Retirement

Introduction There are certain age barriers that we may come across in society. For instance at 3 we're allowed to be left in the nursery at IKEA, at 16 allowed to leave school, at 18 vote, or at 30 become a bishop. Certain high risk or high activity jobs may have a cut-off point in the thirties, forties or fifties, but in general most people in paid employment will be reaching a barrier at their 65th birthday. I am told that the Central Pensions Office of the Department of Social Security based here in Newcastle upon Tyne sends out 1500 new pension books every day. Retirement can be defined as the obligatory and abrupt ceasing of work, regardless of one's fitness to do it, because a certain age has been reached. So I'm not really going to be talking about voluntary or early retirement, and I'm not talking about redundancy, though these are related. Retirement did not exist until the beginning of this century. People could keep working until they died, however old they were. Judges and clergy for instance might still be working in their nineties. Those who had manual work to do might have died long before. For those too decrepit to work, whose families couldn't support them, there were the poor houses. Starting in 1908 pensions were given to wage earners as a reward for their services. In 1917 the provision was extended, and increasingly retirement ages have been regulated. Sometime early next century, most women are going to have to join most men, and retire at 65. Of course that can be looked at in two ways: the compassionate state caring for us in our hour of need, and on the other, the state pulling the carpet out from under our feet, without any assessment of our capability to go on contributing. However we look at it, instead of having to work to get paid, we get money while doing nothing. Is that a problem for Christians? The obvious answer is No. Without the worry of having to support ourselves, we can just get on using whatever gifts God has given us to serve him and our neighbours. We have most of the day free to go round doing door-to-door work, helping with practical tasks, praying, doing good. Instead of raising money to support full time Christian workers, we'll be able to join them as volunteers. Retirement couldn't be better! From a Christian point of view, we never retire until we're "promoted to glory". However retirement can create a lot of problems for people in our society, and that includes Christians. More and more firms provide pre-retirement counselling. There are problems to do with security, self-esteem, health and relationships. As Christians, if we've taken on board what we looked at about work last week, we should have fewer problems. We know that who we are, and not what we do, is important. So we're learning to take worldly status out of consideration. When people ask us what we do, we might say, "Amongst other things I help people get better" or "Amongst other things I'm in teaching", or "Amongst other things I'm running a household", for instance, rather than make the name of our occupation the determining thing about who we are. We're trying to see other people for who they are, rather than judging them on society's occupation value-scales. We know that what we do needs to be weighed under the perspective of eternity. So we're trying not to get engrossed with work; trying not to live and breathe it every moment of the day; trying to think relationships; trying to think gospel; trying to think of all the other things in this earth that God has given for enjoyment; and all this, before retirement actually hits us. From far-away retirement may look rosy. All that time to go to New Zealand, learn Arabic, book-binding or whatever. But nearer the time it is less assured. What if our money runs out? What if our health runs out? What if our brain power runs out? Retired people may have the privilege of getting the Metro for next to nothing, of reduced prices at some restaurants, hairdressers and pubs, but they have to have the means to enjoy them. Retired people may have the privilege of staying in bed everyday, watching day-time television, or going for long walks, but treats are no longer treats when you can have them all the time! There is the problem of a lack of identity, especially if we are used to seeing our identity in terms of the job that we do. Think of the consultant doctor who is used to being a significant person in the hospital, suddenly he or she is just an old person. There can be a loss of being with people. From being in the situation of seeing people regularly and sharing a common camaraderie, there may now be no-one, or very few who the retired person is in contact with. There is also the loss of routine. Personal choices are vastly increased: from the clothes that are worn, to the time of getting up, choice is magnified. There may also be a loss of separate space. If one of a couple used to stay at home, he or she will now find that space invaded for 24 hours of the day. It has to be said that the Bible does not have a lot to say about retirement as such. There is a certain amount about old age and how we are to treat that. There is a certain amount about how we should use our time. There is a certain amount about financial planning. But it doesn't all come together neatly with a paragraph from St Paul saying, "now about retirement..." For the sake of being based somewhere, we're going to be in 1 Timothy chapter 5, and the headings we'll be using are First, RESPECT FOR AGE (vv1-4), secondly, LIVING FOR PLEASURE? (v5-6), and thirdly, PROVIDING FOR THE FUTURE (v7-8). First, RESPECT FOR AGE (vv1-4) 1 Timothy is a letter from Paul instructing Timothy on how the church that he leads is to be ordered. Paul has already told Timothy that there is a significant role of leadership for the godly older men in the church, but there are also a good number of older women in the congregation, and most of them are widows. Some of them were to be supported by the gifts of the congregation. Look at verses 1 to 4:

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.

The Bible teaching is that we should have respect for older people. The 5th commandment is "Honour your Father and your Mother" (Ex 20.12). In the Book of Proverbs it says "Grey hair is a crown of splendour; it is attained by a righteous life." (16.31) and "The glory of young men is their strength, grey hair the splendour of the old" (20.29). It is interesting to find Paul telling Timothy not to treat these older people harshly, as if it were possible. Perhaps the culture in his day was not so unlike our own. A few years ago an English student nurse called Sheila Green conducted an experiment to find out what it was like to be old. With suitable clothes and makeup, a practised stooping gait helped by a brace, and adhesive tape wrapped round her feet, she disguised herself as an old woman. She dulled her hearing with ear plugs and impaired her vision with eyedrops. After carrying out a few of the tasks of everyday life, such as getting on a bus, going through a supermarket check out, waiting at an outpatients' department and shopping at a street market, she summed up her response at the way she was treated:

I felt alone, isolated, and at times, threatened and frightened. Most of all I was angry, angry that people do not notice other people's pain, anxiety and helplessness, and realise that they need help and patience rather than abuse. [Nursing Times 14-20 August 1991, in Being your Age, Michael Butler and Ann Orbach SPCK 1993]

Sheila Green returned to the same stores, market and bus queues, but this time as her normal self. She made the same mistakes, fumbled with her coins, but met with no abuse. She came to the conclusion that if people were feeling irritable or having a bad day, they felt safe taking it out on an elderly person - someone who was unlikely to have strength to hit back. This would seem to be a change in our culture, a moving from our Christian inheritance. Dr Alex Comfort describes ageism:

the notion that people cease to be people, cease to be the same people or become people of a distant and inferior kind, by virtue of having lived a specified number of years.

He has the following 'would-be' profile of a member of this inferior race:

He or she is white-haired, inactive, unemployed, making no demands on anyone, docile in putting up with loneliness, rip-offs of every kind and boredom, and able to live on a pittance. He or she...is slightly deficient in intellect, and tiresome to talk to...asexual, because old people are incapable of sexual activity, and it is unseemly if they are not. He or she is unemployable because old age is second childhood and everyone knows that the old make a mess of simple work...Their main occupations are religion, grumbling, reminiscing and attending the funerals of friends. [quoted in Butler and Orbach, p.5]

The Bible says we need to give proper respect to those who are retired. We don't have enough of the sense that the elders are the ones who have things to teach us. This generation of elders have experienced more change than any others in history. We need people with a sense of history, a sense of proportion. It saddens me when I think back to my time as a curate in Barnet to a funeral I took where the family could think of little more significant about their deceased mother than that she liked rich tea biscuits. If we are employers we should try to hold on to our older staff rather than lose their loyalty, experience and wisdom in a rash of redundancies. When we come back to 1 Timothy note in verse 4, how important it is for Christians to make sure that their parents and grandparents are provided for. The Bible knows that the financial security of old people is one of the things that has to be addressed. In our society there is a safety net for many in the old age pension, we should be grateful for that, without thinking that absolves us from responsibility. How can we show greater respect for age? As a church: It is to our shame that it took so long to get a loop for the hearing aids. What about as individuals in the church? Perhaps we're inclined to hurry old people along, or inwardly fret when we get behind them in a queue? We should be conscious that the number of retired people in the community is growing, particularly of those over 80. While there have always been old people, it is now the case in the West that most people will become old or very old. Changing our wrong attitudes about old people will become more and more a priority. Inclusion in our homes, families, meals, outings, are things to aim at, so that generations are crossed rather than all of one age group being herded together. They may not be widows, but if their children are in Slough, they might as well be, for much of the year! And if it is our parents in Slough, do we make enough of an effort to fulfil our Christian responsibility to them? Secondly, LIVING FOR PLEASURE? (v5-6) Jerome K. Jerome said "It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do." An endless holiday can become sad and tedious. In work there was some comfort in the daily routine, the journey to and from home, undemanding chat with work mates and a shared grumbling. What to do when the work is over? There are few things more tiring than being bored. On the other hand there can be the idle retired who go on one holiday after another, who call on one person's home after another, who seem to think they have no more contributions to make to anyone. When Paul writes to Timothy he is thinking of the widows who are looking for support from the church, but we can see something of relevance for all of us, verses 5-6:

The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.

The way to spot the widow who needs the church's financial help is easy. It is the one who is praying and has no one but God. The idle widow who has no worries is not one to help. Living for pleasure is the sign of the dead, that is the lost. That is a challenge to us whatever stage we're at. If Paul or Timothy were to examine our lives, would he be able to dismiss them as "living for pleasure"? The signs of living for pleasure need not be lots of holidays, lots of fancy food and drink, we could live quite modestly and still be living for pleasure. Our motivation for life as Christians has to be God-based, not self-based. We need to learn from the godly widow here, and to start each day putting our hope in God, and continuing night and day to pray and to ask God for help. There may be more time available to pray when we are retired, but prayer is a habit that is rarely picked up without difficulty. If we are not dealing with our sins now, they may still defeat us then. The sins of old age are no less, in fact with more time, it may seem that we are even more under attack. Some people in retirement live in the past. They may dwell on it unhelpfully, rather than reminiscing about what was good. They may think of things that might have turned out differently, if only they had done something else. They can be bitter about life. They may long for pleasure but cannot find it. There are those words in Ecclesiastes 12:

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them"-- before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim; (Eccl 12.1-3)

We can contrast them with Psalm 92 verses 12-14:

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,

Retirement can still be a time for growth and development, if we will live for God not for our own pleasure. Thirdly, PROVIDING FOR THE FUTURE (v7-8) Give the people these instructions, too, so that no one may be open to blame. If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. These words are addressed to those who are not elderly, in our terms not retired. Though it could look as though they are directions for the retired in making out their will, it's really directed to the other end. But in that respect how many Christians more than provide for their family, but seem to neglect gospel causes. You may have seen the columns in the paper: Mrs X of Saffron Waldon left £1.5 million. She left £500 to St Lawrence's church. this passage is not addressed to the very old. We younger ones are to make sure that our relatives are not in need. We could extend this to making provision for the future: perhaps an early death or business disaster will put our family in need. I have known Christians who were uneasy about the whole idea of insurance because it seemed to them that they were not putting trust in God. There may be some people required them to live "by faith" as it is called, but our dependents should not be in that category. We are to make sure that we have enough set aside to care for them. Our Christian faith is rooted in the world, practical, yet it looks beyond this world to a different future. We are not to live only with this world in mind, or only with the next one in mind. This morning we have been thinking about retirement. In any great change in life preparation can help. The text talks about making provision for your family. There can be a wise "counting the cost" before getting married, before trying to start a family, before looking for a new job. There can also be wise preparation for retirement. What is coming is a different sort of life. Conclusion In conclusion, we have thought about the importance of respect for age, the questioning of our motives for life, and the need to make provision for those who depend on us. As we think of retirement, we need to remind ourselves again that we don't retire from being Christians, and God does not retire from his commitment to us in Jesus Christ.