Psalm 71: 1-9, 17-24
September 29, 2002
One of the really neat things about being a parent is remembering back to my own childhood. Through my daughters’ actions and words, my own memories come flooding back into my head as I relive old experiences through their lives.
I’ll never forget the first time I heard the words,
“Daddy, tell me a story.” I couldn’t
help but smile as I remembered back to when I said the same thing to my
parents. I love hearing stories. There are of course the pretend ones, but
the ones that have stayed with me my whole life are the real stories, the
stories of my mom and uncle riding horses when they were kids, or of my dad
driving a school bus in college, or of his experiences in Vietnam.
But I have to tell you that some of my favorite
stories are the ones told by my grandfather.
He used to be a detective for the railroad, and I would love to hear him
tell me about his many adventures and experiences as a detective. As I think back to his stories, and the stories
told by my other grandparents, what is most important about those stories is
that they are the stories of their lives.
Through their stories, they taught me about who they are and what they
believe, how they think and feel about certain things, their hopes and dreams
and fears, even about their faith.
But not only that, the stories of my parents and
grandparents also tell me about myself, about my own origin and history. They give me a sense of belonging, that I
belong to a much greater story than simply the 31 years of my own life, that I
belong to a much greater history, that I am part of a faith that is much bigger
than my own.
I’m afraid that in this day and age, our society has
forgotten the stories of our past, the stories of our family, the stories about
who we are, the stories of our faith.
Too many people today from the younger generations have tried to
distance themselves from the older generations. We dismiss their stories as a time gone by, as the old ways, as
stories for a history book, while at the same time we claim to be much more
progressive, modern, independent, enlightened.
Yet everyday, many in the younger generations turn to drugs, gangs, sex
and other destructive behaviors in a vain search for identity and
belonging. We must be brought back.
We must be reminded over and over again what it
means to live in a faithful relationship with God. We must be reminded over and over again that left to our own
devices, our own decisions, and our own self-will we will surely die. We must hear from those who have lived
through life, who have been through the ups and downs of life, the storms and
the calm seas. We must hear from those
who have come to realize that the only source of true happiness, joy, and hope
is not something to be found in ones-self, but in the only one whom can bring
liberation, freedom, and salvation. We
must hear from those who have come to understand that we must live a life in
complete and total dependence upon God.
We must hear from people like the Psalmist, the voices of the older
generation, who have lived a life of faithfulness and who can witness to the
power and grace of God in their lives.
From the beginning of humanity, people have gathered together to listen to the stories of those who have lived through life. The older generations entertain the younger generations with their reminiscences of the way things were and “used to be.” And it is in the stories of the older generation, that the younger generation becomes inspired to become whatever their dreams encourage them to be, and they vow to imitate, equal and excel the older generation who captures their imagination.
The telling of stories is not only for
entertainment. It is a vital role in
the teaching and sustaining of a society.
It is one of the most important and positive contributions the older
generation still has to make. The
telling of stories reminds the younger generations of their history, of who
they are and to whom they belong. It
reminds them of the sacrifices of the older generation, of those who fought and
died for a better way of life, of those who lived a life of faithful obedience,
of those who give witness to God’s grace and mercy, love and care, sovereignty
and providence, miracles and salvation.
There is nothing that can replace the personal
witness of God’s love, given to us by the people who love us. It is their testimony that is so powerful
that it, more than any formal preaching in church, has passed on the faith
since its beginning, both in Old Testament and New Testament times. For that is precisely how we got this far in
the worldwide growth of the Church. The real sermons we preach, the really
effective ones, are the stories of our lives.
I remember when I was younger; there was an old man
who lived down the street from me. His
name was Mr. VanDemeter; we called him Mr. Van. Mr. Van would sit out on his porch in a lawn chair and talk to my
brother and me for hours. He collected
arrowheads and he would take us inside his house to show us his
collection. He would tell us amazing
stories of his adventures and how he found each one and what they were used
for.
One day I was talking to him when he began to speak
about the war. Not knowing which war he
was referring to, I asked him which war was he in. Mr. Van sat me down and started telling me about how he was in
WWII. I do not remember all that he
said, but I will never forget that he began crying as he told me about the
horrors he had lived through. To this
day I cannot watch or read anything about WWII without thinking of Mr. Van and
without crying myself. WWII is not a
distant, irrelevant history to me. It
is not some event that fills the pages of a history book with unknown faces and
names. It is a personal memory for
me. Not my own memory, but the memory
of a man who lived through it and was grateful to God that he made it home
alive. It is his memory that has been
forever engrained into my memory.
We must tell each other, young and old, the stories
of our lives. The stories of how our
lives have been forever changed by God’s grace. We must tell others our stories so that they will never forget
about God’s goodness, love, and mercy.
We must tell them that our God is not just a god of an ancient people in
ancient history, but that our God is a living presence in our history and in
our lives today.
The Psalmist’s God is not a god of fleeting emotion
or wishful thinking, his God and our God, is a rock upon which he has stood his
whole life. His God has been a fortress
and refuge upon which he has sought and continues to seek safety from those who
try to do him harm.
The Psalmist’s confidence and hope is not in any
mere “supreme being”, but in the Lord,
the God who acts, day in day out, in the re-creative, re-newing, and
reconciling love in people’s lives, so much so, and so often that his mouth
cannot tell of all his deeds; in fact they are even beyond his
understanding.
But this does not stop him from witnessing to God’s
grace. He wants to continually praise
God for what God has done and will do in his life. This is his evangelical mission in the remaining years of his
life, and his strength as a portent and witness comes from the Lord God
Almighty.
“For thou, O Lord, art my
rock and my fortress…
my hope, my trust…thou art
my strong refuge”.
The Psalmist reminds all of us what it means to be a witness to the
grace of God. He reminds us that our
mission in this world is to tell others about the Gospel until the day we
die. Even though the Psalmist has lived
a long life and is an old man who is “old and gray,” he wants to continue to
pass on what he has received and learned and experienced.
“O God, Thou hast taught me
from my youth; and I still declare Thy wondrous deeds. And even when I am old and gray, O God, do
not forsake me, until I declare Thy strength to this generation, Thy power to
all who are to come.”
Everyone who lives long enough becomes “old,” but
not everyone “grows” old, that is continues growing despite physical old
age. In many ways it is harder to
continue to grow internally, as a person, as we grow physically older. The many supports open to us when we were
younger are either no longer there or weakening. The vigor of our physical
bodies diminishes with age. We can still think a pretty exciting and fulfilling
life, but we find the very thinking about it tires us out. Our bodies no longer have the strength or
the sustaining power they once had.
Worse than that, the older we are, the more likely
we will have fewer friends, especially those lifetime friends. The longer we live the more of them we
bury. They are no longer there to
inspire us, support us, and be company for us.
Yet, in the absence of friends and loved ones and in absence of physical,
bodily agility, we are reminded that we depend even more on God than we ever did
before. Our dependence on God is less and less theoretical and more and more
practical as get older, and so we grow, we grow in awareness of our absolute
dependency on God.
Growing in awareness of our absolute and total
dependence upon God for everything is indeed growing. It is not something to be bemoaned or regretted. Indeed, the more our bodies force us to sit
still and think, the more we can bring to the forefront of our minds the
countless experiences of God’s grace and presence in our lives. Because God is an ever-present the reality,
the richness of our past experiences come alive in the present and we are
filled with the Holy Spirit, and our life is again rich and full, full of
grace, peace, and love.
Like the Psalmist, the older generation, and all of
us for that matter, has also been called and given the strength of God to be
God’s portent and witness. We have been
reconciled by God, saved by the blood of Christ, and empowered by the Holy
Spirit for loving service and faithful witness. This loving service and faithful witness does not stop when we
reach a certain age, rather it is our evangelical mission in life, from the day
we took our first breath until the day we breathe our last breath.
To a person who thinks he or she must be active or
young in order to be a good witness, or that just telling someone our stories
is nothing but a minor mission, to God it is THE mission. It is the stories of those who have lived a
life knowing God’s presence in their lives that young people need to hear. Just like infants look to adult examples to
learn how to eat, drink, walk, talk, so too, we all look to other people,
including the older generation, to learn how to grow old ourselves.
But even if you are younger, you don’t have to wait
until you are older to tell your stories.
Like the older generation, the younger generation has a responsibility
and obligation to tell their children and the children of this world, who are
the next generation, of God’s living presence and work in the world. All of us, every single one of us in the
sanctuary today, has a story to tell.
Make your story known. Tell it
in your homes. Tell it in your
schools. Shout it from the mountaintop
so all the world can hear.
“My mouth shall tell of Thy righteousness, and of Thy salvation all day long; for I do not know the sum of them. I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord God; I will make mention of Thy righteousness, Thine alone. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to Thee; and my soul, which Thou hast redeemed. My tongue will utter Thy righteousness all day long.”
Amen.