Irrevelant Information

Joshu

Joshua 23: 1 -9,   II Timothy 2: 8 -15

                                                              Irrelevant Information

   I don’t want to brag, but anyone here who has played “Quizzo’s” knows that I

am pretty good at the game. Two games ago I was the only one who knew what

Patricia Neal had to say to the robot Gort in the original movie “The Day the

World Stood Still” in order to keep the robot from destroying the world. She had

to say: “Gort, kalkto baratta nickto”.  I carry around in here a wealth of

information that is both trivial and irrelevant. As an example I can tell you when

the poem “Casey at the Bat” was first published (June 3, 1888 in the San

Francisco Chronicle). I can tell you who was born in Riverside, Iowa in the year

2228 (Capt. James T. Kirk). I can tell you what a “Coney Island Chicken” is (hot

dog). I know what the Saffir-Simpson Scale measures (hurricane intensity). I

know what pitcher holds the all time major league record for losses (Cy Young).

I know the number of artists who have, in one way or another, recorded

(covered) the Beatles hit “Yesterday” (2960). I know the only singer to

have a national holiday named for him (Bob Marley – Jamaica). I know who is

really buried in Grant’s Tomb (U.S. Grant, his wife & horse Cincinnatus). I

know whose name is mentioned the most, (1,005 times) in the Bible (King David).

I know Lewis Carol’s, (author of “Alice in Wonderland”) real name (Charles

Dodson). I can tell you what Biblical story is still studied in the U.S. Army War

College (the battle of Jericho). But really who cares? It is all irrelevant and

trivial information isn’t it?

     And you know that is one of the charges leveled at the Bible, that it contains

both irrelevant and trivial information, and so much of it is just plain boring. In

preparation for this sermon I checked quite a number of on-line poles about the

most boring book ever. And although it wasn’t always #1 (it was in a couple of

instances) the Bible managed to show up on just about every pole as being

boring. There is also another way to check out just how boring the Bible

can be by asking a simple question. Even though it is still the #1 best seller of all

times how many of you have actually read the Bible all the way through? From

Gen. 1:1 “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth …”

through to Revelation 22:21 “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the Saints,

Amen.”? We don’t read it because we assume the stories and scenes and people

in the Bible are just not relevant to today’s world. And so its detractors say that

if we read the Bible at all we should read it as literature. Read just some parts of

the Bible for the story it tells. Read the King James version (now celebrating

its 400 anniversary) especially for the power of its prose and the splendor of its

poetry. Read parts of it for the history it contains, and for its insights into ancient

ways. Don’t worry about what it is suppose to mean for faith. Don’t bother about

the hocus-pocus. Read it like you would any other book. The problem is it is not

like any other book.

            In case you have not already heard, or were not listening a few minutes

ago, this year is the 400^th. Anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible.

                                                                            -2-

And in honor of this anniversary I think it would be appropriate to spend some

time looking at the Bible, and talking about its relevance. I mean, after all, we do

want to say it is the most important book ever written, but where to begin?  I

would begin to answer that question by sharing with you an e-mail received one

day by the parents of a lovely young lady who was away at her first year at

college. The e-mail read: (1^st Par.) “Dear Mom & Dad, I am sorry to be so long in

e-mailing again, but my computer and all my e-mail addresses were lost the night

the dorm burned down. I am out of the hospital now and the doctor says my

eyesight should be back to normal sooner or later. The wonderful boy, Bill, who

rescued me from the fire kindly offered to share his little apartment with me

until the dorm is rebuilt. He comes from a good family so hopefully you won’t be

too upset when I tell you we are going to get married, and Oh, by the way, I am

pregnant. You will be grandparents in a few months. (2^nd. Par.) Now, please

excuse the above practice in English composition and e-mail literacy. There was

no fire, I have not been in the hospital, I am not blind, I am not pregnant, and I

don’t even have a boy friend, however, I did get a “D” in French and I am failing

Calculus, and I wanted to be sure you received this news in the proper

perspective. Love – Mary.

     And that is what we need to do – put the Bible in the proper perspective. So let

me begin by saying that to read the Bible simply as literature, as some suggest, is

like reading Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” as just a whaling manual; or like

reading Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” in order to understand Italian

- British trade relations; or Steig Larsson’s books as travel guides to Stockholm.

             Like Graham Green’s “The Power and the Glory”, or Dostoyevsky’s 

“The Brother’s Karamazov” or John UpDyke’s “In the Beauty of the Lilies”, the

Bible hangs heavy on many a conscience. All of us have read some of the Bible.

Some have read all of it. Some of the stories in here mean absolutely nothing to

us. However, some of the stories in here are more like powerful dreams; they are

disconcerting and disorienting, and too many of the stories just plain bother us

and we don’t understand them.

           And so for 21^st. C. Christians the real question is, just how relevant is the

Bible? I mean, after all, just look at it. It is full of unpronounceable names like

Mephibosheth. Turn to II Samuel 8, and begin at vs. 15 and just try to read out

loud the next three verses without tying your tongue in a knot. And talk about

irrelevant information, how about Exodus Ch.’s 25 -30. Those six chapters

describe the tabernacle and its workings from the length, breath and composition

of the curtains, all the way down to the color and cut of the priests ephod, what

ever that was. There is even a recipe for anointing oil. There are some stories in

the Bible that are about as easy to get a handle on as the ones told by Bernard

Malamud. How about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart and then clobbering him

for hardheartedness. (1 Sam. 15: Samuel, Amalekites, Agag, Saul)

                                                                           -3-

            Both the sublime and the unspeakable jostle with each other in many

other places in scripture, as for example in 137^th. Psalm which starts out: “By the

waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept.” but ends with, “happy shall he

be who takes your little one and dashes them against the rock.”  In Deuteronomy

there are laws that are thousands of years ahead of their times, like the one that

says a newly married man is exempt from military service for a year so “he can

be happy with the wife whom he has taken.” That is side by side with laws that

would make Ivan the Terrible blush, like the one that says if you have a stubborn

or rebellious son you can take him to the elders who will stone him to death for

you. (Deut. 21: 18ff). Or even Jesus of Nazareth, the same Jesus who can show

great love and mercy for a tax collector such as Zecchaeus, who was beneath

contempt in Jesus’ day and age, and yet can also call a Canaanite woman a dog

when she comes to him looking for help.

          So, just what am I saying this morning as we celebrate the 400^th.

Anniversary of the King James version of the Bible? What am I saying about any

version of the Bible? Well, in short, I think I am saying that one way to describe

the Bible is to say that it is a disorderly collection of 60 odd books which are often

tedious, barbaric, obscure, and which teem with contradictions and

inconsistencies, and may even contain some information that boarders on the

irrelevant and irreverent. It is a swarming compost of a book, full of poetry and

propaganda, law and legalism, myth and mirth, history and hysteria. And, over

the centuries it has become hopelessly associated with pulpit thumping

fundamentalists and dreary eyed pietist, with superannuated superstition and

blue-nosed moralist; with ecclesiastical authoritarianism and crippling legalism;

with millennialism (pre and post), with humanism, and it has been the

central guide for everything from the holy catholic and apostolic church down

through every cult that has tried to right all the perceived faults of every

established church.

       But, if you say that, and by golly I just did, then you must also say that it is a

book about life the way life really is. It is a book about people who at one and the

same time can be both believing and unbelieving, innocent and guilty, crusaders

and crooks; it is a book full of both hope and despair. In other words it is a book

about life, a book about us! It is a book about where our ancestors have been,

where we are, and where, hopefully our children are going. But, most

importantly it is a book about the God whom we say we believe in and how that

God has been trying to tell us about Himself and our selves for a very long time.

          So, let me suggest to you two ways to think about the Bible; two ways to

come to the Bible, two ways to understand and appreciate the Bible. Two ways to

make the Bible the center of your quest for meaning and clarity in today’s world.

The first way is to think about the Bible as the record of the learning experience

of the people of God. How many of you entered kindergarten knowing how to do

differential equations or able to read “War and Peace” in the original Russian?

                                                                          -4-

Of course none of us could do that in kindergarten. In kindergarten we learned a

little of how to get along with each other and that we shouldn’t eat the paste. As

we progressed through school we eventually acquired the learning, the

knowledge, the skills that allowed us to read, write, do math; do the things we

needed to help us understand who we are and what we are capable of doing. I

think the Bible is much like that, it is a record or our faith filled learning

experience; a record of how God has made God’s self, slowly, slowly, slowly

visible and present to us. Not all the experiences in the Bible are good, are true,

are perfect. In school none of us ever got 100% of the answers 100% of the time

(except for maybe my bratty sister) and the people we see in the Bible didn’t

always get it right, didn’t always hear correctly, didn’t always respond in the

right way. But God wants the record to strand just as we have it because God

wants us to know that what we have is a God who hangs in there with us as we

learn and grow and evolve and become what it is God intends for us to be. Think

of the Bible as the sum of the process of our learning about God and about

ourselves.

        The second way to look at the Bible comes from the great Neo-Orthodox

Theologian Karl Barth. In his book “The Word of God and the Word of Man”

Barth says that reading the Bible is like standing in a room looking out of the

window and seeing everybody on the street shading their eyes with their hands

and gazing up into the sky toward something which is hidden from us by the

ceiling. These people are pointing up, they are speaking strange words; they are

very excited. Something is happening which we can’t see happening, or

something is about to happen. Something beyond our comprehension has caught

these people up and is seeking to lead them on from land to land for strange,

intense, uncertain, and yet mysteriously well-planned service. To read the Bible

is to try to read the expression on these people’s faces. To listen to the words of

the Bible is to try to catch and make real for us the sound of the queer,

dangerous and compelling word these people seem to hear and speak. Such as

Zacchaeus, absolutely dumbfounded by the idea of having Jesus of Nazareth as a

dinner guest in his house, a place where no self-respecting Jew would ever set

foot. Or such as the children of Israel dancing in absolute joy and with near

hysteria on the east bank of the Red Sea as Pharaoh’s army is swallowed up in

the briny deep. Or the prodigal son with tears of incredulous laughter and

overwhelming joy running down his cheek when he realizes that his father, God,

welcomes him home even after he has spent all his inheritance and has dragged

the family name through the mud.

                                                                                     

          We read the Bible and re-read the Bible and we learn, we internalize the

stories we read because they are a window. You know, if you look at a window

you see smudges and spots and the mess your child made when they put their

pp&j stained hand on the window pane. But, if you look through a window,

through the smudges, you see the world beyond. Something like that is the

difference between those who see the Bible as source of irrelevant information

                                                                     -5-

and those who see it as the word of God which speaks out of the depths of an

almost unimaginable past into the depths of our very being. In the end the people

in here are you and me, and the one who is talking to us, who is yelling at us, who

is whispering to us, crying after us, sobbing and laughing with us, and who loves

us more than we can ever know, is none other than God almighty.

       The Bible might contain some great Quizzo’s material, but it is not

irrelevant. It still is the most profound book ever written that tries to make sense

of theodicy at one extreme and soteriology at the other, and it is still the only

book that tells the story of a God who loved and still loves us so much that God

condescended to be with us, to the end that someday we will all be with God. In

the end the Bible is the greatest love story ever told, and we forget that to our

great peril.  Amen.

Sermon preached 08/07/11 at Abington Presbyterian Church, by Rev. Jack Norrie. All Rights Reserved.

Trees and Sermons

Jeremiah 17: 5 -8 

Matthew 6: 25 -33

                          “A Few Thoughts on Trees and Sermons”

     Jeanne and I have the only covered front porch on our street. I love to sit on that porch and rock in my plantation rocker and just watch the world go by. I often watch nothing as much as nothing go by, but every once in a while I see something extraordinary while just sitting there. Once I watched a doe and her fawn just wander down the street. Two years ago I saw a mother duck waddle down the street followed by her brood of chicks. They had been hatched in a protected area on a neighbor’s front lawn. Last summer I saw a hawk swoop into the front yard and pluck a morning dove off the ground, which was no mean feat because we have some very large trees in our front yard, including  several pine trees, a maple, an oak and a Japanese Maple; and these trees are full grown and bring lots of shade to our front yard. In the fall that Japanese Maple has the most brilliant red leaves on it. We also have a large yew on the side of the porch with branches that have woven themselves around each other to create a perfectly wonderful maze of interlocking arms. Whenever I sit on my porch and look at the flora that graces my front yard I am reminded of Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees”  ( poem at end of sermon.)

     Now, all of this got me to thinking the other day about trees, and especially what we can learn from trees, and lo and behold a sermon was born! So, where to begin? Well how about a little information and background on trees.

     For instance, did you know that the pine cone of the Jack Pine tree that grows in the rugged western mountain areas of this country, can withstand temperatures of up to 2000 F? A regular forest fire will burn the cone and as a consequence the seeds are protected, and the tree will survive. If you have been to Hawaii then you have probably seen the Banyan trees. Like every other tree a Banyan starts with one trunk, but when that trunk reaches a certain size the tree sends off additional rope like trunks. A Banyan tree literally grows sideways and can spread outwards almost indefinitely. I read some time ago that in the Calcutta Botanic Gardens there is a Banyan tree with over 1700 trunks. There is an apocryphal story about Alexander the Great that during one of his campaigns 20,000 of his troops were able to take shelter under a single Banyan tree.

             One other note about trees: in the Garden of Gethsemane just outside the Old City of Jerusalem, there are Olive trees that have been dated to be over 2,000 years old. This means that there are living things that would have witnessed the historical Jesus. Actual, living witnesses to his arrest. If those Olive trees could talk what would they tell us about what happened that night in the garden?

            All of this is prelude to my telling you that I am going green this morning. I’m going to talk about trees. So you might call this Sermon Light. Actually what I want to talk about is what trees can teach us. You know trees come in an amazing

                                                                    -2-

variety; have a remarkable beauty, and are so absolutely necessary to our planet and our way of life. Aside from cleaning our air, they provide food, shelter and even medicine. But what struck me most profoundly the other day as I sat on my porch and watched the trees in my front yard was not the historical, genealogical,

Pharmacological or even philosophical significance of trees, but rather that trees actually have some distinct advantages over us humans, advantages at which we need to look more closely.

          As an example, trees never have identity crises. I have never been called by a tree in some emergency situation to come give spiritual aid. I have never heard a tree ask: Who am I? What am I doing here? Where am I going? Trees seem to be content with what they are, where they are. And probably more importantly they seem content in giving what they can.

    

     In his wonderful book “The Giving Tree” Shel Silverstein tells the story of a tree that, over time, gives a boy as he grows from a young lad to an old man, everything the tree has to give in order to help the man be happy. Ultimately the tree gives all, including her trunk so that all that is left is a stump. In the end the man is very old and all he wants to do it sit down, and all the tree has left to give is a stump upon which the old man can sit. At the end of the story the old man says ….

“’I don’t need very much now,’ said the boy, ‘just a quiet place to sit and rest. I am very tired.’  ‘Well,’ said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could, ‘well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come, boy, sit down. Sit down and rest.’  And the boy did.  And the tree was happy.  The end.”

          There is an old saying that the best gift we can give our children is roots and wings, meaning we give them identity and freedom. There is nothing sadder than a person who does not know who they are. In the First Letter of John the author tells us that we are God’s children. He wrote: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”

            Trees never worry about who they are. They never long to be something else. Trees never ask “what is my purpose in life”. They never attend seminars on the Power of Positive Leafing; they don’t carry an I-phone, or a droid, they are content with whom, with what they are. They give us all of what they are and do not complain. They are what God intended them to be and are content in their role. If only we could learn that from a tree. If only we could learn that to give of ourselves freely and completely would we truly be living the life God intended us to live. In other words we would me more like Christ.

         Another observation I made that day on my front porch was that tress do not worry about the future. They don’t spend their lives in fear of what tomorrow may bring. They never seem to worry about aging, or their saplings, or the stock market. They accept life as it comes. How unlike us! We so often complicate our lives with the additional burdens of

                                                                      -3-

worry, fear and anxiety. Maybe that is one of the reasons trees live as long as they

do, and we seem to exit all too soon.

             When I went into the Navy one of the things I had to do, in fact all potential pilots had to do was spend a day talking with a psychiatrist. The Navy wanted to be sure we were well balanced individuals who wouldn’t crack up under the strain. When I finished talking to the doctor he said to me: “Mr. Norrie you will make a fine Naval Aviator.” I asked him how he could tell that just by the tests we

took and the conversation we had. His answer was: “because you have no apparent fear of death!” That was it! I would make a good pilot because I had no apparent fear of death. Now being 20 yrs. old at the time that really didn’t make much of an impression on me, and it wasn’t until years later that the whole idea of not fearing death truly hit me. I was counseling with a good therapist and we were talking about anxiety, worry, fear, and as I ran through a litany of those things about which I was anxious. The therapist kept asking me what was the worst possible thing that could happen in each worrisome situation. Ultimately, I said that the worst thing that could happen to me would be to die. And then the therapist asked, “and then what?” My response was, “well, then I see God!”  That’s when it hit me. I have never feared death because I have always believed that death is not the end. That when it comes I will see God face to face and it will be perfect. Actually, there is apart of me that is more than curious about death, almost looking forward to that

unknown part of God’s reality. It could be a result of more than 30 years of standing at the grace side intoning the words that speak of eternal life. Maybe I have come to believe it’s true because I have talked myself into it. However, whatever the case may be, and more importantly for me, not fearing death has helped me to not fear living.

           We spend so much time worrying about all the things going on around us, or going wrong around us. We have fears about everything; we are all bound up by the duct tape of anxiety. If only we could live our lives knowing that nothing life throws at us is ever going to rob us of seeing God face to face, and of knowing God’s pure unlimited grace and pardon filled love, then every moment of life could be lived for what it has to offer rather than for the anxiety it produces. Carpe Diem would take on a whole new meaning. Not, as some people seem to think, that it means seizing the day and throttling it until it yields, but seize the day and enjoy everything it has to offer. 

           And isn’t that what Jesus told us to do? In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us “… do not worry about your life.” And a little later on in that sermon Jesus tells us to consider the lilies of the field. He could just as well have said, “consider the pine tree in your front yard.” God, who takes care of the lily of the field or the pine tree will also take care of you. Trees don’t make the mistake of being worried or anxious. I don’t know if they are conscious of God, but God is certainly conscious

of them. Trees live the life God intended them to live, free of worry, fear and anxiety.

                                                                    -4-

          A final observation I made that day sitting on my front porch is that trees often lean on each other for support. Earlier I mentioned the giant Sequoias. They

are among the tallest trees in the world and yet did you know that they have shallowest of root systems. The roots of the Sequoia do not grow deep into the ground. They survive because they grow in groves and their roots are intertwined. They literally hug each other; they hold on to each other; they hold each up and keep each other from falling. I wish we could become that wise and trusting as we

learn to live with each other.

           Two men were cast over board during a violent storm. They were able to swim to a near-by island which they found to be disserted. The two survivors, not knowing what else to do, agree that they have no other resource except to pray to God. But, they fell into an argument over whose prayer would be more efficacious. To end this debate they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island and to pray. The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning the first man saw a fruit bearing tree on his side of the island

and he was able to eat. The second man’s parcel of land remained barren. After some days the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for some female companionship. The next day another ship was wrecked and the only survivor was a young woman who swam to his side of the island, but on the other side of the island the second man still had nothing and nobody. Soon, the first man prayed for a house, clothes, more food, and the next day, like magic, all of these were given to him, while the second man still had nothing. Finally, the first man prayed for a ship to come so that he and his female companion could leave the island. In the morning the first man found a ship docked at his side of the island. The first man boarded the ship with his female companion, but decided to leave the second man alone on the island. He did so because he considered the other man unworthy to receive God’s blessings since none of his prayers apparently had been answered. As the ship was about to leave the first man heard the voice of God booming from heaven: “Why are you leaving your companion on the island?” “My blessings are mine alone since I was the one who prayed for them” the first man replied, “his prayers were all unanswered and so he does not deserve anything.”  “You are mistaken” God rebuked him. “That other man had only one prayer, which I answered.” “Tell me” the first man asked, “for what did he pray that I should owe him anything?” “He prayed” said God, “that all your prayers should be answered!”   Have you ever prayed that someone else’s prayers should come to pass rather than your own? Try it some- time, I think you will find it to be a profoundly liberating experience.

     Trees do not worry; they do not have identity crisis’; they give completely of themselves; they look at God all day and lift their leafy arms to pray; they support each other and they go about their business as if it were the only thing God asked them to do, which of course it is. What can we learn from trees? That worry, fear, anxiety will not help us one bit, in fact it will probably shorten our lives. That the best way to get through life is by holding on to each other very tightly; by giving

                                                                  -5-

freely to each other the best we have to give; by praying for each other that God will grant the best God has to give to the other; and finally that our true job in this life is to be exactly what God intends us to be. And when we discover exactly what that is

we lift our arms to heaven in prayer and in thanks and receive from God all the blessings God wants to give us.

    

           Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a tree in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited land. But blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves

shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Sermons are preached by fools like me, but only God can make a tree. And we should be so wise and free, to live our lives just like a tree.  Amen.

• “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of Robbins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me

But only God can make a tree.

Sermon preached 07/31/11 at Abington Presbyterian Church by Rev. Jack Norrie.

All rights reserved.

Older Adults Sunday Sermon

Psalm 92: 1 -15

Luke 1: 8 -23               To Be Truly Happy, Marry an Archeologist!

     Our denominational calendar says that today begins Older Adult Week; a special week, just for all of you who are willing to admit to your age. Now, to digress for just a moment, this past Christmas I got a Kindle as a gift. You all know what a Kindle is – you order books online and they email them to your Kindle. It costs less than buying the books in a bookstore, and you can take the Kindle with you anywhere. Anyway, like a computer, a Kindle will power down and has a screen saver that rotates through authors and various scenes. One of the authors that pops up from time to time on my screen saver is Agatha Christie. When I look at her I am reminded of her life story. Early on she married the dashing British Air Force pilot Archie Christie. Their relationship was a

rocky one. They divorced and later in life she married the distinguished archeologist

M.E.L. Mallowan. This marriage, by all accounts, was a good one, and later in her life

Agatha was quoted as saying: “being married to an archeologist has certain advantages.

The older I get the more interested he becomes in me.”

         We might laugh, but I think unfortunately, in our society quiet the opposite is true.

The older we get the less interested people become in us. We are ignored and even worse people make false assumptions about us. They assume we have difficulties that some older people may in fact have, but many do not. If we want to work, job opportunities are few. And, it seems, the older we become the less interesting we become.

        The Psalmist in our O.T. reading was worried about the same issue thousands of years ago. This is not some new hot button issue! Why the Psalmist was even afraid that

God would forsake him in his old age. To be forsaken by other people is one thing, but to forsaken by God, now that’s quite another thing.

        But don’t we all live with this worry? Added to our fear of death and numerous other fears is the fear that when we are old we will be forsaken by family and friends and even by God. Our culture encourages such thinking because it says that we are productive only when we are working. It says we are of value only when we are producing and adding something to the economy. The culture defines us in terms of our being producers and consumers.

        Florida seems to be the leader in cultivating events that are geared to the older person. A number of years ago while visiting my dad in Florida I read about a beauty contest that was being held for senior citizens. The article explaining the contest had been written by a female correspondent. The reason I remember it is because of what she wrote. She wrote, with respect to the beauty contest, that “beauty did not count”. What a horrible thing to say. What a horrible assumption to make that just because someone is old they don’t have beauty. There is beauty in every age and we must not let others define for us what is beautiful and what it not, because beauty, strength, intelligence, none of these things are the exclusive property of the young.

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        I am not crazy about TV commercials, in fact Jeanne and I usually mute the TV when they come on, but I do remember a commercial from a number of years ago that showed an older man putting on a pair of Nike sneakers. After lacing them up he looks into the camera and says: “I am not strong for my age, I am strong!”

        But none-the-less some of us have been taken in by the propaganda that says the older we get the more useless we become. How about Abraham and Sarah? In our first Old Testament reading we heard that they were going to have a child even though, as the author writes “…Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.”  And what was Sarah’s response to the astounding news that she was going to be pregnant? Did she change her appointment with her gerontologist to one with an obstetrician? No! She laughed out loud at the Lord because the idea of her being pregnant was absurd. She was old, her child bearing years had passed her by.

        Another example is Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. In the Gospel of Luke we’re told that they too will have a child in their old age. The child will grow up to be John the Baptist. But when Zechariah is informed of his old wife’s new pregnancy what is his reaction? Does he run out and buy a supply of pampers? No! Like Sarah and Abraham he responds by saying, “no way this will happen to me. I am too old and my wife is too old!”

        In both of these cases age had nothing to do with the power of God. God was not through with these people yet. The biblical response in both cases was “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” And the answer is, of course, no! God wasn’t through with Abraham, Sarah, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and God isn’t trough with any of us either.

        We have been putting old people on the shelf for thousands of years. It is not a new phenomenon. We have expected little out of older people, and in too many instances they themselves have bought into this idea and have fulfilled these expectations all too well. But God says, “nothing is impossible for the Lord”. As a matter of fact Proverbs says that the “beauty of old people is in their gray hair.” (20:29) How do I know that old people are beautiful? The Bible tells me so!

        Sometimes it is a revelation to discover the way some biblical translators have put words together. One translation of several Old Testament passages reads like this: “Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age” (Gen. 25:8). “Gideon died in a good old age”. (Jud. 8:32).  “David died in a good old age.” (1 Chron. 29:28). Now, I know that the phrase could simply mean that they were very old when they died, but I love the way this biblical translator worded it, for I think that the words “good” and “old” belong together. Old age is good! How do I know? The Bible tells me so!

        In Isaiah we read that God promises to be with us not only in our youth, but in our old age as well, for, as Isaiah says of God: “I will be your God through all your lifetime, yes, even when your hair is white with age. I made you and I will care for you.” The

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prophet also says: “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted, but those who wait for the Lord (and I would add no matter what their age) shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Is 40:30 f). God is with us in every age, and especially in our old age. How do I know? The Bible tells me so!

        We have to start listening to what the Bible says about our old age, and old people, and stop listening to the secular culture that doesn’t really care mush about the biblical reality of the world God created. We should make our view the biblical view, and I think there are some very intelligent things we can do to give us more of a biblical outlook on life.

        Now, you all know that I don’t get many opportunities to preach, and that the standard approach of most Presbyterian ministers is to have three points. However, this morning in order to make up for lost time I will have six points, but they will be short,       

        1. We need to say “yes” to life. Sounds simple right? The problem I think is that too many older people get caught up in societies desire to put them on the shelf. “I’ve done my part, its time for the younger people to do theirs” is a phrase too often used in society in general and in the church in particular. We need to reject this kind of thinking which somehow seems to echo the thought that God is through with us after so many birthdays. We must claim life as a God given opportunity all life long. Someone once wrote that “at 20 I worried about what others thought of me; at 40 I didn’t care what they thought of me; at 60 I discovered that they weren’t thinking about me at all”. We need to say “yes” to life for as long as we live regardless of what people may or may not be thinking about us! I, for one, plan to shoot my age in golf no matter how long it takes me.

        2. We need to live our age. Aging is a God-given movement from one stage of life to another. God wants us to be the age we are now. We must not deny our advanced years. There is a certain grace to getting older. The experience can include beauty, strength, power and excitement. To deny our age is to deny ourselves.

        3. We need to make ourselves useful. Noted Gerontologist Dr. Arthur Fleming in a speech underscored this point when he said, “Studies have shown that non-involvement at any age causes rapid mental and physical deterioration.” The author Kyle Crickton wrote that “life is a pretty precious and wonderful thing … and you can’t save it, you can’t store it up, you can’t horde it in a vault. You have got to taste it, you have got to use it. The more you use it, the more you have.”

        4. Keep you mind active. Every person needs to be forever learning. When he was past 90, the famous cellist Pablo Casals was asked why he still practiced five to six hours each day. He replied, “because I think I’m improving.”  Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was 92 when President Roosevelt asked him the reason he was reading Plato. The jurist responded, “Mr. President, in order to improve my mind”.

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        I am not afraid to admit my age. I’m 64! I turned 64 last week on Good Friday. Do you know what my wife gave me for my birthday? She gave me bag pipe lessons. I am going to learn to play the bag pipes. Just watch out world here comes another MacLeod showing the world how to play the pipes!

        5. We need to enjoy new experiences. Each day is an opportunity to experience something new. Our spirits shrink when all we do is rehash old experiences. A woman I know whose husband died, said that for a long time she felt life wasn’t worth living. But, she also knew that she need to pull herself out of this way of thinking, so she decided to do something every day to make herself happy. It was the first time in her life she deliberately decided to do something to help another person. When I asked her how this renewed sense of life had changed things for her she replied that she had found something more to life, and that she had enjoyed some wonderful new experiences. And I would add to that that there are as many new experiences as there are people in the world.

        6. Finally, (do you know the meaning of the word “optimist”? An optimist is a woman who upon hearing the preacher say the word finally, puts on her shoes.) Finally, think of yourself as being “God’s Somebody”. You are somebody important by virtue of being God’s handiwork. You are an important somebody in the scheme of God’s plan for this world no matter what your age.

        How many of you remember Maggie Kuhn? Maggie Kuhn founded the Gray Panthers. Do you know for whom she worked most of her life? She worked for the Presbyterian Church right here in Philadelphia. When she was 65 the church forced her to retire. Do you know what they gave her as a retirement gift? They gave her a sewing machine. Do you know what she did with that sewing machine? Nothing! Instead she went out and formed the Gray Panthers as a way of working toward equal rights for older people. She also worked hard at human rights around the world. Maggie put her god-given talents to work far beyond her “culturally defined working years”.

        Jack Botwinick, author of Aging and Behavior has written: “Happiness in old age is in large part a matter of self image, positive thinking, and staying active.” To that I would add the biblical insight of personal commitment to the Christ-like God, for the Bible tells us that “the righteous flourish like the palm tree … they still bring forth fruit in old age” (Ps. 92:12 ff).

        You really don’t have to marry an archeologist to be appreciated in your old age. All you have to do is join a fellowship of Christian people, like this church, where we are constantly expanding our knowledge of where and how God can use us regardless of how old we are. You see, contrary to the cultural imperative, we use older people!  Amen.

Sermon preached May 1, 2011 for “Older Adult Sunday” at Abington Presbyterian Church, by Rev. Jack Norrie