals - Donne said:

Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee

but to understand what he meant, you need to hear something he said just before:

No man is an island entire of itself.  Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind.

Donne wrote these words as part of a meditation he made over the winter if 1623-24 when he was seriously ill and believed, with his physicians, that he was close to death. It has been said that Meditation 17 from which the words come was, in fact his own funeral sermon which, in the event, was not needed because he recovered.  His reflection, however, holds true. Because we are all part of humanity every death reminds us of our own mortality and the death of those closest to us affect us deeply not only for that reason but because our lives are indeed diminished - something has gone from our lives which seems, in our grief, to be irreplaceable. We have a deep sense of loss.

When news of Chris's death reached us last Sunday night and on Monday it was greeted with incredulity. How can this be? He was heard on the radio on Sunday morning and we saw him here in this church and he seemed well - his usual self.  By Monday everything had changed and people passed from disbelief, even denial into shock and that kind of numb emptiness which so often follows the death of a loved one.

The truth of John Donne's words any man's death diminishes me because I am involved, part of, mankind hit home. We have been diminished by his death - we here this morning but also so many others.  As the week has unfolded so we have heard from so many people whose lives he had touched - His wider 'parish' of listeners for whom his Sunday morning programme, delivered in his own inimitable style, was a lifeline and even for many a faith-line, however feint, which kept them in touch with God. His colleagues, too, at the BBC, one of whom said that he was central to the life of the station, a ready listener who made it possible for them to speak from the heart.

And more and more people who were enriched by him - those who read his weekly column in the Epping Guardian; those who were helped through his chairmanship of the Epping & Theydon Garnon Charity and for whom he always had the greatest compassion; the staff and students of Capel Manor where he put into practice his firm belief that God can be found in Creation, in the heart of a garden.  Earlier this year, he inspired a faith garden which was constructed at the Chelsea Flower Show. How proud he was of the silver gilt award! But he was much more proud of the aspiration it stood for - that people of all faiths can find natural points of dialogue in the wonder of creation and so reach out to each other.  This was part and parcel of Chris's big vision for humanity and even for the church.

All week people have been telephoning or stopping me in the street because his death has so shocked them but we must not forget those for whom his death has brought the greatest diminishment - Mary, Ellen, Sarah, Chris's family. Our hearts go out to them in their saddest loss. For them, even much more than for us, a light has gone out of their lives which can never be re-kindled.  So, John Donne's words about our lives being diminished strike at the heart of a truth we all feel. 

Yet, we have to pass from that towards another feeling and the way to that is through enrichment.  Inevitably in this time of mourning we think of what has been lost but behind that is surely the knowledge of what has been gained through knowing Chris.

The enrichment he brought to people's lives can never be lost. Some of the words that come to mind about Chris are words like 'challenging', 'stimulating', 'encouraging'; 'enthusing' - even 'infuriating' and 'exasperating' at times - but the one word which crops up all the time is 'loving'.

He had an Incarnational theology which means that he shared a vision of God which changes and redeems people from within - a world vision but a vision of a world turned round from selfish concerns with all that means for tyranny, oppression and greed, into a world of generosity, mutual acceptance, equality and filled with deep care - a world, in fact, which is filled with the grace of God and which is a reflection of God's glory. 

And nowhere did Chris see that glory manifest more than in the human heart. He had a loving acceptance of all and for him no one was excluded or cut off from the love of God- nor from the power of that love to change and heal, to free and to bring hope, often in seemingly hopeless of situations. Chris showed us all the inclusivity of God's love and this was the 'big picture' that ruled his life - the canvas on which his own life was painted.  Chris made people feel special, valued, and important - and in this he enriched our lives. 

We can mourn what we have lost, as indeed we should, but we must also be prepared to pass from grief to gentle thanksgiving for what we gained through knowing him. Those things remain in our hearts because they have helped to shape who we are.  Beyond diminishment and enrichment there is something else and it is something we have yet to fully experience as Chris now does completely and which was also something he tried to give us - the sense of the eternal.

I have chosen for today's Gospel that passage from St John were Jesus meets Martha near Bethany after the death of her brother Lazarus.  In her grief Martha ran to meet Jesus and they have a remarkable conversation.  Martha begins it by saying that had Jesus been there, Lazarus would not have died.  It's one of those 'if only' statements that many of us make at the death of a loved one. 'If only this had happened then that wouldn't.' I thought about this earlier in the week when I conducted the funeral of a 22 year old boy who had died in a road accident in Epping. 'If only he had set off from home 2 minutes later, he would be alive today.'

But it's also the question we ask of God. If only you had prevented Chris from taking that plane or if only Chris had known that his heart wasn't in good shape. and so those questions go on - if only you had been here, Lord.  Yet, too, there is great faith based on a hope Martha had in Jesus - even now God will do as you ask.  Of course, we know, for Martha, Jesus did go on to act and Lazarus was raised from the dead but what Jesus said to her is much more important than a physical raising from death. Your brother will rise again.  This led Martha to speak from the heart of faith about something that was beyond her immediate grief. She spoke of the Resurrection on the last day. This was pure Easter faith uttered before Easter was an historical event and it gave Jesus the opportunity to say something about himself - I am the resurrection and the life - and those words we need to hear today if we are to put Chris's death into a context which he would wish us to do. A context which was not only central to his own belief but also something he just knew was his destiny and his inheritance.

Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.   Do you believe this?"

It's the sort of question I can hear Chris asking and is a fundamental question for the Christian because it changes the meaning of death and puts it into the bigger picture of Resurrection life.  That is the life which Chris has now entered into and as a Christian I cannot even think to deny it from him. It is, after all, the goal and destiny of all who love the Lord Jesus and who seek to follow him, through Easter faith, to the eternal love of God which is his gift to us in his Kingdom of Heaven.

I grieve his passing but I do not mourn about his destiny. It is this for which he has lived and prepared all his life and which is at the heart of all that he ever taught us or showed us - it was the source of his loving and caring for us.

So after diminishment and enrichment we must try and feel joy - for Chris. He has reached that place which is the gift of God - the gift of his kingdom and of glorious, eternal love.  At the end of this service there is a prayer which is based on a part of the Eucharistic Prayer for Easter.

Father God We give you thanks
because through Our Lord Jesus Christ you have given us the hope of a glorious resurrection;
so that, although death comes to us all,
yet we rejoice in the promise of eternal life;
for to your faithful people life is changed not taken away;
and when our mortal flesh is laid aside,
an everlasting dwelling place is made ready for us in heaven

That prayer gives us a truth we must hold on to because it is filled with the Easter Faith of the Church and it is a reminder that death cannot destroy life but merely allow God to change life into something more glorious.

Chris is now alive in God and when we come to that part of the Eucharistic Prayer where we join with angels and archangels and all God's company of heaven, then Chris is near to us - as near as a heartbeat of prayer - and if we have that vision, that biggest of all pictures about human life - Chris will have done his job well.

May he know the glorious joy of heaven. I am sure that he does.