Christ Episcopal Church
August 17, 2012
Bettie Hicks
Once upon a time, the Scriptures tell us, God created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in it, and commanded the earth to bring forth every living creature. Then God created human kind in God’s own image. Bettie Hicks would probably argue that the living creatures were also made in God’s image because she certainly experienced something of God in animals as well as humans. The reading from Isaiah was chosen for today because of the way animals are used to reflect the peaceable kingdom of God and certainly her animals were one of the ways Bettie experienced that peace. But we are here today to celebrate Bettie’s life and our task is to celebrate the ways in which God’s image is revealed through Bettie. Each of us bears the image of God simply because we are human, and in each person we encounter, we see something of that image.
When Bill, Gretchen, and I sat down to plan this service and share stories about Bettie, I heard story after story about a woman who was patient and kind, and whose love, in the words of 1 Corinthians this morning, "bore all things, believed all things, hoped all things, endured all things." Bettie’s life was not always easy. I imagine loving was not always easy-there is nothing in the reading from I Corinthians or any place else in Scripture that says love is always easy. But even in adversity, the Bettie I knew was extraordinarily gracious, loved being around other people, and was forgiving and kind. Bettie had loved so long and so well, that to the end, she might not have known the name of the person sitting with her, or their relationship to her, but I’m sure she knew that the person was someone she loved. In Bettie, I believe we experienced something of the love of God and the love that the apostle Paul describes in the reading from I Corinthians. Today, we celebrate the whole long life of Bettie-a lifetime that teaches us much of what it manes to love fully.
As much as we gather today to celebrate Bettie’s life, we also gather to mourn her death. For some of us, perhaps, that mourning began a while back as Bettie, in the words from I Corinthians, began to see ever more dimly and to think more and more like a child. Tuesday a week ago, that process came to completion as Bettie’s long struggle came to an end and she left this world for the next. As much as we may be relieved that her suffering is over, our grief is real. We can rejoice and weep at the same time. The scriptures tell us that Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, his friend. So we have no shame in shedding our own tears when we lose our loved ones. We pray for Bettie this day, not because we worry about where she is, but because we know that she continues her journey in a new place. We pray for each other, not because we are without hope, but because grief hurts and we continue our journey on earth without someone we love.
So we gather to celebrate a long, loving life and we gather to mourn the loss of a loved one. But we also gather to be reminded that while Bettie may have seen in a mirror dimly during her earthly life, she now sees face to face. While she knew only in part, now she knows fully, even as she has been fully known. In the gospel reading, Jesus tells us that he has gone to prepare a place for us to that where he is, there we may be also. When Bettie was baptized some 89 or so years ago, she was joined with Christ in his death and resurrection. When Bettie died Tuesday a week ago, she was joined with Christ in new life. Her body and her mind have been made new and the love which she practiced all her life has been made perfect. We were blessed to have her in our lives and to know a bit of God’s love through her and we will carry that love within us and honor Bettie’s life by practicing that love ourselves. Bettie is blessed to now see clearly, to know fully, and to love perfectly.
Amen.
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