Remarks of Remembrance – Terry M. Coley
Christopher H. Edmonston
November 29, 2009
I.
One of my great professional blessings was the opportunity to work and serve and minister with Terry Coley. Of the days I worked with him, one that stands out was the last on, February 26, 2006. I had the privilege of speaking on his final Sunday, reading a resolution adopted by our Session, and of presenting gifts from the congregation to him. Mostly that service was about music. Much of the music you are hearing today was selected by Terry for that day and it is fitting that has been selected and is being performed and conducted by his life long friends and companions.
II.
Back in 2006, I began my remarks with the following illustration: “My favorite children’s book is called All the Places to Love. It’s a book about a grandmother and a grandson who live on a farm. The boy’s mother is expecting a second child, and he is feeling neglected. So the grandmother takes the boy under-wing and shows him all the places to love on the farm: the hill side, the creek, the great trees with their breezes under bough. The book is a beautiful panorama of color and diversity – it is a hymn to the beauty of places and place and familiar spaces and they way we pass on “the why we love something” to those whom we love. The book ends with a beautiful testimony to lessons learned and then taught – the little boy showing his baby sister all the places to love.
True love just might have very little to do with puppy-dog eyes and being swept off our feet (even though it is wonderful to be in love like that and I wouldn’t wish that experience away from anyone!). True love most probably consists in keeping something close to heart; in shepherding and stewarding something that we know is greater than ourselves; true love just might consist in insisting that someone gets the credit for our gifts and our service; true love just might be found in singular and inspiration dedication to place and people, like the grandmother passed onto her son, or, in the case of what we are about today, to a church and to God.”
III.
Today I want to add to that litany of love, that litany which describes the strength of the human heart and the enduring presence of the grace of God. True love, I want to say today, just might be most evident when the student remembers the teacher, or the community gives thanks for its leader, or when the choir bids adieu to its choirmaster. Yes, that may be as good as we’ll do this side of perpetual light or heaven’s gate.
That we are all here today is testimony to the legacy of the man about whom it was said by Frances Peters, “Mr. Coley’s years of service have given evidence of his love for and loyalty to Howard Memorial Presbyterian Church, and his strong faith in, and commitment to, the Triune God. His trust and faith have been reflected in his music, his teaching, his life.”
Which is to say, he loved this place and chose to express his love for God in it. Then too, it was equally true to say that he found ways to share his love for his God and his fellow man all throughout our community. He was a stranger to no organ in our town and a friend to any who wanted to feel the joy of music or offer a tune in the praise of God.
IV.
As I shared in my welcome, the scripture for today is in the hymns and anthems we sing and this is most appropriate for the occasion. The day Terry retired, we read 1st Corinthians 13 – you all know it, I imagine – “If I speak in the tongues of mortals or of angels and have not love, I am nothing….Love is patient, Love is kind, Love is not envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude….Faith, hope, and love abide, these three – and the greatest of these is love.”
Back in 2006 I offered, “One wonders how many times Terry has heard 1 Corinthians 13 read at weddings over the years. I wonder if he has heard it in his sleep?
There was an idea, early on, as we were planning today. An idea that all the brides that Terry had played for in all their weddings – all the times he had heard marriage vows exchanged as he occupied his seat on the organ bench. An idea that all those girls, ladies, and now, older women, would wear their wedding dresses on this last Sunday of Terry’s ministry. When told of this, Terry said something like, “O please, no!” I suspect either the thought of that spectacle or decorum itself welled up in his reaction, and we are doing things as best we are able. Though that would have been unforgettable, we are sure!
Well, even if there is not a bride in the house, the point remains that Terry has loved this place with patience and kindness. Terry has not been arrogant or rude. Other than proper consonants, good phrasing, and the proper care of the instruments in the church he has not too often insisted on his own way. Indeed Terry almost universally has deferred to the will of God and the authority of the church.
He has, most importantly, loved you
all, he has loved us. In turn we have
loved him and prayed for him and wished him well. Let us continue to do so always for there is
greatness in our midst and a servant’s heart in
Minutes ago, Sheila Cordle shared her remembrance of Terry and in them is a deep appreciation for Terry’s pursuit of perfection, he demand that what we offer be the best we have to offer. In them is her deep appreciation that Terry did not offer anything half done or half baked. Why was this? Well, I believe it was because Terry understood that if you love something, if you were called to love something, perfection was warranted because love rightly deserves the best we have to offer. If it took a demand for perfection to produce the best, the task of love rightly required it.
V.
I went and found this week the video of Terry’s final day. The music is grand. The church is packed. And Terry is nowhere to be seen? Why? Because he is in the organ, in the choir loft, offering his gifts of praise. Only once does he appear. I remember him not being thrilled about leaving the loft. My memory is confirmed in the video. I thank him on behalf of the church. I give him two gifts both of which I believed touched him deeply. The congregation breaks out in ovation – standing ovation – and Terry is overwhelmed. He begins to leave and I ask him to stay. I ask him to speak. He declines. And then, he exits in the middle of the applause, and he quietly reenters the loft and the organ and prepares himself to play.
Called out from the place of his ministry for a moment of appreciation, he returned to his place of ministry and worship, his duty seen to its end. It seems fitting to me.
VI.
Terry’s final word to the church is the one I will end with, just as the service today will end with his words and music as benediction. Terry says, “as I prepare to leave, I would like to mention in particular some things for which I am grateful.” He then proceeds to list 10 subsets of thanksgivings, many, many tens of names and occasions listed. It is an incredible testimony of gratitude. “There is so much to be thankful for,” Terry wrote, “and I do thank God for the opportunities I have had.”
One cannot help but feel that we ought to reciprocate and thank God for the opportunity to have known Terry Coley. That is why we have come today. That is why we sing. And just like a servant returns to his place of ministry, or a teacher returns to the classroom, that the students return today to this place of love for a man, a musician, a friend, and a teacher, seems a fitting memorial indeed.
Amen.