Sermon for the Christian Funeral of Carol Jeanne Thompson

Those who are in the know say this account written by St. Luke in the book of Acts is the most detailed account of a shipwreck in the ancient world in existence. There are all sorts of geographic points and nautical terms, and amid them is the continuing story of the Apostle Paul. Paul is traveling to Rome from Jerusalem by ship, to stand trial before Caesar. He is a prisoner, under guard of a centurion, a Roman non-commissioned officer, named Julius, and his friends Luke and Aristarchus are with him, as well as other prisoners. The sailors decided to depart from their last port at the end of the year which was a bad decision. Like the song says of Lake Superior, so too in the Mediterranean Sea the skies of November turn gloomy, and the ship became a bone to be chewed. St. Paul warned them, but they did not listen. For fourteen days the ship faces stormy seas, headed for certain doom.