BLOG 4/20/14. WHAT ONE’S ‘EASTER INCARNTION’ LOOKS LIKE ON THE STREETS AND IN THE MARKETPLACE.
The enthusiastic comments and responses to my last Blog—about Easter not being held captive to Easter Sunday church services, but, rather, turned loose into the streets and marketplaces of our lives—also raises for me the question as to exactly what that would look like, given the huge diversity of daily occupations of those who subscribe to these blogs. I think that there are some common denominators that I can provide, and the come in the example of my late wife, Betty. Let me spell this out for those of you who never knew her (which is most of you).
Betty was a ‘salt of the earth’ Mid-western girl, but who came with a very modest amount of self-confidence. She could never realize the positive effect she had on those who knew her, and were the recipients of her wisdom. At the same time, she had a sense of integrity that ran deep. She didn’t like pretense. But being married to me (a teaching-pastor) she had thrusts upon her the role of being ‘the pastor’s wife,’ which was not ever comfortable for her, since it brought with it a set of expectations and caricatures that didn’t fit her sense of personal identity.
All the same, while being a super-mom to four kids, she accepted some ‘out-of-the-limelight’ ministries of Bible teaching, and of being a mentor and mother-figure to a host of young women. Her life was deeply formed by the Christian message, by the teachings of Christ, and by our calling to walk as ‘children of the Light.’ She quietly walked this understanding, always with a fetching humility and warmth, and good humor, and genuineness. People, who weren’t too sure of her husband, always trusted Betty. Which brings me back to my point.
After forty years as the pastor’s wife, when we moved here to Atlanta so that I could assume a position with a national organization, whose purpose was church renewal, Betty no longer had to assume that role which was always a bit unreal to her. Her comment to me was: “I want to find something useful to do here in Atlanta that doesn’t involve church people.” So while she did continue to teach a ladies group at the church with which we were identified, she began the search to find where she could involve herself as a volunteer. What she found was the possibility of being a volunteer and a docent at the Carter Presidential Center—which is an amazing ministry focused on global health and human rights.
So for the next fifteen years that was the most fulfilling focus of her life. She really worked at being most excellent in what she did. She was able to give guided tours of that center to people from all over the world, and was highly regarded by the permanent staff there. But her more fruitful Easter incarnation was in her relationships to the other volunteers, whether collaborating in President Carter’s correspondence, responses, mailings, etc. or simply in the informal coffee-break and lunch break conversations. She did her quiet volunteer work with excellence.
Her Easter incarnation, that made her so influential in so many lives, was the sheer authenticity of her love for them, her warmth, the Christian hope and freedom that are so much the fruit of the gospel … and her quiet wisdom. She had a delightful sense of humor. She was caring. She was modest. She was a good listener (unlike her husband, alas). She was sought out by the other volunteers who sensed in her a quality and authenticity of Christian life that made her to them to be ‘salt and light.’ And, … what they didn’t know, but I did, she prayed regularly for those Carter Center friends. They all turned up at her memorial service with testimonies that corroborated all that I have said here. She left a legacy of true marketplace Easter incarnation.
Easter incarnation on the streets and in the marketplace is not aggressively looking for some sermon to preach, or some person to assault with ‘Christian witness’ but it is the love for others, and the readiness to give answer to any an answer for the hope that is in us (I Peter 3:15-15). As such we fulfill God’s calling of us to be “his own glory and excellence” (II Peter 1:3). Go for it!
