The Wise Women

I’ve not be writing much lately. Part of the reason is certainly not making time to write. The other part is certainly a global pandemic, and making a concerted effort at self-care. The latter I do not regret.

But there’s been an opening to preach at my church, Edgewood United Church, and I grabbed at the chance. At the beginning of the church bulletin, we will often put a quote or a short poem. I’ve chosen an essay by Parker J. Palmer, called ‘Everything Falls Away‘.

Meditation

Sooner or later, everything falls away. You, the work you’ve done, your successes, large and small, your failures, too. Those moments when you were light, alongside the times you became one with the night. The friends, the people you loved who loved you, those who might have wished you ill, none of this is forever. All of it is soon to go, or going, or long gone.

Parker Palmer – Everything Falls Away – excerpt

The Wise Women

December 5, 2021

Edgewood United Church

Harold Beer

Our scriptures today include two elder women: Sarah and Elizabeth. Both of them are stepping into new roles, doing new things, and in a sense, saying that it’s not too late. The portion of the meditation I’ve shared with you speaks to how Sarai may have felt about life. The fear that her life may come to an end without a hope of making a difference. And then God enters the scene. Sarai is transformed. Indeed, her role changed so much that God tells Abraham to call her Sarah. So it’s no wonder that in studying these scriptures over the past few weeks that I’ve been thinking about the elder women I have known. The older and wiser women that have been present, and have done or said something that changed my way of thinking or the direction my life was heading. Are you thinking of such a woman right now? I suspect that you can think of such a woman (that probably wasn’t your mom) that gave you the affirmation or guidance at just the right time, even if you didn’t notice it at time. Looking back from who you are today, to then, their contribution becomes clearer.

Who was that woman in your life? What did they do or say? Bring that memory to the forefront for a few moments. I’ll share my memories in a few minutes.

In our reading from Genesis today, we hear a story of a couple named Abraham and Sarai. In preceding verses, God gave a man named Abram his new name of Abraham and he’s told he will become the father of many nations. In the Bible, and today, a new name is a sign of transformation.

God tells Abraham that Sarah will receive God’s blessings and that ‘she will become nations, rulers of people will come into being from her’. So clear this was to Abraham that he laughed. “Abraham fell on his face and laughed.” Rolling on the floor, laughing out loud.

Laughing in disbelief. Laughing into the anxiety of doing something unexpected and new. Each of us has been there, yes? Abraham and Sarah had God to encourage and affirm their new path. Their path became a thread that weaves throughout our bible.

In thinking about Sarah and Elizabeth, I remember an influential elder woman that made a difference in my life. Bonnie Offrink was a presence, tall and stocky, with a lot of life experience to share. Bonnie was my wife Marcia’s kindergarten Sunday School teacher. Sunday school teachers rock. Now, Bonnie and her family had a habit of going away for months on end doing what is called mission work, helping and teaching around the US and then coming back to the small Presbyterian church on Hartland Road to tell the story of their adventures. It was these stories that held the attention of young Marcia, and are directly responsible for Marcia’s mission work in Alaska when she was sixteen, and her leading and coordinating volunteers at the Morgan-Scott project in Tennessee a few years ago.

Marcia’s path entwined with Bonnie’s some years after Kindergarten after Marcia dropped out of Alma College after a semester and began work at the University Hospital in Ann Arbor. Bonnie, widowed and raising a young boy was just beginning the Ph.D program in Social Work at the U of M. Marcia moved in with Bonnie, both to help out, and to cut out her commute from Hartland to Ann Arbor on US-23. It was Bonnie that insisted Marcia to give college another try at the nearby Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. The university that I was attending.

Bonnie was the kind of woman to whom it was clear what you ought to be doing with your life, and often she was right.

I’d been dating Marcia for about six weeks when Marcia called to invite me on a trip she was taking to Kentucky with Bonnie. I turned her down, on the basis of something that’s been lost to history. Shortly after the call with Marcia, Bonnie called. She was persuasive, citing their safety, and how I would regret it if something should happen to them. How could I refuse? Bonnie had been a social worker at the Red Bird Mission in Southeastern Kentucky, and the trip was to visit old friends.

Two of her friends, Cy and Tilde, lived up in a holler, or valley. We travelled east from Red Bird on a paved road, that turned to gravel, and ultimately to dirt.

As the five of us sat under the big shade tree in the front yard, sipping sweet tea, Cy asked a question: ‘Now when are you two youngins fixin’ to get married?’

Later that evening, back at the Mission, on a hot and humid night, with a hillside covered in fireflies, we came to an answer to his question. That Bonnie.

Bonnie completed her doctorate at 60, and used it in her new career for another ten years until retirement at the age of seventy. Bonnie epitomized ‘It’s not too late to do new things’.

In the retelling the story of Elizabeth and Mary, we hear of Mary, a younger woman that visits, and moves into Elizabeth’s household for a time.

Mary, pregnant under rather mysterious and scandalous circumstances shared her doubts in our scripture of last week. And now, Mary makes a really smart decision to live with Elizabeth for a few months. Can you imagine the affirmation that Mary felt when Elizabeth told her “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb”? There’s no record of the stories that Elizabeth and Mary shared together. But we can imagine. I imagine there was talk about the angelic visitors. Talk of family, and reactions the families had to their news. (The good news of great joy comes later on) I imagine Mary appreciated the encouragement and experience of the elder Elizabeth, and Elizabeth appreciated the help and presence of Mary.

We remember and retell the stories of Sarah, Elizabeth, and Mary. In the season of Advent, we look forward to what comes next, and look back to where we have come. In the looking back, we can see just how important Sarah, Elizabeth and Mary were. Their stories are threads. The threads that tell us that it’s not too late to begin something new. Threads that tell us to be present, to share our experiences and encouragement in the lives of others.

The first stanza that is our mediation this morning seems bleak. Just as life can seem bleak. I envision a person seeing the world through the sharp lens of cynicism. To them, nothing matters as everything comes to an end. But in the last three stanzas I am about to share, this person that I imagine transforms. I imagine the wise women transforming their life in the hope and love that brings to them the realization of a more colorful fabric:

Everything falls away, except the thread you’ve followed, unknowing, all along.The thread that strings together all you’ve been and done, the thread you didn’t know you were tracking until, toward the end,you see that the thread is what stays as everything else falls away.

 Follow that thread as far as you can and you’ll find that it does not end, but weaves into the unimaginable vastness of life. Your life never was the solo turn it seemed to be.It was always part of the great weave of nature and humanity, an immensity we come to know only as we follow our own small threads to the place where they merge with the boundless whole.

 Each of our threads runs its course, then joins in life together. This magnificent tapestry –this masterpiece in which we live forever.

Amen.

If you would like to watch me deliver this sermon: https://youtu.be/of2vMWj5Zao?t=1738