{"id":2756,"date":"2017-10-26T09:50:11","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T14:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/?p=2756"},"modified":"2017-11-13T16:00:03","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T21:00:03","slug":"rattling-bones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/2017\/10\/rattling-bones\/","title":{"rendered":"Rattling Bones: A Eulogy for Dale P. Andrews"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"JANUARY<\/a>
JANUARY 16, 2013- Martin Luther King Commemorative Program, Elon University (photo by Dan Anderson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RATTLING BONES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eulogy for Dale P. Andrews<\/p>\n

Emilie M. Townes<\/p>\n

27 September 2017<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt Divinity School<\/p>\n

Ezekiel 37:1-14<\/p>\n

pastoral prayer<\/p>\n

if we die while being faithful, then death is not the end of life<\/em><\/p>\n

this redaction from an interview dale gave in 2011 was repeated many times on facebook and other social media in the days shortly after he died<\/p>\n

it was taken from a longer interview he did with faith and leadership\u2014a resource from leadership education at duke divinity school<\/p>\n

in that interview, he talked about balancing the pastoral and the prophetic as an ongoing challenge for the church<\/p>\n

and the specific question he was responding to was: What about those leaders in the church who may say, \u201cWell, social justice is a goal, but we are trying to keep our organization together, trying to keep it healthy, trying to keep it alive\u201d? How do those two issues intersect?<\/p>\n

dale took what i call, a \u201cdale long pause\u201d and measured his response<\/p>\n

pointing out the reality of institutional survival as important in black churches, the role of both protest and nurture that has shaped the witness of black churches, the economic stresses and strains these churches face with issues of maintaining the building and the staff<\/p>\n

but then he said: this is not the sum total of the work<\/p>\n

and then just a bit later, and this is where the quote is taken from, dale tells the interviewer and us:<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re going to die, if we\u2019re looking at facing death, then let us go out trying to be the church.<\/p>\n

We still work at the institutional maintenance, but if we\u2019re facing death, let us face death with faith that our death is not the end of our life. And let us go out dying by doing that justice-making out in the community, and we will be faithful in doing it and trusting in God\u2019s faithfulness to work with us.<\/p>\n

And if we die while we\u2019re being faithful, our death is not the end of life.<\/p>\n

leave it to dale to be both prophetic and pastoral in the same breath<\/p>\n

and this is the bootiful legacy he leaves us with<\/p>\n

reminding us all that in the best of us, there is still better<\/p>\n

in the worst of us, there is always the promise of redemption<\/p>\n

and all of us, all of us find ourselves on some kind of emmaus road at points in our lives where a reckoning comes with who we have been, who we are, and who we can be<\/p>\n

like ezekiel\u2019s vision in the valley of dry bones<\/p>\n

dale reminded us time and time again that an empty theology and a dilapidated faith<\/p>\n

does not help us get to salvation<\/p>\n

no, we must have a deep, committed, convicted faith<\/p>\n

for when we are broken, when we are harried with the details and challenges of living<\/p>\n

we can\u2019t cover up our frustration, our anger, or our impatience with a don\u2019t worry, be happy gospel of iniquity<\/p>\n

for there is a difference between a band aid and major surgery<\/p>\n

between consolation and rebirth<\/p>\n

between playing dodge ball with our faith and standing before god<\/p>\n

and if we die while we\u2019re being faithful, our death is not the end of life<\/em><\/p>\n

this was a word to the church<\/p>\n

and a word to each of us<\/p>\n

the vision of the valley of dry bones<\/p>\n

is more than a story about reconnecting some sun-bleached ivory<\/p>\n

that got that way because of sin and faithlessness<\/p>\n

it is the revelation<\/p>\n

of the transforming power of God’s spirit within each of us<\/p>\n

which is why, i suspect, we miss dale\u2019s booming voice and laughter so much<\/p>\n

why we yearn for the ways that he leaned in and listened closely when you talked with him<\/p>\n

why he looked you in the eye when he had something to say to you<\/p>\n

how he could and would drive you a bit pixalated when he dug in with his compassionate heart and insisted that we pay attention to the least of these<\/p>\n

his faith was an active witness to God\u2019s transforming power<\/p>\n

to the challenge that each of us can take up God\u2019s question: can these bones live<\/p>\n

and do our own preaching to the four winds<\/p>\n

our own turning to a holy mindbender and heart fixer and soul regulator<\/p>\n

and live our faith so that if we die while being faithful, our death is not the end of life<\/p>\n

we are sometimes like the dry bones<\/p>\n

sometimes we are a valley people with a death mentality<\/p>\n

we get ourselves in the crouch posture to cover ourselves up so that life will not crush us<\/p>\n

but brother professor reverend dale p. andrews\u2019 life, witness, and resurrection reminds us that we must face our living even as we die<\/p>\n

through the sleepless nights that make us feel as though god\u2019s love is far from us<\/p>\n

through the times we second guess our choices and decisions<\/p>\n

through the physical and emotional and spiritual illness that sometimes won\u2019t let us go<\/p>\n

when we don\u2019t love ourselves enough to realize that god loves us<\/p>\n

when the church can\u2019t seem to live a wide and large faith that let\u2019s all of god\u2019s creation in because our vision is too small and narrow to speak a full gospel<\/p>\n

dale\u2019s powerful belief that god\u2019s mercy is alive in creation, helps us reach out and stop living in the folds of old wounds<\/p>\n

so that we no longer endure just plain wrongness with a silence that is not golden<\/p>\n

and leaves us empty and hollow and mean as a snake<\/p>\n

we avoid wrapping our hope up in a lamentation of indifference<\/p>\n

we find that we have crafted a muzzled life that gives us no voice except for laissez-faire postmodern platitudes that seem to hide out in the wastelands of our hearts that have ceased pulsing on the morning<\/p>\n

we recognize that that running away from the challenges of living a vibrant gospel is placing our faith on the boondocks of fear<\/p>\n

and friends, we are simply scared to come out of the house, out of our religious homes, so we lock ourselves in with a malnourished discipleship as our banquet feast<\/p>\n

as we mourn dale\u2019s death in these days and weeks ahead, let\u2019s try to keep in mind what he tried to live in his time with us<\/p>\n

we must grow our hearts large and larger<\/p>\n

we must hold on to the watch light of hope<\/p>\n

we must live a life that is filled by god\u2019s breath<\/p>\n

we must have a witness that is woven by the sinews that come from the almighty<\/p>\n

we must have a faith that is covered by the flesh that the holy spirit gives us<\/p>\n

and if we do this and teach others to do so as well<\/p>\n

we will hear our bones rattling with the promise of salvation<\/p>\n

we will discover the rich laughter that can carry us through the rough and tough spots of life<\/p>\n

we will shed deep and full tears for our loss and remember that a bright light has dimmed so we must trim our lamps<\/p>\n

oh yes. . .i miss him today, i will miss him in my tomorrows<\/p>\n

but i will carry with me the tremendous faith he carried with him even into his death and i encourage all of us gathered here and beyond to do so<\/p>\n

it was a faith that allowed him to fight with every ounce of his being to stay here for his children<\/p>\n

so that when he looked me in the eye when we first talked about his terminal cancer diagnosis he said: i want my children to have a father<\/p>\n

it is a faith that made him stop his oncologist as he was walking out of the door while dismissing the possibility that the prayers of those of us who went deep into our prayer closets could save him, thus proving that there is no god<\/p>\n

doc, i need you to sit down for a minute.\u00a0 doc, i need you to know that if i don\u2019t survive, that doesn\u2019t mean there isn\u2019t a god.<\/p>\n

and on the conversation went<\/p>\n

the faith that dale knew and shared with each and every one of us prophesies to dry bones that God will cause breath to enter them, and us, and we shall live<\/p>\n

the sinews of redemption will come from the four winds<\/p>\n

and the flesh of justice and love will be covered by a stubborn, willful refusal to believe that god is done with us and this is the best it can be in creation<\/p>\n

we will carry with us the power and challenge of dale\u2019s words: and if we die while we\u2019re being faithful, our death is not the end of life<\/p>\n

hmmmpf. . .<\/p>\n

if we die while we\u2019re being faithful, our death is not the end of life<\/p>\n

let\u2019s rattle them bones<\/p>\n

amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RATTLING BONES Eulogy for Dale P. Andrews Emilie M. Townes 27 September 2017 Vanderbilt Divinity School Ezekiel 37:1-14 pastoral prayer if we die while being faithful, then death is not the end of life this redaction from an interview dale gave in 2011 was repeated many times on facebook and other social media in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6668,"featured_media":2760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[1057,1054],"class_list":["post-2756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-news","tag-dale-andrews","tag-faculty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2756"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2792,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756\/revisions\/2792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}