“LIFE BEGINS
AT 40”
|
A sermon preached Readings: Joshua
14:6-15, Mark 12:28-34 |
|
|
|
|
Today we celebrate Methodist Homes Sunday.
It is an opportunity to remember
not only the work of our own Methodist charity MHA (Methodist Homes for the
Aged),
but also to think more widely
of all those working to provide residential care for the elderly
and of those (like the MHA) working in the particular field of dementia care.
And more widely still,
today is a day to reflect on the breadth of ages and generations within our
society -
and to thank God for all our sisters and brothers from
the youngest to the oldest.
Modern Western society can often idolize youth
and be cruelly dismissive of yesterday’s men and women.
Today is a good day to remember what we can learn
and gain from every member of our community,
however young or old.
Today, following the suggestion of the MHA,
we have read part of the story of Caleb.
It seems particularly appropriate for us.
We have recently rejoiced with Mark Perkins (our Outreach Worker)
on the birth of his son Caleb Joshua.
So today is a doubly good time to recall the story of Caleb-
and indeed of Joshua with which it is entwined.
The story begins in Numbers ch
13.
Caleb is already aged 40 when he appears on the Biblical stage.
You know those audience participation TV shows
where suddenly in the middle of an act,
the spotlight swings into the audience
and settles on some unsuspecting individual who is called up onto the stage.
You never know at what point in your life
God is going to pluck you out of the crowd and turn the spotlight on you.
You just have to be ready.
For Caleb, the moment came in middle age – life as
it were began at 40.
The Israelites have reached the edge of the Promised Land,
and they send spies to reconnoitre the land.
Caleb is chosen to be one of these.
The spies come back with good news and bad news.
The good news is that here is a rich place of grapes and pomegranates.
But the bad news is that the people of the land are like giants and are to be
feared.
All the other spies say that it is too dangerous to proceed.
Only two of the spies – Caleb and Joshua -
say that they should enter the land.
God promises Caleb that he – unlike the faint-hearted spies –
will live be granted territory in the Promised Land.
We then jump forward 45 years.
We meet Caleb again in Joshua 14. He is
now 85 years old.
Once again the spotlight falls on him in his age.
The Children of Israel, including Joshua and Caleb,
have now reached the Promised Land.
Caleb reminds Joshua of God’s promise to him of
land.
We wonder what he has in mind – he is after all 85
–
there was no MHA in Hebron 3000 years ago –
so maybe just a quiet retirement bungalow on the mountainside?
But no – Caleb has waited 45 years for this,
and he doesn’t have retirement in mind.
He says:
“10 …So here I am today, eighty-five years old!
11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out;
I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then…..
“You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there
and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me,
I will drive them out just as he said.”
The writer of the Book of Joshua is simply saying
to his readers:
·
Wait on the
Lord.
·
Be faithful to
the Lord at every point of your life.
·
And you too
will find his blessing.
·
The story of
Caleb says something to us about AGE.
(and that I am sure is why MHA
suggested we looked at this passage today)
You are never too old to do the Lord’s work.
·
It also says
something about RACE.
Caleb was a Kennizite.
That doesn’t suit the writer of Joshua too well –
he is a Israeli Nationalist and he sounds frankly
a bit defensive about a Kennizite
being given Hebron as an inheritance -
but even he has to admit the fact that Caleb the Kennizite
has a place in God’s purposes.
·
But the story
of Caleb is really about something wider than age or race –
it is about the call to FAITHFULNESS.
Caleb is the model of the faithful man
who trusted in the Lord even in the face of giants in his way.
The first readers of the Book of Joshua would have
found this
quite a challenging story in terms of their own situation.
You have to remember when the Book of Joshua was
first written.
It contains reworking of many older traditions,
but it was first complied as a continuous narrative in the 6th C
BC.
It is the equivalent of us reading for the first time
a written account of the reign of Henry VIII.
By this time the Book of Joshua is written,
history has moved on.
The Israelites having conquered the Promised Land
have been unfaithful to the Lord,
and as a result they have sown the seeds of their own destruction.
Jerusalem has been destroyed and they have been exiled to Babylon.
Imagine yourself sitting by the rivers of Babylon
weeping over the loss of the promised Land –
And you read the latest best seller – the story of Caleb –
of how he was faithful to Lord,
and how therefore he was given the inheritance –
The inheritance which subsequent generations
threw away because of their faithlessness.
And how does it read to us?
Are we faithful to the Lord?
Do we fight his battles or do we shirk from the
conflict?
Caleb was faced with fighting giants,
but he trusted the Lord to defeat the giants.
- because he knew that God fought with him
And what are the battles God calls us to fight
today?
Now we need to beware of drawing too literal a
lesson
for our own age from the stories of OT battles.
God does indeed call upon us to fight –
But the battles he calls us to are not
those of Zionist Imperialism,
or even British Imperialism.
They are the battles for love and peace and justice
& hope & life
Against the forces of hatred and violence and
corruption and despair and death.
Those giants still walk our land –
and can look mighty large and fierce.
As Christ’s soldiers and servants
we may often feel like running away or leaving the giants in control of the
land.
But we need to know that we are not on our own.
There is a story told of a priest who regularly led
an early morning midweek communion service in his Church.
One day someone said to him,
‘How many people were at the early celebration of the Eucharist this morning?’
He replied,
‘There were three old ladies, the [caretaker], several thousand archangels,
a large number of seraphim, and several million of the triumphant saints of
God.’
[Geddes MacGregor in The Rhythm of God]
Yesterday was All Saints Day –
When we give thanks for the saints and recognize
that
we are part not just of an earthly movement, but a mighty army –
the Church militant on earth and triumphant in heaven.
As our tiny army fights the forces of evil,
we are indeed surrounded by the hosts of heaven.
Who do you see about you here? –
just this small detachment of God’s people,
or do you glimpse the massed ranks of the heavenly host?
I remember taking communion in Iona Abbey one
Pentecost
and the minister said,
”When you come up to the rail for Communion,
make always remember to make room for the saints around you at the table.”
We like Caleb are part of a mighty army.
·
Whether you
are 5 or 85,
·
Kennizite or Israelite
or Devonian,
we are surrounded by the heavenly host.
So let us be faithful as Caleb.
And like Caleb, let us await
that glorious day
when we too cross o’er Jordan,
Then shall we at last see clearly those who have
gone before us,
and know that we are home at last,
And the victory secure.