The Noble Character: A Tribute to Miss Jane - Part 5, Elder Years (Part 1), Ken and Jane

This is a tribute to my dear friend Miss Jane. I’d like to tell you about her because, by God’s grace, she didn’t waste her life, and that’s probably the highest compliment any of us could ever hope to receive from anyone. This is partly about some of the events and people of her life, but more than that it is also about some of the things she taught me and how she influenced me, to the Glory of God. Thus, in reading about her un-wasted life, may you receive God’s grace to make the best use of yours.

I met Miss Jane when she was elderly, already in her late 70’s. I think meeting someone when they’re old may be one of the best times to get to know them, mainly because, in a person’s final decade, the mass of their beliefs and actions have gathered and pooled into their mouths. Their mouths must supplement what their arms and hands and legs can no longer do. So for many older people, you have to sit still and listen if you really want anything to do with them. If you get the privilege of listening to elders in whom the Spirit and Word of God dwell, their speaking is equally helpful to the Body of Christ as their doing. This type of speaking is called wisdom, and it’s from God. If you have some then you’re obligated to share it with the rest of us.

Another benefit of getting to know a person after they’re already aged is that you get to see them go through a sort of proofing stage of life. By proofing stage I mean that elders discover (if they didn’t already know) whether all their choices were really worth what they paid for them. Their successes and regrets hang on their shoulders like a shawl they knit through the decades and no longer have the strength to remove. If they didn’t spend their young strength well, then at the end they’ll have time to ponder what they could have done better. This is a special brand of wisdom we call experience. If you meet an elder willing to tell their experiences, then listen closely; their regret could very well ensure your success. 

If you meet an elder willing to teach you their wisdom and experiences with the Holy Scriptures, then take this person to lunch as often as possible.

The benefit of getting to know Miss Jane when she was already an elder is that she was ripe with all three of these: wisdom, experience, and Scripture. She would gladly go out of her way to speak generously about her experiences, and God’s wisdom, and the Scriptures. More than generously – profusely for anyone who would listen (and even to some people who would never listen).

It was in this way – the listening way – that those of us privileged enough to belong to 6^th Avenue Church of God during Miss Jane’s last years became endeared to her, and got to know her very well. Her last few years folded her body like a paper bag, but her tongue kept its wits. She loved her church with the neatness of a mother wiping her child’s face with a licked handkerchief. She also loved her church with the grim strength of a Secret Service agent guarding the President. Except for a couple lapses of sickness which made her forget herself temporarily, her mind stayed sharp enough to stand her ground with a sword if she felt anyone tampering with her church. She absolutely loved to stand her ground! She was brave like that.

In the last few years of her best health, she stood her ground alongside a young pastor who was also very brave. Like Miss Jane, Ken was also full of wisdom, experience, and Scripture. He wasn’t afraid to grow his hair long and even less afraid of old churches and old people. Pastor Ken Oldham was a servant-shepherd to the elderly of his church. He always walked in the same tender, patient stride forward, always forward, like Moses on his way to Canaan. Ken was one of those happy pastors who seemed to enjoy the Church in full view of her flaws, rather than merely tolerating the Church despite her flaws. And he really enjoyed Miss Jane. His compassion was the perfect foil to some of her orneriness. He got to know her very well because his ears stayed wide to her wisdom, experiences, and knowledge of the Scripture.

As with most churches, 6^th Avenue naturally adopted the posture of their pastor. When Ken cherished the old saints, some of the young members of the church showed up for the Seniors Club. When Ken embraced the poor, the church began to serve more outside its own four walls. When Ken played games with the youth, the whole church became more jovial. And when Ken made space for drums and guitars for worship, Miss Jane stood her ground by the organ. But Ken had offered something far more resonant and irresistible to Miss Jane than all the organs and guitars and drums of the world: Faithfulness.

Thus he earned Miss Jane’s trust and got to know her very well. Naturally, 6^th Avenue followed warmly.

The wonder of it all was the unity between Ken and Jane. In some ways they were total opposites; their differences were obvious and not surprising. But it is very surprising and marvelous that they both embodied God’s indivisible wisdom. Ken’s wisdom was often in his ears, Miss Jane’s was often in her mouth, but they each had it firmly by the hand. They would disagree, but they would never disavow one another. This mutual faithfulness proved them wiser because of their differences. They were two acute angles who, while individually very sharp, together formed a sturdy right angle that could support a shaky wall. In this way, they both built up – and sometimes held up – their dear church. 

Think of that carefully with me for just a moment. The church thrived when Ken and Miss Jane were unlike each other. They were as different as the ox from the plow, whose differences are the very guarantee of good things to come. Better still, their differences showcased the unbreakable unity of the paradoxes of God’s wisdom. Consider the wisdom God revealed in creating the world. Every grain of sand numbered. Every drop of water in its place. Every tree’s seed according to its kind. Yet as inimitable as He made our Earth, God surpassed the display of His own wisdom in Creation when He displayed His glory in the Church, because in the Church He forged together more extreme opposites than in Creation.

Creation is universally beautiful because it is made of extremely unlike things – say, water and rock and air and light – which are all brought together into the breathtaking landscape of a sunset over a mountain lake. It is unspeakably and undeniably gorgeous. The only proper response is glad worship. Yet even more undeniably beautiful is the Body Christ formed of such opposites as Jew and Gentile, black and white, eye and ear, Ken and Jane. It is more beautiful because their union is more unlikely than the union of water and rock and air and light on a sunset over a mountain lake. 

Therefore, the union of the Church is more inexplicable than the union of Earth’s elements; in other words, the only explanation for their friendship is that God brought them together to make His glory obvious. Therefore the Church – from every tribe and language and nation and people – is more miraculous than our own planet. Therefore, it reflects its creator God with better precision. Therefore, highest of all, God ordained the Church to inspire richer worship than do all the other glories of Creation. Therefore, lowest of all, the enemies of God are more zealous to destroy the Church’s unity than they are to destroy the other glories of Creation. Therefore we who knew them well know the twisted minds that tried to tempt Miss Jane to undermine her pastor and leave the Church. 

Therefore, no less than our Lord Jesus Himself prayed for Pastor Ken and Miss Jane to be one, even as He was One with His Father. To the glory of our Lord Jesus, that prayer was answered in Ken and Jane. And it is answered gloriously for everyone who yearns for the holy purity of His Church.

Not surprising then that both Pastor Ken and Miss Jane were essential in teaching me how to worship the One True God. These two people symbolized and displayed for me the miracle of reconciliation that God has done in Christ. Under the cross, millions of people who would have otherwise been enemies gather to praise the crucified and risen Lamb of God. His beauty is far too brilliant to be represented by one individual’s gifts. He makes His glory obvious and sweet because of – not in spite of or in addition to – the paradoxical qualities of all His servants.

Therefore, Miss Jane wisely taught me to pity and pray for those Christians who would be owned by Christ but who disown His Church. They have shunned the Lamb’s beautiful Bride. It carries the same disgrace of turning your back as the bride walks the aisle. How much greater the disgrace when we turn our backs to the Bride of Christ? It is like water without moisture; it is like beauty without due praise. It is claiming to love Jesus while tearing down His Church, and it is insufferable nonsense. 

But just think now with me how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity, when Christians unify in truth! It is the very oil of the Priest’s anointing; it is the very moisture of the mountains. For there, the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore (Ps 133).

It is the benefit of a young person sitting at the feet of a talkative elder.

*******

“And now, O sons, listen to me:

blessed are those who keep my ways.

Hear instruction and be wise,

and do not neglect it.

Blessed is the one who listens to me,

watching daily at my gates,

waiting beside my doors.

For whoever finds me finds life

and obtains favor from the LORD,

but he who fails to find me

injures himself;

all who hate me love death.”

Proverbs 8:32-36