Tuesday, January 27, 2015

You Are Witnesses

"You are witnesses!"  That is the take away statement for me by Ray Jones at our Presbytery retreat in September.  Ray referred to Jesus' commission to his disciples before his ascension. "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8b).  It is my job and the Presbytery's purpose to "challenge, encourage and equip worshiping communities of faith to make disciples of Jesus Christ with the gifts God gives them."  Ray reminded us that part of being a disciple is giving witness to what God has done in our lives.  How does one do that?  The lead in to that commissioning is "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" (Acts 1:8a).  The Holy Spirit, then, will equip, empower us to recognize God's presence and activity.

My mother was gifted by the Holy Spirit to recognize God in her life and my family's life.  She was a great role model for me in how to witness to God's saving acts in ones life.  She had a way of telling and remembering family stories.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, she recognized and frequently acknowledged God's hand in the surprising twists of her life, and our family's experience. Maybe not in the moment, but as she looked back, she recognized how God had been at work transforming difficult circumstances into unexpected blessings.

With this in mind, let me give witness to the hand of God in my family's life, my life.  Many of you know that my father-in-law, I. Lee Brown, Jr. recently died.  He was a man of God and lived 93 wonderful years in Paradise, Pennsylvania.  He was a third generation funeral director there and for decades, part of his community service was as overseer of the Norman Woods Estate.  At the end of the 19th Century, Norman Woods, a successful banker, and his wife, hosted traveling Presbyterian ministers in their stately mansion along Route 30.  In their will, they set up their stately home and estate as a home for retired Presbyterian ministers.  In the 1970's, the Wood's Estate provided three rent free apartments to honorably retired Presbyterian ministers, who had served in Donegal Presbytery.

My father, a Presbyterian minister for 29 years, had to retire on disability, because of life long diabetes and heart disease in 1973 at age 52.  There were no minimum terms of call during his era of ministry.  He had served rural congregations on minimal salaries. The crisis in addition to my dad's health condition, was where would we live and how?  My oldest brother Charlie was just out of seminary.  My brother Dave was newly married with an infant, and had just landed his first professional job. They were ok, but just starting out with little means.  But my sister Jo was still in college, and I was a senior in high school!  My parents had no extra funds stored away for rent or buying a house.  We had always lived in manses.  My parents did not know what to do!

Then they thought of the Woods Home, in Paradise, Pennsylvania.  They inquired and learned that Lee Brown administered the Woods Home.  My mother called Lee, explained our need for an apartment, for not only her and my dad, but also for my sister and me, at least for summers and holidays.  It seemed like a stretch.  Would there be an available apartment?  Rent free, including utilities seemed too good to be true.  As my mother told the story, Lee's first words of response on the phone were, "Betty, I don't think that will be a problem."

You can't imagine the relief those nine words were to her, and my family!  My brother Charlie's first response to news of Lee's death, were remembering his role with the Woods Home and the relief that apartment was to us.  My parent's move to the Woods Home changed my life!  My parents moved there in March.  I stayed with a trusted church family and finished my senior year at my high school.  One weekend in May while visiting my parents, I went to the young adult Sunday School class at the Leacock Presbyterian Church in Paradise.  I was sitting there in the pastor's study, and in walked this gorgeous girl with long brown hair!  I later learned that her name was Eileen and that she was Lee Brown's daughter.  Later, when I had moved into a room in the attic of the Woods Home for the summer, Eileen invited me to a Bible Study, which she attended.  It was a group of her friends who had gown to high school together.  They were from many different churches, and had just finished their freshman year of college.  I had been involved in Sunday School and youth group.  But their discussions were filled with faith and theological inquiry at a depth and love and ease I had never experienced in my years of Sunday School, Bible School and Youth Group.  I loved it!  From that group came four Presbyterian ministers, one Episcopal priest, a Presbyterian Church Educator, and a Mennonite lay church worker.  I also fell in love with Eileen, and Lee Brown became my father-in-law.

My parents lived at the Woods Home only 15 months before my father died.   My mother, a trained nurse, spend the weeks after my dad died, visiting my Aunt Ann, my dad's sister, in the local hospital. Aunt Ann died just a few weeks later from a fast acting cancer.  My mother was only 52 at the time, and soon found employment as a nurse, and moved on with her life.  She announced to the family during Christmas break when we were all home, that she and my Uncle Harry had fallen in love, and were engaged to be married.  The first words out of my brother Charlie's mouth were, "No more overnight stays until you get married!"  They did get married the next March.  I sang at their wedding.  My mother had two successful marriages, the first with my father for 29 years, and the second with my uncle for 32 years until he died.  Some people may say this was all serendipity circumstance.  My family recognized God's fingerprints all over the blessings that emerged from trying times.  The song I sang at my mother's wedding was, "To God Be the Glory!"

I don't believe that God causes bad things to happen and causes the sorrows in my life or anyone's life.  But I do believe God transforms lives, and brings good out of difficult situations.  My family and I are witnesses to these acts of God in our lives!

As you claim your role as witness and fulfill your commission as a disciple of Jesus Christ, how have you recognized God's acts of love, grace, deliverance, and redemption in your life?  How might you authentically give witness to it?  With the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, it's that simple!

   
   




1 comment:

Ruth H-L said...

This is quote a gift--thank you for sharing. And for the unique faith perspective that sees God's work in all of it.