23 Proper C

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Episcopal Church

October 13, 2013

 23 Proper C

 This summer, we celebrated the life of Helen Myers, mourned her death, and committed her eternal life to God.  Helen was a member of this parish, although only a few of us had the privilege of knowing her as she was homebound for the last many years.  Helen was born in 1916 and grew up on the south side of Springfield attending the small Presbyterian Church on South Limestone which became South Side Mennonite Church.  She grew up poor, even before the Great Depression when almost everyone in Springfield was poor.  She married her high school sweetheart, Charles, who grew up at Christ Church and sang in the choir here as a young boy, then they moved to Pennsylvania and Connecticut and other places before returning to retire in Springfield some 25 years ago.  Charles died suddenly shortly after retiring and at some point thereafter Helen became a member of Christ Church, coming to the Wednesday Eucharist when she could, sending out reminder cards for our various ministries for many years, and consuming every issue of the Clarion as soon as the newsletter came out.  Helen knew everything that was going on at Christ Church and had half of Oakwood Village saving pennies for our Mile of Pennies program, even though the only time she was able to come to church in the time I have been here was for an organ recital in 2003 or 2004.

Even though most of us never knew Helen, we have all been impacted by her life.  While at the time she would never allow us to tell of her generosity, the truth is that she was the major donor that made the new slate roof possible in 2008.   She was the major contributor to the organ project in 2003.  And in the late 1990’s, Helen was the one who made the gift that air-conditioned both this building and Hollenbeck House.  When I or anyone else would thank Helen for her generosity, her response was always the same “To whom much is given, much is expected.”  End of conversation. 

One interesting fact about Helen’s generosity was that neither I nor my predecessors ever asked her for anything.  She told Bob and Ruth Partlow, the rectors in the 1990’s, that the church needed to be air conditioned and she wanted to make that happen.  In 2003, she called me to come visit her.  She knew we were going to have some work done on the organ and she wanted that work done right and as much of the organ restored as possible, and gave a major gift to make that happened.  And in 2008, she called again and asked me to come see her.  I thought that was odd since I had just gone to see her the week before, but Helen was an absolute delight to visit, so we set up a time and I went.  Helen had a substantial amount of money in an account where it was not being used.  She considered that to be wasteful and asked what major projects we had going on that needed funding.  When I mentioned the slate roof, she was delighted.  Her husband was an engineer and loved sound buildings.  She would make the lead gift to make that possible.  Helen saw a need, recognized potential, and had the ability to make something amazing happen.  We never asked for a thing, and Helen would never let us tell the story of her generosity until now.

The question is: “What inspired such love for Christ Church in a woman who really never attended church here?” 

About 90 years ago, when her husband Charles was a young boy growing up at Christ Church, his father died.  His mother worked hard to raise Charles, but times were difficult financially and life was a struggle for them.  The people of Christ Church stepped in and made sure Charles stayed in school and the family had what they needed.  Those folks mentored Charles, encouraged him, and saw that he had what he needed to finish high school.  When Charles finished high school, the general expectation of family and friends was that Charles would get a job and support his mother.  But the people of Christ Church stepped in and prevailed.  They saw potential in Charles and made sure he went to college and reached his goal to become an engineer.  When he finished college and had a job, he and Helen married after having dated for about 8 years, and they moved from Springfield.  Charles’ career as an engineer was long and quite lucrative.

To her dying breath, Helen was extraordinarily grateful for what Christ Church has done for her husband, and thus her family, some 90 years ago.  Helen  considered her generosity to be simply an expression of her gratitude to a church that transformed the life and the potential of one child and that child’s future family.  Her deep love for Christ Church was born of that gratitude.  Her generosity was gratitude in action. 

This morning, we hear the story of Jesus and the 10 lepers.  How easily we can walk off from all that God has done for us and not return to give thanks!  While the 10^th leper’s act of gratitude may be a little demonstrative for us reserved Episcopalians, obviously the point is that the healed man understood the magnitude of what had been done for him and returned to give thanks.  The parallel between the story of the healed man and Helen’s story is clear.  Helen also understood the magnitude of the difference God, through Christ Church, had made in her husband’s life and in her own, and she acted on that gratitude. 

Gratitude and generosity are both commendable and well worth imitating as we think about our own offerings to this parish.  But I think there is a challenge here that runs even deeper than the challenge to think about how our own lives reflect our gratitude for all God has done for us. 

Helen’s gratitude in the last decades of her life was for what this parish had done for her husband 80 or 90 years ago.  What are we doing as a parish, both as individuals within a parish and as a parish as a whole, that 90 years from now will cause someone to look back with the kind of gratitude Helen had for Christ Church?  How are we working to be a community of faith that will inspire that kind of gratitude?  Obviously no one is around now who was an adult in the 1920’s influencing a young man to pursue his education and helping to make that possible.  But my hunch is that there was no vestry resolution to do so, no sermon from the rector, and no committee or Ministry Team got involved.  My guess is that some folks got together, saw a need and recognized potential, and made something happen that transformed a life.  In the story of the 10 lepers, Jesus saw a need, had the ability, recognized potential and made something happen, too.  Where do we see need, recognize potential, and have the ability to make something happen?  The reading from Jeremiah reminds us that we are called to take action now, where we are presently located, in the current circumstances of our lives, and not wait until our life situation changes to something more suitable for doing the work of God.  Jesus calls us to see need, recognize potential, and use our abilities to make amazing things happen now.  Our response to that call will transform both our lives and the lives of others.  Like Christ Church and their care of a young man, like Helen Myers and her great generosity, our response to Jesus’ call to see need, to recognize potential, and to be generous with our abilities is the stewardship of our lives in action.                                                                             

Amen.