TOO SOON OLD AND TOO LATE SMART [F, 10-23-26]

 CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter— TOO SOON OLD AND TOO LATE SMART [F, 10-23-26]

 

Early in his ministry, while still a teen-age college student preacher, John Wilkey included a Greek word in his sermon, sure that his country congregation would know nothing of it and he would thus look quite smart. After the service, Miss Ruth Tapper corrected his pronunciation of the word. Turned out Miss Tapper was Dr. Tapper, with a doctorate in ancient Greek lit!

That was an early lesson in humility for the boy who became The Rev. Dr. John Conrad Wilkey.

Similar to that of legendary sports writer Bob Hammel. He was writing for his hometown newspaper when he was so young that his mother had to drive him to events. Once he was not sure of the first name of the game’s high scorer, but he was in a hurry. So he did not look it up. He guessed. It was a wrong guess. He ran into that “boy” many years later. He opened up his billfold and pulled out the newspaper clipping with his wrong name.

An older woman out in public ran into an old friend she hadn’t seen for a long time. They started chatting, decided to have coffee, etc. She kept trying to think of the other woman’s name and just couldn’t. Finally she said, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t remember your name. Will you tell me, please, what your name is?” The other woman thought and then asked, “How soon do you need to know?”

The older we get, the more relevant that joke is. We just don’t remember very well. If we remember at all, it’s a lot slower than it used to be. It humbles us. Or should.

Coaches, preachers, teachers, executives…old people... these often share a common approach. They think, and often like to repeat, “it’s my way, or the highway.”

I intuitively knew better when I started preaching. Or perhaps it was just because I was young, nineteen, and knew I was ignorant. For whatever reason, for my whole career, whenever I became the “new” preacher, I did not try to change what I inherited. Until there was some good reason to do so.

A good reason always came, because nothing remains static. Situations change, and churches have to change in order to meet them. So do governments and schools and businesses and…

At some point, old age is not just more of the same; it is a different way.

A different way of thinking, of remembering, of hoping, of faithing.

My way is never the only way, and often not the best way. But…what do I know? I’m just an old guy whose only way is to tell a story or three and let you figure stuff out for yourself.

John Robert McFarland