Column by Mary Lee Talbot
The Rev. Jacqui Lewis mused about being the chaplain this week at Chautauqua. “There is a lot of pressure to be funny in comedy week and trying to figure out how to start in a beguiling way,” she said. Lewis preached at the 9:15 a.m. Monday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. Her sermon title was “Time to Eat, Drink and Be Merry,” and the scripture reading was Proverbs 3:1–15.
The people who helped her choose the sermon title were her husband, John, and their friends Ann and Peter. “We have been all over the world together, from Namibia to Chautauqua. We have a holy ritual — gin and tonic with cheese and crackers, and we have had them in front of lions and tigers and bears. But that is not what is in this cup,” she said, pointing to her water bottle.
Lewis grew up in a joy-filled household centered on food. How joyful it is, she said, “when we have enough. As Proverbs says, ‘Happy are those who find wisdom and who get understanding, for her income is better than silver, her revenue better than gold. She is more precious than jewels and nothing you desire can compare with her.’ ”
Wisdom is what leads us to God and life, and can be what takes us away from God. Each human has a claim on being human. Our families and communities, she told the congregation, set the stage “for our children, even the ones who won’t move out. Our teachers teach and our preachers preach what is needed to be human.”
Lewis quoted the Rev. Jim Loder: “Love is a nonpossessive delight in the particularity of the other.” She said, “Knowing that, you know that Jacqui likes lemon not lime in her gin and tonic. We give to people what they need when they need it. We have the power to give what is needed right on time.”
She continued, “That timing is so particular that there can be ‘too late’-ness, and we miss the opportunity to help.”
The Book of Ecclesiastes, Pete Seeger and The Byrds all talk and sing about everything having “a time and purpose under heaven,” Lewis said. There is a schedule, a timeliness, to do love and justice.
She quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that “tomorrow is today and there is a fierce urgency of the now. Procrastination is a thief of time.”
Believing that there is a time and season for everything might make us passive, Lewis told the congregation, that we might just sit and see what will happen. However, she said, “delivering justice is our calling. We are not called just to watch and see if God will show up. We are invited by God and called to participate in the healing of the world.”
She continued, “We are not just to wring our hands but are called to engage, in a timely manner, to help God change the patterns in the world and create the world God intended. That means food, clothing, shelter, safety, peace, care, love and joy enough for everyone. Can I get an amen?”
She stepped aside from her sermon and asked the congregation, “Do I have to teach you about an amen? I know some of you are raised in quiet churches, but if there is something you agree with, you could just go ‘hmmm.’ Or you could say ‘preach it,’ or ‘amen.’ ” And there were several “amens” from the congregation.
When we are overwhelmed, she told the congregation, we sometimes project on God, expecting God to fix everything. God is powerful, but expecting God to fix everything keeps us overwhelmed. By expecting God to fix everything, “we don’t find our agency, our voice, our power over what hurts us,” she said.
Lewis continued, “We shrink God. We think God is a partner in our lives, and so we create a role for God — that God is in charge of everything. We believe that God even creates poverty, war, hunger, because we believe God is in charge.”
She asked the congregation, “Who is in charge?” and people answered, “We are.” Lewis said, “We are the cause of droughts because we are heating the earth. We hoard, and there is not enough to share. We foster bigotry and bias against each other for age, size or skin tone.”
But we are also in charge of making a way for all to flourish and experience love and joy, Lewis said. “To eat and drink is everyone’s birthright. Milk and honey are for everyone. When we are sure that a child has a bite to eat, so he or she can go to school and learn, and get a job and help others, we eradicate poverty. We eradicate poverty when we make sure a child can eat.”
Lewis grew up in a Presbyterian church, and when she was 8, she was able to join in the celebration of communion. Building on top of Jesus’ Jewish ritual of breaking bread and drinking wine together, the communion bread became like Jesus’ body broken, and the cup of wine was shared before the meal so that everyone could “eat, drink and be merry.”
As Lewis participated in her first communion, her mother leaned over as the bread was passed and said, “This means God will always love you.” When the cup was passed, her mother said, “This means God will never leave you.”
Lewis asked the congregation, “What if every child had a chance to partake of the bread and cup, to be sure that God would always love them and never leave them? Isn’t that a vocation worthy of us? Eat, drink and be merry. No matter what we do, we will feed people so they can have joy.”
The Rt. Rev. Eugene T. Sutton, senior pastor of Chautauqua Institution, presided. The Rev. George Wirth, associate in the Department of Religion, read the scripture. The prelude, performed on the Massey Memorial Organ by organ scholar Laura Smith, was Roulade, Op. 9, No. 3, by Seth Bingham. Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist, directed the Motet Choir in singing “The Call of Wisdom,” music by Will Todd and words by Michael Hampel, based on Proverbs 8. Organ scholar Owen Reyda accompanied the choir on the organ. Stafford played Tuba Tune in D major, Op. 15, by Craig Sellar Lang, on the organ. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching is provided by the Edmond E. Robb-Walter C. Shaw Fund.
