The Worship of God: Remembering Jack Braden (1939-2020)
by Rev. Dwight A. Moody
January 13, 2020, Owensboro Kentucky
Grace and Peace in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, to all of you, the family and friends and professional associates of Jack Braden. God bless you all this cold winter day. May God warm our hearts with the memories of Jack.
We gather today to worship God, maker of heaven and earth, giver of every good and perfect gift, the source of life, and light, and love, the redeemer of all people, and our very present help in a time of trouble, in a time of grief, in a time of loss. “The Lord gives,” declares the Word of God, “and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” We worship God today who gave us, for these 80 years, our friend Jack Braden. We are the better for it, and we thank God today.
We gather today to comfort all who mourn his passing. Especially his wife Becky, his eight children David, Tommy, Chuck, Dale, Robin, Summer, Tracey, and Sue, 24 grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren, plus others, including all of us. I grief his passing. For six years, 1991-1997, I was his pastor; and from 1991 to this day I have been his friend. I loved Jack; and he loved me, even as he loved many of you. “Comfort one another,” the great apostle wrote to those first Christians in Corinth, “with the comfort you have received from God,” the one he described as the father of mercies and the God of all comfort.
It is hard to lose people we love, even those who have lived a long and rich and productive life, like Jack. Not everybody lives such a long life. I drive to Indianapolis tomorrow to attend the funeral of a young opera singer who, on New Year’s Eve, dropped dead of congestive heart failure on a subway platform in New York City; he was only 35.
But Jack lived a long life, a good life, an honorable life, a happy life. But like most, he grew old and feeble, and succumbed to the natural ailments of our human condition. “We are dust, and to dust we return”, the Bible says. But it is hard to let him go. Already we miss him. I miss him. Already I miss him posting on my Facebook page, gently correcting my politics.
God bless and comfort all of you, all of us, even as we celebrate his remarkable life. You remember, Jesus wept at the grave of his dear friend, Lazarus; and we also can weep and be sad at the going of our dear Jack.
“Give honor to whom honor is due,” the Bible commands us; and today we gather to give voice to the honor that is due Jackie Dale Braden. I honor Jack as a family man. His love was wide enough, his care deep enough for three families. Eight people he counted as his children, and 24 grandchildren. How blessed he was. I have only two and I don’t see those two often enough. Jack had 24. Not everybody has a family. Not everybody cares for their family. Not everybody serves as a role model for a family. But Jack was rich with children and grandchildren and great grandchildren—Thanks be to God for all the mercies of life and love.
I honor Jack as a professional man, a servant of the public, a keeper of order and justice. For 36 years he served on the police force of Owensboro, Kentucky. What a remarkable achievement and legacy! Directing, protecting, investigating, cajoling, testifying, arresting. He never arrested me; but I do remember the day he came knocking on my door at 6:30 in the morning in 1996 to say, “Preacher, we arrested your boy this morning.” It was such a thoughtful act, don’t you think? He was chief of detectives, and I personally was always glad to have a friend in such high places. And when people mention First Responders and the Thin Blue Line, I always think of my friend Jack Braden and how he personified all that is excellent, and true, and good about the profession and how proud I was to call him a friend.
Then, after 36 years, Jack signed on with the Public Defender. For 15 years he was the lead investigator for those accused of crimes. Somebody said to me once, “Jack has flipped sides.” No, I don’t believe that. Jack was always on the side of justice, and truth, and right. He knew there are two sides to every story, extenuating circumstances in every situation, unknown facts that shed light on every controversy. I honor him for this and give thanks for the work of our public defenders.
A few years ago, while living in Lexington, I was host to eight judges from Africa and Asia and Europe who were visiting the United States on Fulbright Scholarships. I took them to meet circuit judge, later chief justice of the state Supreme court Joe Lambert; we went to the Lexington police station and talked with the chief; we had lunch with the student international club at the UK law school; I took them to Keeneland where we shook hands with then Governor Steve Brashear. But the one thing they most commented on was the few hours we spent with the public defender, Rod Sexton, who had driven up from Owensboro, at my request. None of them was from a country that had a public defender system. I was always so proud of Jack for this part of his professional life. On more than one occasion, my own family has had the need of a public defender; and during those times, I always thought about my friend Jack and the good work he was doing.
I honor Jack Braden today as a Christian man. He spent his life in Baptist churches in Daviess County. I know that in and of itself makes no person a Christian; but I was glad that part of his journey through life as a Baptist layman took him to Third Baptist Church. We are all on a Christian journey; sometimes we are closer to God than other times, sometimes we are walking closer to Jesus than other times. Some of us here today are far away from Christ. Today, the Spirit of God is calling you back.
Jack joined early in 1991 with his daughter Summer; she came, as we say, by baptism, and he by letter. But that fall I also came by letter to Third. And when I began a Sunday morning Bible class, he and Becky showed up. I did not know him, and it took a little time. But Sunday by Sunday, lesson by lesson, verse by verse we studied together the Word of God. From Genesis to Revelation, we opened and read about the God the Creator, Jesus our Savior, and the Spirit of the living God that fills our hearts with joy and comforts us when we are in grief.
Not everybody gets to meet their policeman first in a Bible class, but I am one; and I am thankful today that it happened that way. I hope you also are in a Bible class somewhere. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is profitable for teaching doctrine, for rebuking our sins, for correcting our prejudices, and for instructing us in righteous living. Be like Jack; go to Sunday School!!
I honor Jack as my friend. He was your friend also. Some of you, like me, sat in one of those overstuffed chairs in his home and turned on to watch the Cats play basketball. I recall February 15, 1994, a Wednesday. I know exactly where I was: with Jack watching UK basketball. The cats were down by 31 points with 17 minutes in the game. Tony Delk. John Pelphrey. Walter McCarty. Travis Ford. Chris Harrison. And others. The biggest comeback on NCAA basketball history. It was the Miracle on the Bayou. It was always good to beat Dale Brown. And Jack and I talked about that shared event many times.
Some of you have basketball stories like that; and some of you went to church with Jack; and some of you arrested people with Jack. But I will wager you today you never did this with jack. The tough man contest! My son came home one day and said, “I signed up for the tough man contest”. I looked at him in silence. What, in the world, I thought and then asked, is the Tough Man Contest? And when he, maybe 18 years old and still months away from his own arrest as a pseudo tough man, explained what it is—an amateur boxing competition, I thought: there is no way this can end well.
“Will you come, dad?” he asked; and I said yes, before checking my calendar. You know when it was that year? —Good Friday. Good Friday! How could I, a pastor of a large Owensboro church abandon whatever Holy Week service was scheduled to attend a Tough Man Contest. I said, “I’m not going alone.” So, I called Jack. Jack knew about the Tough Man Contest. But he said yes anyway. Some laymen go fishing with the pastor; others go to revival meetings. That that year—my regular holy week schedule was interrupted by the Tough Man Contest. We walked into the Owensboro Sports Center. It was crowded with people. This is the gospel truth of what happened. Jack said, pointing to the first person we saw, “I arrested him last week.” Then he nodded toward the second person we saw and said quietly, “I thought he was still in jail.” Then he looked up when somebody called his name, “O Lord, when did he get out.” Thus, Jack Braden introduced his preacher to the Tough Man Contest of Owensboro KY. My son was in the heavy weight division which meant we had to stay for the whole show.
Jack was my friend, just as he was your friend; I loved Jack, just as you did. Here is another reason I loved Jack. As I mentioned earlier, Jack often posted on my FB page. He and I were on opposite sides of the current political divide. Time and again, Jack would counter my rants with his simple, polite notice—”I’m with Trump”. You saw earlier the picture of Jack with his MAGA cap. Here it is. I wear it today in his honor.
I will tell you what makes America great: Jack Braden, and people like him—honorable, hardworking, polite, trustworthy, respectful, full of both compassion and conviction. I will tell you the hope of this nation: people like Jack Braden, who can be best friends with somebody who cancelled out his vote at the ballot box, who can reach across boundaries that others think are so constricting and embrace another, who can transcend his own deeply held convictions and take my hand and my heart and call me friend. There are many things more important than politics, things like respect, and family, and community, and the Common Good, and Jesus Christ the Lord.
It is altogether fitting that this memorial service, this service of worship, be a celebration of a life well lived, of family and friendship, of faith in God and trust in Jesus as Savior. Jesus died, the righteous for the unrighteous, the savior for all of us who are sinners, the Lord of Glory, whose birth we have just celebrated and who coming constitutes the core of our hope for all the world. Jesus died for us. This Jesus, God raised from the dead!
“The apostles delivered unto us, first of all, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that on the third day he rose again….Now is Christ risen from the dead and has become the first of all those that sleep in death. Since death came by one man, Adam, so resurrection is coming by one man, Jesus; as in that one man Adam, we all die, so in that one man Jesus Christ, we all live. … Behold I show you a mystery. Not all of us shall die! But all of us shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The last trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised, and we all shall be changed. This human, earthly body will put on incorruption and immortality; and death shall be swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? And grave, where is your victory? Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (paraphrased from First Corinthians 15)
Grace and mercy to all of us here today. Jack Braden, rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen
(January 2020)
