A sermon based upon Psalm 90, CEB
By Rev. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership,
August 18th, 2019
As all of us who are either close to or in our so-called “Golden Years”, know they are not always so ‘golden’. In other words, ‘Getting old is not for Sissies!’ Listen to how one person explained by finishing the sentence: You know you’re growing old when:
Your mind makes contracts your body can’t fulfill;
You know all the answers, but nobody asks the questions;
You look forward to a dull evening;
You walk with your head held high trying to get used to your bifocals;
Your favorite part of the newspaper is “25 years ago today.”
You turn out the light for economic reasons rather than romantic ones.
You sit in a rocking chair and you can’t get it going;
Your knees buckle and your belt won’t.
You’re seventeen around the neck, 12 around the waist, and 108 around the golf course.”
A group of senior citizens were exchanging complaints and trying to count their blessings, even though they were getting old.
One says: “My arm is so weak I can hardly hold this coffee cup.”
Another says: “My cataracts are so bad I can hardly see to pour the coffee.”
Or another: “I can’t turn my neck anymore, the arthritis is so bad.”
And another: “My blood pressure pills make me dizzy.”
“I guess that’s the price we pay for getting old.”
“Well it’s not all bad;” We should be thankful we can still drive.”
Everyone grows old, and “growing old is not so bad when you consider the alternative.” But the truth is, that next to dying, the realization that we are aging is the most profound shock of our lifetime. Leon Trotsky, the famous Marxist revolutionary wrote in his diary that the most unexpected thing that ever happened to him was to discover that he was getting old. One day, he says, he just woke up in the morning and it was a big ‘surprise’!
Some people never get over the shock of it. In fact, the last time I preached a sermon on aging, back in 2003, one woman got angry. She couldn’t believe that I would tell a joke about something as serious as this. But I believe, that if you can’t find humor in getting old, you’re in even worst trouble.’
Speaking of humor, The late Comedian George Carlin said the only time we want to get old is when we’re kids. “Kids are so excited about aging they count time in fractions. How old are you? A kid answers, I’m 4four and a half! We’re never 36 and a half, or 50 and a half. Even in their teens, kids still don’t get it. They’re not just 13 and a half, but they like to jump to the next number. How old are you? Teenagers answer, I’m gonna be 16 in three years. You might be 12 or 13, but you’re gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life will be when you become 18, or is it 21?. Even the words sound like a ceremony....YOU BECOME 21. YESSS!
But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like milk going bad. He TURNED 30 and it’s time to throw him out. There’s not much fun now. Now you’re just a sour dumpling. You’ve aged. You’re changed. You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you’re PUSHING 40. Whoa! Time to put on brakes, Times slipping away. Before you know it, you’ve REACHED 50 and dreams are gone. But wait! You MAKE it to 60. You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70. After that it’s s a day-by-day thing; you hit 70 and you’re glad to get to Wednesday. You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle: you Hit lunch; it Turns 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn’t stop there. If you make it to your 90's, you start counting backwards; I was JUST 92. Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. I’m 100 and a half!!”
Few of us will live to be as old as the French woman, named Jeanne Calment. When she was 90 years old, she entered into a real estate agreement with a 47-year-old man who agreed to pay her $500 a month until her death so that he could guarantee ownership of her apartment, a common practice in France. Little did he know that Jeanne Calment was destined to become the oldest living person. Each year on her birthday, she sent him a card that jokingly said, "Sorry I am still alive." She outlived the man who died in 1995 at the age of 77, having paid over $180,000 for an apartment in which he never live.
Jeanne Calment died at the age of 122, and medical scientists have tried to discover the secret of her longevity. She didn’t seem to fit any of the standard profiles. For example, for years she ate two pounds of chocolate a week, and she smoked moderately until she was 117. She always cooked with olive oil, took vigorous walks, and rode her bike through the streets of Arles until she was 100. She seemed to have a great sense of humor. When she was 110, she said, ’I had to wait 110 years to become famous. I intend to enjoy it as long as possible."
FACE IT: FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING….
The Psalm we are considering today, Psalm 90, speaks of growing old—-aging. Facing the fact that you’re aging every second, every minute of every day, can be a depressing thought.
It’s important to understand, as we approach this Psalm, that it’s presented to us as a prayer. It’s not simply a prayer about facing the facts, but it’s written to help us gain wisdom for living this very limited experience we call life. The aim is not to depress us, but to help us; to help us learn to be ‘glad’ for the days we have.
One thing for sure, 100% of us will get older, and most of us will get to grow old. Currently statistics tell us that over 90 % of both men and women will get reach age 60. 80% of men and 86% of women get to age 70. But after 70, the famous ‘3 score and 10’, statistics drop more rapidly: Only 40% of men and 57% of women will get to age 80. Reaching 90 is very difficult for most men (only 20%, 1 out of 5), but it’s also difficult for women too (33%, 1 out of 3). The goal most people have of getting to age 100 is under 5 percent for everybody: only 5 percent of women, and only 2 percent of men. 100 is a nice goal, but don’t get your hopes up.
Speaking of this sobering reality reminds me of something Woody Allen once joked when he wished that his ‘next life’ would be lived backwards. In polite company I can’t quote all he said, but it went something like: “You start out dead and get that out of the way. Then you wake up in an old people's home feeling better every day. Then you get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then when you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day.
You work for 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You party for a short while,…, then you are ready for high school. You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play. You have no responsibilities; you become a baby until the day you are born. Then you get to spend the last 9 months of your life floating in luxurious spa-like conditions with central heating and room service, with larger quarters every day and then Voila!...”
Sounds like a nice ending, but the Psalmist proposes a more realistic perspective. However, right in the middle of this realistic thought, we find the grandest of all statements about God: “From everlasting to everlasting, you are God!” (v. 2, KJV).
The thought of “God” is the Psalmist wrapped his head around the thought of aging. We are not God. We are not invincible. We are not eternal. We are not “from everlasting to everlasting. “ Unless God gives us his promise, as he says ‘We are wasting away because of God’s wrath. We are paralyzed with fear on account of God’s rage!”.
What the Psalmist means, is that because of sin we are mortal, and we ‘are dust’; as the song says, ‘We’re just dust in the wind’! The eternal God ‘sweeps humans away like a dream, like grass…all dried up.’ ‘We finish up our years (not with a bang), but with a whimper’ (v.9).
It’s not a pretty picture to face what is happening to us, but face the reality of living with the awareness of being human means that we come to understand that our lives are brief, restricted, and limited. When you ‘wake up’ to this ’surprise’ of aging you realize once again, and once and for all, that without the eternal God, we have no hope.
LEARN FROM IT: TEACH US TO NUMBER OUR DAYS….
The point of gaining this biblical perspective is not to whine or sulk, but to gain a heart of wisdom; to learn to make each and every day count. This isn’t just sacred wisdom, it’s secular wisdom too. Everyone has to learn to value and prioritize time, because we only have so much of it.
The difference for those who trust in God, as it is here in this Psalm, is that the psalmist is asking for the eternal God to help him gain wisdom from God’s eternal perspective. He wants God to help him move what he knows in his head into his heart, so it will influence how he lives. He wants the knowledge of life’s brevity moved from one of daily sadness to one of a lasting, enduring gladness? Is there anything to be ‘glad’ about when we get old?
In the best selling book, Tuesdays with Morrie, a former student named Mitch Albom interviewed his very wise but terminally ill sociology professor from Brandies University, Morrie Schwartz. Listen for the professor’s wisdom about aging:
MITCH: “Weren’t you ever afraid to grow old?" Mitch asked.
MORRIE: "Well, Mitch, I embrace aging.
MITCH: "Embrace it?"
MORRIE: "Oh, yes,"
MITCH: "But if aging were so valuable, why do people always say, ‘Oh, if I were young again?’ You never hear people say, ‘I wish I were 65’.
MORRIE: "Well, it’s very simple. As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed at 22, you’d always be as ignorant as you were at 22. Aging is not just decay, you know. It is growth. It is more than the negative that you’re going to die. It is also the positive that you understand that you’re going to die and that you live a better life because of it." He smiled.
"Mitch, Do you know what the wish to be young again reflects?
Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that have not found meaning. Because if you found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more. You can’t wait until 65.
Listen. You should know something. All younger people should know something. If you’re always battling against getting older, you’re always going to be unhappy because it will happen anyhow.
And, Mitch, the fact is, you are going to die eventually.... It won’t matter much what you tell yourself."
The great American novelist, Edith Wharton, once reflected this kind of wisdom about aging when she said, “One can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.”
If I understand her correctly, Wharton was suggesting that, even as we get older, though we might not be able to do what we used to, but we still have some very important work to do. Albeit, it’s a different kind of work. Learning to ‘number our days’ may be the most challenging, but also most rewarding work we’ll ever do.
So, what might this mean to ‘gain a heart of wisdom’ as we ‘number our days?” According to Wharton, it means we must FACE the CHANGES that come with age, and not be afraid of them.
As we all know, the rapid pace of change can seem overwhelming. One person put it this way: “Some of us were born before television and penicillin, before polio shots and frozen foods, before Xerox, plastic, contact lenses, and Frisbees. Some of us were born before radar, credit cards, split atoms, laser beams, and ballpoint pens, before dishwashers, clothes dryers, electric blankets, air conditioners, and before anybody thought about going to the moon.
Some of us remember when "Made in Japan" meant junk and the term "making out" referred to how you did on your high school exams. Pizza, McDonalds, and instant coffee were unheard of. Some of us were born before day care centers, group therapy, and nursing homes, and never heard of FM radios, CD players, artificial hearts, yogurt, and boys wearing earrings. For some of us, time-sharing meant togetherness, not a week in a condo, a chip meant a piece of wood, hardware was at a dry goods store, and software wasn't even a word.
Some of us hit the scene long before Wal-Mart when you went to the 5 & 10 (Dime) where you could actually buy something for a nickel and a dime. Ice cream cones, a ride on a streetcar, a phone call, a Pepsi Cola, and a stamp all cost a nickel. A Chevy Coupe was $600, but who could afford one? What a pity too, because gasoline was only 10 cents a gallon. In that day grass was mowed not smoked, coke was a cold drink, and pot was something you cooked in. Rock music was Grandma's lullaby and AIDS were helpers in the Principal's office.”
This statement about change, is almost outdated itself, in light of the current fast pace of learning through Computers, Cell Phones, Internet, and Social media. But we also need to realize even constant, rapid-fire change in our world, never occurrs in a vacuum. In every age that change comes, change still comes with age, for we also change. As much as we try to hold on to what once was, our ideas still change, our perspectives still change, and so does what we value the most in life. As the old song says, “Time has made a change in me.”
Wharton says, our fear of change in life is best answered by STAYING CURIOUS about life. When we stay curious, she says, we can live “past our disintegration”. We can push against our natural decline that comes with age, with “an insatiable intellectual curiosity (when we) are interested in big things.”
Is there any ‘bigger’ curiosity than to think about God, to ask questions to God, or wonder about God (cp. How Long?, v. 13)? Isn’t this what these ancient Psalms and the whole Bible are really about; not to give us easy answers, but to help us gain focus and wisdom by asking the right kinds of questions about how we should live in every age? Isn’t this why we listen to sermons, read our Bibles, or go to Bible studies? It’s not so much that anyone ever tells us the final answer, but we keep asking the right questions and we find a way to stay engaged in what matters most in life.
Asking the right kind of question vey much like the story about a group of preschoolers who were touring a retirement home, and a resident asked them if they had any questions.
“Yes," one little girl answered, "How old are you?"
"I’m 98," the woman answered proudly.
Clearly impressed, the child’s eyes grew big, and she asked, "Did you start at 1?"
The wide, alert senior answered: “Well, my little friend, we all start at 1, but it’s what we do after that, that counts.”
APPRECIATE THE GIFT: TEACH US TO BE GLAD
The question of ‘what counts’ or ‘what matters’ brings us to the final thing Wharton suggests, which brings us right back to how this Psalm concludes. According to Wharton, we learn to age, not only by facing change, or continuing to be curious about big things, but she says, we stay connected to ‘big things’ in ‘small ways’.
We’ve all heard the saying ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’!
Perhaps, you’ve also heard more recently the reply, “It’s all small stuff!”
Big? Small? What’s what? Well, that depends, doesn’t it? Someone asked a philosopher, many years ago, where he’d go and what he’d do if he knew the world would end tomorrow. The philosopher answered,
“You could find me, hoeing in my garden.”
What’s big stuff and what’s small stuff is always related to how we are dealing with it, doesn’t it? Putting your clothes on is small stuff, until you’ve just had surgery. Brushing your teeth is very simple, until you’ve had your teeth worked on, or it gets easier, or is that more complicated when you have no teeth! Going to the bathroom… well, you get the picture, don’t you?
What Edith Wharton means by stay curious about ‘big things’ in ‘small ways’ has to be answered by each of us in some very personal and most practical ways. Isn’t this what the psalmist means when he says in verse 14 “Lord, satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love... Or in verse 16: “Let your deeds be shown to your servants... Then, as the Psalmist asks in the most practical terms of all, in verse 17, repeating it twice: “Establish the work of our hands! Prosper the work of our hands!
Here we have come upon the final prayer of this Psalmist, and the final perspective of wisdom for aging. It’s not just: ‘let us learn to count the days’, but it’s rather, ‘Lord help us live so that our days really ‘count’ for something, for someone. Most of all, help us find wisdom in how we live, because we let our days ‘count’ to you, O God.”: By living for you and to you, YOU GOD, help our lives count and our days matter. Learning what matters always starts in the smallest way of way of simply getting up each morning and by opening our waking hearts to soak in the warming, calming, and promising rays of God’s faithful love.’
A rabbi once visited a 96 year lady in the hospital, who was a member of his synagogue in a hospital. “How are things?” The Rabbi, asked.
“Terrific,”the 96 year old lady responded. “There’s no peer pressure.”
She continued: “Rabbi, do you know that Serenity Prayer that 12 step programs use which starts: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…?
“We’ll I”ve learned the Senility prayer: “God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into someone I do like, and the eyesight to be able to tell the difference.”
Two Questions: First, do you know that God makes the difference in how we see age? If you really know what time it is, you will be investing a lot of attention to your relationship with God, wouldn’t you? If you have no time for God, then you really have gained no wisdom, no understanding, and all you’re doing is probably just foolishness.
Do you know those words of Emily Dickenson? When I was in high school, she was one of my favorite poets, and in one short poem she wrote:
I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea
Yet know I how the heather looks, And how a wave must be
I never talked with God, Nor visited in Heaven
Yet certain am I of the place As if a chart were given.
Are you that certain? Do you know what’s just around the corner for you? If you realize what time it is, you’ll give your relationship with God your very best attention.
Now the second question: Are you taking someone with you? I mean, if Heaven is just around the corner for you, are you taking someone with you? Wouldn’t even Heaven seem like Hell, if we had no assurance that someone we love would be there with us, or we will be with them? That’s wisdom too, not just to ‘grow’ old, but to ‘know’ who matters most and to be sure all things are well between us and them, them and God.
So, are we growing old? Of course we are, and for age we can gain ‘a heart of wisdom’: Wisdom, is finally: Every morning lean thine arms awhile upon the window sills of heaven And gaze upon the Lord. Then, with a vision in thy heart ,turn strong to meet the day (Maxie Dunnam). All I need to say to this is, AMEN.
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