Orange Trees and Possibilities
Good morning. Glad to be here. Feeling like an imposter up here behind Geoff’s pulpit. But it’s a privilege too. Geoff asked me simply to bring whatever God laid on my heart – incredibly trusting of him, but I hope to honour that trust – and God has laid on my heart to speak about “ageing well”. In my title I refer to Orange Trees, so I should explain where I’m going with that:
My grandmother, my Nan, dies three or four years ago at the age of 101. She was a fine old lady – a woman of attitude, a woman of spirit. When she was 95, someone gave her an orange tree for her birthday. Her face lit up with delight and she exclaimed, “How lovely! I can just picture it in five ears’ time when it’s grown and it’s covered with oranges …” It seemed to typify her forward-looking, positive nature.
Contrast with my old friend, Albie. Many years ago, Albie was an active, faithful member of our church. Very mission- orientated; in fact, he led overseas missions trips himself. He was admired in our church, and I admired him myself. But as he aged he lost his spark. He grew sick, and spent many months, even years, resenting his declining health.
Yes, this is about ageing well. But, younger folk, the truth is … it doesn’t matter how old, or how young, we are – these lessons need to be absorbed over time … so hang with me!
I was disappointed with Albie’s decline. He didn’t seem to have a coping plan in place, and it made me think, even way back then, as a younger man, gee, I hope I can age better than that. How can I learn from his situation? How can I keep on keeping on, even when I get weak and frail, and can’t leap over tall buildings any more?
Well, I’m there now! Those buildings are getting taller by the day. In another year or so I’ll be retiring, and … I was wondering during the past week, how is Donald Trump going to manage?! He’s 70! He’s six years older than me, and I can barely stay awake past 8pm. Presidents can’t have tea at 5, watch the news, and go to bed!
Actually, you’ve got to see the funny side. Ageing can be a very humorous stage of life. I’m nearly a superannuitant … a word I couldn’t even spell until I wrote this message! Ageing jokes are easy to come by, and I’m resisting the temptation to tell a lot – but here’s a cartoon for you: [on screen]
Ok, just one joke. My wife’s ageing too. We were driving into town the other day and she went through a red light. I didn’t say anything, because I’m awfully tolerant like that … But then she went through another one. I couldn’t stay silent. I said, “Do you realize you just went through two red lights?”
“Oh,” she said, “was I driving?”
Of course, ageing is serious business, and I really want to age well. I want to finish my Christian journey well. Imagine serving Christ for 50 years (as I have, to the best of my ability) only to fade with age!
Regardless of how old we are this morning, it behoves us all to finish the race well. So, how are you doing? Someone who seems to be doing well is Pastor Geoff. What challenges he’s had over the past couple of years, and yet … what an example he is to us. And Lois, I’d mention her too but she doesn’t seem to age …
You’ll all know of others, too, who are running a tough race well. And we probably all know of some who have not finished well, too. Some who have perhaps even left the faith altogether.
It’s dismaying to see how many Old Testament characters – giants in their youth – finished their races poorly – Noah, Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon … We need to learn from their stories, their mistakes. An elderly David tried to lead his troops into battle. “He became exhausted …”, says 2 Samuel 21. He was a liability. His generals had to ask him to leave the battlefield, that they could handle things better without him holding them back.
The Challenge
I don’t want to fade. When I was ten years old I gave my life to Christ. Again when I was 18, and other times since. And I meant it. My life. My whole life. And that included this advanced part of it. And I intend to see it through.
It’s not so easy, of course. As we age, things change. Illness hits us, our frames collapse, our minds soften, our opinions change. We lose friends and loved ones, grief hits us – even our internal chemistry changes so that … at 60 you just can’t address life the same way you did at 30. And you can’t say at 30, “It won’t happen to me”, because you don’t know at 30 what your thinking or your environment will be like at 60. If you’re lucky enough to make 60. Your dreams and schemes will be different, and you may be haunted by failed dreams and schemes. You feel less and less relevant to the world. You begin to feel invisible. That changes your outlook. You can become disillusioned and bitter.
My old friend Albie even felt invisible to God. “I’ve done a lot for God,” I heard him say. “But why isn’t he here now, when I really need him?” It struck me that he had a sense of entitlement – like God owed him something. And that will always lead to disappointment.
The Solution
How do we avoid this kind of sink hole?
I taught at Hamilton Christian School back in the ‘noughties’. As a Maths teacher. I had to figure out, how do I teach Maths Christianly? What’s the difference between a Christian Maths teacher and a non-Christian one? They’re both teaching the same Maths!
What’s the difference between a Christian engineer and a non-Christian one?
What’s the difference between a Christian chef and a non-Christian one?
The difference is in the person doing the teaching, or the cheffing. To teach Christianly means to be real and open, and representative – of Christ and His ways. You’re living an overt Christian radiance, as best you can. Your worldview, your Christian mindset oozes from you, so students and colleagues are not just experiencing Maths, but they’re experiencing genuine Christian love in the classroom.
So too with ageing Christianly. Everybody has to get older and more decrepit J. But you can do it Christianly. It’s about mindset … attitude … being representative of Christ, come what may.
So, how to age Christianly:
- Mindset and Big Picture: It’s important to understand how things really are in the grand scheme.
What we see around us, in the street, in our lounges, in our headspace even, is not how things really are. We are easily deceived. How things really are … there’s far more to reality than what our narrow horizons give us, and recognising this makes all the difference in how we understand what we’re going through. It moves us from entitlement and feeling sorry for ourselves to … wonder and awe! How wondrous is God’s plan; how awesome this cosmos; how wondrous that He has made himself known to me; how awesome that this is not all there is!
Here’s some big picture perspective from Paul. From Colossians. [Suggest people follow it … warn that there’s quite a long reading to come, but it’s for the sake of getting the big picture.] I could choose many Scriptures to support this mindset/worldview/big picture thing, but Colossians is where I’ve chosen to anchor this. This is positive, perspective-setting. And I might point out that Paul is writing from prison, and he is ageing! Let’s read quite a bit of this.
Read:
Col 1:9-14
1:15-23a
2:2-4 (read ‘you’ instead of ‘they’)
2 My goal is that [you] may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that [you] may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that [you] may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.
One Christian commentator has written, “For a Christian, Jesus’ teachings aren’t to be followed because they’re a nice way to live a moral life. They are to be followed because they are the best possible insight into how the world really works. They teach us how things really are.”
Another, Alexander McLaren, said, “In his life, death and resurrection we find the only foundation for any real knowledge … He is the Alpha from whom all truth must be deduced, the Omega to which it all leads. Certainty is found in him. Apart from him we are but groping in the middle of doubt and uncertainty. If we know anything about ourselves it is because of him. If we know anything about how people are to live, it is because he has lived. And if, into the mist and darkness that wraps the future, there has ever travelled one clear beam of insight, it is because he has died and risen again!”
Col 2:6-14
My point, friends, is that reality is to be found in here, not out there in our lounges. And I propose that the first guarantee of ageing well is getting our worldview and our mindset clear in our heads.
- Resist worldly drift: Having an accurate perspective of true reality, now take note of Paul’s warning not to get too hog-tied to worldly thinking. (Refer to Col 2:8) Hebrews 2:1 says, “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” Worldly thinking will always hijack us, always stunt us. Blind us!
Matthew Henry says in his Commentary, “Heaven and earth are contrary to one another, and the prevalence of our affection for one will proportionately weaken our affection for the other.”
We are a counter-cultural people. You can’t follow Christ and drift with popular culture. We’re paddling upstream all the time, whatever age we are. We’re all paddling upstream, and if we stop paddling, we drift back downstream! If we want to age well, and finish well, then we can’t pay too much heed to what the world is telling us to do, how the world is telling us to think. Col 2:6-14 needs to frame our thinking and attitude, not TV or the newspaper, friends … or even family.
So – Number 1: get a clear head what a mature Christian worldview looks like – did you see there’s a bit of a summary of this in your newsletters? Something to take away and put on your bedroom wall – Number 2 is, resist that drift towards thinking how the world tells you to think, and now, here are a few practicalities.
- With intent: I want to emphasise the sense of doing these practical things with intent. Conscious, determined intent. We won’t fall into these habits by default. “This is how I’m going to age. This is how I’m going to make it.”
- Outward flow, not inward flow: The thrust of life needs to be outward, not inward. Yeah? Giving of self … not grasping. Love (outward), not entitlement (inward). Giving self little entertainment, little sympathetic attention! Poor me. Me, me, me … Let our intentional, prevailing disposition be outwards. Other-wards.
- Contribute: We’re all different, of course. We can’t all be Chuck Swindoll, or Fred Creighton. But we can all do something for somebody else, no matter how trivial. We all have some capacity to love. What am I good at? What can I do? What resources can I offer, reasonably. What about my time? I have tutored African and Bangladeshi students in Maths, by Skype. It’s something I can do, so when I retire I’m going to try to do a lot of it.
Sit down before God and ponder, what can I do? In God, what can I bring? This is a reasoned availability. “Mine is the availability, his is the responsibility.” It’s different for everybody. But seek him to figure out what you can do.
- Pray heaps: No prayer is ever wasted. You might think God doesn’t hear, but he does. It’s our job to pray – it’s his business what he does with our prayers. In Acts 10, … [Read Acts 10:1-4]
See, our prayers are saved up in heaven! And released and enacted when God is pleased to. You don’t know when God is going to open the Ken file, and scan through the prayers that Ken’s been making! And act on them.
- Fellowship: Fellowship is important, and it’s something that often dwindles as we get older. We risk getting isolated, and we can ill-afford to. We need to cling to fellowship with people who can reinforce us in our Godward orientation. “Iron sharpens iron” (Prov 27:17). In Europe, old men drink coffee together in the street, or play chess or petanque. Women … to be honest, I don’t know what women do!
[Mention monthly meetings with Roly Frost, and intention to open them up]
- Adopt a humble dignity: This is a bit of an ideal, but …
We all project something about ourselves, whether we choose to or not. But we can choose what we project. Sourness, regret, entitlement …? With God’s help, we can project a positive humble dignity. Humble dignity doesn’t look for attention or privilege. It glows … quietly.
This touches on ‘legacy’. Legacy is the essence that lingers after we’ve gone – it’s the things people will remember about us, and maybe emulate … Who we were and what we stood for! This legacy can be lasting and penetrating, God willing. And age is a time for legacy building, quietly and humbly. Quietly projecting – with optimism and grace and confidence – like my Nan – subtle, even silent, signals, energised by the Holy Spirit. Simeon exemplified this – and there was Anna too (Luke 2:25ff).
My grandmother exemplified this picture of humble dignity. Her legacy still sits strong in my heart. She left me an orange tree, so I’ll never forget her.
So, there’s some practicalities of ageing Christianly: (as I say, bluetack them on your bedroom wall.)
Your notes say (no particular order)
- Do what you can with what you’ve got
- Fellowship
- Outflow, not inflow
- Humble dignity
- Flee entitlement, bitterness or resentment, grumpiness, complaining, isolationism or reclusiveness, …
- Embrace struggle or suffering, ill health or loss of function
- Pray unceasingly
- Forward-looking
- Optimism based on Hope – as your internal chemistry allows
- Serve God by relationship, not necessarily by activity
Here’s a picture to carry with you as I conclude:
I think of ageing a bit like surfing. [Next slide] We’re surfing – can you feel it? We’re surfing – unstoppably – towards the beach. We don’t have a lot of control over where we’re headed, we’re on this wave, but we can make limited manoeuvres along the way. We can enjoy the ride. We can stand up straight (figuratively!), with the sun on our face or on our back. Jesus is beside us on the wave. And he’s there on the beach waiting for us. And he’s pointing – what’s he pointing at? Ahh … he’s guiding us towards a grove of orange trees! [Last slide]
Lead us on, Jesus. We’re ageing, but we’re with you.