Title: COMMUNITY=YOUNG AND OLD TOGETHER
Focus: God’s people always remember together God’s workings and ways with us.
Function: To move the people to think of Calvary Church as a community of faith, where all members—young and old alike—need each other to remember God’s ways and work in our world.
Text: Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:8
When I was a child I read a 100-year old European classic titled Alone in the World. The story made a deep impression on me. It’s about a little boy who lost his parents and had to find his way in a world of poverty and cruelty. The child wanted a family, a community that he could call his “home”—a community that was a safe and secure place to grow up and face the world.
The story taught me to value family and friends and community.
I think we do well to reflect upon the beauty of community, especially upon God’s gift called the “church.” The church is a community made up of young and old alike. But in recent years, North American individualism, technology, and narcissism—which is the incessant drive to focus on the desires and wants of I, Me, and Myself—have led some people to experiment with segregation by age in the church. And so there are now churches designed for different generations--for Boomers alone and for the 20-35’s generation alone. It’s like there is a new song in the air: “Here a church for moderns; there a church for post moderns. Here a church for traditionalists; there a church for contemporaries.” I’ve got news for you: the experiment is doomed to fail. Thank God! For it’s a truth as large as a cow: God’s people always remember together God’s workings and ways with us. The community of faith consists of young and old alike. Calvary church is not a community of 500 people who “pass each other like ships in the night.”
We need each other to rehearse and celebrate, to remember and proclaim the mighty works of God in Christ Jesus.
By now many of you have heard about upcoming changes in children’s ministry, students ministry, and adults ministry. Those changes are primarily in the environments we use to help each other grow in knowledge and commitment to Jesus Christ and his church. But in working hard toward realizing our mission, some may get the impression that Calvary Church is working with age segregation: “Here is something for the children; here is something for the young people; and here is something for adults”—as if we live in different worlds that do not intersect or meet.
I make that observation especially in light of what I hear sometimes from the elderly in our midst: “Nowadays, the church pays attention only to kids and their needs and wants.” Others join in and say, “Yeh, right on.” While others will say, “But you know, we’ve got to face it: the kids are the future of the church!” You know, congregation, there may be some truth in that last observation, but don’t forget that if the younger generation goes into the future without the wisdom and experience of the older generations, they are destined for disaster. In other words, we need each other. The young need the old; the old need the young.
Now I’ve not only heard whimpers from the elderly who feel neglected at times in church, I’ve also heard the elderly speak this way: “You know, I’ve done my share in church. I’m retired; I’m going to take a hike for a few years, and let the younger ones pick up the work of the church.” In other words, it’s not only the young that are prone to narcissism and doing their own thing; us mature adults are just as prone to focus on our own generational needs as they are.
BUT HERE’S ANOTHER PICTURE
Now let me make clear that in the midst of these scattered voices, I’ve noticed a wonderful thing over the years: The role of the older generation in the church is vital. As pastor, I meet seniors who delight in the birth of babies, who pray faithfully for the welfare of the community of faith. I’ve seen acts of kindness and grace by older people that bring tears to your eyes. And I’ve seen kids and young people reach out to the elderly with tenderness and hope. Thank God for the vital role that the elderly play in the midst of God’s people.
Just take a look, for example, at the writer of Ecclesiastes.
The book of Ecclesiastes is not an easy book to read and understand. It’s clear, however, that an older person—someone with lots of life experience, wrote this book. The Holy Spirit has used this older person to teach and encourage the younger generations to walk in the ways of the Lord. The author of Ecclesiastes, then, played (and still plays) a vital role among God’s people.
Now as you read some of the passages in Ecclesiastes, you may get the impression that the writer needs medication to overcome depression. Listen to him: (11:8) “However many years a man may live, let him enjoy them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is meaningless.” Or listen to 12:8 “’Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Everything is meaningless!’” Let me assure you, congregation, that the inspired writer does not need therapy or medicine. Rather, he uses a particular style of writing to communicate certain insights, and particular feelings about life and God and our relationship to God and this world.
For example, the cry at the beginning of the book “everything is meaningless,” echoed throughout the 12 chapters of the book, is counter-balanced with the gem of wisdom captured at the end of the book where he says: “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” In other words, the writer of Ecclesiastes is an elderly person, experienced and shaped by life itself. He stands back and surveys all the things people consider important in life and tend to do to find enjoyment in life. And then, holding before us a mirror of life and human behaviors, the writer says: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them.’...Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
When God calls his people to remember, He is not simply asking us to “put our brains in gear,” and do some reminiscing of past events. Ah, ah. For the church to remember our Creator God means to enter the works of God; it means to act upon the will of God as he communicates his will in his Word and in his Son, the Lord Jesus.
To remember our Creator is to enter the story of God with his creation—the story of Beginnings, of Fall into sin, of Deliverance from the bondage of evil and death, of Jesus taking on our human nature, of Jesus dying, rising and ascending into heaven and reigning over all today, until he comes again and brings everything under his control. To remember our Creator is to actively orientate our lives in the story of God’s love and restoration of a sinful, broken people and a world that groans for a complete renewal of all things.
And here is the point—so well demonstrated by the writer of Ecclesiastes: to remember God and to locate ourselves in the work and ways of God with the world, is the task of the community—young and old alike. We need each other to worship and serve our Lord Jesus; we need the vigor and energy of the young; we need the wisdom and experience of those who have lived through a lot—and who have learned to see and trust the hand of God in their lives.
Here are some strengths or gifts that the elderly in our midst may bring to the younger generations:
Another strength the old may bring to the young is the gift of
Experience and realism, drenched with a loving and caring spirit, are some strengths that you can give to the community of faith.
“Remember your Creator, “ says the writer of Ecclesiastes to Calvary Church today. How, then, can the elderly in our midst help the younger generation here to remember God’s ways and workings in our world and life? Or to put it another way: what do the young need from the old to remember God as Creator and Savior of the world?
I will mention three things: First of all, the younger generations need
Our confessions and biblical teachings say so: Isn’t sanctification a life-long process that will end only when we pass through the portals of death into eternal life? Then let’s do everything to show the young that we support them in living a holy and pure life, and that we shall pick them up when they fall, and forgive them when they fail, and celebrate with them the grace of God and the forgiveness and new life that Jesus gives us each day. Yes, what the young ones need from the elderly and more mature in the community of faith is space to grow up.
Secondly, what children need from adults in the community is
I remember Gil. He was a wise farmer in my first church. Passionate about God’s rule, Gil had a heart for Christian education and schools. All his children had attended Christian elementary and Christian High School. One day, I sat down with Gil and said, “Gil, tell me how you did it? How did you pay for all that schooling for your kids? I frankly can’t see my way through paying tuition for our first child right now. We are so tight with money!”
I will never forget Gil’s answer: “Save and pray, trust and work, day by day, month by month. And God will provide the resources. He is faithful.” And then he told me some stories how God provided for him—a relatively poor farmer, who always had just enough to get by to meet the bills. Gil’s words of wisdom and his stories of faith have guided my wife and me in all these years of raising and supporting our kids.
Seniors, please don’t hide your faith. Share it with the younger generation. They need it; in fact, we all need it.
Finally, here’s one more thing that you and I can give the younger generation at Calvary Church:
No, there is a better way: it’s the way of give and take, of acceptance and love, of balanced spiritual maturity, of affirming and showing understanding. Calvary Church, as a community of faith, is intergenerational. So is our worship! So is our fellowship! So is our walk of faith in daily life. We need each other.
Would it not be a wonderful thing for the praise team to hear from seniors, mature men and women of faith, a word of appreciation for remembering God’s ways and work in words and music that bring forth praise from the heart and exalt our triune God?
And would it not be a wonderful thing for the choir and its director to hear from children and teenagers a word of thanks for helping them sense the majesty and greatness of God in the voices and music of the choir?