A Celebration of Life
ANTHONY 'TONY' R. MIELE
​May 16, 1927 - May 6, 2020

Prelude
 
Words of Welcome and Comfort
Those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
                                                     - Isaiah 40:31
 
And the psalmists continue: There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.
                                                   - Psalm 46.4-5, 7

When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory… Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
                                                  - 1 Corinthians 15:54-55
 
Opening Prayer   
                                                                                                            
Song                                                                            
 
Words of Remembrance
 
Words of Promise & Hope (and Scripture) 
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
    He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters; 
    he restores my soul. 
He leads me in right paths
    for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, 
    I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff--
    they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    my whole life long.
                                                           - Psalm 23:1-6
 
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 
                                                             - John 14:1-3 

Song
 
Prayer of Commendation
O God, our strength and our redeemer, giver of life, and conqueror of death, we open our hearts to you just as they are. We celebrate your gift of life freely given, but are grieved by a sense of loss in the face of death. The love which binds us to one another leaves us aching as ties are broken. Accept our tears as symbols of love and devotion and transform them into the waters of life to nourish us in the days ahead, bringing us again to joy. 
 
We trust you. We love you. We know in Christ that your love is everlasting; that nothing can separate any of us from your abiding care. Thus, with the full confidence of faith we now commend Anthony “Tony” R. Miele to your boundless love and overflowing compassion. Through the power that raised Christ from the dead to live eternally with you, lift up this, your child, Tony, to life fulfilled beyond our wildest imagining. Accept him as he is with all his frailties as well as his strengths.  Enfold him in your everlasting arms. Embrace him as your friend. We pray in the name of this Christ who taught us to pray, saying:
 
Our Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.  Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, Amen.
 
Blessing & Benediction
 
Taps and Flag Presentation
 
Postlude
            
​

​A Celebration of Life
HARLAN FREDERICK WENDELL
May 21, 1932 – December 14, 2019

Prelude

Words of Welcome and Comfort                                             “I am the Resurrection and I am the Life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, yet shall they live, and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.  I died and behold I am alive forever more and I hold the keys to hell and death.  Because I live, you shall live also.”
                              - John 11:25-26
 
Opening Prayer
 
Hymn - Amazing Grace (v. 1, 3 & 4)     CH #546
 
Scripture Readings
Mark 10:35-45 (The Message)
James and John, Zebedee’s sons, came up to him. “Teacher, we have something we want you to do for us.”
“What is it? I’ll see what I can do.”
“Arrange it,” they said, “so that we will be awarded the highest places of honor in your glory—one of us at your right, the other at your left.”
Jesus said, “You have no idea what you’re asking. Are you capable of drinking the cup I drink, of being baptized in the baptism I’m about to be plunged into?”
“Sure,” they said. “Why not?”
Jesus said, “Come to think of it, you will drink the cup I drink, and be baptized in my baptism. But as to awarding places of honor, that’s not my business. There are other arrangements for that.”
When the other ten heard of this conversation, they lost their tempers with James and John. Jesus got them together to settle things down. “You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around,” he said, “and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage.”
 
John 3:13-17 (CEB)
No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
 
Words of Remembrance

Hymn - How Great Though Art (v. 1, 3 & 4)  CH #33
 
Words of Promise and Hope

Hymn - The Old Rugged Cross (v. 1 & 4)  CH #548
 
Prayer of Commendation
O God, our strength and our redeemer, giver of life, and conqueror of death, we open our hearts to you just as they are. We celebrate your gift of life freely given, but are grieved by a sense of loss in the face of death. The love which binds us to one another leaves us aching as ties are broken. Accept our tears as symbols of love and devotion and transform them into the waters of life to nourish us in the days ahead, bringing us again to joy. 
We trust you. We love you. We know in Christ that your love is everlasting; that nothing can separate any of us from your abiding care. 
Thus, with the full confidence of faith we now commend Harlan Frederick Wendell to your boundless love and overflowing compassion. Through the power that raised Christ from the dead to live eternally with you, lift up this, your son, Harlan, to life fulfilled beyond our wildest imagining. Accept him as he is with all his frailties as well as his strengths.  Enfold him in your everlasting arms. Embrace him as your friend. We pray in the name of this Christ who taught us to pray, as together:

Our Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.  
​Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, Amen.
 
Blessing & Benediction

Postlude    

Special Thanks to Mr. Lee Crouse, a friend of the family, for providing music for today's service.