A Service of Remembrance for Jon Logan Sampson December 10, 2018 | 2:00 p.m. Reflection

Life is a gift, and I believe we are remembering here someone who made the most out of that gift.  Jon came from a family of pioneers: Finnish immigrants from his father’s side, and Oregon pioneers from his mother’s.  It seems that his childhood afforded him a chance to be an explorer himself.  His early playground was the family’s great farm, “the ranch,” as you heard it.  As a youth he fished and hunted along the rugged beauty of Oregon’s coast—playground of salmons and humpback whales.

Jon was a boy scout.  He attended the National Jamboree in 1953; and twice he hiked for forty miles as an Explorer Scout, in New Mexico’s wilderness and Oregon’s mountains along the Rogue River.  He excelled in playing football and enjoyed restoring old cars with his brother.  [So what if he did not have Snapchat on his phone at the time; but if he had had Facebook, I have a feeling that he would have done it well, too.]  Upon his graduation from the University of Oregon he was designated a “Distinguished Military Graduate,” and began his career in the Army.

Jon served among others two tours in Vietnam, second time voluntarily, and retired as Lieutenant Colonel.  Just before going over to Vietnam for the first time, he married Barbara (Ann Belet).  They were married for 52 years.  At one time in his retirement he returned to near the sea, this time on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and there he and his dog, Casey, walked to and from the mailbox on the county road twice round-trip (3.2 miles, total), four days a week for five years, for a grand total of 3,328 miles!  He enjoyed working in a garden, made his own firewood, and sailed around the Chesapeake Bay.

Clearly, Jon did not waste the gifts that were given to him.  He explored the nature’s playgrounds, excelled in the tasks given, served diligently, and loved the ones dear to him.  Even as a child, he had a knack for doing his best: He won awards for recruiting the most neighborhood children for vacation Bible school.  His life was a gift to many.  Jon ran into to the evil of war and violence in Vietnam and had the fortitude to make it an opportunity to serve.  

His final years were so unlike him in that his suffering seemingly overshadowed his true self.  As much as we admire the way Jon lived his life, we grieve and mourn our loss of him.  It would be great if life was a puzzle that fits perfectly.  But it is not, as we know, and often it leaves us with questions that cannot be answered.

But if that were not the case, we would not have that great gift that makes us spiritual beings: Hope.  Hope that is seen, St. Paul said, is no hope at all.  Hope gets us going forward towards tomorrow.  For me, that is why I am a person of faith.  My God is actually a crucified man who now lives again—proving that love never ends.  “Love never ends,” St. Paul said—even if all the others will.”

So it is with hope that I recount Jon’s memory.  Let us remember the gift of his life with thanksgiving.  The one who created the beauty of life will, someday in his own loving wisdom, put the puzzles together.