(I was asked to give the Eulogy at the Memorial Service for Rod Davis in Birmingham, May 14 but I could not go. There was no other place I would ever be. So I wrote out this Eulogy and it was to be read at the Service today at the Baptist Church of the Covenant, Birmingham.)
Rod Davis - A Memory
May 14, 2023
Marhy Oliver writes:
“Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness
It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.”
And here we are family, friends, colleagues, and more—much more.
And today crowded into this room are so, so many holders of our boxes full of darkness.
Rod was 86 when he died. And his last four years were hard, hard indeed. This brilliant friend left us much too soon. And today we come to remember not that sad leave taking—but the gift, the amazing gift that we all find in our own box full of darkness.
Not darkness, really. Even in our own hard grief. But more. Light. Incredible light that streamed through the days of Rod Davis. I met him first at Howard College in 1954. He was one year behind me. I have tried to remember how it all started. I do remember he invited me up to his house in Horton, Alabama. I remember sitting in his bedroom and he asked , “Do you know the poet, T.S. Eliot?” I didn’t. He said, “Let me read you something that comes his ‘Choruses from the Rock.’” These words were written in 1930.
“Remember the faith that took men from home
At the call of a wandering preacher.
Our ages an age of moderate virtue
And of moderate vice
When men will not lay down the Cross
because they will never assume it.
Yet nothing is impossible, nothing
To men of faith and conviction.
Let us therefore make perfect our will.
O God, help us.”
And so I was hooked. He opened so many doors. Which led to more doors, and more doors. Martin Luther King’s, Stride Toward Freedom. Bonhoeffer’s, The Cost of Discipleship, Frederick Buechner—whom I had never heard of. Thomas Wolfe’s, You Can’t Go Home Again. And so many more. Thank you Rod for opening that magical door that has never closed.
And what he did for me he has done for so many. His brothers, Phil and Gayron and his nieces and nephews. Eric, dear Eric and so very many others in this crowded room and beyond. We have all sloshed through the darkness of many things but Rod, Dr. Davis, Dean Davis helped us so many of us see the light which no darkness can ever put out.
I went to Seminary in Louisville but he went North. Yale and Ridgefield and Boston and New York and then back, years later to Birmingham. Dr. Hull called one day and asked: “What would you think of Roderick Davis as Dean here at Samford?" And I said, “Oh, that would be great if you could get him.” And so he came bringing with him a breath of fresh air and the students and faculty loved him. Yes, in time, he did become a legend. And on his retirement in 2001 his colleagues honored him with the J. Roderick Davis Lecture series which has brought scholars and public intellectuals from all over to the campus.
When I was considering coming to this church as Pastor, he called and said, “If you come I will join your church.” And he did and like so many other things, Rod made a difference here. And he was a strong supporter of every Pastor.
I could talk all day about this friend mine. And if you had the chance so, so many of you could stand and tell your own Rod Davis story for we all have them.
I want to tell you story which may seem like a diversion but bear with me. One of my mentors was Carlyle Marney, a great Baptist preacher. He served for years at the First Baptist of Austin Texas. And once a week he would meet with a group of minister-colleagues for breakfast. And one day he left that church to serve as Minister of the Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte. And one morning in Austin at breakfast one of the waitresses asked that group. “I have not seen Dr. Marney down here for a long time. Is he still down at the church?” Those gathered around the table looked at each other and one preacher spoke up and said, “Oh, yes Dr. Marney is still down at the church.”
And as I think of Rod I would say he’s still here. In the hearts of his family. In the hearts of all those from place to place where he worked and taught. And at this University and others. And he is still at this church. And person after person here could say: Yes, he is still here.”
Let us, we grievers, lift up not only our prayers of thanksgiving for Rod. But let us also lift up his family and what a gift he must have been to you and Lynn and to us all. In the first sermon Jesus ever gave he said, “I have come to heal the brokenhearted.” And he also said, “Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted.”This box of darkness is only part of this story. But we remember Rod Davis and light…incredible light.
I want to close with a Benediction that comes from Dostoyevsky’s, The Brothers Karamazof:
“What keeps me going is that I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that in the world’s finale something so great will come to pass that it is going to suffice for all our hearts, for the comforting of all our sorrows, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity. And I want to be there when suddenly everyone understands what it is all been for.”
--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com
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