Loading...Sermon March 18, 2018
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s, Newport, PA
Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year B
//lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Lent/BLent5_RCL.html
Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:25
There were many great joys in singing in the choir at The National Cathedral. One was the people I met, many of whom I continue to be in touch with. There was a woman in my soprano section named Isabelle. I often sat near her. She usually did not say much and the times I sat next to her, I was sometimes annoyed because she did not sing very loudly and it helps to have people next to you sing loud enough so you can hear.
Over time, I learned a little about Isabelle. She told me she was an attorney and specialized in helping women who had experienced domestic violence. She had been a law professor and she had written textbooks on the subject of domestic violence.
One Sunday she said she’d like another choir member and me to use her opera tickets. The seats were wonderful and I knew she had some money to be able to afford those seats. The year before I went to seminary, I had to leave the choir in order to be an intern in another parish, so I lost touch with Isabelle. As I started seminary, I learned her leukemia had returned. Her friends were being asked to send cards and notes, especially since she wasn’t really up to having visits. I made sure to send a card to her. In November of 2010, she died. Being in seminary in New York City, I wasn’t able to attend her funeral. I heard it was beautiful. Isabelle had planned everything. The major message she wanted to convey was her hope that we could all love one another.
Isabelle had a secret only a few knew. At the beginning of January of 2011, a large article about Isabelle appeared in The Washington Post under the heading A Local Life. First of all, Isabelle was deaf. She had taken singing lessons and eventually piano lessons. She had powerful hearing aids she concealed underneath her long hair. Most surprising of all, Isabelle Scott was easily worth $100 million according to the Post.
It turned out that Isabelle had been born into a wealthy family who founded the Giant Food Store company in the DC area. Unbeknownst to many, however, her father physically and sexually abused her. She ended up married at age 19. She was in a number of difficult and challenging marriages. Her last marriage was to a therapist she had been seeing. That divorce was highly publicized, because the therapist was accused and convicted of maltreatment and especially going after Isabelle’s large fortune.
In 1990, Isabelle changed her last name to Scott. She drove a Volvo and lived fairly simply. When she died, she was worth $100 million. And she gave away her money. At least $30 million in the months before her death. Most of her gifts were given anonymously. On Christmas Eve 1997, she visited then-Dean Nathan Baxter, giving him a check for $1 million to start the Girl Choristers at the Washington National Cathedral and just before she died, she gave another $3 million to create an endowment for the choir. The girls in the choir never knew her name until after her death.
Jean Vanier, founder of communities with and for people with disabilities, wrote a book on the Gospel of John. About this verse from John 12:25, Vanier says:
What is this ‘life’ that Jesus is referring to,
That we hold onto so desperately
And that we must lose?
It is not just physical life but life according to the values of the world,
A world as empty of God as it is filled with idols:
Greed for wealth and greed for power. (p. 211)
Jesus says when we love the values of this world, we then lose our life. We gain eternal life when we live in the values of God and Jesus. That means we live in a new way. We are not just focused on ourselves, we widen our view to include others. We think about the whole world, instead of just our little part of the world.
That’s why I think of Isabelle and remember her. She had great wealth and in some of her life tried living lavishly and using that power and wealth. At a certain point, she started living differently. She thought about others and how she could help them. She lived a simpler lifestyle and gave away her wealth. She didn’t try to control things. She gave the money for the girl choristers and would sit at the back of the Cathedral when she attended their concerts.
It’s not easy to die to the lives we think we should live or that our society or the world tell us to live. Yet, the lives of the world are empty in the end. The love and compassion and wealth we share with others, as Jesus taught us to do, is what really gives our lives meaning and joy.
Amen
Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John, Jean Vanier, 2004.
A Local Life: Isabelle Scott: //www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/01/AR2011010102500.html
Obituary: //www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/isabelle-scott-obituary?pid=146830247&view=guestbook
