Monday, November 12, 2018
626 - All You Need is Love
Spirituality Column #626
November 13, 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
All You Need is Love
By Bob Walters
“But the greatest of
these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:13
Russ
Blowers was a terrific preacher of the Gospel but he was an even better lover
of his Gospel flock. Just ask anyone who
knew him.
Russ was my
buddy. He was everyone’s buddy. He knew your name, knew your family, knew
your problems and your gifts, knew Jesus loves you, and made you want to love
others around you. The long-time pastoral
heart and soul of East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis,
Russ could make you feel like you could fly.
So many times his name has come up joyfully but with wistful sadness in conversations with friends in the 11 years since his death Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007. Counting his church family, the community, American church planting, and global missions, Russ knew and impacted thousands of people around Indianapolis, the country, and the world. East 91st St. church grew from dozens when he arrived in 1951 (then East 49th St. Christian Church) to thousands when he retired in 1996, and continued to grow while he was Senior Minster Emeritus until his death.
I honestly can’t think of anyone in
my life I’ve ever known who has been so missed by so many. We all experience and list the intense,
special emptiness of our own lost parents, family, and friends. Russ is on a staggering number of those
lists.
You didn’t know him? I’m sorry.
He was a World War II veteran (U.S. Army Air Corps, Europe – he loaded
ordinance on P-51 fighters). He went to
Ohio University where he majored in journalism and met his dear wife Marian,
who first showed him what faith in Jesus Christ looked like. He attended (then) Butler School of Theology in
Indianapolis for his Masters of Divinity and while there he and Marian hosted
Billy and Ruth Graham in their home as Billy spoke to students on campus …
allowed not a big theater but only a table in the cafeteria. Billy and Russ remained friends to life’s
end.
In May before Russ died in 2007, the
by-now renamed “Christian Theological Seminary” at Butler finally recognized
Russ with a well-deserved honorary doctorate.
It took time because CTS was liberal in its Gospel views. Russ, like Billy, was not.
I was a non-believer who happened
to show up at E91 on Sunday, Sept. 2, 2001, the exact to-the-date 50th
Anniversary Sunday of Russ’s arrival as the congregation’s pastor in 1951. The crux of Russ’s “Faith-Hope-Love” message
that day in 2001 was simple – Faith is in the past, Hope is in the future, and
Love is in the present. I got it.
Russ and I became close friends
during my first six years as a Christian and his last six years as a minister. I
asked Russ once what he thought was the secret to his success as a minister. Though
he didn’t like the word “success”, he said, “Well … I love people.” In Christ, it gets no simpler than that. Everybody who knew Russ knows that.
It was his special gift and the
wind beneath the wings of the church: Russ loved Jesus and loved others in a
way that inspired everyone around him to do the same.
This year, 2018, is a “same days
and dates” year to both 2001 and 2007. The great grace of Jesus is that we are
called to look forward to his glory, not behind to our own sins, sadness, failures,
or even successes: nothing that came before matters as much as what lies ahead,
but I am sentimental so I notice things.
It was bittersweet but special sitting in church this year on Sunday,
Sept. 2. I thought of Russ; I often do.
It is again bittersweet but special
as I write this on Saturday, Nov. 10, and it will be that way all week, remembering
Russ. He died late that Saturday
evening, just 10 minutes before the start of Veteran’s Day. A fierce American patriot and proud veteran,
Russ would have enjoyed the Nov. 11 concurrence. I understand that Russ’s sons Phil and Paul, Paul’s
wife Sandy, close friend and minister John Samples, and former E91 elder (and
cardiologist) Dr. Bill Storer were at Russ’s side when he passed at 11:50 p.m.
at Clarion (now I.U.) North hospital in Carmel, Ind. I saw Russ briefly the day before; he was
just awake enough to shed a silent tear.
It was time for his 83-year-old body to retire and for his gentle,
loving soul to fly to Jesus and rejoin Marian, who had died of Alzheimer’s
Disease in 2003.
John, who did Russ’s funeral,
called me with the news at 1:10 a.m. Sunday.
Russ’s funeral was Nov. 15, on a
Thursday as it is this year. I was a
pall bearer and this is where I mention that Russ had shepherded me through a
divorce two and a half years earlier. I
bring that up because a woman named Pam Brooks – a long-time “East91ster” – was
playing tympani in the E91 brass ensemble at the funeral.
Pam and I met by chance – it seemed
– just prior to the service. What I
didn’t know until we chatted Sunday, Nov. 18, was that Pam, too, was divorced
in 2005. What I didn’t know for another
year and a half until shortly before we were married in June 2009 – by John
Samples, incidentally – was that Pam had run into Russ in a Christian book
store earlier in 2007 where they sat and chatted at length about Pam’s kids,
life, and everything Russ always welcomed hearing. As they departed, Russ mentioned he had a
“good friend” he would introduce her to when he “thought the time was right.”
And we met at Russ’s funeral. Anyone else see a connection?
So that’s what I’m thinking about
this week. In our Bible faith “tradition”
we don’t “pray for the dead,” as such, because there is nothing left to pray
for; they’re home. But we pray to behold
the great mercies and grace Jesus affords in this life that enable us to
weather the great travails and sorrows of grieving those we love and miss so
much. We pray a prayer for peace in our
hearts and thanksgiving for the great saints of faith.
Russ was one of those.
This column is longer than usual
but hey, it’s about Russ. We’ll close
with the tender, affirming words of the old greeting on Russ’s home answering
machine:
“Father
God, thank you for this person who called while I was out. And thank you that when we call on you, we never
get a busy signal or an answering machine.
I pray that this person who is known and loved by you has the greatest
day of his or her life … in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
I can still hear his voice.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com) is thankful, has written often about Russ,
and if you’ve read this far Bob doesn’t mind if you know that the early
columns, the ones in his first “Common Christianity” book (2006-2011), are on
the blog site link BelieverBob. Columns
#55-59, 87, 105, and 157 are his favorites on Russ, or simply search “Russ
Blowers” in the upper left search box Same with the blog CommonChristianity
(2011-present). If you have the “Common Christianity” books, just look
under “Russ” in the index in the back. Longtime
East91sters might also enjoy Russ
Stories (link), a collection of remembrances written by church members at the time of
his funeral.