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Last Wish · Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: You are listening to the Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Please visit online at backwardmutters.substack.com.
• 0:08
  There you can subscribe via your favorite podcast player and
• 0:11
  read the newsletter.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Randy Edwards.
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  When I studied to be a pastor,
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  one of my practical theology professors was Dr.
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  Steve Brown.
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  Steve is a native North Carolinian and went to college down the
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  road from where I
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  SPEAKER_00: am currently a pastor.
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  From a North Carolina Methodist college to a Methodist seminary
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  in Boston,
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  SPEAKER_00: Steve trained for and entered the pastorate.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then he became a Christian.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not the usual progression for a minister.
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  SPEAKER_00: Eventually,
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  Steve made his way to South Florida where he pastored Key
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  Biscayne Presbyterian
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  SPEAKER_00: Church and founded Key Life Ministries.
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  SPEAKER_00: When the gospel got a hold of his heart and mind, it transformed him.
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  SPEAKER_00: That transformation,
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  SPEAKER_00: together with a growing appreciation of the amazing grace of the gospel,
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  SPEAKER_00: opened doors of opportunity.
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  SPEAKER_00: Steve came to find himself in many unique situations,
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  SPEAKER_00: especially among the residents of Key Biscayne in Miami.
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  SPEAKER_00: In one such encounter,
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  Steve found himself ministering to the wife of a dear friend
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  who moved in what
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  SPEAKER_00: Steve says was a very fast crowd.
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  SPEAKER_00: She was now dying of AIDS,
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  SPEAKER_00: and this was in the 1980s,
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  and this new disease carried with it a lot of fear and stigma
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  and was untreatable.
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  SPEAKER_00: In ministering to her,
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  Steve was able to help her to understand and then grasp the
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  great love of the
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  SPEAKER_00: Father as seen in and through Jesus.
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  When she died,
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  she died with hope and convinced of the forgiveness and love of
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  God for her.
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  SPEAKER_00: The funeral took place in the couple's home.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was more like a cocktail party.
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  The house was decorated with balloons and a jazz pianist played
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  music while the guests mingled.
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  You probably wouldn't be surprised to hear that the guests at
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  this funeral were not
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  SPEAKER_00: the sorts of people who went to church.
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  Though it was an unusual setting for a Presbyterian minister,
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  it wasn't for Steve.
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  SPEAKER_00: Why was that?
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  I think in Steve's mind,
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  this was just the sort of place where Jesus would have been present.
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  SPEAKER_00: Steve recalls the funeral in his book, Approaching God.
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  SPEAKER_00: When it was time for him to speak,
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  SPEAKER_00: Steve writes that he got up and he said this,
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm here for only one reason.
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  SPEAKER_00: You need someone to tell you the truth.
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  I'm just one bad person telling other bad people the most
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  important thing you'll ever hear.
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  SPEAKER_00: God is God, and you should remember that.
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  SPEAKER_00: But if you go to him, he won't be angry with you.
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  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he'll love you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our friend found that out, and we wanted to make sure you knew.
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  SPEAKER_00: When I first heard Steve Brown tell this story,
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  SPEAKER_00: I was inspired,
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  SPEAKER_00: and it continues to inspire and move me.
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  SPEAKER_00: I've taken his words and his memory and turned it into a poem story.
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  The narrator's perspective is from the vantage point of one of
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  the guests,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I've titled the poem Last Wish.
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  SPEAKER_00: It did not seem like a funeral,
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  SPEAKER_00: with all the booze and balloons,
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  SPEAKER_00: just a way to deny the noumenal,
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  SPEAKER_00: life and death caricatured like cartoons.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the cocktail hour's jazzy mix of celebration and intoxication,
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  SPEAKER_00: smartly dressed people laugh and chuckle,
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  SPEAKER_00: hide their unease behind conversation.
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  And unease there is as we grasp with white knuckles our scotch
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  like a roller
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  SPEAKER_00: coaster seat bar,
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  hoping these tumblers won't let us fling out into eternity like
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  some shooting star.
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  How can we escape when death at last comes,
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  for spouses takes friends into finality?
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  But our booze and balloons makes light and numbs us to the end
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  of our common reality.
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  A man stands up,
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  clears his throat to say why we're here,
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  why he's come today.
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  SPEAKER_00: Says, you need someone to tell you what's true.
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  SPEAKER_00: You're bad people, but I am one too.
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  SPEAKER_00: I've been invited to come in this sad season for one purpose.
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  SPEAKER_00: For this very reason.
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  If you'll take a moment and lend an ear,
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  I'll tell you what I hope you'll never unhear.
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  SPEAKER_00: Something you should not ignore or laugh at.
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  SPEAKER_00: God is God.
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  SPEAKER_00: should remember that.
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  SPEAKER_00: And though he is, and that he is, you should see.
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  SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to know,
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  SPEAKER_00: more importantly,
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  SPEAKER_00: is that if you turn to him,
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  SPEAKER_00: he won't be angry with you.
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  SPEAKER_00: That he will be glad because he loves you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our friend,
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  SPEAKER_00: the one whose death brings me to you,
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  SPEAKER_00: found that out at the last,
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  SPEAKER_00: and it meant all in the end.
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  SPEAKER_00: She came to know love,
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  SPEAKER_00: which did not withhold but send love willing to die,
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  SPEAKER_00: and in dying make things new.
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  Our friend's last wish,
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  why she sent me to you,
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  was to make sure that you knew it too.
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  SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to the Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Randy Edwards.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.