wpc
Westminster Presbyterian Church
Bradenton, Florida
Sermons
Old Souls/New Shoes-Retirement
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“Old Souls/New Shoes”
“Retirement”
Numbers 8:21-26
The Reverend Chris Adams
Westminster Presbyterian Church
February 21, 2010
Several years ago, an ordained Presbyterian pastor and seminary professor at Union PSCE, by the name of Henry Simmons had a real moment of clarity. He was reading the obituary in the newspaper of a friend of his that lived well into his nineties.
He noticed that while the obit mentioned what the man did for a living, where he had gone to school, who his wife was and his children, almost nothing was mentioned after the day of his retirement.
Since his friend had lived almost thirty years past his retirement, a lifetime in ancient cultures, it seemed odd not to have any mention.
Dr. Simmons wondered, “Did the man do nothing for thirty years?” “Did everything in his life that was meaningful and important happen in the first two thirds, leaving the last third of life coasting to a close?”
Henry had known that his friend had been active and engaged in life right up until the end, and so that clearly wasn’t the case. Yet the obit writer didn’t see it that way.
My friends, we are embarking on a new sermon series this morning. The title of this series is “Old Souls/New Shoes.” This title comes directly from the chapter in a book written by Dr. Simmons and others interested in the topic of older adult ministry. Dr. Simmons went on to dedicate much of his ministry to the topic of aging, spirituality and religion.
By the way, on March 13th our Presbytery will host Dr. Simmons as the keynote speaker for this year’s Main Event. So if you find some meaning in some of this discussion over the next couple of Sundays, do yourself a favor and spend the day at Faith Presbyterian Church in Cape Coral with Dr. Simmons. We will take the bus if enough people want to go.
Aging is something we know a little bit about here at Westminster. In fact, I am not sure when I have ever preached a sermon as the one with less credibility on a topic. Most of you have much more experience with the topic of aging. Yet, I do know something about spirituality and religion, so maybe we can talk?
In fact, as all of us are either experienced in aging or hope to be experienced in aging some day, I thought perhaps this a good topic for discussion.
Dr. Simmons work has identified both transition periods and stable periods in the time a person is considered an older adult. Being known as an older adult typically begins at the time of retirement; at least for our purposes and this series that is where we will begin.
Any transition periods and even stable periods seemed to Dr. Simmons and to me also as significant opportunities for spiritual growth and development. We would certainly understand how the transition periods of a young person, from say toddler to elementary, and teen to young adult would be an opportunity for growth, spiritual and otherwise, and so why would the same principle not exist for others?
The key question for us to begin to answer together over the course of the next few weeks is, “What role does our church play as older adults age?” Or “What spiritual growth do we expect to happen for those in our pews this morning known as older adults?”
Again, as the majority of our congregation would be considered in this category, it seems like something we ought to talk about. As this is the first series after our new mission statement, this is the first marking of our footprints, and so perhaps the title “Old Souls, New Shoes” makes some sense.
Again, by the way. When I use the term “Old Souls,” I am actually using that title as a compliment. I know our society seems to think of being old as something negative and to be avoided, and yet I see those in our culture and our church that have arrived at a ripe age to be an incredible blessing. Imagine the experience, the number of years lived in faith in this very room. That’s the greatest resource the church has today.
Enough introduction, let’s begin together.
Today, I want to talk about the entry point to becoming an older adult. The word and the concept is known as Retirement. When I told Woody this is what I was going to preach about today, he said “Retirement, I think I am in favor of that!” I think I am too, someday...
Now you realize that retirement is an invention of the modern world. Not until the twentieth century, did any culture come up with the concept of retirement. Some think it came about with the invention of Social Security in 1935. Up until then, nobody had really considered that a person would ever stop working, and earning a living that is, until physically they could no longer do things.
Centuries of a mostly agricultural based economy had made retirement unnecessary and for the most part unconsidered. The family farm was worked by the farmer, then by the farmer’s children, and when the old farmer was no longer able to farm, he moved into a wing on the farm house to be cared for by the family until he and his wife died.
It seems almost impossible when you live in a place like Florida, that one hundred years ago people didn’t retire. Sunny Florida didn’t exist, at least as a place to hang up your time card and buy a second home.
Now I am not saying that is a good thing. As I said, I am in favor of retirement. I am just pointing out that retirement is a new concept.
Perhaps the best evidence of this is our Holy Bible. Do you know what the Bible says about retirement? Can you site all the places where retirement is mentioned? I mean, after all since it is such an important part of our lives, there must be a lot about it, right?
Actually, we just read the one and only reference to retirement in scripture. There is only one, and in fact it only talks about one group of people retiring, the Levite priests.
A Levite priest typically began serving in the temple at the age of 25. The work was difficult and arduous, because the priests were the only ones authorized to handle the furnishings of the temple. They carried the Ark of the Covenant. They moved the altars and the tables and other furniture. All this in addition to leading the people in sacrifice, which was again an arduous and difficult task of slaughtering animals in holy offerings.
So according to the book of Numbers, which established the Temple and how priests were to serve, at the age of 50 the Levite priest was supposed to retire from those arduous tasks.
Why would God require that? Well it’s hard to know exactly, however there are some ideas scholars have presented.
Maybe because the work was so hard, God provided for younger and stronger men to do the most difficult of the duties?
Maybe God wanted to offer the opportunity to work to the next generation to perpetuate the meaning of the temple to each Levite generation?
Maybe God wanted the older priests to teach the younger priests how to do things, rather than to do the things themselves. Again this might have been to pass on the tradition to the next generation?
Again it’s hard to know. What we do know is that this is the only mention of retiring we have to work with.
Surprisingly, don’t all the reasons scholars offer, sound similar to reasons we consider when retiring.
People say, “I’ve done my part, now let someone else do it.” They say, “I just can’t do it anymore.”
The other day I even heard a politician offering a plan to improve unemployment in our country, proposing a lowering of the retirement age to 60 years old. That way, people could retire and let the younger people have their jobs. That sounds familiar...
The only reason we don’t seem to hear, is to allow the older generation to pass on their wisdom and experience to younger generations. Today, it seems when a person retires most of the time they are completely gone. Unless consulting or something, they take all their years of service, wisdom and learning with them. That doesn’t seem right.
Maybe that’s the reason, Dr. Simmons 90 something friend in the obituary got no credit for the last third of his life. Because it was assumed his productivity and his ability to contribute had expired. It seems like we tell retirement aged people to take your gold watch and go away.
Retirement is clearly a transition time; it’s the first transition in an older adult’s spiritual journey according to Dr. Simmons. The question though is, what are we transitioning to?
It seems, from the example of our scripture lesson, we could be transitioning into something negative or incredibly positive; but it depends on the way we look at it.
That’s why Dr. Simmons writes in his book, that the time of retirement comes to some as a great possibility for growth, and to others with great peril. It clearly is a redirection of life, but what is a person being redirected to.
I have heard from my friends that are retired, that some looked forward with great anticipation to retirement, while others dreaded the days in their minds “filled with rocking chairs and reading glasses.”
Friends, it seems to me this is a place where an opportunity for spiritual growth and direction might be crucial.
What if we celebrated retirement liturgically, like we do other transitions like baptism, marriage and even graduating from college? What if we say retirement is a gateway to something, rather than a finish line?
What if we celebrated that retirement is the day when earning money is no longer the focus of your work? What if the church could redirect people to the reality that now your spiritual gifts and the wisdom of your life can be shared full-time and not as an extra-curricular activity? It’s the opening day for the last third of your life; what I hear from many of my friends it’s the best third of your life.
The truth is, there are things you can no longer do. But the truth is also, and even more so, there are lots of things you can do even more and even better. In the church, we depend on the gifts older adults share with other generations; it’s our most valuable resource. I believe it’s the greatest blessing we have.
You know, I don’t want to minimize the importance of the first two-thirds of life. But just once, and many years from now, I would love to open the newspaper and find the obituary of a friend of mine to have it begin like this...
“The deceased retired on February 21, 2010. This was the first day of the best part of life. The world today is a better place because of what my friend did from that day on...”
Friends I want to thank God today for retirement, and not just because I am in favor of it like Woody. I thank God for retirement today because of what it means to the church.
Amen.
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