I want to write about my long time friend and clergy colleague, David Edwards, who lost his battle with cancer early yesterday morning.
I grieve over losing a friend, and I grieve for his beautiful, loving family. More than that, I grieve for a nation that did not know him directly, but will feel his absence nonetheless.
David lived life well. In his letter to the Christians at Rome the Apostle Paul counseled them to live a life well pleasing to God (12:2).
That is what David Edwards did. He did so by following the biblical call to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before God (Micah 6:8).
Faith is what opened his eyes to racial injustice and the scourge of segregation he and I both grew up seeing everyday, including in churches on Sunday morning.
Faith is what led him to oppose the Viet Nam War, not by going to Canada, but by going to Boston Children’s Hospital Medical Center for two years of service as a conscientious objector.
It was faith that led him to embrace openly gay and lesbian Christians at a time when few other ministers were willing to confront the issue.
Faith is why he supported the right to marry the love of your life regardless of sexual orientation before it was legal to do so, and why he led his church to welcome children and adults with special needs to participate in Sunday worship along with everyone else.
David lived and taught a life of contemplation as the source of inner strength to do the will of God in a world whose principalities and powers oppose anyone doing so.
I grieve his death, as should the whole nation, because David lived the kind of life America needs to see and experience today more than ever. Every city, town, community, and church needs the permeating goodness David Edwards brought to every situation.
He was a man filled with compassion and passion, seriousness and joy, and an unwavering devotion to doing what was right because it was right.
As I try to adjust to the reality that David is gone, my sense of personal loss is compounded by the need our country has for people like him as we try to withstand the whirlwind of all things Trump.
David’s life was an example of who we are as a people when we do not let someone stir feelings of hatred for one another within us, when we do not give in to the temptation to follow our worst instincts that would demonize others and make them the “other.”
It was probably through his music that David expressed himself most deeply and clearly. That he so often wrote and sang songs for children tells us all we need to know of his fundamental goodness. It was like every child was his own, every song written was a gift from a father to a child.
It is so easy these days to become emotionally overwhelmed by the perverse and mean spiritedness that seems to be running free in our country. I think that is why David’s death seems especially significant.
By being himself he reminded the rest of us of who we really are, who we were created to be. I can honestly say that whenever we were together, I always left thinking about something he said or was doing that made me want to be and do better than I was. I don’t think I ever told him that. I should have.
David didn’t try to be significant. He just was. He didn’t try to stand out as a champion of the voiceless and the forgotten. He just did. He didn’t identify himself as prophetic force that spoke truth to power no matter the risk. He just was.
I happened to be one of those who believes that there is life after death and so I believe David is now alive in a different sphere of existence.
But at the very least all of us can affirm the belief Judaism teaches that eternal life exists in the form of those who have died living on in the memory of loved ones and friends left behind. So we will never forget him, never let go to waste the influence and impact he had on us.
The hope for every person of faith is that when death comes we will hear the voice of God saying, “Well, done, good and faithful servant.”
If anyone has ever heard those words spoken, it was David Edwards early yesterday morning.
Peace, dear brother, peace. The whole world mourns your passing.
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