Normally, I’m not into foreseeing future events, but today, I can imagine a scene that will take place in the sanctuary of the Malibu United Methodist Church this Sunday. Many of us will have gathered, congregation and citizens at large, to hear Rev. Larry Peacock give his last sermon to a Malibu community that has become his extended family.
Larry’s sermon will be wise, poignant, and uplifting. Even so, a communal sense of separation anxiety has been hovering in the church rafters for weeks now. And try as we may to be adult and joyful about Larry and Anne’s moving on to a wonderful new and sought after life change, we are aware of our own somewhat selfish inconsolability and childish sense of abandonment.
I first met Larry some 13 years ago after he and a handful of other advocates for the poor and homeless had served on a city taskforce to conceptualize and open a day labor hiring site. Their vision was to create a place where poor workers could seek work in a safe and dignified environment. Today, that work continues six days a week at the Labor Exchange, where a largely disenfranchised population of men and women find work and, in the process, hope for a better life.
The Labor Exchange is just one of Larry’s many legacies in this community. And every person in the sanctuary has witnessed and worked with Larry and Anne on a multitude of similar humanitarian endeavors.
On Sunday the church sanctuary will be over-flowing with parishioners and friends. Those of us in attendance will be trying to put away our childish misgivings about a future without Larry Peacock whom we have come to view as an earthly spiritual father.
There are some sniffles and the sharing of tissues. We smile and wish the Peacocks Godspeed and continued blessings. Though in our hearts of hearts there is great sadness knowing we are losing one of our finest community and spiritual leaders.
Mona Loo