Even to Old Age and Gray Hairs
Psalm 71:17-18 – O God from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth, you will bring me up again. Isaiah 46:3-4 – Listen to me, O House of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save. Dear Friends in Christ, There are at least two views one can take regarding living life, growing older, and approaching death. View #1 is to think that bad things happen, and then you die. View #2 is to believe that to live is Christ, and to die is gain. View #1 says that one should eat and drink and be merry when you’re young and in your prime, because the day is coming when it’s all downhill. View # 2 is to believe that every stage of life is to be lived for the glory of God and for the encouragement of others along the road to paradise. View #1 is to live according to what you can see, and View #2 is to live by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. View #1 is sort of the common sense approach to life, that it is what it is, and you have to plough your way through life on your own, and View #2 is to see that Jesus Christ has gone the way of the cross on your behalf, that He has lived the perfect life that Carol and you and I could not even get close to living, that Christ has suffered all that Carol and you and I should have suffered, that Jesus Christ died the death we should have died on a Friday and rose up again on a Sunday morning, and because He is risen, we can be sure that every word of Scripture is absolutely true, without exception. Because Jesus Christ is risen, the sins of Carol Bollman and your sins and my sins are washed away, sent away as far as the east is from the west, never to be held against us, in the courtroom of Almighty God, which is the only courtroom that matters. Because Jesus Christ is risen, there is a mansion in heaven prepared for all who have been baptized into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and have found a way to remain in that Baptism faith. Because Christ is risen, the body you must lay into the ground this afternoon will be raised up again on the last day, to be reunited with her soul / her spirit, and because Christ is risen, Carol Bollman will live body and soul face to face with her Savior into eternity. View #1 is to think that the good old days have passed us by, but View #2 is to know that the really good days are yet to come. My parents are both passed away, as are yours now, but while they were still living, my two sisters and I all lived at a distance. Once in awhile, we would plan out a surprise visit on them, and we’d all appear at their house unannounced. My parents were delighted, but Mom was a bit frustrated that she had not prepared for our visit with her usual baking and cooking and cleaning. We eventually figured out that if we were to tell her ahead of time that we were coming, she could enjoy the visit even before we showed up. She could spend her days not only getting ready, but her heart would be absolutely delighted in anticipation of that visit. I tell you all of that to tell you this. Our Scripture lessons for today invite you to live the rest of your days being absolutely delighted as you anticipate that great day when our Lord Jesus Christ will visit this world the second and final time. To be living every one of your days with View #2, which is the view of the cross and the empty tomb. Two lessons I share with you about what it means to live with a distinctively Christian view of life, according to the Psalmist and the prophet Isaiah. Lesson #1 is to know that in all the stages of life, even to old age and gray hair, your God is willing to do the heavy lifting. When Isaiah wrote his words of comfort, the house of Jacob wasn’t at all what it had been. The ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been swallowed up in the Assyrian advance. Samaria, its capital, lay in ruins. God had checked the Assyrian advance by destroying 185,000 soldiers and had preserved Jerusalem from destruction. The Jewish countryside ahd nevertheless been ravaged by the Assyrians. Into that context, God promises, “Even to your old age and gray hairs, indeed, I am he, I myself will bear you as a burden. I have made you myself, and I myself will carry you. I myself will bear you, and I myself bring you to safety. All these promises depend on the action of the Lord. Only his gracious action has sustained his people in the past, and only his action will sustain them in the future. One pastor described old age this way. “You think of old age and you think the time when your knees buckle and your belt won’t. Old age is when you turn out the lights for economic rather than romantic reasons. Old age is when you have too much room in the house and not enough in the medicine cabinet…If you want to know what it feels like to be old, smear dirt on your glasses, stuff cotton in your ears, put on heavy shoes that are too big and wear gloves, and then try to spend the day in a normal way. Believe me, there’s a lot of truth in those words, but lesson #1 today once again is this, in all the stages of life, your God is with you, He loves you, He spared not His only Son on your behalf, what is there He wouldn’t do for you? Even into her old age and gray hair, He had every one of Carol’s hairs on her head numbered, and His promises stand for you as well. Lesson #2 is as important as Lesson #1, maybe even more. It is that in even in the later stages of life, God has a great purpose for His people. The Psalmist said it this way, O God from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. It’s clear to me that this dear Christian woman, this mom, this grandma, this great grandma has been the glue holding together this family. It looks to me as if she has been appreciated and even adored by kids, grandkids, and great grandkids alike. The other day, when Tim and Jodi came into my office asking for a funeral service in this house of God, the message was message was clear. This was and is to be a funeral service and burial where Jesus Christ would be honored and proclaimed. To you sons and daughters and grandchildren, I say this – it’s your turn. The baton of Christian faith has been handed to you, and it’s your turn to make sure the next generations know how great is their God. To make sure they know the simple truths that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, that God loves them, always has, and always will. To make sure they know God the Father almighty as creator of heaven and earth, to make sure they know Jesus as Savior and Lord, to make sure they know the Holy Spirit as Sanctifier and Teacher and Comforter. Make sure they know the Ten Commandments as the very word of the Lord, make sure they know the difference between right and wrong, make sure they know that in all the stages of life, their God is more thanwilling to do the heavy lifting, that in fact He has already done the heavy lifting, make sure they know that even in the later stages of life, God has great purpose for His people, and finally make sure they know that Grandma Carol is resting in peace and they will be able to see her again some day soon. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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October 2022
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