Benchmarks:  Passing the Torch
June 15, 2008
Joe Kutter

Moses is at the end of his life. The rebel leader has become the patriarch of Israel.
From that day when he experienced the burning bush, he has given his life for Israel’s well-being.

And now he has to make a speech to his people. I cannot go on with you. My body is weak. God will not allow me to go into “The Promised Land” with you. It’s time to pass the mantel of leadership on to someone else. Joshua will be your leader.

For the people of Israel, it’s a shock.  They have never been without Moses before. Joshua they know, but he is not Moses. What will they do? It all worked out ok. God took them through the transition and Israel finally made its way to The Promised Land.

Through this series of sermons and worship experiences, we have been looking at some of the benchmark moments in life and discussing the way that each time in life shapes our spirituality – the way that we walk and talk with God. Today, we are looking at the “Golden Years” or the years of retirement. Like every other time in life, the older years provide remarkable challenges (Somebody said that getting old is not for sissies.) and wonderful opportunities for relating to God in very powerful ways.  Let’s look at some of the opportunities and challenges that are inherent in this time of life.

In our early years, we spend a lot of time and energy wondering what we will be when we grow up. In our prayer life, we ask God to show us what we are to do with our working hours. We pray that God will lead us into the work that is just right for us.  If we are fortunate, we find that work and our work helps to shape our identity.

Tell me about yourself? I’m the pastor at First Baptist Church of Topeka. I’ve been a pastor for 39 years. It’s what I do and it’s who I am. I am a husband and a father but my kids are grown so I don’t spend a lot of time now doing the work of a father.

Now, what happens when you retire? Who are you? “I am now retired but I used to be the pastor of First Baptist Church of Topeka. So who are you when you “used to be” the principle or the teacher of the man who can fix anything or the mother with children? Who are you when you are not doing what you used to do any more?

In a lot of ways, the retirement years are a lot like the years of early adulthood. The question is, what am I going to do with my life now? And, who am I now that my days of gainful work are behind me?  How will I use my gifts and talents now? In a very real way, the spiritual challenge is first, to say to God, who am I now? And second, what shall I do for you at this time in my life?

Your purpose in life may well remain constant but the way that you fulfill that purpose will surely change. So how to you move from identifying yourself by what you do to identifying yourself simply by who you are as a child of God?  It is a serious spiritual journey.

This is frequently complicated by a new relationship with the calendar and clock. During our working life, our days are usually shaped by a set of appointments and deadlines that are externally established. Work from 9 to 5. Project A is due on Monday and Project B is due on Wednesday and Project C is due on Friday and we shape our days to meet the deadlines.

So, what happens in retirement? Those deadlines and appoints are softened. We have more freedom to choose the appointments that we want to keep and the projects that we want to do and the deadlines that we want to meet. It becomes necessary for us to shape our calendar and clock from the inside out rather than live by schedules that are externally imposed.

Not long ago, I heard the simple story of a pastor who retired on a Sunday and then, on Monday morning, told his wife, “I don’t have a reason to get up today.” He had not yet found the way to shape his life from the inside out.

The Spiritual question is, what shall I do with my new freedom from external restraints? How shall I, in response to God, shape the use of my days and hours now? It is a wonderful opportunity to life in brand new ways but it imposes the burden of taking responsibility for yourself in new ways also.

The retirement years are shaped by a new mixture of power and weakness. John McCain is running for President of the United States. I believe that is 72 years of age. I can promise you that at his age, he is not as physically strong as he was at 22 or 42 or perhaps even at 52. His physical abilities are not what they once were. That is a very safe guess.

At the same time, at the age of 22 or 42, or 52, he was not ready to be President. He is more powerful today than he has ever been even though he may be physically less strong. (This is not an endorsement for John McCain.)

In our older years, we have access to a kind of power that was never available to us in earlier years. Wisdom, learning, information, relationships and, frequently, a growing spiritual sensitivity, allow us to achieve things that we never could before – even though we have less energy and less physical strength than before. The spiritual challenge is to claim your new power in the aging years.

The aging years are frequently marked by an increasing sense of loss. Our bodies don’t work like they once did. The doctors refer to us as “job security” and the insurance companies think of us as liabilities to be avoided.

Our parents are becoming more fragile and during this season life, our parents are likely to die.  Death becomes a frequent visitor and our own mortality becomes an ever growing reality. When our loved ones die and when death seems closer to us personally, we are very likely to be more aware of the promises of heaven and healing and eternal life. It is a part of the spiritual journey.

At this time in life, an awful lot of us have to deal with the loss of our dreams. We look back to realize that we did not achieve what we thought we would. We did not make the money or we did not achieve the status or we did not invent the gizmo, in some way we turned out less than we expected. And the spiritual challenge is to live with unfulfilled dreams. Can you believe that God really does forgive failure and pardon sin? Can you accept yourself as God is already accepting you? Can you believe that you are a worthy and beloved child of God simply because that is the way that God wants it? It really is a challenge of the later years.

As the body slows down and as you give up the power that goes with the working life, can you accept the gospel of Jesus Christ that God loves you because God chooses to love you, just as you are? And can you accept yourself, not because of your achievements but simply because you are a child of God?

In the aging years, time itself is rebalanced. As a 20 year old, your challenge was to believe that God would take care of your future. That is true of the 60 year old and 70 year old as well. Will God take care of my future?  The difference is that here, we are looking towards that future on the other side of the Great Divide called Death.  Will God take care of my future?

But now we are wondering if God will take care of our past. Like Moses, you have invested years in your vocation, in building your business, in tending to your church, in doing whatever you do. Now the question is, were those years wasted? Do they really matter? Or like a fist in a bucket of water, does your effort simply disappear with you?  Will God take good care of your past?

Is there a Joshua out there who will pick up your values and take really good care of them? Is there a Joshua who will pick up your ministry and move it forward?  Is there a Joshua who will preserve the value of your effort? Has God provided a way to take care of your past?

Last week, I visited with my newest granddaughter, Anora, and with my other 4 grandchildren. I found myself asking the strangest question. I don’t really think that it is like me to ask this question but I found myself looking at the grandchildren and wonder if any look like me. And then I wondered, will any one of them pick up my faith and my values and will any of them hold important that which is important to me? We all want some kind of legacy, don’t we?

Something happens as we get older that quite frankly has been a little surprising to me. I think that I am not alone here. But it seems to me that our ability to relate to God grows. As we move closer to that last great day when we are called to “cross over Jordan”, God seems to move in a little closer to prepare us for that last great leap of faith.

God gets a little closer. And we are permitted to get a little closer to God and we are able to trust and believe in new ways, sometimes in quite surprising ways. We learn to trust as we have never trusted before.

May it be so with you who are in the aging years.

Amen.