For many, if not most, people, their understanding of life, aka wisdom, is at it's peak the older you get, but then comes death. What is the point of all that accumulated wisdom? From the purely human perspective there is no answer to this, irrespective of the good things that come in the fourth quarter of life, since death comes to all.
There is an increasing awareness of the potential locked up in most people in this fourth quarter of life. Paul Arnott is making a detailed study of this which will be a book yet to be published. (Q4Connection at www.cma.net.au). It is becoming increasingly important to affirm the wisdom and gifts accumulated over a lifetime in most people. Our society is increasingly focussed on the young, often to the extent that professional people find themselves unemployable after the age of 50, or even earlier, if they are forced with redundancy or other loss of position. This is a tragedy when there is so much experience accumulated by such people.
Even in Christian ministry there is a cutoff point where a minister’s gifts are no longer appreciated. Retirement often means a cessation of active ministry. This is the opposite of what we read in the Scriptures about the role of elders, who are more properly called ”olders”. Youth rules in developed economies, whereas in more traditional cultures the elderly are given special honour and respect.
What are we to say to this situation? Certainly in parish pastoral ministry there is a need for a drastic rethinking of how to best use a person through the various stages of ministry. When the ministry family has younger children, those with younger children are often attracted to their congregation. Similarly as the children get older. But once the children leave home there seems to be a change in the type of person attracted to that congregation unless special provision is made in staffing where this is possible. The situation of the minister often reflects the demographic of the congregation.
Certainly by the closing years of parish ministry (60+) the age profile of congregations often changes. This is seen most in cities where there is a wide choice of churches offering varying children's and youth ministries. In smaller country towns it is reflected in the declining, and ageing, of the congregation. This should not be so, but it is the case in many, if not most, situations.
So what should older ministers be doing? Surely we can recognise the special gifts developed over time in such people and find ministries that suit such people. Ministries such as mentoring of younger ministers, strategic planning, sharing of teaching and other gifts across congregations, governmental roles, roving ministry, intentional locum ministry in parish vacancies, helping churches heal after traumatic events, and so on. Most denominational structures do not provide for the possibility of this, for a range of reasons, usually economic.
So we are left with people staying in positions which they have outgrown, just for convenience, until they reach some statutory age limit, when they have to retire. We are left with wounded ministers, disillusioned, and often shrunken congregations and a waste of enormous talent.
What can we do? There are some very good attempts to help people in this transition in life. One article by Ron Rolheiser entitled “The intelligence inside the ageing process” is one such (www.ronrolheiser.com), dealing with the issue at a purely human level.
But we do not live at this level. In Christ we know that we (already) have eternal life. We live in it now and we find its fulfilment at the point people call "death". But for a Christian there is no such thing as death.
When Jesus went to His friends’ house in Bethany after the death of Lazarus, Jesus said to Martha a sentence which we often quote without thinking clearly about what it means.
John 11:25-26 NIV
[25] Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; [26] and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
WE NEVER DIE. So what is this thing called "death"?
This is one of Jesus’ sayings that we often quote, especially at funerals, but what does it mean? Or, even more importantly, what do our hearers think when we quote a verse like this?
Clearly, from Martha’s response, she didn't have the faintest idea of what Jesus was talking about. Her grief at the death of her brother, and Jesus’ close friend, was too great for such a philosophical statement.
Even though Martha did not understand this she understood who Jesus was and that was enough.
John 11:27 NIV
[27] “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
Her one and only certainty at this time was her relationship with Jesus. She was sure of who He was, and that seemed to be enough for her at that time. She could trust Him even though she couldn't fathom the depths of what He was saying.
Martha's reply could be the reply of most Christians. But what did Jesus mean?
From the point of view of Martha, Mary, and the others at the tomb, Lazarus was dead. The relationship was broken. The greatest of all enemies seems to have won. The enemy seems to have prevailed. Jesus felt this at the tomb of Lazarus. He wept. He was grieved, at the human level, that the enemy, death, had taken His friend. So Jesus showed what he meant by His earlier philosophical statement by raising Lazarus back to life and reuniting Him with family and friends.
This was to be a foreshadowing of what He would achieve through His own death and resurrection, when He conquered death forever, thus showing what He meant by never dying.
Paul spoke of this victory in this way:
1 Corinthians 15:20-26 NIV
[20] But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. [21] For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
[22] For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. [23] But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. [24] Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
[25] For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. [26] The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
1 Corinthians 15:51-57 NIV
[51] Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--- [52] in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. [53] For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
[54] When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
[55] “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
(56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
[57] But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Death comes to all, but we instinctively know that it should not be like this. Death is an enemy. It breaks the bonds of a lifetime. It creates grief and loss. Previous certainties are no longer.
As far as society is concerned, all the accumulated knowledge and deep relationships built up over a lifetime have gone. Just listen to the eulogies at any funeral. The life of the person is recounted and celebrated, but it is to be no more.
It for Christians it is not like that, or should not be like that. We have Jesus’ enigmatic statement before us: we never die. We usually spiritualise this in such a way that it fits into a cultural “theology” removed from our reality. We speak of going to heaven, being comforted by Jesus, even the semi pagan idea of our loved one gazing down and somehow still being in touch with us, or the even more pagan view that we be become little angels (especially in the case of small children), or stars in the sky.
All the time ringing in our ears is the statement that those who believe in Jesus never die. We speak of eternal life without really having any idea of what we mean.
Paul put it this way:
2 Corinthians 5:4 NIV
[4] For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
He talked of death as being "swallowed up by LIFE". Here is a clue.
In fact we do not die, we merely pass from life to life. That is the Christian hope.
The life into which we pass is but a continuation of this life with one major change. It is life as it was intended to be before the Fall in Genesis 3. It is the life of a human as originally created by God when He said “It is very good.” Life without defect. Life in perfect communion with God, but on a real earth.
What can this mean in more detail? Despite popular theology, the Bible talks about our ultimate destination as the "new earth", not heaven.
This is what God always intended for The crown of His creation, this perfect humanity, this male and female in perfect unity exercising dominion over the earth, a dominion of care for the creation, bringing order out of chaos, exercising our role as being “in the image and likeness of God”, or as Peter put it in 2 Peter 1:3-4
[3] His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. [4] Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
This participation in the divine nature is seen now only partially, and by faith. But later it will be experienced. As we progress through the portal from life to life, what is now only seen “through a glass darkly”, or in glimpses, will then be totally observable and experiential. What is now “by faith” will then be “face to face”.
All this will be on the new earth, not in heaven. Although the distinction between the two will be much less than we imagine now. After all, Adam could talk with God as they “strolled together through the Garden”. The barrier that now exists between what we call the physical and spiritual dimensions will be no more. This was symbolised at the point of Jesus’ death when the Temple curtail was split in two.
God created the perfect environment for His perfect creation, and He called it the earth, not heaven. Jesus, when He returns, will usher in the new heaven and the new earth. The “new” will be the “old”, the creation He originally intended. The end of the story will return us to the beginning of the story, and then we can really have the happy ending that we all crave.
Here is where our accumulated wisdom and experience come into play.
Could it be that the accumulated wisdom from this life becomes the starting point for us in the new life on the new earth? I know this has a degree of speculation about it, but it answers, at least for me, this enigma of the loss of a lifetime's accumulated knowledge of God and His ways, or wisdom, at the end of this earthy phase of our continuing life.
In the passing from life to life, we continue from where we left off. In fact I wonder how much disruption we will experience. Death should hold no fear for us. It is those left behind who experience the sting of death, the loss of relationship.
Could this be what John wrote prophetically in the book of Revelation?
Revelation 14:13 NIV
[13] Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”
What are these “deeds” that follow us? Could they be the relationships of life lifted to a much higher level? Where the dreams we have now, can finally be accomplished? Where the creative nature intended for all humanity at creation, can find fulfilment?
One thing I am sure of though is that it will far surpass anything we can imagine now.
Being in constant, close, intimate relationship with our great God and Father will be the most amazing thing. That is the absolute treasure we enter into. But having said that, it will have content. This life will be connected to that life in an unmistakeable way. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul talks of it as being like the relationship between a seed and the flower that comes from that seed – intimately related, but brought to its intended perfection.
Nothing in this life is wasted. Everything done in obedience to Jesus and the life of the Kingdom of God will have eternal consequences.
As I age, this becomes clearer and clearer. Of this I am convinced.
