Rev Francisco BilogLuke 2:22-40
The Yew Year tells us that we have become one year older today! This revelation of fact can become a blessing or a curse. How? Let us see it.
Two senior citizens, Simeon and Anna, are on the center stage of our Gospel. So I thought let us spend some time talking about old age,
beginning with the review of the commonly held stereotypes, which upon closer examination, are a far cry from the way things really are.
First and foremost, most would say that with old age come a declining memory. It is always interesting that when someone twenty years of age forget where he puts his glasses, no one makes a comment. But when a senior citizen does the same, it’s automatically assumed that the memory is starting to go; it’s automatically assumed that senility is just a heartbeat away. Now it is true that people in their 70’s experience some drop-off in the ability to remember certain events, but other type of memory, such as, for knowledge, for facts, for skill- they are not affected by it. Aptitude and intelligence test have revealed very little drop-off in mental ability as the ages pile on. Senior are just capable of as younger people. contrary to popular opinions, old dogs learn new tricks. And when it come to senility, we’re talking about a physical disease that strikes only a small portion of the elderly. It is not a foregone conclusion of old age.
Then there’s the stereotype that has senior citizen cast as inflexible and set in their ways. You can probably say that if there’s an old person who fits that description, it’s probably because he has been inflexible and set in his ways all his life. Negative character traits are usually born in childhood and nurtured along until old age.
Among the list of stereotypes is that productivity drops off with the coming of age. There are just too many examples to refute that argument. Think of Moses, who are the age of 80, led three million people out of captivity or Thomas Edison who at 85 invented the mimeograph machines’, at 89 Albert Schweitzer headed a hospital in Africa; at 88 Pablo Casals was still giving solo concert; and Mother Teresa at 87 still continue to manage an orphanage in India. Yes, creative and inventive contributions continue to be made by people well into the golden years. Thus productivity doesn’t drop off just because people are old.
Whatever stereotype might be that’s attached to old age, the fact and truth are there to refute that claim.
I’m raising issues on aging today because our scripture highlights two of the most famous biblical senior citizen, Simeon and Anna. By becoming the vehicle of the Lord’s consecration to his Father, their stature and their dignity are raised a hundredfold. I believed it was planned that way by God to underline the fact that being old age is not something lamentable but something praiseworthy, that the elderly are not appendage to society but an integral part of society, that old men and women are not to be labeled and discarded as useless, but should be honored and embraced and held up as privilege members of God’s kingdom. This morning, we are challenge as Christians of this church to examine our attitudes and to put aside the assumptions and stereotype that have ways of demeaning and degrading their worth and dignity. Besides telling us to hold senior citizen in high esteem, God is also telling the senior citizen to hold themselves in high esteem. For far too many, that’s a growing problem. Besides the negative attitudes and assumptions toward the elderly, there’s also the matter of negative attitudes and assumption toward aging itself.
There is an story about two girls who went to visit the province of their parents. When they got back home, they were asked how things went. One talked about nothing but the dusty roads and the flies and the heat and the general discomfort. The other talked about the beautiful “bandera espanol” flowers along the road, the glimpse of the sea at the turn in the road and the sight of the cardinal bird on one of the branches of a tree. She reported with a gleam in her eye. It reminds me of al old couplet “two men look out the prison bars, one saw mud, the other saw stars.
The matter of whether aging is a blessing or a curse depends on how we view it. surely there are a lot of negatives to aging, but there are also a lot of positives. you can look at the grey hairs, the growing aches and pains, the decrease in vision or in hearing; or you can look at the wisdom that’s now had, the insight into life that are so much broader, the opportunities to do things that were never there before. there are dust and flies and mud when it comes to aging, but there also beautiful flowers, cardinal birds and stars.
When I went over the list of octogenarians who achieved greatness, I neglected to point out that many excelled, not in their first career. but in their second careers. With the raising of a family behind them, with a general lessening of commitments and responsibilities, they had the time to pursue jobs, hobbies, and activities that they wouldn’t have thought of pursuing when they were young.
The golden years provide its bearers with the extra time that can be cashed in for the new pursuits, the new adventures, and the new directions that could never be pursued in the responsibility-filled younger years of life.
With old age comes the ability to know the difference between what is important and what is not, what is to be hallowed and what is to be cast aside, what is to be remembered and what is to be forgotten. I like what Rabbi Sidney Greenberg in his book “How to Say Yes to Life.” said. He calls time the “thoughtful thief” because for everything it steals from us, it gives something in return. He says, “while time was stealing the smoothness of our skins it was giving us the opportunity to remove the wrinkles of our souls.” Yes, there comes with the onset of age the realization that life is too short to be petty and evil and cruel. Age helps unveil that which is harmful to the soul.
There are growing limitation that are part and parcel of the senior years. Even at the tender age of 42, we can’t do all the things we used to do, and it’s a frightening thought to realize that there may come a time when we may have to ask people to come to our assistance. No one likes to relinquish independence, but sometimes, with the coming of age, there isn’t a choice. What you have to realize is that by reaching out for help, you’re performing a valuable service for another human being. You’re giving a younger man and woman a chance to be unselfish.
Dr. Ester Galima Mabry told of an incident when they were first assigned in India. She was walking with an old Indian Pastor through the streets of Calcutta when a beggar approached them and asked for alms. Instinctively she reached into her purse and placed some change in the old man’s hand, at which point the old missionary instructed Dr. Mabry to say “thank you.” A few minutes later she asked the old Pastor why she was the one to say “thank you” instead of the beggar. In a voice that indicated that he expected the question, the Pastor answered: “In this country, we believe that the poor give us the opportunity to perform a good deed for which there is far greater reward, and so we thank them for the chance to put our faith into practice.”
If age makes us dependent on others, just think of the blessings we’re bestowing on others.
With the onset of old age, we can bemoan its limitations or we can see in the aging process immense opportunity for joy, happiness, peace, and service. It comes down to whether we see beautiful flowers, or dust, the mud or the stars. Aging can be a blessing or a curse, the choice is yours.
To the people of God of this church, our message today brought about by the life and example of Simeon and Anna is God’s way of raising our consciousness not only as to the worth and value to senior citizens, but also to the worth and value of aging process itself. So let us put the stereotypes to rest. See the blessing side of old age. Celebrate the beauty and the wonder that surround the Simeon and Annas of our time. And if you see a group of senior citizens jumping in and out, working together on a job they have never touched before and sharing like young ones the fruits of their work, chalk it up as a sign of the vigor and vitality of old age.