Here is a reflection that I wrote at the passing of my dear friend Betsy, age 100, with whom I and others shared the gift of life with during those glorious years at Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Kansas City....many thanks to my dear friend Vicki Samodi for inviting me to share these words.... Everybody comes to death eventually, either by disease or by “old age.” There’s a part of me, suffering from prostate cancer, that wants simply to get it over with. In that case the simplest outcome is to stay with the illness I have and see it through. Alternatively, I could recover, somehow, and in this way buy a few more weeks or months or years of life. And yet, and yet…. For God wants us to have a certain treasure, a wealth, that we can have only in a certain way—and that cannot come to us by taking something from him prematurely. “I can find that divine wealth that God, by his adoption of us, intends us to inherit. Wherever I turn, I shall find him. Whether life has smooth ways or rough, whether it hangs my path with lights or hides me in gloom, I am the heir to all that earth or sea or sky can boast of as their possession.” The “rich things of God,” are the things he wishes us to claim from him. For “I have a claim upon even more. I have a claim upon the very source of this wealth, that is, upon God himself, for he is the sole source of all his greatness.” There is no doubt about it. “I have a right to God himself. He is mine. He who holds in the hollow of his hands the fabric of the world, who with his divine power supports, and with his Providence directs, the intricate pattern of the world, has himself by creation entered deeply into the world; at the heart of everything he lies hidden.” These are the words of Stratford Caldecott, who also recently died, reflecting upon his life and death as cradled within the Life of the God Who St. Augustine said is more interior to me than I am to myself. The God Who lies hidden in all things is the God Who gives Himself to us fully in our creation and, ultimately, in the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. He can only give Himself to us fully. That is His way, because that is Who He is. He Himself IS Love...Father, Son, and Spirit. And it is the Light of this love that I saw in the face of our dear Betsy every time I was with her. Whether it was her welcoming smile, her warm hugs, or the way that she would take me by the hand and gently hold and swing her arm while she smiled and told me, and all of her children, because that is what we were, how much she loved us and all the gifts that she saw blooming in us. I recall a humorous time when my friend and fellow pastor Brian Postlewait was leading the Eucharist part of the worship service one Sunday at Trinity Church and Betsy interrupted from the rear of the sanctuary and exclaimed with wide and concerned eyes, PASTOR, can you tell everybody how we need the take the bread and dip it in the cup?? Being the young pastors we were, wanting everything to be flawless, I could see Brians face turn BEAT RED! It makes me smile and laugh when I think about it. It was glorious. And as I think about it, it was not glorious just because it brought us such laughter and joy. It was also glorious because that moment was a microcosm of the life that Betsy lived. She interrupted because she was concerned so deeply that everyone would feel welcomed with the open arms of hospitality. She wanted everyone to know what to do so that some new person would not feel embarrassed, but would, rather, feel the open arms of embrace of us as Gods children, and thus the open arms of embrace of Love, The God Who is Love....Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the laughter, joy, and arms of welcoming love of Gods gift that bore the name Betsy we all experienced the Love and Light of God. Through her life I and we were called to dance in the Light and Love of God, to splash around in it and play like children with no worried self consciousness. That is what she was, a bearer of the Light and Love of God. And even though I have not seen her in person in a few years, I will miss her...and I look forward hugging and laughing with her...on the shores of that Eternal Morning. Amen
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 16:50:15 +0000
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