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.
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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
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
Great Sermon. Useful for preaching to a "Senior" congregation.
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