Sermon preached by The Reverend Dr. Harold T. Lewis

SERMON PREACHED BY THE REVEREND DR. HAROLD T. LEWIS, RECTOR CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA AT THE REQUIEM MASS FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOUL OF SUSAN JOAN ALDER BOULDEN SATURDAY 31 MARCH 2007


"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." (Matthew 5:9)

Pittsburgh, in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, and Hull, in the northeast corner of England, have something in common. They are both cities found at the point where two rivers converge and flow into another. Here, as every schoolchild knows, the Allegheny and the Monongahela pour into the Ohio. Hull, the third largest port in England, is situated near that point where the Ouse and the Trent Rivers flow into the Humber. And judging from the people that that town has managed to produce over the centuries, I think we can safely say that there is indeed something in the water! In 1642, the townspeople of Hull, vehemently opposed to the notion of a Catholic king, were the first to shut their city gates, barring entry to the new monarch, Charles I. In the years following, in the midst of civil war, a royalist army occupied the rest of the north of England but Hull remained a parliamentary outpost, defeating the king's forces not once but twice. About a century later, in Hull's High Street, was born her most famous son, William Wilberforce, who fought tirelessly to convince the English Parliament to abolish the slave trade, an event whose bicentenary we observe this year.

About a century after Wilberforce's death, Hull witnessed the birth of one of her most famous daughters, Susan Joan Alder. We who have come to this sacred place this morning knew her as Sue Boulden, and we gather to give thanks to Almighty God for that Yorkshire lass who must have drunk deeply from Hull's three rivers, for she, like her forebears, was feisty, energetic, and indefatigable. But she was also passionate about the causes she espoused, devout in the faith she professed, and loving to those of us privileged to be among her family and friends. Hours after her death last Tuesday night, someone wrote that she was not surprised that it was Sue's heart that gave out, because it was her heart that had for so many years worked overtime.

When we met with the family to discuss which lessons we would read today, someone suggested that the Beatitudes be the Gospel reading, and there was unanimous assent. It was as if we all sensed that Sue's life was a living out of the Beatitudes, which someone has called the Magna Carta of Christianity. The preacher could have picked any one of them and made a plausible argument for how Sue's life exemplified it ---- well, perhaps "blessed are the meek" would have been a bit of a stretch! So I ask that you meditate with me for a moment on the antepenultimate Beatitude, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."

For us for whom the oft-repeated Beatitudes have run the risk of becoming platitudes, they perhaps have lost some of their significance. But that was certainly not the case with Jesus' original audience in first century Palestine. In stating that the peacemakers are blessed, Jesus was challenging conventional wisdom and turning it on its end. In those days, the warmongers were the blessed ones. Rome had conquered the known world; the corrupt Herod controlled Judea and was faring sumptuously every day, all the while ruling the Jewish peasants with an iron fist. Those who waged peace did not seem to receive any blessings at all.

Now first, what is this peace of which Jesus speaks? The Aramaic word that Jesus used was very close to the Hebrew "Shalom." Shalom, (a theme that has, appropriately enough, figured prominently in the theology of our new Presiding Bishop) suggests far more than the absence of conflict, but rather a peace that is found in wholeness, a wholeness of creation ordered by the Creator. This was the type of peace to which Sue was committed. Now someone has suggested that a better translation of the Greek would be "peace-doers" instead of "peacemakers." Somehow making peace might conjure up the idea of imposing it on other groups, whereas doing peace suggests that we start the process by having peace within ourselves, so that we can be in a better position to bring it to others. Sue, my brothers and sisters in Christ, was this kind of doer of peace.

Sue was a doer of peace between men and women. To describe Sue as a feminist would be to do her a disservice. She did not have to rely on using non-sexist language or cherishing a belief that men are domineering or insensitive. She depended on none of these things. Sue was just Sue. She didn't need an elaborate feminist theology to justify her confidence in the equality of women. Her actions spoke volumes, as anyone, male or female, who had a conversation with her, can attest. But just for fun, I wonder what it would have been like in Sue's EFM class when they studied First Corinthians. How I would have loved to hear her impassioned commentary on chapter 14, verse 35, "Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, for they are subordinate." And I daresay Richard could attest that she seldom took Paul's advice in the next verse: "If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home."

Sue was a doer of peace between gay and straight. She could not comprehend the view, all too prevalent in some places, that gay people, by definition, suffer from some kind of pathology. She could not understand a theology that demanded that homosexual orientation was a cross to be borne valiantly by gays and lesbians. Mindful of a widespread attitude that homosexuality, to use Oscar Wilde's phrase, is "the love that dare not speak its name," she pushed for dialogue on the topic even when the powers-that-be were loath to allow it. In her last public utterance at a diocesan gathering, she criticized the church's endorsement of anti-gay legislation in the Province of Nigeria, and called the attention of the audience to the irreparable harm such laws cause for all people.

Sue was a doer of peace among racial groups. Growing up in Hull was her first exposure to what we now call multiculturalism, so when she arrived at Pitt many years later, it seemed very natural to Sue to join an overseas students' association. In moving about the church, she showed that she had no tolerance for racial bigotry in any form.

Sue was a doer of peace between progressive and conservative. Believing that all voices should be heard in this diocese, she was the driving force behind PEP. But her m.o. was never to lord it over others, but rather to say, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Come let us reason together, though our sins be like scarlet." Sue was often the one who extended the olive branch. When the "Hope and a Future" Conference met in Pittsburgh, Sue purchased several copies of the newly published book called Gays and the Future of Anglicanism, and had them delivered to all the primates in attendance. In carrying out her own brand of shuttle diplomacy between progressive and convservative, she was an original. A strong pro-life advocate, Sue was one of the few Episcopalians I know who was a card-carrying member of both Integrity and NOEL (the National Organization of Episcopalians for Life) and in the days when exhibits were allowed at diocesan convention, she would flit unabashedly between the two booths, handing out literature at each.

Sue was a doer of peace --- period. We could spend the rest of the day recalling the random acts of kindness that sprang from her heart. It was she, after all, who organized the bus to Columbus for General Convention. And I shall ever be grateful to her for whipping up some proper English scones, complete with jam and clotted cream, for the anniversary of my ordination.

Last Sunday, as Sue, Richard and I gathered in Sue's hospital room and offered up the holy eucharist, we thought we were giving her strength to get through the operation. And so we were. But, as it turned out, we were doing more; we were giving her the Viaticum, food for her journey to that place where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sorrow, but life everlasting. One day short of sixty-four years is nowadays considered a short life, but before we start talking about "an untimely death," let us instead do two things. First, let us give thanks to God for what our sister Sue was able to do in the time allotted to her ---- which by any reckoning was far more than many people accomplish who outlive her by decades. Second, in this Great Relay Race which is the Christian life, let us vow to grab hold of the baton that Sue has passed on to us, so that we can carry on her valiant witness.

Everything that Sue did was grounded in a deep sense of justice. She envisioned a church where everybody --- regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other distinction ---- would have a place at the table. Striving, especially in these fractious and troublous times, to help make that vision a reality, is the very least we can do to honor Sue's blessed memory.

+Rest eternal grant unto Sue, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her. May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. AMEN.