RACHEL BANGS 1909-2007

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:  a time to be born, and a time to die;”  (from Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)

Rachel Bangs passed into Eternity on Sunday morning, February 18, 2007.  She was 97-years-old.  I don’t remember the first time I met Rachel Bangs, but I do know that it was sometime in early 1987.  Rachel had begun attending First Assembly of God of Framingham under the ministry of my predecessor Tom Gurney.  The Rachel Bangs that I knew in the late 1980s was a vibrant, healthy, and active senior citizen.  She was an avid reader.  She had such a deep and detailed knowledge of the Bible you’d swear she held a Divinity degree, but she didn’t.  Rachel was well-educated, however, having been an esteemed Instructor of Chemistry and Home Economics at Framingham State College for a number of years.

I learned pretty quickly not to phone Rachel at home.  Her housemate Jean did not care for her Christian friends, and especially did not like them making telephone calls.  One morning, Jean was pretty rude to me.  I let Jean know that.  Rachel nervously and apologetically got on the line saying, “Now, now, we’re Christians.  We must speak politely to those who are not.”  I got the message.  Rachel lost out on a lot of fellowship at home, and I think that’s too bad.  When Jean was not around, Rachel would phone me, often talking about what passage in the Bible she’d been reading that day.

“Oh, I found a NUGGET in God’s Word today,” she’d say, “and I spent one whole hour just CHEWING on it.”  I don’t suppose just anyone would understand what she was talking about, but I did.  She could spend hours just pouring over one verse of Scripture, digging into the Greek, and various Bible commentaries.  Rachel Bangs did LOVE the Word of God.

Like many of her age group, Rachel was very partial to certain products and brands.  She was a loyal Chrysler Corporation customer. No Chevys or Fords for her!  Her final car was an ‘84 Dodge Aries which she really hated having to part with when her vision failed.  Rachel grew up in the Advent Christian Church.  She wanted to be a Member of an Advent Christian Church in the worst way, but the nearest one to Framingham is in Oxford.  Thus, in a rare break from brand loyalty, she became an active part of First Assembly of God of Framingham.  The Advent Christian Church holds to some unusual Christian doctrines such as “soul sleep” for dead born-again Believers, and annihilation for the wicked dead.  Sometimes, Rachel tried to “sell” me on these.  I’d read her pamphlets, but tell her I just wasn’t buying.   She was O.K. with that.  I had to hand it to her that she knew what she believed and why she believed it, and that’s something you can’t say about a lot of people.  

Rachel loved cats.  Boy did she love cats.  I think she had more cats than anyone I’ve ever known.  As an avid animal lover, she was very critical of former Secretary of the Interior James Watt.  I quickly learned that Rachel’s political views were a little bit more liberal than mine, so I kind of left those topics alone.

Rachel Bangs was also a pack rat!  My own parents were very bad that way, but I think Rachel may have been worse even than they were.  There would “always be some use for” that plastic bowl, or 1966 issue of LOOK Magazine or worn out hairbrush.  Poor Rachel!  Whether she really IS “soul-sleeping” as she believed or in Heaven right now as I believe, she left all that stuff behind.  And that’s quite a lesson, isn’t it.  Whether its millions of dollars of a pile of 67 old plastic bowls, you can’t take it with you.

The 2007 Rachel Bangs was a far cry from the one I met in 1987.  This one was almost totally blind, very hard of hearing, and pretty much confined to a wheelchair.  Honestly, I was happy to hear she’d left this life.  It’s awful to have someone suffering like that.  She’s out of her misery.  Maybe one day in Eternity we’ll talk about nuggets of Scripture again...