Dear Caldwell,
Each page of the journal I use for my work notes offers a brief scripture. Today’s offering reads:
“I can do all things through Christ ….” (Philippians 4:13)
OK, God. I know this in my heart. But forgive me if “all things” seems like too much, especially today as we all digest the unspeakable news that another beloved sibling in Christ is gone. “All things” … including bearing the grief and sorrow of losing this unique light in our lives? “All things” … really?
“Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief,” as the father of the boy with an evil spirit told Christ in Mark 9.
And so it is we are given to each other as a community of faith to bear one another up through another valley of death. We are given each other as a community that shared the gift of Richard Harrison’s presence, faith, spirit and strength. We are given each other, even if it sometimes seems as if that is all we have, as seeds of the hope and healing that only comes from our Lord.
will be Saturday at 11 online.
So we will gather tomorrow night at 7 p.m. online to comfort one another in an informal time of sharing. I’ve always believed that grieving is our way of expressing the love we have for the one who has been lost, even when it hurts. So let us grieve but also laugh and cry, smile and remember and celebrate the gift of knowing him as God’s agent. To join that time together, use the link on the cover email you used to access this letter.
I can also report that Richard’s memorial service, a celebration and reassurance of the resurrection, has been scheduled for this Saturday at 11 a.m. It will be streamed online from Myers Park United Methodist Church, where Richard was also active, particularly in the years before he joined Caldwell. Just one of the things we will celebrate about Richard was that he loved church so much that he had two! Their technology and beautiful sanctuary will enable an appropriate shared celebration. I’m grateful for the chance to work with Rev. Dr. James Howell in preparing that service. Stand by for a link to that service to be shared later in the week.
Remember that we will not have the Preachers’ Porch tonight, suggesting instead that we attend online the Meck Min Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. I find comfort and abiding community in this annual service, a clear reminder that God is working across all faiths to bind up the wounds our city and to guide us toward unity in love and justice. Access that 6:45 p.m. service, including a simple registration, here.
In closing,, after the shock of yesterday I was grateful last night when Anne lifted up Psalm 130. One translation of scripture gives it the title of “Waiting for Divine Redemption.” Indeed, it is to the Divine we must turn when nothing makes sense, when no easy or glib answers will do, when we have suffered one more loss than we can handle. The psalmist demands that God hear his cry and answer. That is the God Richard Harrison knew, loved and called on so many times, an abiding God through the darkness as well as the joy. When we don’t know what to say or think or believe, when events render us speechless, the psalms can be our prayer. I commend Psalm 130 to you for that purpose and I close with its opening verses, as translated in The Message.
Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life!
Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
Listen to my cries for mercy.
Yours In Christ,
John