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Sunday, August 20, 2023

He Taught Us How to Live—And Die: The 6 Hymns Tim Keller Picked for His Memorial Service

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Christianity Today Op-Ed:  He Taught Us How to Live—And Die: The 6 Hymns Tim Keller Picked for His Memorial Service, by Francis Collins (Former Director, National Institutes of Health):

It was June 3, 2020. The subject line of the email from Kathy Keller made my heart sink: “Tim’s got pancreatic cancer.” The diagnosis was stage IV. With current therapy, life expectancy is less than a year. There is no stage V. Thus began a three-year journey that explored the cutting edge of experimental cancer therapeutics—but more significantly, the courageous approach to terminal illness by a man of deep faith. ...

Nine months into treatment, he wrote a powerful article in The Atlantic: “Growing My Faith in the Face of Death.” In deeply honest prose, he described the struggle of coming to terms with his own mortality. He described the disciplines that carried him through this dark valley, coming to a greater confidence in the death and resurrection of Jesus than he ever had. Summing it up, Tim wrote, “I can sincerely say, without any sentimentality or exaggeration, that I’ve never been happier in my life, that I’ve never had more days filled with comfort. But it is equally true that I’ve never had so many days of grief.” ...

As he began to heal, he wanted less to talk about cancer and more to talk about faith, love, truth, and beauty—and about the deep ache he felt for the state of the Christian church in America. If you have not read his sobering treatise on GospelinLife.com, “The Decline and Renewal of the American Church,” written in the midst of cancer treatment, you will find there a compelling diagnosis and treatment for the church’s current malaise. ...

It was a Saturday in April near the end of Tim’s NIH hospital stay. I knew this might be the last time I would see him. It felt like a time to come together for worship. I suggested an impromptu service in the spacious atrium of the NIH Clinical Center on Sunday afternoon and asked Tim if he had any favorite hymns to suggest. I should have known that would not get an off-the-cuff response. “Yes,” he said. “Let’s sing six hymns in a particular order, because they tell the whole story of Christian faith and God’s care for us.” I rounded up some others to join us. Despite my occasional wrong notes on the piano, we had one of the most memorable services of my life. Tim explained the choice of hymns:

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
A tremendous depiction of God’s attributes. Tim particularly wanted us to take note of that final line: “’Tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.”

And Can It Be That I Should Gain
A reflection on how we connect to God and have a personal relationship with him. Tim sang the bass part.

How Firm a Foundation
God’s Word, in good times and bad. This was Kathy and Tim’s wedding recessional. Tim was firm about the right tune to use (Lyons).

Jesus Lives and So Shall I
A quiet but profound hymn about hope for the future. “Jesus lives and is now but my entrance into glory.”

Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
A proclamation that Zion, the church, was founded on the Rock of Ages.

For All the Saints
We will all be gathered at the end.

Kathy and Tim said this was the first time they had been able to worship with others in person in three years. No one who was there will ever forget it. Kathy decided that those hymns would be sung at Tim’s memorial service.

To conclude the service, we sang one more song, There Is a Redeemer, that Kathy had suggested. Only then did Kathy and Tim tell us that this praise song was sung after every service for the first few years Tim pastored Redeemer Church. The last verse is this: “When I stand in glory, I will see his face, and there I’ll serve my King forever, in that Holy Place.”

Tim, you are standing in glory now. You are seeing his face and serving him, as you did here on earth. Someday, God willing, we shall see you again in that Holy Place.

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

A Worship Service of Praise to God for the Life of Tim Keller (Aug. 15, 2023) (program):

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