Prompt thought of the week:
Sometimes the things we think offer love actually seek to bind us, preventing us from being full and whole and offering our best love to the world. The story of Lazarus, whose funeral shrouds trail him out of the tomb, offer us a metaphor of new life as we recognize that true love is that which unbinds us, that wants for us more, not less, freedom and life. Jesus says to us, “Come out!” Walk! Live! Love! Shed your funeral clothes and offer your deepest self, your deepest love, for the world. Of course this kind of love can be dangerous, as we will see as the events of Holy Week loom closer. But the price of continuing to look for love in the wrong places is higher than the blessing of life lived boldly.
On January 30, 2023, Rev. Bill Coleman died peacefully at home in Chatham, Massachusetts, after a protracted battle with cancer. I had been out of touch with Bill for a long time—that’s what happens when one person lives on the east coast and the other in the midwest or west coast—until this past December when, upon hearing he had terminal cancer, I reached out to to let him know how important he has been in my life, both personally and professionally.
You see, in the mid-1970s, when I was a seminary student at Boston University School of Theology, Bill was my field education supervisor/mentor for two years at Christ Church, United Methodist, in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It was there, under Bill’s guidance, that I felt my call to ministry confirmed. He was an excellent pastor and I, as a seminary intern, watched him closely as he shared his faith and interacted with members of his congregation and surrounding community. More importantly, I have continued trying to emulate Bill’s belief and practice throughout my life and ministry.
When parishioners would ask me why I believed something or did something in a particular way, I would often respond with a smile, “Well, that’s what Bill Coleman believed or that’s the way Bill Coleman did it.” And whenever something went haywire in my congregation I would say, with tongue in cheek, “Well, that’s what Bill Coleman believed or did.”
John 11:25 NRSV reads: ”…Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live…” I know the gospel writer is talking about Jesus in this snippet of scripture; that is, the gospel writer is suggesting that Jesus spoke these words to Martha (Lazarus’ sister). But for me this sentence captures the essence of Rev. Bill Coleman whose belief and practice continue to live and are still worth emulating.
Prayer: O God, help us to live as those who are prepared to die. And when our days here are accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in you, and that nothing in life or in death will be able to separate us from your great love in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. [Prayer adapted from A Service of Death and Resurrection, The United Methodist Hymnal, 1989, page 871.]
Ken Ehrman