Proper 25 / Pentecost 23 / Ordinary Time 30
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VIII, Cycle A
Theme For The Day
Moses' blessing of the people on Mount Nebo is an example of one of the most important tasks of aging: to leave a legacy.
Old Testament Lesson
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
The Death Of Moses
The lengthy series on the life of Moses concludes with this passage, the account of his death on Mount Nebo, within sight of the promised land. The Lord conveys him to the top of the mountain and shows him the land, but says he shall not be permitted to enter into it (verses 1-4). The Lord has already explained, in 32:51, that the reason for Moses' exclusion is that he was unable to restrain the people's unfaithfulness, particularly in the episode at Massah-Meribah, when he produced water from a rock -- although no reason is given here. Moses dies on the mountain at the age of 120 and is buried somewhere in the land of Moab -- a desert wanderer to the last (verses 5-7). After a period of mourning, leadership of Israel passes to Moses' designated successor, Joshua (verses 8-9). The remaining verses are an elegy to Moses: "Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face-to-face" (v. 10). Signs, wonders, and mighty deeds -- such were the signs that this man of faith enjoyed a remarkable measure of God's favor (verses 11-12). This passage is heavy with implications about life, death, legacies, and God's will for all generations.
New Testament Lesson
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Paul Defends His Ministry
Continuing where last week's passage left off, Paul recalls the circumstances by which he first came to be among the Thessalonians. Paul had reason to be fearful of persecution back then, but came anyway, because he trusted in God (v. 2). The coming of the good news to the Thessalonians was God's doing (verses 3-4). Paul and his fellow-travelers came not for selfish reasons, but in a gentle, nurturing way -- as a nurse caring for young children (verses 5-7). Of necessity, they shared with them not only the gospel but also their very selves (v. 8). Evidently, some have been accusing Paul and his associates of ulterior motives: greed, self-aggrandizement, deceit, and the like. This is his defense: a reminder to his friends in Thessalonika that effective ministry has but one purpose and that is the service of God.
The Gospel
Matthew 22:34-46
The Greatest Commandment, And The Question About David's Son
The lectionary skips over Jesus' encounter with some Sadducees, who confront him with a trick question about a woman who married each of seven brothers in succession, being widowed each time. Whose husband will she be after the general resurrection, ask the Sadducees? (This is an attempt to trap Jesus in a contradiction; Sadducees they don't believe in the general resurrection.) Today's passage opens with a brief mention of Jesus' debating victory over these opponents. Now, the Pharisees try their hand at besting Jesus in debate (verses 34-35). "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" (v. 36). A renowned rabbi of a generation or two before, Hillel, had already held forth on this question. One of his students had asked him if he could instruct him in the whole of the law while standing on one foot. Accepting the challenge, Hillel responded, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole of the law, the rest is but commentary. Go and learn!" Jesus' response is similar. He gives a two-part answer. The first is to recite the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:5, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" (v. 37). The second part is to cite Leviticus 19:18, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (v. 39). This reply is, of course, similar to that of Hillel. In context, the Leviticus verse limits the object of this sort of reciprocal love to fellow Jews only. The way Jesus cites it, it's likely that he means it to refer to all people. In any event, the lawyer seems satisfied by Jesus' answer, because Matthew records no follow-up question. The second part of today's lectionary selection is another encounter between Jesus and Pharisees. In this case, it is Jesus who asks the question: "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?" (v. 42). The Pharisees give the conventional answer: "The son of David." Jesus then quotes Psalm 110:1, a text generally agreed to have Messianic connotations: "The Lord says to my Lord; Sit at my right hand." If David calls him "Lord," Jesus wants to know then how can the Messiah be David's son? (v. 45). This question stumps the Pharisees, who are afraid now to ask him any more questions (v. 46). What is Jesus up to in this rather obscure exchange? He is expanding the definition of "Messiah" to encompass not only kingly, nationalistic endeavors -- in the tradition of the great David -- but also to infuse the idea of messiahship with a new, cosmic dimension. Since Jesus has been directing his disciples thus far to keep the messianic secret, what he accomplishes in the short term is simply to awe and baffle the Pharisees with his erudition. It is only later that his followers will fully understand what he means by this saying.
Preaching Possibilities
It is one of the saddest, most poignant moments in all of scripture: the dying Moses leans against a rock on Mount Nebo, looking out over the promised land the Lord has told him he can never enter. The reason the Lord has given for this harsh judgment sounds like a flimsy one to our ears. It has something to do with the episode at Massah-Meribah, when he produced water from a rock to satisfy the grumbling people. As we read that earlier passage, the fault appears to lie with the people, rather than with their leader. Moses remained faithful to the Lord; it was the people's confidence that wavered. It hardly seems fair that Moses has to take the fall.
God has ruled. The judgment is what it is. Moses will not cross over. His young protege, Joshua, will take up the staff of leadership and lead the people onward. Moses can only wait for death, reflecting back on all that has occurred in that rich and God-touched life of his: wondering about what could have been, had the Lord permitted him to live just a little longer.
Moses may be wondering, in those moments, what his life has been good for. The last forty years of it have been spent on increasingly pointless wanderings through desert places, leading an especially demanding and ungracious people. Things looked so different that day on the shore of the Red Sea, when Pharaoh's army had been destroyed and the promised land seemed but a few weeks' walk away. Then, the people had danced, while Miriam sang her song of triumph:
"Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, horse and rider he had thrown into the sea!"
-- Exodus 15:21
That day of celebration is long gone and most of the people who remembered it firsthand are now dead. What has been the point of the last forty years? What has it all been for?
Moses may well be wondering what sort of mark he's leaving behind on the world. Sure, he has led the people through difficult times -- but have they learned anything? Sure, he has given them the law -- but can this people who were so eager to worship a golden calf be trusted to keep the law after he's gone?
Moses even says as much to the Israelites in this verse that occurs a bit earlier in the narrative:
"I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, turning aside from the way that I have commanded you. In time to come trouble will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands."
-- Deuteronomy 31:29
What mark do any of us make on the world? Is it in bricks and mortar? Works of art, or the crafts of our hands? Is it in financial security preserved in our estates for the next generation? In fact, the most enduring things any of us will leave behind are the living things: our own children (if we have children), and the other people our lives have touched. Unlike buildings or craftwork or financial investments, our investment in human life not only grows but regenerates itself, forever becoming young.
Ebenezer Scrooge comes to discover this truth in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. He not only learns how to keep Christmas well but also acquires the knack for nurturing the next generation. "Scrooge was better than his word," Dickens writes; "... to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he became a second father." The man who had once wished an expedient death for the homeless paupers of London's streets, in order "to reduce the surplus population," takes a poor, sick boy under his wing, pays for his medical treatments, and becomes his patron. What a transformation!
The Greek philosopher, Socrates, is famous for teaching that the essence of wisdom lies in contemplating the meaning of our own death. Moses has the opportunity to do that on Mount Nebo. What thoughts cross his mind in those last moments? Thoughts of bitterness only, as he says, "I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly"?
The narrative does not reveal much of Moses' mental state, but it does include an ancient song, that it says Moses composed on the day he learned of his impending death. It's unlikely Moses actually wrote it, but it certainly captures the essence of what the Jewish people later recalled as they considered the legacy of this remarkable leader. It's called "The Song of Moses." It's one of the great treasures of Israelite poetry. It's a song that's all about God's faithfulness as deliverer, and the people's continual failure to respond with gratitude and trust. There's not much in the Song of Moses that would lead a person to have confidence for the future of this wayward people except for what it says about a small remnant whom the Lord will pick up, dust off, and set back on the road again, after they undergo terrible sufferings:
"Indeed the Lord will vindicate his people,
have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone,
neither bond nor free remaining.
Then he will say: Where are their gods,
the rock in which they took refuge,
who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
and drank the wine of their libations?
Let them rise up and help you,
let them be your protection!
See now that I, even I, am he;
there is no god besides me.
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and no one can deliver from my hand.
For I lift up my hand to heaven,
and swear: As I live forever,
when I whet my flashing sword,
and my hand takes hold on judgment;
I will take vengeance on my adversaries,
and will repay those who hate me."
-- Deuteronomy 32:36-41
Afterward, Moses offers a blessing to the people, one that offers hope to this bedraggled band of wanderers:
"So Israel lives in safety,
untroubled is Jacob's abode
in a land of grain and wine,
where the heavens drop down dew.
Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you,
a people saved by the Lord,
the shield of your help,
and the sword of your triumph!
Your enemies shall come fawning to you,
and you shall tread on their backs."
-- Deuteronomy 33:28-29
Grieving as he must have been for the promised land he would never see, Moses is yet able to offer a blessing to those who come after him. Such, indeed, is the important work of us all when the day of our own departure from this earth draws near. We, too, will never see the full outcome of this life of ours, but we can still bless those who come after.
Prayer For The Day
O Lord, in every age you have raised up prophets like Moses
to guide your people.
You write their names in the book of life.
Give to us, we pray, the simplicity and faith of your holy ones,
the ones who have loved you above all things.
Help us to become what you would have us be;
help us to do what you would have us do.
Number us in the company, O God,
of those who have heard your call and heeded it;
through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
To Illustrate
Management and life-planning guru, Stephen Covey, wrote a book several years ago called First Things First (Simon & Schuster, 1994). It's sort of a handbook for living a joyful and productive life. Perhaps the best line in the book is its subtitle. Covey declares that the purpose of a human life can be summed up in four essential points, all of them beginning with the letter "L": "to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy."
On Mount Nebo, Moses leaves a legacy, one that has nothing to do with gold and rich herds of livestock. It is a spiritual legacy.
***
Christian sociologist Tony Campolo tells of a research project once conducted with people over the age of ninety. The interviewers asked these very elderly people, "As you look back on your life, what do you wish you had done differently?" Three answers emerged from a sizeable majority:
1) they wished they had risked more;
2) they wished they had spent more time in reflection; and
3) they wished they had done more to leave a legacy: something to pass on to the next generation.
***
We've all seen the bumper sticker, usually on the back of an expensive recreational vehicle or luxury car: "We're spending our children's inheritance!" Most people slap those things on as a joke, of course, but behind the humor is the rather sad picture of retired people living only for themselves and their pleasures, oblivious to the needs of the next generation.
"Well, why not?" some golden-agers might object, "We've earned it!"
In response to that sort of unabashed pleasure-seeking, Moses would just scratch his head in wonderment.
***
A group of psychologists reported, some years ago, on the results of a research project they'd conducted. These researchers tracked 423 retired couples over the course of five years. Over that time, they asked their subjects about their lives -- how much they typically took from life, and how much they gave back. When the five years were ended, the researchers discovered that those who had been consistently generous in giving to others of their time and money were half as likely to have died.
This surprised the research team. They had long known that older people who socialize with others are likely to live longer and they'd assumed that in the case of people who frequently gave of themselves, it was the supportive social contact that made the difference. Not so. In the words of UCLA Psychologist Shelley Taylor, "... it's always been assumed that the benefit comes from support people get. This turns that assumption upside down. It's path-breaking because it suggests giving day-to-day help can protect the helper's health."
-- adapted from Marilyn Elias, "Generous Spirit May Yield Generous Life Span," USA TODAY, November 2002
***
A man once went to visit a friend who was a violin teacher. As he walked into his friend's house, he asked him, "Well, what's the good news?" The old teacher gave him a sour look; it had not been a good day in the music-teaching business. Without a word, the teacher picked up a tuning fork and struck it with a mallet.
"There is good news for today," he said. "That, my friend, is A. It was A all day yesterday. It will be A all day tomorrow, next week, and for a thousand years. The soprano upstairs warbles off-key, the tenor next door sings his high notes flat, and the piano across the hall is out of tune. All around me is noise; but that, my friend, is A."
God is the one clear tone resounding throughout our lives, through all our seasons. Moses heard that tone throughout his life. As the people walked onward from Mount Nebo into the promised land, under Joshua's leadership, they were singing it, too.
***
The muddle of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.
-- Oscar Wilde
***
The most aggravating thing about the younger generation is I'm not in it.
-- Albert Einstein
***
These words of poetry express a certain sort of soul-wisdom, tenderly passed on from one generation to another. The voice in the poem is that of a retired minister, reminiscing with a minister-colleague:
"We have studied God, reaching into mystery
like children stepping through a wooded maze.
We have paced our prayers before we preached,
shoving self aside to say the unsayable God.
We have fed on torn bread. We have drunk mercy straight.
And, all along, has inadvertent holiness
been forming in the creases of our flesh?
God knows, perhaps."
-- from "On Retiring from Ministry," Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought, June/July 2000, p. 19
Moses' blessing of the people on Mount Nebo is an example of one of the most important tasks of aging: to leave a legacy.
Old Testament Lesson
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
The Death Of Moses
The lengthy series on the life of Moses concludes with this passage, the account of his death on Mount Nebo, within sight of the promised land. The Lord conveys him to the top of the mountain and shows him the land, but says he shall not be permitted to enter into it (verses 1-4). The Lord has already explained, in 32:51, that the reason for Moses' exclusion is that he was unable to restrain the people's unfaithfulness, particularly in the episode at Massah-Meribah, when he produced water from a rock -- although no reason is given here. Moses dies on the mountain at the age of 120 and is buried somewhere in the land of Moab -- a desert wanderer to the last (verses 5-7). After a period of mourning, leadership of Israel passes to Moses' designated successor, Joshua (verses 8-9). The remaining verses are an elegy to Moses: "Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face-to-face" (v. 10). Signs, wonders, and mighty deeds -- such were the signs that this man of faith enjoyed a remarkable measure of God's favor (verses 11-12). This passage is heavy with implications about life, death, legacies, and God's will for all generations.
New Testament Lesson
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Paul Defends His Ministry
Continuing where last week's passage left off, Paul recalls the circumstances by which he first came to be among the Thessalonians. Paul had reason to be fearful of persecution back then, but came anyway, because he trusted in God (v. 2). The coming of the good news to the Thessalonians was God's doing (verses 3-4). Paul and his fellow-travelers came not for selfish reasons, but in a gentle, nurturing way -- as a nurse caring for young children (verses 5-7). Of necessity, they shared with them not only the gospel but also their very selves (v. 8). Evidently, some have been accusing Paul and his associates of ulterior motives: greed, self-aggrandizement, deceit, and the like. This is his defense: a reminder to his friends in Thessalonika that effective ministry has but one purpose and that is the service of God.
The Gospel
Matthew 22:34-46
The Greatest Commandment, And The Question About David's Son
The lectionary skips over Jesus' encounter with some Sadducees, who confront him with a trick question about a woman who married each of seven brothers in succession, being widowed each time. Whose husband will she be after the general resurrection, ask the Sadducees? (This is an attempt to trap Jesus in a contradiction; Sadducees they don't believe in the general resurrection.) Today's passage opens with a brief mention of Jesus' debating victory over these opponents. Now, the Pharisees try their hand at besting Jesus in debate (verses 34-35). "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" (v. 36). A renowned rabbi of a generation or two before, Hillel, had already held forth on this question. One of his students had asked him if he could instruct him in the whole of the law while standing on one foot. Accepting the challenge, Hillel responded, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole of the law, the rest is but commentary. Go and learn!" Jesus' response is similar. He gives a two-part answer. The first is to recite the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:5, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" (v. 37). The second part is to cite Leviticus 19:18, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (v. 39). This reply is, of course, similar to that of Hillel. In context, the Leviticus verse limits the object of this sort of reciprocal love to fellow Jews only. The way Jesus cites it, it's likely that he means it to refer to all people. In any event, the lawyer seems satisfied by Jesus' answer, because Matthew records no follow-up question. The second part of today's lectionary selection is another encounter between Jesus and Pharisees. In this case, it is Jesus who asks the question: "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?" (v. 42). The Pharisees give the conventional answer: "The son of David." Jesus then quotes Psalm 110:1, a text generally agreed to have Messianic connotations: "The Lord says to my Lord; Sit at my right hand." If David calls him "Lord," Jesus wants to know then how can the Messiah be David's son? (v. 45). This question stumps the Pharisees, who are afraid now to ask him any more questions (v. 46). What is Jesus up to in this rather obscure exchange? He is expanding the definition of "Messiah" to encompass not only kingly, nationalistic endeavors -- in the tradition of the great David -- but also to infuse the idea of messiahship with a new, cosmic dimension. Since Jesus has been directing his disciples thus far to keep the messianic secret, what he accomplishes in the short term is simply to awe and baffle the Pharisees with his erudition. It is only later that his followers will fully understand what he means by this saying.
Preaching Possibilities
It is one of the saddest, most poignant moments in all of scripture: the dying Moses leans against a rock on Mount Nebo, looking out over the promised land the Lord has told him he can never enter. The reason the Lord has given for this harsh judgment sounds like a flimsy one to our ears. It has something to do with the episode at Massah-Meribah, when he produced water from a rock to satisfy the grumbling people. As we read that earlier passage, the fault appears to lie with the people, rather than with their leader. Moses remained faithful to the Lord; it was the people's confidence that wavered. It hardly seems fair that Moses has to take the fall.
God has ruled. The judgment is what it is. Moses will not cross over. His young protege, Joshua, will take up the staff of leadership and lead the people onward. Moses can only wait for death, reflecting back on all that has occurred in that rich and God-touched life of his: wondering about what could have been, had the Lord permitted him to live just a little longer.
Moses may be wondering, in those moments, what his life has been good for. The last forty years of it have been spent on increasingly pointless wanderings through desert places, leading an especially demanding and ungracious people. Things looked so different that day on the shore of the Red Sea, when Pharaoh's army had been destroyed and the promised land seemed but a few weeks' walk away. Then, the people had danced, while Miriam sang her song of triumph:
"Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, horse and rider he had thrown into the sea!"
-- Exodus 15:21
That day of celebration is long gone and most of the people who remembered it firsthand are now dead. What has been the point of the last forty years? What has it all been for?
Moses may well be wondering what sort of mark he's leaving behind on the world. Sure, he has led the people through difficult times -- but have they learned anything? Sure, he has given them the law -- but can this people who were so eager to worship a golden calf be trusted to keep the law after he's gone?
Moses even says as much to the Israelites in this verse that occurs a bit earlier in the narrative:
"I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, turning aside from the way that I have commanded you. In time to come trouble will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands."
-- Deuteronomy 31:29
What mark do any of us make on the world? Is it in bricks and mortar? Works of art, or the crafts of our hands? Is it in financial security preserved in our estates for the next generation? In fact, the most enduring things any of us will leave behind are the living things: our own children (if we have children), and the other people our lives have touched. Unlike buildings or craftwork or financial investments, our investment in human life not only grows but regenerates itself, forever becoming young.
Ebenezer Scrooge comes to discover this truth in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. He not only learns how to keep Christmas well but also acquires the knack for nurturing the next generation. "Scrooge was better than his word," Dickens writes; "... to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he became a second father." The man who had once wished an expedient death for the homeless paupers of London's streets, in order "to reduce the surplus population," takes a poor, sick boy under his wing, pays for his medical treatments, and becomes his patron. What a transformation!
The Greek philosopher, Socrates, is famous for teaching that the essence of wisdom lies in contemplating the meaning of our own death. Moses has the opportunity to do that on Mount Nebo. What thoughts cross his mind in those last moments? Thoughts of bitterness only, as he says, "I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly"?
The narrative does not reveal much of Moses' mental state, but it does include an ancient song, that it says Moses composed on the day he learned of his impending death. It's unlikely Moses actually wrote it, but it certainly captures the essence of what the Jewish people later recalled as they considered the legacy of this remarkable leader. It's called "The Song of Moses." It's one of the great treasures of Israelite poetry. It's a song that's all about God's faithfulness as deliverer, and the people's continual failure to respond with gratitude and trust. There's not much in the Song of Moses that would lead a person to have confidence for the future of this wayward people except for what it says about a small remnant whom the Lord will pick up, dust off, and set back on the road again, after they undergo terrible sufferings:
"Indeed the Lord will vindicate his people,
have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone,
neither bond nor free remaining.
Then he will say: Where are their gods,
the rock in which they took refuge,
who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
and drank the wine of their libations?
Let them rise up and help you,
let them be your protection!
See now that I, even I, am he;
there is no god besides me.
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and no one can deliver from my hand.
For I lift up my hand to heaven,
and swear: As I live forever,
when I whet my flashing sword,
and my hand takes hold on judgment;
I will take vengeance on my adversaries,
and will repay those who hate me."
-- Deuteronomy 32:36-41
Afterward, Moses offers a blessing to the people, one that offers hope to this bedraggled band of wanderers:
"So Israel lives in safety,
untroubled is Jacob's abode
in a land of grain and wine,
where the heavens drop down dew.
Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you,
a people saved by the Lord,
the shield of your help,
and the sword of your triumph!
Your enemies shall come fawning to you,
and you shall tread on their backs."
-- Deuteronomy 33:28-29
Grieving as he must have been for the promised land he would never see, Moses is yet able to offer a blessing to those who come after him. Such, indeed, is the important work of us all when the day of our own departure from this earth draws near. We, too, will never see the full outcome of this life of ours, but we can still bless those who come after.
Prayer For The Day
O Lord, in every age you have raised up prophets like Moses
to guide your people.
You write their names in the book of life.
Give to us, we pray, the simplicity and faith of your holy ones,
the ones who have loved you above all things.
Help us to become what you would have us be;
help us to do what you would have us do.
Number us in the company, O God,
of those who have heard your call and heeded it;
through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
To Illustrate
Management and life-planning guru, Stephen Covey, wrote a book several years ago called First Things First (Simon & Schuster, 1994). It's sort of a handbook for living a joyful and productive life. Perhaps the best line in the book is its subtitle. Covey declares that the purpose of a human life can be summed up in four essential points, all of them beginning with the letter "L": "to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy."
On Mount Nebo, Moses leaves a legacy, one that has nothing to do with gold and rich herds of livestock. It is a spiritual legacy.
***
Christian sociologist Tony Campolo tells of a research project once conducted with people over the age of ninety. The interviewers asked these very elderly people, "As you look back on your life, what do you wish you had done differently?" Three answers emerged from a sizeable majority:
1) they wished they had risked more;
2) they wished they had spent more time in reflection; and
3) they wished they had done more to leave a legacy: something to pass on to the next generation.
***
We've all seen the bumper sticker, usually on the back of an expensive recreational vehicle or luxury car: "We're spending our children's inheritance!" Most people slap those things on as a joke, of course, but behind the humor is the rather sad picture of retired people living only for themselves and their pleasures, oblivious to the needs of the next generation.
"Well, why not?" some golden-agers might object, "We've earned it!"
In response to that sort of unabashed pleasure-seeking, Moses would just scratch his head in wonderment.
***
A group of psychologists reported, some years ago, on the results of a research project they'd conducted. These researchers tracked 423 retired couples over the course of five years. Over that time, they asked their subjects about their lives -- how much they typically took from life, and how much they gave back. When the five years were ended, the researchers discovered that those who had been consistently generous in giving to others of their time and money were half as likely to have died.
This surprised the research team. They had long known that older people who socialize with others are likely to live longer and they'd assumed that in the case of people who frequently gave of themselves, it was the supportive social contact that made the difference. Not so. In the words of UCLA Psychologist Shelley Taylor, "... it's always been assumed that the benefit comes from support people get. This turns that assumption upside down. It's path-breaking because it suggests giving day-to-day help can protect the helper's health."
-- adapted from Marilyn Elias, "Generous Spirit May Yield Generous Life Span," USA TODAY, November 2002
***
A man once went to visit a friend who was a violin teacher. As he walked into his friend's house, he asked him, "Well, what's the good news?" The old teacher gave him a sour look; it had not been a good day in the music-teaching business. Without a word, the teacher picked up a tuning fork and struck it with a mallet.
"There is good news for today," he said. "That, my friend, is A. It was A all day yesterday. It will be A all day tomorrow, next week, and for a thousand years. The soprano upstairs warbles off-key, the tenor next door sings his high notes flat, and the piano across the hall is out of tune. All around me is noise; but that, my friend, is A."
God is the one clear tone resounding throughout our lives, through all our seasons. Moses heard that tone throughout his life. As the people walked onward from Mount Nebo into the promised land, under Joshua's leadership, they were singing it, too.
***
The muddle of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.
-- Oscar Wilde
***
The most aggravating thing about the younger generation is I'm not in it.
-- Albert Einstein
***
These words of poetry express a certain sort of soul-wisdom, tenderly passed on from one generation to another. The voice in the poem is that of a retired minister, reminiscing with a minister-colleague:
"We have studied God, reaching into mystery
like children stepping through a wooded maze.
We have paced our prayers before we preached,
shoving self aside to say the unsayable God.
We have fed on torn bread. We have drunk mercy straight.
And, all along, has inadvertent holiness
been forming in the creases of our flesh?
God knows, perhaps."
-- from "On Retiring from Ministry," Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought, June/July 2000, p. 19
