This is long but worth it…

I’ll never forget my first private meeting with Pastor Dave Jordan-Irwin, our pastor at Monument Community Presbyterian Church (MCPC) from when we started attending in October 2015 until he stepped down with pancreatic cancer July 2023. We were having coffee, and I mentioned something I had read in the Babylon Bee. He wasn’t familiar with the site, so I explained it was a satirical Christian news site (“Fake News You Can Trust”). He immediately said, “Wittenburg Door!”

I don’t know how many people read or remember the Wittenburg Door. It came out in 1971, and I used to subscribe to it until I realized it fed my critical spirit, which doesn’t need feeding! It’s the same reason I don’t read the Babylon Bee much. Anyway, an instant connection, and all of our “one-hour” coffees stretched to at least an hour and a half with much laughter as well as deep conversation. This blog, written during COVID, captures the essence of Pastor Dave. I told another Pastor Dave story in December.

You know that I’m writing about Dave’s passing – the other of the two friends who died of cancer the last week in September. He came back to the church and preached his retirement sermon January 14, 2024. It was bitterly cold, minus 11, and I thought he might put it off, but he came.

He told me when he arrived he was “weary.” He preached standing up and did most of the receiving line standing up not rushing anyone through. Here he is greeting June:

The sermon was constructed around “Little Drummer Boy,” and he played a very souped up version with wild percussion. He introduced it by asking if we could identify phrases meaningful to him (Hint: not “pa rum pum pum pum.”) I’m not a fan of the song, but I could get into this 4:30 arrangement. Please listen.

Here are my notes from the sermon: “He Rejoices Over You with Gladness”

• “I am a poor boy too.”
  • The drummer boy saw Jesus as approachable and accessible. It’s the incarnation.
  • What becomes true of us as we learn about this God?
  • Don’t be lonely: you’re not alone.
  • Isaiah 42: “A bruised reed he will not break.” Jesus combines power and tenderness.
• “I have no gift to bring that’s fit to give a king.”
  • But you do. All are called. The Blind Man in Luke 18: “Cheer up. He’s calling you.” [This is one of Dave’s favorite stories. The story starts with the man sitting by the side of the road. At the end, he’s on the road, following Jesus.”] 
• “Shall I play for you? Mary nodded.” Go for it. Try it out. Take the risk. Use your gift.
• “And he smiled at me.” That’s God. The nature of God: “All who look to him are radiant.”

His wife told us later that his kidneys are failing. One doesn’t work at all. The other is weak. A friend said he didn’t expect Dave to live for more than a few weeks. He also said he’s never heard someone preach his own funeral before.

But he surprised everyone, passing just after midnight, in the early hours of Saturday, September 28, eight months after what I thought would be his “last good day.” Here’s part of Interim Pastor John Anderson’s announcement of Dave’s passing:

Thursday morning [September 26] was my last visit with Dave.  I want to share with you some of that visit.   

It was difficult for Dave to speak, so he asked if I could hold his hand and just sit with him for a while.  After that I offered to read a passage of Scripture.  He requested Colossians 3 from The Message (verses 3-4).

Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.

Dave smiled knowingly when he heard these words. Becca talked about how Dave had continued to bless each of them with assurances of his affection and his confidence of God’s care for them.  There was a brilliance about Dave every time I visited him.  I told him that I believed he had a keener sense of who Jesus is than just about anyone I have ever met.  I believe that to be true and you at MCPC have experienced that Jesus-warmth in Dave firsthand.

Good words, Pastor John, and thank you, Pastor Dave, for being my friend and another example of how to live and how to die.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4.6 – 8, ESV)