For those of us involved in the planning of our dear friend Walter’s funeral,  it was one of the hardest and most intimidating challenges of our lives …. yet it also felt astonishingly simple and natural – the kind of event where the details come together with almost eerie ease.  Maybe that makes no sense, but that’s honestly how it felt at least to me.   I should hasten to add that I was by no means one of the primary shapers of the service; that responsibility rested primarily on the shoulders of our current pastor, Mark Doidge,  and our beloved former pastor, Kris Capel,  who had been a treasured colleague of Walter’s at Holy Communion.   By the time I was sitting down with them to firm up the final musical details,  much of the service and many of the most critical decisions and choices had already been made.   And part of what made that process so much easier than it would have otherwise been is that Walter did not leave one to guess what he wanted for his funeral;  he had specified what scriptures would be read and at least some of the hymns that would be sung.  But it came down to more than that – it was also that there was not the slightest question of who Walter was, what he stood for, or what he valued most  . . .  and the whole flavor and focus of this service in many ways flowed right out of Walter’s luminous legacy.

In the first texts that his wife Lynn and I exchanged about the funeral preparations, we chuckled about the fact that the week before had been the funeral of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and that Walter’s funeral was likely to take on a comparable sense of importance and grandeur.   And I’m sure that at some point there was discussion of having the funeral someplace larger than Holy Communion to more easily accommodate everyone who would want to attend.  But ultimately, the choice was made to have it at Holy Communion and squeeze people in, one way or another. And ulimately, it was the largest crowd I have ever seen there,  with all three balconies full and people sitting in chairs at the back and standing on the sides of the sanctuary.   If there was the slightest doubt that Walter was loved,  it took just a glance at the number of mourners there to make it clear.  (And of course, beyond all who gathered there were many others who would have dearly loved to have been there.)

It was last Sunday night that I huddled with Pastors Mark and Kris to finalize the details of the funeral,  and it was a truly blessed time.   We were hard at work on something as important as anything any of us had ever been part of, and every detail mattered monumentally …. although it felt weird to be approaching this service that way, given how Walter was so much more of a big picture guy who never seemed to sweat over the details, always confident that something good could emerge from just about anything.   Actually, it’s a bit of a myth that Walter didn’t think about details or worry about practical matters.  He DID think about such things, especially in the years after his MS diagnosis, when such matters became increasingly crucial to him.   But the details were never the main point – and never something about which to be overly anxious or irritable about.   And that’s how we tried to put this service together.  And close at hand was Kris’s cell phone, with which we peppered Lynn with various questions when another new wrinkle was being concocted  – and every single time, Lynn’s answer was yes. She was as anxious as anyone for this service to be as fresh and full-of-life as Walter was.   Even in death, Walter was a catalyst for excitement.

The service began in absolutely perfect fashion, with Laura reading an essay that her dad wrote a number of years earlier titled “Expect Grace” – followed by the senior choir singing “Amazing Grace” as beautifully as they have ever sung it.  (I was amazed and touched that at least 3/4’s of the members of the choir were able to be there to sing, even though the service was Wednesday morning and many of them work.  It was another indication of their affection and admiration for Walter.)  Then came a reading of the first verses of Psalm 139, and then the processional hymn: Lift High the Cross,  in which the family was followed down the aisle by between 25 and 30 pastors (in full clerical regalia) who were there to pay their respects to their esteemed colleague …. and a number of them were not Lutheran clergy, which was a powerful testament to how much Walter had reached across denominational divides.

After a warm and eloquent welcome from Pastor Bill Grimbol came the heart and soul of the service ….  spoken tributes from Pastor Kris,  Bishop Jeff Barrow, and Pastor Mark, interspersed with scripture readings that Walter had chosen, and anthems and hymns – including the song “Bent,  Not Broken” which I had composed after seeing a Facebook post from Walter in the midst of one of his longest and most frightening hospitalizations.  Just at that point when we were fearing whether or not Walter would emerge from this latest and most serious crisis came this post:  “Bent But Not Broken.”  There was also the moving song “Blessings,”  which I first encountered this past summer at the funeral for a young woman named Allison Hill who grew up at Holy Communion.   The lyrics, by Laura Story, speak of how life’s richest blessings can often come from our trials – a reality with which Walter and his family lived for many years.  Heather Doidge sang the song and sang it beautifully.  The other song that was sung,  by request from Lynn, was “Breath of Heaven,”  which Kate and Kathy sing together every Christmas Eve.   They sang it as the congregation came forward for communion and it could not have been more perfect or more moving.   The hymns included “Let all things now living,” which the Helmke/Hermanns family has sung at all kinds of important family events, both happy and sad.  As for the spoken tributes from Kris, Jeff and Mark, they could not have been more perfect.

After communion,  Lynn stepped forward to speak – and got a huge laugh when she said something about pointing out a few of Walter’s faults, and proceeded to unspool a paper scroll at least six feet long!   But once the jokes were done, she beautifully expressed gratitude to all who helped make Walter’s later years as bearable as they were.  She reminded all of us of one of her favorite phrases – It takes a village to raise a child – and said that it took a whole village to raise Walter,  and thanked everyone who was part of that village.  She also took a moment to thank both Laura and Shawn for all they had done for their dad over the years, including plenty of things that a child should never have to do for a parent.  It was a powerful and moving moment.  Then after the committal ceremony at the side of the casket, the congregation rose to sing perhaps the oddest “closing hymn” ever sung at a funeral. . . which was actually a medley of carefully chosen verses from five different Christmas carols.   Lynn really gets the credit for that.  The previous Sunday at church,  one of congregational hymns was “Good Christian Friends Rejoice.”   When everyone got to the last-verse words “now ye need not fear the grave,”   Lynn leaned over to Kris and whispered something about what a neat closing hymn this would be for the funeral.  Ultimately, we ended up finding similar moments from “Away in a Manger,” “Lo, how a Rose e’er Blooming,” “It came upon a Midnight Clear,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”  Imagine a church full of people, singing triumphantly: “Mild He lays, His glory by … born that we no more may die …. Born to raise each child of earth …. born to give us second birth!”   It was extraordinary!   It was so Walter.  And I would like to think that tonight and/or tomorrow, when most of us are singing these particular carols again,  we will not only be thinking of mangers and shepherds . . .  We will also be thinking about Walter and the way in which Grace has a way of entering our lives when we least expect it.

That’s what his life was all about.

Pictured above:   Lynn delivering her moving remarks at the end of the funeral.  (That long white strip hanging down from the lectern is her list of Walter’s faults.)    And I love how Walter’s casket was festooned with various clerical stoles.