The Long and Winding Road

PROPERS:          BURIAL OF THE DEAD                

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2025. (At Ronnie Miller’s funeral)

 

ONE SENTENCE:        Regardless of where life leads us, we can always “return home”.

 

            My first recollection of Ronnie is from 1970. I was a student at Meridian Junior College, and he was on faculty.

 

            I was a lowly freshman, and he was on the Fine Arts faculty.  He was also a Golden Gloves boxing champion. I wanted to stay out of his way.  I knew of him only from a distance.

 

            Little did I know what I would learn from him in the decades to come.

 

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            As I noted, Ronnie was on faculty – teaching classes, directing plays.

 

            On the other hand, I was a student – getting by on as little as I could.

 

            While Ronnie was being an adult faculty member, teaching classes and directing plays, one of my activities was serving as an announcer on our college radio station. It was not much of a radio station; it was limited to the cable system in Meridian. I was known as DJ the DJ – a moniker which has long-since died (may it rest in peace).

 

            It was 1970.  The Beatles were still around, though barely. One song that I repeatedly played on the station was “The Long and Winding Road” – written by Paul McCartney in 1968. It is a song he will not sing today. It is too emotional for him. It was the story of the challenges of getting to his love.

 

            But it had metaphorical meaning – then and now.

 

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            The Long and Winding Road. An appropriate image for today. For Ronnie. For you. For me.

 

            It is a profoundly biblical image, too. The travels of Abraham and patriarchs Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph – from the Tigres-Euphrates Valley in modern day Iraq, to modern-day Israel.  The wandering of the Israelites through the wilderness of Egypt, Jordan, and finally to Canaan for 40 years.  The exile of the Jews in Babylon. Jesus’ travels by foot through Galilee, Samaria, and ultimately into Jerusalem.  And, of course, Paul’s journeys through the known Mediterranean world.

 

            A long and winding road, indeed. None of it was easy. But God’s call was relentless.

 

            Ronnie had already begun his long and winding road. A native of south Tennessee, he had entered Mississippi College. He aspired to be a Baptist pastor – but life had other plans for him.  The riches of his life and wisdom would shape many others.

 

            The Long and Winding Road was just that for him – with many unanticipated turns. Classes to be taught. Plays to be directed. The death of a young spouse. Children to be nurtured. Matches to be boxed. New love and a new marriage.

 

            Yet, he stayed the course. Faithfully.

 

            Our lives would connect repeatedly as the road wound through the years. My life had taken a unique turn, but Ronnie continued a faithful path – traveling, teaching, molding, bearing witness.

 

            I would later encounter him when he had become active in the Episcopal Church.  The Church of the Mediator and St. Paul’s Church in Meridian, and later, St. Paul’s Chapel here in Magnolia Springs.  He had married Judy – whom I had known as a high school classmate.

 

            Our pathways would continually cross.  He had been faithful to the journey.  He was a rock – steady in his faith.  He would not veer.

 

            And here we are. Ronnie has been true to the long and winding road. We give thanks for his life, his steadfastness, his example. Ronnie taught us by example.

 

            Despite what life threw in front of him, he continued his journey.  It tells us a deep truth – no matter where life leads us, we can come home.  The road may be long and winding, but, if we allow it, it can lead us home – to the place where Ronnie has journeyed.

 

            Life can throw us many curves. Or Ronnie might say left hooks. But if we stay the course, or turn to the course to which God calls us, we can find home.