Bruce's story

This story of lazarus and the questions that surround it remind me of a friend I had back in my days in Collingwood. Bruce was a man who had Aids and who was angry and yet creative with his anger. I had heard tales of this man who had been a ballet dancer but who now spent his days taking his old falcon into Brunswick st in Fitzroy, and dancing on the roof of the car, stopping every now and then to chat with strangers. One day, out of the blue, he showed up at our little church. He had heard that we were a little different and more accepting than your average church, and he was checking us out. We passed, and he would come whenever he could. He would sit in the circle of our church and have a go at me during my sermon when he disagreed or didn’t understand. He became more and more ill, and at last was no longer able to come to church. I kept visiting him in his Fitzroy flat and watched his body deteriorate before me.

One afternoon I received a phone call from Bruce telling me he needed my help and could I come around. I went to his place and found him in a mess on the floor hardly able to move. I helped him clean up as much as I could, and stayed with him until the ambulance arrived and they took him to hospital for the last time.

He died the next day and I helped to plan his funeral. It was one of the best funerals I have ever been to. It was full of hope and his wonderful defiant story and we carried his coffin out to the rousing song “Spirit in the sky” and I cried, which I don’t do often at funerals or any time. I’m crying as I write, not for sadness, but from the sheer gutsiness of it all. For the hope that springs in surprise from despair and pain.

His resurrection began before he died and everyone around him saw it. When he set his cup down it was empty. There was nothing wasted, nothing left over to spill or lament. He died clean as a whistle, and several of the people who travelled with him on the difficult road of his illness had their view of death forever altered. Having watched him do it, they believe they can do it too.