Preached on Friday, September 19, 2025 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Little Rock in memoriam Dr. Thomas Revillon “Rev” Winans (December 7, 1944 – September 15, 2025).

“Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16b)

Rev Winans made a living on renewing our inner nature. Anne tells me that Rev knew he wanted to be a psychologist when he was just a young teenager––and that’s just what he did! He took degrees from the University of Virginia in the Blue Ridge Mountain foothills and from “Ole Miss” in the Hill Country of Mississippi––quite a ways away from his native southern California––all so he could one day help renew our inner nature. Thank God for therapists.

Anne also tells me that Rev was likely pursuing the renewal of his own inner nature, too. He had a good upbringing––a childhood in Pasadena, summers on the shores of Malibu Beach or on the Orme Ranch of Arizona, parents whom he loved, siblings to learn and grow alongside––but an upbringing and a life with more than a fair share of tragedy and heartbreak, too.

“The wounded healer” is how Carl Jung described it: someone who knew pain and who wanted to help others through their pain––not despite it, but because of it [2]. Comprehensive exams and a dissertation for a Ph.D. were one mark of Dr. Winans’ strength; carrying pain while tending to the pain of others is an even greater one. Again, I say: thank God for therapists.

And then there were the common doses of renewal that came to Rev from just living in God’s good creation: reading, gardening, skiing, a sharp tie and sportcoat, an afternoon with your dog, music in all its variety—all so very renewing.

But no doubt, one of the great gifts of renewal given to Rev was his family: his dear sons, William and Alex; and his wife of 54 years, Anne––marrying her not once but twice, renewing his vows to the one who brought so much renewal to him. He knew he had found a partner who was, as the Prayer Book puts it, “a strength in need, a counselor in perplexity, a comfort in sorrow, and a companion in joy” [2].

Renewal is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? Renewal says, “Oh, no, we’re not quite done with this. This can keep going. This has more to offer.” Renewal is to love something or someone so much so as to hold out hope for what more there might be. Renewal is to say “yes” when we very well might say “no.”

We experienced that in Rev and Rev experienced that himself: in his working and in his living. And that just gives us a glimpse into the renewal offered to us and to him by the Good God Himself. So writes the apostle Paul: “Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”

Our outer nature is just wasting away: our bodies, our circumstances, our world, our loved ones, our own selves. And that phrase “wasting away” feels exactly right, doesn’t it? We feel it in the weariness that creeps up on us, in the illnesses we can’t quite shake, in the memories that fade, in the goodbyes we never feel ready to say. We feel it as we sit here today in grief. “Wasting away” is what it means to be human in a world where things break and people leave and life slips from our grasp.

And yet! And yet, “even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” God takes all that very well might receive a “no” and, instead, gives it a beautiful “yes.” God loves us so much that He holds out hope for what more there might be for us.

That is what is happening for Rev right this very moment. God is not finished with him. The renewal Rev so deeply believed in and worked for—patient by patient, day in and day out, up until just a few months ago—and the renewal offered to him by those of us who knew and loved him, that renewal is being completed in him by his LORD, in a way far more profound that we can possibly understand. God’s final word over Rev—and over you and me—is not death, but life; not brokenness, but wholeness; not “no,” but “yes.”

These words of Paul from Holy Scripture are meant to encourage us. They aren’t meant to diminish or discredit what we feel today and in the days and years to come. We Christians don’t hide from our grief; in fact, we embrace it, because grief is a reminder that we’ve lost something and someone good. No, these words from Scripture encourage us because they tell us that there is more to come—more is on the way! God is not through with any of us, not even at the grave. God’s renewal has more in store for each one of us––far more than we can possibly imagine. For as the Psalmist has us say, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow [us] all the days of [our] life, and [we] will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever” (Psalm 23:6). Amen.

[1] Carl Jung, “Fundamental Questions of Psychotherapy” (1951), Collected Works, volume 16.

[2] Book of Common Prayer, 429.