Sermon preached by The Rev. Dr. Harold T. Lewis

SERMON PREACHED BY THE REVEREND DR. HAROLD T. LEWIS, RECTOR
CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
AT A SERVICE IN THANKSGIVING FOR THE LIFE OF
ALICE GORDON ABBETT
FRIDAY 30 JUNE 2006


"Let not your hearts be troubled." (John 14:1)

If there is such a thing as a "renaissance woman," Alice Abbett more than qualified for that description. How many people could list on their resume airline stewardess, co-author of a book about golf, and a staff writer for The New Yorker? (The last of these jobs allows me to understand why Alice was the first person to call me when that publication ran a story about the crisis in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion --- but obviously, that is another sermon.)

Alice was a people person, taking great delight in encountering people on the golf course or the tennis court, or more recently at the bridge table. She was, in her day, a grande dame, moving about in the world of charity balls and gala benefits. But those who knew and loved her believe that she would probably prefer to be remembered as someone who lent her expertise and support to the boards of Shadyside Academy or St. Margaret's Hospital, and who found pleasure in working on the altar guild and as a member of the flower delivery team at Calvary.

In today's Gospel, we read the words of Jesus "Let not your hearts be troubled." Those of us who knew Alice would concur that she took our Lord's advice. She was certainly not one to fret unduly, but rather was one who could roll with the punches. She was one who more than once overcame adversity, believing that when dealt a bushel of lemons, the best thing to do was to make lemonade. And because of such a trusting attitude, she could take Jesus at his word when he said, "I go to prepare a place for you, and will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also." That time has come, as it will come for all of us, and we take great comfort with Alice in her belief that one of the "many mansions" that the Lord has prepared has her name on it.

Several weeks ago, my phone rang, and before I could discern who the caller was, I could detect unbridled joy in her voice. It was Alice Abbett. "Harold," she said, "I want you to know that I have become a grandmother!" Alexis had just been born, conferring grandmotherly status on Alice after what she would have defined as an unduly long wait. And with that status came the assurance of immortality for which we all crave. Alexis, of course, would soon become the apple of her eye, and Taylor was so happy for her that he didn't mind playing second fiddle for a while. Perhaps the glee so evident in Alice's voice was there because she might well have suspected or intuited that this was her "Nunc Dimittis." Just as the aged Simeon could say when he beheld the infant Jesus, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace," so Alice believed she could return to the care of her heavenly father confident in the knowledge that another generation was left behind, a generation that would "rise up and call her blessed." My grandmother, of blessed memory, in her West Indian wisdom, would have described Alice's death as simply moving on to make room for Alexis.

So we gather today, I think, less to mourn Alice's loss than to give thanks for her life, a life characterized by service to others, unstinting devotion to her son, and love for her God and for her church. In a day when Willard Scott informs us daily of people celebrating their hundredth birthday, many could say that Alice died young, or even that her death was untimely. But we who sing "A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone; short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun," know that it is not especially helpful to measure the worth of one's life based on longevity (since forty, seventy or a hundred years are all the same to the eternal God) but on the impact that that life has had on others. "If I can help somebody along the way," says an old song, "then my living shall not be in vain." So today, we take great comfort in the words of the Prophet Isaiah, "to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

+Rest eternal grant unto Alice, 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.