SERMON PREACHED BY
THE REVEREND DR. HAROLD T. LEWIS, RECTOR
CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
AT THE FUNERAL OF ELIZABETH COOLIDGE EBBERT
MONDAY 9 JULY 2007

 

 

"In my Father's house there are many mansions." (John 14:2)

 

 

If you look up the word "diminutive" in the dictionary, you will probably find a picture of Betty Ebbert. A woman of small stature who at her heaviest barely made it into three digits, she was always at the front of the line in school and in the first row of class photographs. Her signature tiny-ness notwithstanding, Elizabeth Coolidge Ebbert, whom we commit today to the loving care of her heavenly Father, will always be remembered as a grande dame. Although her children, her grandchildren and soon her great-grandchildren tower over her, there was no question that "Gamma," as she was affectionately known, was the matriarch of the clan. While some people have to demand respect, insisting that others pay obeisance and fawn over them, Betty Ebbert commanded respect. Her very presence in a room elicited an almost instinctive response of admiration and deference. This was certainly my reaction on those occasions when I was privileged to bring her Holy Communion at her home in Park Mansions.

 

But Betty was never aloof. She never lost the common touch. Born to privilege, she understood from an early age the art of noblesse oblige, the responsibility to return to the community, to lend assistance to those in need. This took the form of her becoming a one-woman Florence Nightingale committee, delivering food (maybe even contraband food), magazines and other goodies to her friends in hospital. On a more public front, she served on the boards of local hospitals, and was devoted to the work of the Children's Institute. What is more, this sense of giving of oneself, of volunteering, of lifting up others was the first thing she instilled in her daughters Ann and Carol.

 

Betty, however, was most at home when relating to the members of her family --- whether it was playing golf with her dear husband James, taking delight in the accomplishments of her grandchildren, teaching them card games, or even serving as confidante in a way that parents are incapable of doing. The Book of Proverbs asks "Who can find a virtuous woman? Her price is far above rubies." This is an apt description of Betty's life and ministry, but her essence is truly captured later on in the same chapter, where we read "Her children shall rise up and call her blessed." And so they have. Even near death, Gamma received her youngest great-grandchild. When their fingers touched, it spoke volumes. The baton is passed. The legacy is entrusted.

 

In today's Gospel, Jesus gives us his assurance that he has prepared a place for each and every one of us, and tells us therefore not to be troubled. "My father's house has many mansions," he assures them. He says this, interestingly enough, right after he predicts that Peter will deny him. So in the same breath Jesus assures us of his love even in the face of his apostle's betrayal, yet another example of Jesus' unconditional love. When he tells them that he is going on before them to prepare a place, Thomas, not the sharpest pencil in the apostolic box, doesn't understand, and asks for a Mapquest. Jesus assures him that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is this assurance that Jesus demands of us, it is in the confidence of that faith that we commend Betty to his care. And as we do so, it is not so much that we mourn her loss, but that we give thanks to Almighty God for her long life.

 

Elizabeth Coolidge was baptized at Calvary's font as an infant, being made a child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven. Some twenty years later, she was joined at this altar in Holy Matrimony to her beloved James, whose blessed memory she has cherished for the past three decades. And now today, we come full circle, and gather yet again in this place that has been spiritual home to her and her family to commit her to her loving Creator, and to Jesus Christ, the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls. And as we do so, we can say, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord."

 

Rest eternal grant unto Betty, 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 and rise in glory. AMEN.