When I was a teenager, I thought people in their 50’s were really old. Now, that I’ve recently celebrated my 52nd birthday, I’m not so sure, especially since I’m around so many people here who are still going strong in their 70’s and 80’s. They don’t seem so old any more.
So how do you know when you’re getting old? Well, here’s what some “old people” had to say.
You know you’re getting old when…
• Almost everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt doesn't work.
• It feels like the morning after the night before, and you haven't been anywhere.
• All the names in your little black book end in M.D.
• You look forward to a dull evening at home.
• You turn out the lights for economic, not romantic reasons.
• Your knees buckle and your belt won't.
• You sink your teeth into a steak and they stay there.
• You try to straighten the wrinkles in your socks and find you aren't wearing any.
• And you know that little gray-haired lady that helps you across the street? She’s your wife. (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, p. 25)
Do any of you feel old yet? The fact is ALL of us are getting old. People over 65 years of age already make up 13.5% of the population in the state of Wisconsin and over 22% of the population right here in Door County. And when the 77 million baby boomers start reaching retirement in the next two or three years, those numbers are going to swell even more all across America.
This has profound implications for our country and for the church in particular. With 3 workers per retiree today, Social Security is already severely strained. But very soon, by the year 2035, the ratio will be 2 workers per retiree, according to the 2010 Social Security Trustees Report (Page 10). Then it will be completely unsustainable in its current form.
On top of that, with nationalized health care on the way, bureaucrats in Washington DC will have no choice but to limit health care to the elderly simply because it will be too expensive to care for so many. Their lives will be considered not having sufficient quality to save, and many will be left to die.
There is already a push in our society for physician assisted suicide where a person’s so-called “right to die” is quickly becoming their “duty to die” so they don’t become a burden to their families and to society. More and more, the life of an elderly person is considered cheap and not worth saving, but Christ calls the church to a different attitude.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Timothy 5, 1 Timothy 5, where God tells us in His Word how He wants the church to treat the elderly in their midst.
1 Timothy 5:1-2 Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. (NIV)
The church is a family. And as such, we must treat everyone in the church as family – the older men as fathers, the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, & the younger women as sisters.
Specifically, God says exhort them (vs.1). Now that word is rich in meaning, and is translated in various ways in our New Testaments. Sometimes it is translated “encourage,” at other times, “exhort,” “help,” or “comfort.” The word literally means, “come along side and help.”
And it’s the same word used of our Lord throughout the Bible. In 2 Corinthians 1, God the Father is the one who “comforts us in all our troubles” (vs.4). He comes along side us to help us make it through times of sorrow. In 1 John 2, God the Son is our “advocate.” He’s comes along side to help us plead our case before the Father when we sin. & In John 14 and 16, God the Holy Spirit is called “the Counselor,” “the Comforter” or “the Helper,” depending on which translation you use. He is the one who is called along side to help us since Jesus has ascended into heaven. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – all three – are right there beside us to help us every single day.
And God wants us to come along side of each other to comfort when one is hurting, to defend each other, and to help in practical ways. This is especially true of the elderly in our midst. We must…
TREAT THEM LIKE FAMILY.
Our society more and more wants to put them away, but God wants us to come along side and help them just like we would our own mothers and fathers.
Dr. Albert Schweitzer was 85 years old and still working in his jungle hospital at Lambarene, on the banks of the Ogowe River. It was about eleven in the morning. The sun was hot, and he was walking up a hill with some friends.
Suddenly he left them and hurried across the slope of the hill to a place where an African woman was struggling with a huge armload of wood for her cook-fire. He took the entire load of wood and carried it on up the hill for the relieved woman.
When they all reached the top of the hill, one of the members of the group asked Dr. Schweitzer why he did things like that, implying that in that heat and at his age he should not. Albert Schweitzer, looking straight at all of them, pointed to the woman and said, “No one should ever have to carry a burden like that alone.” (From a letter from Andrew C. Davison, Colgate Rochester Seminary, as quoted by James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, p. 119)
My friends, we’re family here in the church, and no one should have to carry their burden alone, especially the elderly! God calls us to join Him in coming along side each other to help in whatever ways we can.
Abraham Herschel once said, “The test of a people is how it behaves toward the elderly. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless, are the true gold mines of a culture.” (Abraham Herschel, Homemade, Vol. 17 #2, February 1993)
Did you hear that? “The affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless, are the true gold mines of a culture.” The opposite is also true. A culture is in deep trouble when it starts talking about eliminating the old, the incurable, and the helpless.
We saw this in Nazi Germany. The genocide of 6 million Jews didn’t start with gas chambers in death camps. It started with the advocacy of euthanasia for those who were deemed incurable or lacking a sufficient quality of life to continue living. The gas chambers were first built for them in the hospitals of Germany.
Now, we see it happening in our culture with the advocacy of physician assisted suicide for the old, the incurable, and the helpless right here in our own country. What does that tell you about where we’re headed as a culture today?
Well, God calls us as a church to be counter-cultural. God calls us to come along side and help the elderly, to visit them, to spend time with them, not to eliminate them. Treat the elderly like family, God says. Then…
TREAT THEM LIKE A FORTUNE.
Treat them like gold! Honor them. Value them.
1 Timothy 5:3 Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. (NIV)
That Greek word, translated “give proper recognition to,” literally means to set a price on someone or something. In this context, we are to set a price on the widows who are really in need. In other words, we are to value such widows in the church.
As one elderly lady put it: “Remember old folks are worth a fortune: with silver in their hair, gold in their teeth, stones in their kidneys, lead in their feet, and gas in their stomachs.”
All kidding aside, Old ladies are valuable! They have value just because of who they are, and
We should treat them as such. We should treat them like they’re worth a million dollars, because they are worth much more than that. God says, “Honor them, value them.”
The question is, How? How can we best show widows that we value them? What is the best way to honor an elderly lady (or an elderly man for that matter)? Well, the answer may surprise you. The best way to honor the elderly is to put them to work. Enlist them for service.
Look down at verse 9 where God suggests a specific way to honor the widows. 1 Timothy 5:9 “No widow may be put on the list…” Literally, let a widow be enlisted. It’s a term used in other contexts for the enlisting of soldiers. Don’t put old people on the shelf; instead, enlist them for service!
They have so much to offer! They have wisdom that only years of living can give! They have time that those who are still raising their families and working 50 to 60 hours a week, never have, and they have skills that they have honed over the years.
Do you know? The most productive years of a person’s life can be the retirement years! Moses was 80 when God called him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. Socrates gave the world his best philosophy at age 70. Plato was only a student at 50, doing his best work after his 60th birthday. Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel when he was almost 90. Webster wrote his monumental dictionary at 70. Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain at age 65 and rallied the world to victory against Hitler.
In Boston, Massachusetts, just this last February 8, 2010, a 75-year-old grandmother picked up a price scanner and fought off a thief twice her size as he attempted to steal cash from a 7-11 convenience store. She was talking to a store manager when a man with a baseball cap walked behind the counter and started wrestling with the manager for money from the cash register. That’s when grandma picked up the price scanner and started hitting on the guy. The thief, 34-year-old, Michael McInnis, ran out of the store empty-handed and was arrested three days later. Police captain, Tom Swanson, described the woman’s bold movements as “shocking.” He said, “I haven’t seen 45-year-olds do that before, much less 75-year-olds.” (“Plucky grandmother, 75, fights off thief twice her size in robbery at U.S. convenience store,” World News, 18 February 2010; www.dailymail.co.uk)
Way to go grandma! You see, old age doesn’t have to mean growing obsolescence. In fact, it can mean greater opportunity for most people. The fact is, only about 5% of the people over 65 are in institutions. 95% are still very active in their communities. And the church misses out if we don’t employ these people, if we don’t put them to work.
God says, Honor the widows. Treat them like a fortune. Value them, by enlisting them, by putting them to work. Now, this goes especially for the older widows, for those who have no children to support them, for those who have no one but God to turn to.
In fact, the church should pay them for the work they do, but only if they have no family to support them, i.e., only if they are completely destitute.
1 Timothy 5:3-8 Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. Give the people these instructions, too, so that no one may be open to blame. If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (NIV)
You see, adult children have the responsibility to take care of their aging parents. It’s only fair for all they have done for us.
A mother found a bill under her plate one morning at breakfast. It was made out by her eight year old son, Bradley, and it read, “Mother owes Bradley for running errands, 25 cents; for being good, 10 cents; for taking music lessons, 15 cents; for extras, 5 cents; TOTAL, 55 cents.”
Mother smiled, but made no comment. At lunch Bradley found the bill under his plate with 55 cents and another piece of paper neatly folded like the first. Opening it he read, “Bradley owes mother: for nursing him through scarlet fever, nothing; for being good to him, nothing; for clothes, shoes and playthings, nothing; for his playroom, nothing; for his meals, nothing; TOTAL, nothing.”
Our mothers did it all for nothing! Therefore, it’s only right that we pay them back, that we take care of them in their old age.
This pleases God, verse 4 says, and it demonstrates our faith. Verse 8 says, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives…he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” He has denied the faith, because God commands us to honor our parents. & He is worse than an unbeliever, because even unbelievers for the most part take care of their own families.
We must take care of our own families – It pleases God. It demonstrates our faith. & It frees up the church to take care of those who are truly needy. Skip down to vs.16
1 Timothy 5:16 If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need. (NIV)
You see, if sons and daughters would take care of their aging parents, then the church could take care of those “widows who are really in need,” i.e., those who are without any other means of support.
Do you see it? This is God’s answer to the Social Security issue and the health care crisis in our country. Every family takes care of its own members, and every church takes care of those who don’t have family. The problem is the family and the church, both, have abdicated their responsibility to the government. Ever since FDR’s New Deal in the 30’s and Johnson’s Great Society in the 60’s, we have looked to the Federal Government to take care of our families. Now the system is bankrupt with a spiraling national debt and higher and higher taxes threatening to destroy the economic viability of the entire country.
God did not create governments to take care of the needy. No! God created the CHURCH to love the poor on His behalf. & Here God asks the CHURCH, not the state, to honor its widows. God asks the CHURCH to provide for its elderly, to enlist them for service and pay them for services rendered, but only if they don’t have any other family to support them, and only if they are not fooling around.
1 Timothy 5:9-15 No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds. As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to. So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.
God wants the younger widows to get married, and He wants the older widows to behave themselves.
Jill Briscoe once put it this way:
In the dim and distant past
When life's tempo wasn't fast,
Grandma used to rock and knit,
Crochet, tat, and baby-sit.
When the kids were in a jam,
They could always count on Gram.
In an age of gracious living,
Grandma was the gal for giving.
Grandma now is at the gym
Exercising to keep slim.
She's off touring with a bunch,
Taking clients out to lunch.
Driving north to ski or curl,
All her days are in a whirl.
Nothing seems to stop or block her,
Now that Grandma's off her rocker.
(Jill Briscoe, “Loving God with All Your Heart,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 84; www.PreachingToday.com)
Isn’t that great? I’m glad grandma is “off her rocker” these days. But she must never get off the Rock – Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
That’s where the church can really help, because God calls us as a church to care for the elderly. He wants us to treat them like family and to treat them like a fortune.
Jeannette, like most girls her age, was excited about the parade coming through her town. She found a great place for viewing the parade, but after she got settled she noticed a poor old woman in the crowd trying very hard to get where she could see.
Jeannette said to herself, “I really want to see the parade, but it isn't kind of me to stay in this nice seat, and let that old woman stay where she can't see anything.” So she called the old woman, and let her take her seat. Jeannette got lost in the crowd again, where she had to tiptoe, and peep, and dodge about, to catch even a glimpse of the magnificent parade.
Some of her friends laughed at her for giving up such a good seat to an old woman. But a few minutes later, a man, covered with lace, elbowed his way through the crowd, and said to her, “Little girl, will you come to her ladyship?” Jeannette could not imagine who her ladyship was. She didn’t understand that the queen had come that day to see the parade too.
Even so, she followed the man to a scaffold within the crowd. A lady met her at the top of the stairs, and said, “My dear child, I saw you yield your seat to the old woman. You acted nobly. Now sit down here by me. You can see everything here.” (BI# 2191-2195; 5/1993.20)
Hey, God sees us when we’re kind to the elderly. And I believe that God, too, has a special place at His side for those who treat the elderly with the kind of respect they deserve.
