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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
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March 2005 |
From the Bishop:
It is a beautiful Easter morning
"Happy Easter," she said as I walked from her hospital room. Those were the last words she ever spoke to me or to anyone, because soon afterwards she slipped into a coma and died later that Easter Sunday.
Her name was Elizabeth, but everyone called her "Lib" and she was the main leader in a small congregation where I served as a student intern pastor in North Carolina while I was attending seminary at Duke Divinity School in Durham. She had been the United Methodist Women president, chair of the church council, chair of just about every other committee and certainly the mainstay of the congregation.
Lib had spent years being the "strong" person, the "helping" person, the one who always hurried around providing meals for the sick. Now it was her turn to be the sick one as she was dying of cancer. When she was first diagnosed, everyone wondered if she would be able to accept help, rather than being the helper. The answer was "yes" and Lib provided a beautiful example and testimony of someone who allowed others to care, all the while encouraging and supporting them in a way which made them want to care even more.
For me, as a young pastor-in-the-making, Lib was someone who taught me how to be in ministry. She was someone you enjoyed visiting and praying with - because you received as much ministry from her as you gave to her. Over those months of illness and preparing to die, Lib continued to be a beautiful person to know.
The last time I saw her was on an Easter Sunday. I had helped the youth lead the Easter sunrise service, and it came together well even after the usual disastrous rehearsal the week before. During a sunrise breakfast offered by the men's group and before the morning worship service started, I drove to the hospital to visit Lib. She was very weak, yet she wanted to talk about how the youth had done in the sunrise service, especially her own teenage son. She also wanted to know how my wife Marsha was doing. Marsha had recently had surgery. That was typical of Lib - she focused upon everyone else first. Finally, I asked how she was doing. She struggled to smile and to say, "It is a beautiful Easter morning." I could not stay long, and she was not strong enough for a long visit, so I prayed and left.
As I walked out the door, Lib called to me in a voice that was surprisingly strong, "Pastor Mike." I turned back into the room, and she said, "Happy Easter." I returned her greeting, left, drove back to the church, made it in time for the worship service and learned later that afternoon that she had passed away peacefully. Indeed it had been, for Lib, a Happy Easter.
A few days later as I watched our choir bravely sing "O God Our Help in Ages Past" for her funeral service, it was still Easter. Something of Lib's spirit and joy for life still carried that church along. Everyone said the same thing. Somehow it was appropriate for Lib to die on Easter. She was such an Easter person.
I have been blessed to know a lot of Easter people during my life and ministry. Those are the people who inspire me to celebrate our Easter faith. Such people have not spent much time worrying about various Christian interpretations of the Easter event, they did not debate the historical significance of the Resurrection, and they never had much time for church politics about those issues. They just knew that Easter is real, because they lived an Easter faith.
I pray this Easter will be for you and for all to whom you love and minister, a time of celebrating both our Easter faith and the Easter people who make Easter believable for everyone else.
Happy Easter.
from Bishop Michael J. Coyner
Indiana Area of
The United Methodist Church
"Making a Difference - in Indiana
and Around the World"
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008