Herb Brokering, R.I.P

[Lutheranistic]

A man of extraordinary wit and talent, Herb was, and his legacy will always be, an asset to the Church.

http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx?a=4344

[Bergs]

May God raise up more saints like Herb Brokering who so creatively brought life to our Christian faith.  May God grant comfort to all of us who mourn his passing and who will miss his creative talents.

As a teenager and camp counselor and Sunday School Teacher, his works were widely read again and again.  They taught about our Christian life in a way that other works could not.

Brian J. Bergs
Minneapolis, MN

[Charles_Austin]

His book of  "Cat Psalms" has been on my desk for a long time.

[Richard Johnson]

Ditto dog psalms.

[Harvey_Mozolak]

what made him not merely contemporary but more timeless with the now?   Harvey Mozolak

[krs1984]

Herb's Sister (Trudy Kinzer) is one of my parishioners.

Herb when he visited always had me up for lunch for a 'theological discussion'. I will miss those encounters.

His health has been wavering for the last few months. I was glad Trudy visited earlier this fall for what even she thought would be 'goodbyes'.

Let us remember Herb with his smile and this expression of his Easter Faith!

Alleluia! Jesus Is Risen!

1   Alleluia! Jesus is risen!
   Trumpets resounding in glorious light!
   Splendor, the Lamb, heaven forever!
   Oh, what a miracle God has in sight!

Refrain
   Jesus is risen and we shall arise.
   Give God the glory! Alleluia!

2   Walking the way, Christ in the center
   telling the story to open our eyes;
   breaking our bread, giving us glory:
   Jesus our blessing, our constant surprise.  Refrain

3   Jesus the vine, we are the branches;
   life in the Spirit the fruit of the tree;
   heaven to earth, Christ to the people,
   gift of the future now flowing to me.  Refrain

4   Weeping, be gone; sorrow, be silent:
   death put asunder, and Easter is bright.
   Cherubim sing: O grave, be open!
   Clothe us in wonder, adorn us in light.  Refrain

5   City of God, Easter forever,
   golden Jerusalem, Jesus the Lamb,
   river of life, saints and archangels,
   sing with creation to God the I AM!  Refrain

Text: Herbert F. Brokering, b. 1926
Text © 1995 Augsburg Fortress.

Duplication in any form prohibited without permission or valid license from copyright administrator.

[krs1984]

Pray for the family as they gather later this week begining on Thursday for the Saturday service of the Celebration of Herb's life.
We did this morning and will again next Sunday

[revjagow]

Herb's Sister (Trudy Kinzer) is one of my parishioners.

Herb when he visited always had me up for lunch for a 'theological discussion'. I will miss those encounters.

His health has been wavering for the last few months. I was glad Trudy visited earlier this fall for what even she thought would be 'goodbyes'.

Let us remember Herb with his smile and this expression of his Easter Faith!

Alleluia! Jesus Is Risen!

1   Alleluia! Jesus is risen!
   Trumpets resounding in glorious light!
   Splendor, the Lamb, heaven forever!
   Oh, what a miracle God has in sight!

Refrain
   Jesus is risen and we shall arise.
   Give God the glory! Alleluia!

2   Walking the way, Christ in the center
   telling the story to open our eyes;
   breaking our bread, giving us glory:
   Jesus our blessing, our constant surprise.  Refrain

3   Jesus the vine, we are the branches;
   life in the Spirit the fruit of the tree;
   heaven to earth, Christ to the people,
   gift of the future now flowing to me.  Refrain

4   Weeping, be gone; sorrow, be silent:
   death put asunder, and Easter is bright.
   Cherubim sing: O grave, be open!
   Clothe us in wonder, adorn us in light.  Refrain

5   City of God, Easter forever,
   golden Jerusalem, Jesus the Lamb,
   river of life, saints and archangels,
   sing with creation to God the I AM!  Refrain

Text: Herbert F. Brokering, b. 1926
Text © 1995 Augsburg Fortress.

Duplication in any form prohibited without permission or valid license from copyright administrator.

We just sang this during distribution on All Saints Day at our church.  A fitting poem to remember him by. 

[Michael Slusser]

The Minneapolis Star-tribune death notice:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/startribune/obituary.aspx?n=herbert-brokering&pid=135998697

There is an online guestbook that you may wish to contribute to.

Peace,
Michael

[krs1984]

Andy

I first sang this hymn tune (with the Words of Earth and All Stars) as a LSM-USA national council member at our gathering in 1978? just before it was published in the LBW at the beautiful Valpo chapel. As students coming from the 'dry' SBH it was a out of this world experience that made us all look forward to the LBW. The tune was so quickly accepted throughout the church that new words were bound to written to it sooner or later. It was fitting that Herb wrote and even better text than the original hymn. I am sure someone will have chosen it at the service. I will let you know at our STS Advent Retreat after I see the bulletin Trudy will bring back for me.

BTW send me your 'check'

Bob

[Russ Saltzman]

Oh, this is unhappy news. Herb's brother, Harold, was my childhood pastor. And Herb himself I first met at Trinity Seminary (then still Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary). I was on campus for summer Greek in 1976 and stumbled across the guy puttering in a class room. Didn't know him before that but we seemingly hit it off. I never did understand his creative process.

His Earth and All Stars by the way won a "Worst Hymn Award" from the now defunct Wittenberg Door (sic). The WD reacted badly to congregations singing anything about "loud boiling test tubes." Idiots. What did they know? WD is out of business for lack of readership while a whole lot of people are still gratefully singing Earth and All Stars.

Rest eternal grant him, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him.

[Brian Stoffregen]

WD is out of business for lack of readership while a whole lot of people are still gratefully singing Earth and All Stars.

WD is not completely out of business, http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/.

I have greatly appreciated Herb's writings especially is modern parables.

[Richard Johnson]

I first met Herb at Holden Village about two decades ago. We had our kids with us, then probabably 6 and 3. Herb struck up a conversation with 6-year-old Luke, and for some reason Luke confided in him that he had a baby brother who died at birth. Herb confided that he, also, had a brother who had died in infancy (or childhood). For the rest of the week they were fast friends.

[krs1984]

Richard

I think that was Harold or Trudie's twin but I could be wrong. It is true that a child / brother died at birth.

[iowakatie1981]

Lovely service today (er...yesterday...).  Good turnout, great hymns, obviously.  Nice sermons/reflections - I thought the pastors witht the official sermon, as well as the guy from Wheat Ridge, were outstanding.  Although I didn't realize until then that the ELW Committee had destroyed the refrain of Earth and All Stars....awesome... 

Also, if anyone else was there - please, please tell me that what the choir was wearing was not, in fact, a resurrection of the rainbow stoles from 2007.  I didn't see pictures of the originals, but from where I was sitting today, it looked for all the world like they (and a woman wandering around in the pews greeting people beforehand) were wearing...something...that I would describe as "rainbow colored stoles."