For Connie

Your Account is Reconciled

August 4, 2025

Psalm 23 and Matthew 11:25-30

If Connie had her way, we would probably skip over all this, or at least keep it short, sweet, and as unspectacular as possible. But the thing is, you cannot love someone and not say anything when they are gone.

And, I loved Connie.

I first met Connie over email through the glamorous world of church credit card reconciliation. Our friendship began with spreadsheets, expense forms, and missing receipts. The thing you need to know is that Connie did not just manage money and receipts. She was a grace dealer.

She was not keeping tabs. She was not judging how many books I was expensing or if the receipts were turned in on time. She was, in her quiet way, embodying the gospel.

Connie knew the difference between keeping records of right and wrong and keeping records in order.

And that difference is everything.

When I think of Connie now, I return to this image:

God has Connie’s receipts, and they were reconciled, accounted for, long before she took her first or last breath.

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”[i]

Connie understood burdens. She carried more than her share. But she also carried them with strength and steadiness that came from something deeper. Maybe it was her faith or grit. Probably both. But I also believe she knew something the rest of us are still trying to learn:

That reconciliation, the real kind, is not something we earn.

It is something we are given.

The gospel does not promise us a life free from burdens. But it does promise us that our burdens are not the final word.

Connie did not want today to be a spectacle. And I think we are doing a good job of honoring that. But I do think she would get a chuckle at a memorial service homily centered on balance sheets and reconciliation. Not of accounts, but our lives.

Psalm 23 says, “You prepare a table before me…my cup overflows.”[ii]

That is the image we carry with us from today forward.

Not of a woman trying to make sense of our accounting or fighting with her laptop, but a woman seated at the table of God.

A cup running over.

A ledger closed.

And a voice, perhaps like Connie’s, whispering to us in the quiet:

“You are reconciled. You are good to go.”

The grace of God in Jesus Christ does not wait until we have balanced our accounts or earned a place at the table.

It meets us in the middle of life’s chaos. In offices, friendships, late-night laughs, and weary prayers.

And it carries us, even when we do not think we need carrying.

And the gospel doesn’t just carry us through life’s burdens. It carries us beyond them.

When Jesus says, “Come to me, and I will give you rest,”[iii] He is not just talking about a good night’s sleep or a break from spreadsheets. He is talking about resurrection.

About a rest so complete, so eternal, that even death cannot disturb it.

Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we trust that death is not the end of Connie’s story—or ours.

The tomb is empty. The ledger is clear. And the table is set, overflowing with grace.

So, we grieve.

But we do not grieve without hope.

Because the One who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest,”[iv] is the same One who has now received Connie into His rest.

And if the gospel is true, and I believe it is, then here is no missing receipt, no mistake, no moment in Connie’s life, no moment in your life, that has not already been covered in grace,

She lived reconciled.

And now, she rests reconciled, not held only by the love of our memories but in the arms of Christ.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

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Constance (Connie) Michel Hanna

A proud first generation American of Lebanese descent, Connie was an educator, artist, friend, but above all else – a mother. She carried her family through the darkest times, raised her beautiful voice and loved unconditionally with humility and grace. Nana embraced grandchildren from three continents. A woman of quiet strength and dignity, Connie lived a glorious life

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[i] Matthew 11:28

[ii] Psalm 23:5

[iii] Matthew 11:28

[iv] Ibid.