Dr. Edmund H. Dale



Dr. Edmund H. Dale Knox-Metropolitan United Church June 18, 2011 Psalm 137
Edmund Dale was a member of this church for over 40 years, a good Biblical number, and he brought the world with him and we experienced the world with him – Jamaica, England, the many places he visited during research and conferences regarding urban planning, and most of all, China. While we have heard many things about Dr. Dale from various aspects of his life, I imagine that we all have regrets about something we did not ask him. I realized I never really asked him about his early life in the church, for it was obvious that there was an important influence there. He could cite huge gobs of Scripture by heart, participated fully in this church’s life on its boards and committees, and read Scripture in church and preached on a number of occasions. His interest was not in theology, certainly not the academic study, but in how to make sense of the Bible and then live it out in this world. Some of the parables of Jesus he was not hesitant to question and challenge with me. It was not that Edmund had a better answer than Jesus, but he was honest that Jesus and his Gospel were not that simple to understand and follow. I am sure most of you who talked with Dr. Dale for years are not surprised at this. He was a natural for the United Church. Dr. Dale was always deeply affected by evil in the world, for he had seen and experienced much of it himself. So he didn’t bother with trivial matters, but asked the big questions about good and evil and about his own role in those big things. Had he indeed lived a life that was good enough? He never worried about heaven or such, just had he lived adequately in a Christian way? This was not an academic question he could do research on, but the real question, indeed, part of his “relentless struggle.” I believe we all know the answer to his question, and the hymn chosen by his niece, “It is Well With My Soul,” is the appropriate chorus for us to sing today for Edmund. Edmund Dale told me several times the story of when he recited to total strangers Psalm 137, “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” This is the exile’s song, sung by many a stranger in a strange land. Ed indicated that he could be the psalmist, but there was a sense now that he was no longer a stranger in this Babylon, or just perhaps he had domesticated Babylon as the ancient Jews did. Dr. Dale sat us down by the waters of innumerable Babylons, taking us there sometimes physically, sometimes spiritually. Our world is bigger and smaller because he sat down among us for these Biblical 40 years and sang to us a song of Zion. Preached by Robert Kitchen Knox-Metropolitan United Church Regina, Saskatchewan