AS IF A SOJOURNER Barbara Dua Beavers

Hebrews 11:18-16 Broad Street Presbyterian Church
dune 5, 1983 Columbus, Ghie

I remember flying into Columbus fer the first time, As the plane descended, I
recall looking out the plane's window and viewing flat land as far as I could sae.
miles and miles all flat of green and gold: i knew I was a sojourner -- a foreigner
to this place. While EF had lived in many parts of the world F had never known
country without mountain or ocean, To my mostly east coast past, this was truly the
mid-west. This part of the country I had only known through writers like Carl
Sandburg and Willa Cather. After three years, IT have grown to love the scattered
farmland of this flat state, Interesting, but mid-west is now aast in my way of
thinking.

I had come here to accept a call to ministry in this congregation. fF came in
faith not unlike what I imagine were the responses of Abraham and Sarah and Ruth.
Such moves mean feelings of axcitement and anticipation as well as fear and uncertainty.
I'm not sure what the areas of Haran and Moab -- the home spots of Abraham and Ruth
~- Were like, but I knew I was leaving the intellectual riches of Princeton and the
excitement of New York City and Philadelphia. My eastern friends teased me of mid-
wast conservatism and an "Impeach Harl Warren" sign that they were sure was a Columbus
landmark, What fun instead to find a skyline of "Columbus ~- we're making it greatl"

But I was nevertheless a sojourner <-- an alien. And I looked forward, as did
Abraham and Sarah, to the “city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is
God.”

Since this is my last day ag a pastor to this congregation, I would like to share
some of the wanderings of my three year's sojourning here with you. Someone asked
me recently what gift I would like to give this congregation as I leave. The question
helped me focus on what IT hope I have already given. But it also made me consider all
that ~f have been given by you. i'd like to share just a little of that with you.

It has been a great priviledge to be the first ordained woman pastor to this
congyegation. I came as an alien to the position. I had no role models, no tradi~
tion, no pattern to follow. I learned on the road, with the help and Forgiveness of
strangers and friends. The advantages, I'm happy to say, have equalled the Lliabili-~
ties. I recall one woman sitting in my office telling some very hurtful experiences.
Suddenly, she caught herself and said in embarrassment, “I completely forgot you
were a minister.” How wonderful on occasion to be freed from the haggage se often
associated with clergy!

Being a woman in an historically male profession is net always easy. The God
who has called me to Freedom is also the God of the Church which has not encouraged
women in professional leadership positions, At times the rejection has been acute.
The issue has been one of great Faith struggle for me, But one in which God's call
to "Go from your home....to the land that I will show you" has always been louder
than those who have wanted to block the path. i have learned -- in the limited way
a white, middle-class person can learn ~- the meaning of oppression and fhe longings
to be free. This understanding has enabled me to respond with some greater tntention-
ality to the needs of women and minorities in this congregation and community. This
church stands in the place to meet unique urban problems. I have been able to minister
in yeur name in meaningful ways. Referrals of problem pregnancies and agonizing abor~
tions, of domestic abuse and mental confusion have come my way on a regular basis. One
such woman suggested I tell you a little of her story. She was referred to me the

Jo

Years ago, Presbyterian theologian James Smart saw and wrote that the tradi-
tional functions of the family were being stripped away like so many layers from
an onion. "Whose fault is it?" he asked and answered, "No one's and everyone's,"
After all, we are the ones who asked the schools, for instance, to teach values
as well as reading. We are the ones who expect religion to be taught by the church
school, outdoor skills by the scouts, social graces by the dancing class, and athletic
ability by little league. We are the major conspirators in turning parenting into
the task of delivering one's children, literally, into the hands of a multitude of
expert teachers and then waiting patiently in the parking lot, Hstening to the car
radio, to take them home afterward. We have turned the home into the 24~hour-a-
day cafeteria and motel where the inhabitants occasionally bump into one another
coming and going.

This is no lament, by the way. Just a description of the world in which we
live and a plea to understand that the home didn't fall apart because of some moral
flaw in the American character or because of permissiveness or because we don't
use McGuffey's readers. The whole world changed.

James Smart helped us see that the functions were placed elsewhere, for
better or worse, And now, we are seeing that the forms are changing too. Now,
a very interesting dynamic begins to operate at this point. American mobility
created the nuclear family. What does home, as a place, mean when one has lived
in many cities? The place you were born, where you spent the biggest portion of
time? With the exception of the fortunate few, most of us do not live close to
grandparents, aunts, uncles - the truly traditional family. "Nuclear families are
a new invention,” Margaret Mead said, “and not a particularly good one.” They
cannot bear the weight we have placed on them. They need the reinforcing strength
of the extended family, and in its absence, some supportive, loving community
which becomes a family. A friend of mine, nearing retirement, is a grandfather
whose grandchildren live hundreds of miles away. He told me he takes a walk before
dinner - to talk to the neighborhood children. He told me that it's hard to be a
grandfather and to have no grandchildren close enough to love.

It is the Festival of the Christian home throughout the Church today: the
traditional Mother's Day with a broader scope. It is a time to recall that the one
thing we all have in common is a genesis, We were brought into being by a miracle
of strong love. We had a home. We had or have a mother and father and we carry,
hidden deep in our hearts and minds and spirits, a rich treasure of love and formative
nurture, That treasure is unique for each of us. And in its variety and particularity
it is good to get in touch with it, celebrate it, give God thanks for it,

The faith, I find, is a strong resource for the task. The Bible, for instance,
is refreshingly ~ almost embarrassingly ~- realistic about home and family. We may
romanticize and sentimentalize the nuclear family, but the Judeo-Christian tradition
doesn't. The motif gets off to a rocky start. Cain murders Abel practically on
the first page. Noah's sons discover him in a drunken stupor. Abraham loans Sarah
to Pharaoh for awhile to save his own skin, Jacob deceives his father, cheats his
brother and plays his parents off against each other.

The Bible affirms the centrality of the home and family as the context for
the human story to be told. But it does net oversimplify it, nor does it romanticize.
In fact, the family and home in the Bible are portrayed honestly, faithfully and
humanly.

oe fu

to be different in a church from what I had been taught at Seminary. What came to my
mind was this. That a multiple staff could net only work, but could work well, The
word around Seminary was that multiple staffs should be avoided at ail cost. The church
is full of horror stories, I'm happy to say that hasn't been my experience. Working
with John and Gerry and Jerry has been creative and free and challenging and supportive.
Biblically put, that's a Blessing!

i began by telling youof my friend who asked what gift I would like to leave the
congregation, My thought was I think it may be too late -~ I hope the gift has already
been given. As I reflect on my ministry here I would Like to think it centerad on twa
areas: an encouragment for serious theological searching and thought, and a helping to
build a greater sense of community within the congregation. However, I would like te
i@ave two other gifts for the future. For sojourners never arrive, but are always on
the move and God has called each of you to this journey in faith.

i would hope For the gift of more action by this congregation. We talk a lot about
issues, and problems and even make statements of policy. But how do we put our ideas
inte action, How Go we influence institutions and structures and legislation. Thomas
Merton wrote, "There is always a tamptation to diddle around in the religious life, mak-
ing itsy-bitsy statues." ‘The philosopher Annie Dillard expounded upon this idea and
wrote, “There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddie around making
smali friends and meals and journeys for smail vears on end. Tt is so self-conscious,
sO apparentiy moral, simply te step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour
down. Iowon't have it. ‘he world is wilder than thet in all directions, more dangerous
and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making
whocpee; we ara raising tomatdbes when we should be raiaing Cain, or Lazarus." May
this congregation have greater courage to act. May this congregation have the courage
to vaise Cain and Lazarus!

Ruth tells the story of one who stood between the native and the alien land. Her
choice to leave the world she had known to journey with her mother-in-law Naomi must
have involved feelings of unrest, insecurity and limitations. Serenity and security
seemed out of the picture for her. The story doesn't tell us, for I imagine, it cannot
be explained, how she makes the choice to go with her mother-in-law. What the story
does tell us is that God was a part of the decision. And se I would wish you a life of

living as "if a sojourner." In Nietche's words this means moving "into the land of eur
children” and out of the "land of our fathers and mothers." Tt means seeking God's
Kindgom as “strangers, nomads, aliens and exiles." Sojourn -~ do not settle. A recent

National Geographic acticle told of an amateur Japanese astronomer who in 1982 diseover-~
ed anova. The article told how professional astronomers miss such new occurances
because they spend a large measure of their time looking at known objects, To do so is
to miss God's call ta go out from the place we know to the land of promise. God seems
to say to us, “Let there be the grit of sand on your teeth, a relentless sun in your
face, a beckoning wind across the desert, and a holy wanderlust Stirring in your veins."

I say this to myself, as well as to you. For I am experiencing the desire to stay
with the familiar, with the home I have grown to love. iI believe God is calling me to
serve in another ministry in the world. I go in faith as if a sojourner -~ rich in
the gifts you have given me. I go saying with Abraham and Sarah and Ruth, "By faith i
sojourn in the land of promise, as in a foreign land. For I lock forward to the city
which has foundations, whese builder and maker is God.”

AMEN.

-4—

Abraham and Sarah never made it to the promised land. (see Raines, p. 117)
They spent their lives making it. Home, the Bible seems to be saying, is not a place
at all, but the pilgrimage, the journey, and most of all, the relationships.

In the best story of all about the topic - the one Jesus told ~ home for the
prodigal is not a place, but a relationship: not his father's house so much as his
father's love. Home, theology has always understood, has everything in the world
to do with love.

Not to have it is to be homesick, alone, lost. To be leved is to be at home.
When we find ourselves grieving over the disappearance of the past; when we lament
the sorry state of the home and the family, we need, it seems to me, the Biblical
word. It is a good and important word. If I am reading the story right, it is that
home may be in the present and the future as weil as the past; that the God who
gave us life initially, calls us to the pilgrimage of our particular lives and promises
to bless us with his presence wherever that leads. God, if I read correctly, is our
true home, as the hymn puts it.

The word for those of us who are living in nuclear families, and who are
struggling with and worrying about forces which seem far beyond our ability to
control ~ is: don't despair. Be of good cheer, God thought enough of the arrange-
ment to have his only son born into it. God chose the process of human birth for
the incarnation to happen. God chose that fragile, yet creatively strong complex
of relationships between mother, father, and child as the formative context for
the savior of the world. The word for us is that the institution is worth saving,
that it is worth striving for, praying about, studying, and sometimes weeping over.
The word is to value it highly and appropriately: but not to conclude that we have
failed miserably as parents or that the foundations of Western Civilization are
crumbling because our family doesn't look or act like a romanticized version that
never really did exist. And the word is a reminder not to oversimplify and in the
process exclude from our world the people who do not live in nuclear families —
which means the vast majority. The biblical word is a reminder to open our lives
to larger families: to find the uncles, aunts, grandparents, friends, we — all of us
~ need, ;

And the word for those who are not living in nuclear families is that nuclear
families are not the only places where God's people live: that God is at least as
interested in those who are not as settled and fixed in place, Without hearing
more than the Biblical witness, the word here is that Jesus, in fact, left the place,
the relationships, the roles, in order to give himself to his vocation: but that through
it all, his own sense of sonship to his own mother remained. God, the Bible suggests,
sometimes uproots people, and sends them on difficult journeys. God, the Bible
promises, will be particularly present on those journeys.

And for all of us, with or without traditional home and nuclear family, the
word is profoundly clear. Each of us can be alone, an exile forever, lost. But we
don't have to be. We are so constructed as to need and to thrive on the supportive
love of some caring community - a family. The church, this beloved company,
at its highest and best becomes that for each one of us.

The word is profoundly and finally simple. Home is not past alone. It is that,
of course. It is memory which, this day, is lovingly recalled and celebrated, It
is a reality which provided formative nuture to each of us in a particular way. It
is a mother, a father, people who will forever be our lifegivers, Home is also this
present: this day: these relationships, here and now, And it is also the journey
ahead: the future into which God calls us; the future in which God promises to
be with us and bless us, to gather up our precious memories in his strong love and
to be, himself, cur eternal home. AMEN,