Richard's Funeral

I sat next to Charlie. Charlie used to be a roadie back in the day.
Me: You look skinnier, have you lost weight?
Charlie: Yeah, about 20 lbs.
Me: What have you been doing?
Charlie: Well I am only eating canned foods.

Charlie may be the only person on the planet losing weight on the canned-food diet.

I am one of the first ones in. Two ladies sit across from me in the front row. Their eyes are puffy from crying. I welcomed them into the church. They say they are Richard's nieces.

Steve sits next to Lynn, Hick's wife, in the back, mumbling about how he is glad Richard is gone.

The church is the most crowded I have ever seen it. About 75 people are packed into the little sanctuary. Many homeless friends, a few St. James church members, Network Homeless Coffeehouse shift directors, Camille who leads a homeless Bible study, Richard's sister-in-law, and three nieces were in attendence.

Ted, a part Chinese homeless samurai is sitting in front of me. My friend Amy just came from the Credit Union, and is in a sharp suit. John Hicks starts the service.

Hicks: Richard is already up there in that home Jesus prepared. Lest we hang onto him, lets take some time to forgive Richard.

Charlie: We don't need to forgive Richard for nothing. I have known him 8-9 years. He loved my dog Dollar. She always sat on Richard's lap. He helped me when I needed it.

Jerry: (oldish man with long white ghost hair) We used to sit on the porch and talk about anything that came to mind.

Jimmy: He can't come back to us but we will come to him.

Brian: (church guitarist and self-proclaimed 7th generation medicine man) I want to forgive Richard for making me feel like a heal.

Hicks then talks about how Richard knew Jesus, and was know in the place Jesus prepared for him.

John 14:1-4"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."

Hicks has a broken pot and a beautiful pot at the front of the altar. He talks about how we are all dying.

2 Corinthians 4:7-18 "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you....

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal..."

Ryan is in the doorway. He just graduated from Denver Seminary and started this Yuppie church that kind of works like a Terrorist cell model...each little home unit is tied to a bigger unit...each cell worships in the home, and comes together when the "Job" calls for it...whether its a community service project or barbeque.

I have heard a lot about Cammille but this is the first time I have seen her. Her thick blond hair is cut so that all her bangs fall in the same wave, and the rest of her hair all stops in the same longish bob-like wave. It looks like a wig. She has manic makeup on. She is skinny, wearing 80's style clean khakis, and a sailor-striped shirt. Cammille runs a bible study every Wednesday morning, and brings along breakfast. She preaches in the middle of crowded streets, and sometimes in the middle of the homeless coffee house (Network). She is surprisingly embraced by the clique of homeless tramps that frequent Network Coffeehouse, despite her 80's housewife appearance. She wants to read out of the Bible but Hicks stops her.

Hicks: I want stories...what do we want to remember about Richard?

Wayne: (Teaches third grade in a small town. He works at the homeless coffee house on Saturday mornings because he wants to play chess with someone) Richard always set up for my shift, and loved 1950s music.

Jimmy: (curly, gray-haired, toothless, homeless street musician) I loved bring school children to Richard, Richard loved to show them around the coffee house.

Mark: Richard loved his tobacco, but never let people curse. He would say, 'This is God's house.'

Sarah: (Church elder, off-key singer) He enjoyed my grandkids.

Richard's Niece: Its been a tough last six years. Richard's drinking and homelessness was painful for the family. He could be a real SOB.

Ted: (Crying) I saw Richard as a father figure to me. My own father died.

Bill: (Wearing a leather jacket to remember Richard's biker days) Richard was overall a good guy.

Steve: (schizophrenic halfway house missionary) Richard always offered me chicken. I would like to sing part of a song; I am not a good singer so bear with me. 'It won't be long till happiness steps up to great me.'

Jimmy then plays amazing grace. His his raspy, toothless voice hit most of the notes in a jazzy street performance.

An old guy with a leather vest, biker tatoos, and vietnam veteran cap cuddles with his grieving 30-year-younger wife. She is wearing a royal blue jumper with a lace collared Omish blouse and prominent gold cross necklace.

Jimmys toothless verse "the hour, Richard first believed" sets the rhythm for Camille as she coddles and rocks a drunk, bawling homeless lady back and forth.

Lynn, John's wife, reads Ecclesiastes in what seems to me a high church sort of way (Oratorally correct?)

Vince: (a large, haggard black man) I am no good at social graces. Richard did let me know when I was rude. The quiet/simple people make the world tick. Richard took the tyranny of disease well.

Sid: (middle school principal) Richard was a walking medical experiment. He was living on borrowed time. Richard would sit there at his seat at the window being policeman of the neighborhood. He kept network safe.

Shirley (the sister-in-law): We would get together at mom's house and he would either be working on his car or moms' car. We called Richard Dick...Dick's brother died and Dick took his nephew fishing (she starts crying).

Wally: (monk-like refridgerator repairman) Richard would always say 'God bless you.' Then I would say 'God bless you.' Now there is no one to say that when I come on shift.

We read Psalm 23.

Anita: (Homeless lady I have never met) Once Richard told me to pick him something at the food bank while I was at it. I took a long time, and he said 'I thought you fell off the planet! But God loves you.'

Red: (in-and-out of sober Irish homeless guy who spends a lot of time at Network) He never said a harsh word to anyone. Reminds me of a dad..humble and generous.

Jerry: He is generous. He gave me some money and said, 'Here, why don't you go get six double cheeseburgers--3 for me and 3 for you!'

Charlie: He was good at rolling cigarettes...he always had a line forming..

Walter (The bartender at the bar that Richard hid out in): He always wanted me to pour him a milk and soda.

Bill then lays down a charm bracelet on the altar that says "Truth, Grace, and Love."

John raps up the service with a word of prayer.

Richard (Uncle Dick?) You were not forgotten.