REFIREMENT: LIVING LIFE IN ALL IT'S FULLNESS
Isaiah 40:28-31, John 3:1-21
A few months ago when Jeff invited me to participate in this sermon series entitled The Gospel and Real Life, I was in the early stage of a real life condition called "retirement." In my first year of retirement after 43 years as an active pastor in the Presbyterian Church, I experienced what many retirees experience after their careers are put to bed. I went from "Who's Who" in my community to "Who's he?"
One of the fears I have about getting older is becoming insignificant and losing respect.
Although the week after my official retirement I was invited to be part of a small group from our local Municipal Alliance to attend the Search Institute conference in Dallas, Texas. Search Institute's mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. It was an honor to be part of this great inter-generational event, though I suspected my invitation was a gracious thank you for my many years of participation in the Municipal Alliance. I was to be a part of a three generational presentation at the conference. Sharing the leadership was a high school student, a parent and...what you may have already guessed I was to represent the older or grandparent generation. Even so I'm very glad I went.
It was an exciting conference and looking back I feel the hand of the Lord was at work in all of this because this is where I met Dr. James Gambone who gave me an autographed copy of his book ReFirement: A Guide to Mid-Life and Beyond. How many of you are retired? How many are thinking about when you will retire? This book is "A Guide to Mid-Life and Beyond" and it's for all who want to retire the concept of retirement and have a full life today!"
In the chapter called "Turning Aging Upside Down," I found this advice from another ReFirement Pioneer, Richard Morgan, college professor, parish minister and the father of three Baby Boomers:
* Expand your horizons and do things unlike anything you have ever done before. You need to find meaning for your later years. (maybe even travel to the West Bank Territories)
* It's important not to go along with what the media and the dominant culture is telling you. You need to decide for yourself what your mission and life values are.
*Try to find a creative balance between remaining active and finding time for your inner life. Being too busy can be a form of violence against yourself. It is essential for busy people to start taking time now for the life of their souls and their spiritual growth.
* Be a responsible elder by mentoring someone younger than you. This is how to stay connected to both the present and the future.
ReFirement helps all of us re-imagine our futures as gift and possibility. And I believe this gift and possibility are at the very heart of the gospel.
*****
When Jesus said to Nicodemus
"Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God" Nicodemus in amazement asks, "How can a man be born when he is old?"
But the whole point of the gospel is that God can do just that for anyone; for you and for me. We have seen it happening in other lives. We have experienced it in some measure in our own. Yes, "born anew," or born again as long as we don't use this phrase as a label for a special brand of Christian but rather anyone who is turned to God in Christ, and keeps being turned in that direction. To be facing toward God, to know that one is accepted in Christ, to be seeking to grow in the Spirit...is to be born again. Since the emphasis in the New Testament is on the present, I like to say that a Christian is one who is being born again and again.
I have known some whose whole personality was changed in a conversion experience...but I have also known many more, including most of the truly devoted people I have admired and loved, who never spoke of having one dramatic experience. Their whole life indicated that day-by-day they grew in the likeness of Christ and that they were being born again and again. Martin Luther in the "Ninety-five Theses" said: "When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ says, 'Repent ye,' he means the entire life of the faithful should be repentance." The fact is that you and I need this constant challenge...to "turn around" and there are many special moments when the kingdom of God can break into our lives like after a period of rising doubts, or a time of changing priories when we experience a surge of new life...some inner spark of ReFirement. some word--some image--some profound silence--some phrase of music--some cry for forgiveness--for respect--for justice--for love.
I think it happened in a very profound way for all of the members of our Peacemaking Pilgrimage to Israel and the Palestinian territories. It's not so much something we planned as it was something that happened! It's not so much something we read in a book...it was the people we met and the stories they told. It's the working of the Spirit as we find ways to share our stories and listen to each other's pain without judgment.
The following story is told by the Rev. Alex Awad, the Dean of Students at Bethlehem Bible College. The text is from his writing "Through the Eyes of the Victims."
Feeling Their Pain
We live so close to each other and yet we do not feel one another's pain. When a homicide bomber succeeds in killing Israelis in Jerusalem, I can usually hear the sirens of ambulances and emergency vehicles from my apartment in Beit Safafa. I then rush to the TV to watch the horrible details. I do not like what I see or hear but I have a big problem. It is a spiritual one. My problem is that I do not feel the pain of my Jewish neighbors who lose their lives or are burned, injured or traumatized due to the bombings. It is a real issue for me because as a practicing Christian I am called to love my enemies. I think one way to express that love is to truly share the pain of others when they suffer. When innocent Palestinians get assassinated by Israeli attacks in Gaza, Jenin, Hebron, Bethlehem and elsewhere in the West Bank, my heart goes out in sorrow to them. I wish I had the same level of compassion for innocent Israelis who are killed or hurt. I have tried to examine my heart in an attempt to understand why I feel the way I do. Why do I care less when innocent Jews are killed? The answer to this question is not so much found in my heart as it is found in my mind. Although I am religious and care much for my spiritual well-being, I am also rational. Rationality, mingled with a sense of patriotism, overcomes my spiritual motivation and desire to love my enemies. Rationality tells me that for every innocent Israeli killed in these cycles of violence, at least three innocent Palestinians are also annihilated. Rationality tells me that even if the death on both sides of the conflict is numerically equal, the suffering on the Palestinian side far outweighs the suffering of Israelis. Palestinians cannot order curfews and imprison Israelis in their homes and cities. Palestinians have no power to set up checkpoints on the borders of Israeli cities, Palestinians cannot employ bulldozers to demolish the homes, businesses and farms belonging to those who kill them and steal their land. Rationality tells me that a nation who occupies another deserves the pain resulting from an occupied population.
Consequently, when pictures of innocent Jews slaughtered by a Palestinian homicide bomber are shown on my TV screen, I rationalize instead of empathize. I continue to blame Sharon or the Occupation or the latest Israeli bombing attack that snuffed out the lives of a number of Palestinians.
I long for the day when deep in my heart I can feel the pain of my Jewish neighbors in their time of calamity as much as I feel the utter despair of my people. I long for the day when we on both sides of the political divide can step into each others shoes and understand the anguish and hopelessness that the other side is feeling. Perhaps then we can become better aware of our common humanity, cry together and express forgiveness to the other. Only then perhaps, will we triumph over those on both sides, who thrive on violence, destruction and bloodshed.
One of the things that happened to me on this trip was a loss of innocence. Especially when I found out how little I knew about the realities behind the headlines. Alex's words challenged me to reflect on my own rationalization and lack of feeling about what was happening in this complex, and conflicted land. I needed to ReFire my life by exploring diversity. Accepting diversity and healing the wounds of divisiveness is a process that begins with our dreams for ourselves and the human family. Too often we prefer to live on the surface of life. We are afraid of the depths, though we try to hide many things deep within us.
Nobody said it was going to be easy. Riding at the back of the bus after our meeting at the Bethlehem Bible College I was sitting alone with my sad awareness of how much we hurt others by our indifference and lack of support. That night I found a prayer tucked in my Bible written by Sharen Neufer Emswiler. It had been there a long time but it was if she wrote this prayer just for me at this special moment.
I'm sorry for the times someone wasn't beautiful
and I looked away.
I'm sorry for the times someone stretched out a hand
and I pretended not to notice.
I'm sorry for the times someone needed to be held
and I clung to safety instead.
I'm sorry for the times truth was on my tongue
and I swallowed it instead of speaking it.
I'm sorry for the times love was in my heart
and I was too embarrassed to express it.
I'm sorry for the times fear was in my heart
and I didn't trust you with it.
I'm sorry for the times I claimed to be an innocent bystander
and still I knew that by being a passive participant
I was guilty for allowing wrong to be done.
I'm sorry for the times a stranger asked me for something
and I pretended not to realize what she needed.
I'm sorry for the times I haven't loved enough
and the times I haven't loved with all of me."
The gospel...the good news...we proclaim is about "Compassion."
In Jesus' teaching and his preaching compassion was the central quality of God. In the Bible compassion is both a feeling and a way of being which flows out of that feeling that leads to forgiveness and reconciliation.
Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, speaks of spirituality as "the hatching of the heart"...the opening of the heart to God. Compassion is the opening of the heart to all those with whom we share life. ReFirement can open the heart as we begin the journey of becoming compassionate as God is compassionate. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about being born again he used this striking image:
The wind blows where it wills, you hear the sound of it,
But you do not know where it comes from or where it is going.
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
We can't control this wind. No, but we can at least hoist the sail so that when it comes our spiritual life that may be lying becalmed will catch the breeze and we will be born anew. Every time we gather here in worship is a good time for ReFirement and for each of us to hoist the sail in expectancy and hope as we pray for:
-victims of violence, oppression and injustice
-people caught in the cycles of fear and violence, hatred and despair
-those in positions of power, influence, and authority
-those who work for justice and peace
-and for God's guidance and strength for all people who seek a just and durable peace.
November 26, 2006 Rev. Bill McQuoidMy personal future ReFirement plans include seeking out Christians, Jews, and Muslims to work together through ecumenical and inter-faith peace building and to support efforts that aim toward bringing about a just and durable peace. Yes, it's a very big sail, but maybe with your help and the help others we can hoist it together.
e-mail