Rest in peace, Rachel Grace

Cover of the order of service for her funeral

Today's gift to the world was the funeral service for Rachel Held Evans in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Watch it on YouTube--beautiful music, beautiful words, especially those spoken by Nadia Bolz-Weber.  

Songs were sung and Scripture was read--Mary Magdalene at the tomb (John 20),  "Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's possession" (Romans 14:8).

Rachel's friend Brian spoke.  Her sister spoke and one or two others.

Then the Reverend Nadia spoke, her amazing tatoos covered by a white pastoral robe.

She said that when Rachel answered a phone call from her, the conversation began "This is Nadia."  "Naaaaaadia!" Rachel would repeat.

"When I cannot worship, you worship on my behalf.... When I cannot believe, you believe on my behalf."  (I'm not sure whether these words are Nadia's or Nadia quoting Rachel.)

"Why are you crying?" Jesus asks Mary.

The Reverend Nadia says that's not a criticism as in "You shouldn't be crying."

"It's an invitation," she says.  Jesus is asking Mary to tell him why.

"I'm crying because no one will say my name the way Rachel did.  I'm crying because none of us is promised tomorrow.  As someone said, 'Grief is the price we pay for having loved.'"

Mary was crying because "To Jesus, she wasn't that crazy lady like everyone else saw her."  He had healed her of demons, and he had chosen her not in spite of who she was but because of who she was.

She might have answered, "They've taken love away.  They've taken kindness away.  They've taken my own wholeness away."  

"Woman of valor" in Hebrew
from tweet by Andi @estellasrevenge
(see below)

"When the disciples looked in the tomb, they saw laundry.  When Mary Magdalene looked in the tomb, she saw angels.  She had the kind of night vision that comes from above."

Nadia then quoted Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones, "There's nothing in the world more powerful than a good story," going on to say Mary Magdalene went to tell the disciples that "This is not the end of the story."

"We hung him on a tree.  He took all our broken junk and made a judgment.  His judgment was 'Forgive them.  They know not what they're doing.'"

"We're all fodder for God's really, really long memoir about how God loves humans."

"The resistance is winning, my friends...The darkness cannot, will not, shall not overcome it."

"Down in the River to Pray" was sung with "Oh dreamers,, come on down," "Oh daughters," and "Oh seekers."

All present were invited to take communion.  "Become what you receive," said the Reverend Winnie Varghese.

The benediction ended with words written by Rachel, "Jesus invites us into a story bigger than ourselves.  We are story-telling creatures because we are loved by a story-telling God."

Note on tattoos from the Religious News Service report--see link below:

[Sarah] "Bessey, who tearfully read the resurrection story from the gospel of John, and Bolz-Weber both displayed the tattoos they got in advance of the service. Those tattoos read, 'eshet chayil,' or “woman of valor” in Hebrew, a phrase from the Bible that Held Evans popularized."  See Proverbs 31.  

See also:

https://religionnews.com/2019/06/01/at-her-funeral-in-tennessee-rachel-held-evans-is-memorialized-with-quotes-from-her-own-writings/

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2019/06/01/rachel-held-evans-funeral-best-selling-author-illness-chattanooga/1314656001/