Veronica H. Lanier Memorial Service
June 15, 2014, 3:00 PM, FBC, Melrose, MA
I am one of her thousands of children. Like many of you, our lives have intersected at countless times over the 95 years that God lifted up Ronny Lanier to be with us.
On behalf of Dr. Roy Medley, General Secretary and the entire ABC family, I bring heart-felt greetings to you and especially to Ronny’s family. Ronny was a Christian educator, a missionary, a woman in ministry, an ambassador, a child of God. If there were saints in the American Baptist Churches, Ronny Lanier would be our Baptist saint.
I don’t think Ronny had ever worried. I was worrying about getting to the church on time this afternoon. When I arrived at Logan last night, I was worrying about finding my hotel after midnight. How much worrying have you already done today? We worry all the time. When we worry, there’s usually a frown on our faces rather than smiles. You have heard this little known fact already that it takes 43 muscles on your face to frown than the 17 muscles to smile. When we see Ronny Lanier after having lived for 95 years, she had very few wrinkles on her face because she smiled more than she frowned. Ronny never worried.
When we lived in Boston and would visit Ronny, we would bring her calla lilies. These are usually large white lilies with long stems that reminded her of the years she spent as a home missionary in Locke, California where she worked among the Chinese Americans. Calla lilies grow wild in California. Jesus taught us to not worry when he said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil or spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these” (Mt. 6:28-29). Sometimes, I can’t believe how much toiling and spinning that we do every day. But when we marvel at the beauty of calla lilies, we don’t have to worry but can be confident that God is watching over us as well.
Many of us have received down through the years a birthday wish from Ronny with her famous, “Be of Good Cheer” saying, numerous hand-drawn happy faces and a crisp, new $1.00 bill. She learned about the Chinese tradition of giving a lisee or a red envelope to people and particularly to children as a blessing. The lisee contains a crisp, new $1.00 bill to signify that prosperity and good life will come your way. For children, it’s a mean to buy some candy at the corner store. And we know how much Ronny loved candies and sweets! When we are enjoying a mouthful of chocolates, worrying is the farthest thing from our minds.
There was, however, a time when I saw Ronny worried. One of the young girls whom she met in Locke, California was Liz who married Lou. Lou was at Tufts Dental School when I was at Andover Newton. Ronny thought it would be a good idea to get my wife, Joy and me and Lou and Liz to meet each other. One late night, Ronny was trying to phone Liz and the phone kept on ringing and no one answered. Ronny calls us and started to worry about something might have happened. So she drove to our apartment in her pajamas thinking of all the horrible things that could have happened and the three of us went to Lou and Liz’s apartment only to discover that they were safe and sound asleep. Whenever we have spoken about this incident when she worried, we would laugh uncontrollably. But it was Ronny who brought good friends together that this friendship continues today.
Jesus taught his disciples,
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Mt. 6:25-26)
Ronny lived a very simple life, never worrying about eating complicated gourmet things by being a vegetarian. She never was consumed by drinking smoothies and special coffees at Starbucks. She made her own simple dresses out of fabrics to clothe her body. Jesus taught Ronny that she was more valuable than anything materialistic that the world claims to be important.
Over the course of her lifetime, Ronny received countless owls and happy faces. If you have been in her home, you would know what I’m talking about! One time, she even wore a dress that was covered with yellow happy faces. We give her these symbols of owls and happy faces because she didn’t need anything else. So often we rationalize or justify buying things that we don’t really need but we think they would make us look or feel good. Perhaps a shiny new car would give us the power status that we desire. A new suit or dress might lead to a job promotion. Eating at fancy restaurants with the hope of meeting some VIPs could lead us in becoming a VIP ourselves. But Ronny wanted none of this. In her wisdom like an owl, she wanted us to smile more in life.
Maybe we give owls to Ronny because we saw in her the wisdom of living a simple and faithful life in Jesus. Perhaps we give her happy faces because we too deeply want to have that kind of God-given happiness that we see Ronny had. We want to worry less like Ronny.
One of the conversations that we will remember having with Ronny is her insistent questioning of “Do you know how much I love you? She would then say, “You don’t have a clue” We would say, “Yes, Ronny, we do know. We love you too.” I have wondered why she would do this. But after reading this passage from Matthew 6, Jesus was doing the same thing with his disciples. Jesus said, “Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing?” (6:26-28) Like Jesus, Ronny was helping us to discover for ourselves how to not worry and to live a simple and grateful life that she has lived.
There are many people who have taught me answers to the big questions of life. We all know people who are more knowledgeable about subjects than we do. There are very smart people in the world and some of them are here today. But it is people like Ronny Lanier who may not have taught us big facts about things but rather taught us through living a long and faithful life on how to live our lives in God. Ronny followed Jesus’ teaching to “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (6:33)
Ronny needed very little of what the world defines as important in order to live first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness. She never worried about what tomorrow might bring because today’s trouble is enough for today. While it was Job in his suffering who said, “I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer,” (Job 9:27), we will always attribute “Be of good cheer” to Ronny Lanier for she never worried because she was confident in faith that God will always watch over her on earth as we know God is watching over her today in heaven.
In celebration of Ronny Lanier’s many years of simple and faithful living, let us not worry and seek first the righteousness of God and God will give you and me everything. From this day on, let us all be of good cheer!