OLD AGE DOING [Sun, 8-18-24]

BEYOND WINTER: The Irrelevant Musings of an Old Man—OLD AGE DOING [Sun, 8-18-24]

 

In the poem “Any Time,” by the great William Stafford, a child asks, “When you get old, how do you know what to do?”

It’s a childish and child-like question, that asks more than it realizes.

When you are a child, older people are always telling you what to do. When there is no one older than you…

Is there a special thing we are to do when we get old? And indeed, what is it, and how do we recognize it?

Or is old age any different from any other age in knowing what to do?

I once called my late and beloved clergy and cancer colleague, Jean Cramer-Heuerman, at her church. The answering machine first gave me the church’s information, including “We have a Sunday School for persons of all ages.” I left a message that I qualified for Sunday School, because I am a person of all ages, but I couldn’t come because I was busy otherwise on Sunday mornings. [1]

If you are a person of all ages, don’t you do the same thing at any age?

Someone asked me recently, “How do you want to be remembered?” I said, “I never stopped trying.”

I never stopped trying to become perfect in love. That was my ordination vow. Actually, the question was, “Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?” It’s the question Methodist preachers were asked from the beginning, by John Wesley. It came directly out of his doctrine of “Christian perfection.”

According to Wesley, first comes salvation, also called justification. Then sanctification, also called “second blessing.” Then, perfection. {Don’t worry about this; it won’t be on the test.}

Wesley knew no one could be perfect in general—not intellectually or physically or emotionally… but love is different. Through grace and forgiveness, he said, it’s possible to be perfect in love, to will good for everyone and the whole world.

To be simple about Christian perfection, it’s just being a decent human being. [That’s my analysis, not Wesley’s.] I doubt, though, that anyone can be perfect in love just by trying. It does take grace and forgiveness.

It’s not easy, to be perfect in love, always to will what is good for everyone and anyone and for the world. I fail so often. Every day. Many times a day. But, I think that’s what we’re supposed to do, at any age—be perfect in love.

I’m old, but I haven’t stopped trying…

John Robert McFarland

 

1] She enjoyed using this as a sermon illustration.