WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.480 --> 00:00:07.879 Will you please pray with me? Made the words of my mouth and the 2 00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:14.400 meditation of all of our hearts be wholly unacceptable to you, our Rock and 3 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:23.839 our redeemer. Amen. One of my all time favorite singer songwriters is Paul 4 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:30.600 Simon of Simon and Garfuncle Fame. On his solo album You're the One, 5 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:40.399 appears a song entitled simply Old. The lyrics of the final verse read the 6 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:46.399 human race has walked the earth for two point seven million, and we estimate 7 00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:54.960 the universe at thirteen fourteen billion. When all these numbers tumble into your imagination, 8 00:00:55.719 --> 00:01:02.520 consider that the Lord was there before creation. God is old. We're 9 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:10.640 not old. God is old. Hearing the prophet Daniel's vision of God as 10 00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:17.280 ancient one who possesses white hair like purable, I can't help but think of 11 00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:25.719 Paul Simon's playful refrain God is old. Throughout our scriptures, many attributes are 12 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:30.840 assigned to God. God is love, God is just, God is merciful 13 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:38.239 and slow to anger. How about we add to those holy attributes God is 14 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:46.719 old. To be clear, I'm not talking about God as a towering white 15 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:53.719 man with a silver beard. Allah Michelangelo's Sistine chapel depiction, but rather a 16 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:59.760 God whose presence, being spirit, is broader and more intriguing than a male 17 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:06.079 our an arc what Daniel, in his reach to describe the indescribable, uses 18 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:15.719 the term Ancient One or other translations read Ancient of days. The prophet's God 19 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:23.639 is a graying God, old and full of years. This image must have 20 00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:30.159 been especially good news to Daniel's audience, a traumatized Jewish people who have not 21 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:38.599 only historically faced threats of annihilation and displacement, but who are currently facing the 22 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:46.000 terror of Antiochus epiphanis, a tyrant who has desecrated their temple and forbade Jewish 23 00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:52.800 practice. To an oppressed people living under a brutal empire, Daniel's vision points 24 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:59.240 to a reign in which the just power of the Ancient One prevails. The 25 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:07.479 one who was there before creation will outlast the foolishness and violence of earthly emperors. 26 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:14.039 To a world in chaos, the Ancient of Days offers a steady, 27 00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:20.960 sovereign hand, a reminder that God's love stretches from everlasting to everlasting, that 28 00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:30.560 God's vision of peace and justice and wholeness endures because God spans and transcends the 29 00:03:30.759 --> 00:03:37.719 long arc of history. God is Old. Not only is this good news 30 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:43.840 for the persecuted people of Daniel's day, this is good news for us to 31 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:50.599 How good to know that amidst the chaos and violence in twenty first century America, 32 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:57.719 we worship a God who is experienced, who possesses the long view, 33 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:04.280 who is well practiced at loving, forgiving, and bringing life out of death. 34 00:04:05.080 --> 00:04:13.439 God is Old. Praise be. What better way to celebrate this older 35 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:17.079 adult Sunday, upon the beginning of Older Americans Month, than by offering up 36 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:21.879 our thanks and praise to our good and gracious old God, and to give 37 00:04:21.959 --> 00:04:27.800 thanks for all the ways our community is made better and more whole through the 38 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:33.360 presence and contributions of our older members. What better moment to lift up the 39 00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:40.279 sacredness of oldness and to celebrate the gift of years. No matter where we 40 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:47.040 fall on the aging journey, Today we pause to celebrate Riverside's elders who offer 41 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:54.000 steadfast leadership and service to this community. Those veterans of the faith who write 42 00:04:54.040 --> 00:04:59.680 postcards to reclaim our vote, who are mourning, prayer warriors and Climate Crisis 43 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:08.399 act. The volunteers who support the food pantry and the clothing ministry, those 44 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:12.920 who write birthday cards and make phone calls, and write cards to the sick 45 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:19.920 and bereaved. We celebrate our seasoned poets, spiritual memoirists and social justice writers, 46 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:27.360 our painters and singers and dancers, the greeters and ushers, and communion 47 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:33.720 preparers and servers, the Memorial Society volunteers, the Steadfast b and p volunteers, 48 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:40.519 the Tower League members. We give thanks for our prayers and our worshipers, 49 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:45.079 our Sunday school teachers and small group leaders, our givers and servers, 50 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:50.720 the archivists and historians, the protesters and agitators, the strong huggers, and 51 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:58.560 the good advice givers. Our community is made whole and vibrant by the contributions 52 00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:04.720 of so many eddy and wise hearts. And let us not forget the people 53 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:11.720 who are no longer able to march in protests, or make phone calls or 54 00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:15.399 even lift a spoon to their mouths, who are no less children of the 55 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:20.720 Almighty than those who are able. They too, are instruments of peace and 56 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:26.959 healing and gifts to the church. We give thanks for our older members who 57 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:31.759 live in nursing homes, are in the hospital or at home, because our 58 00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:36.360 faith, our hope is built on nothing less than the risen Christ, and 59 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:41.600 nothing we can do or not do, can separate us from this love. 60 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:51.480 Over half of Riverside's membership is over sixty five years old. We are blessed 61 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:57.639 as a congregation to have a lot of people in our midst with experience at 62 00:06:57.639 --> 00:07:01.519 their back, people who want to live out their days here and share their 63 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:09.399 gifts. People are joining our church in their later years. They're leading ministries 64 00:07:09.399 --> 00:07:14.279 and sometimes starting new ones, which is a testimony to God's enduring power. 65 00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:20.000 I am so thankful to be part of a church where we strive to resist 66 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:26.879 pitting the needs of the young against the needs of the old, where we 67 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:31.639 don't succumb to a scarcity mentality that says if one age cohort thrives, that 68 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:40.519 must mean that another suffers. Where we celebrate the richness and treasures across a 69 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:47.920 lifespan. The ministries of the nursery and the ministry of the columbarium are equally 70 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:55.600 vital. One is not celebrated while the other lamented, but both represent what 71 00:07:55.680 --> 00:08:01.720 it means to be a real community. Thanks be to God, we don't 72 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:09.160 age into God's love, and we don't age out of it. And yet, 73 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:13.680 sadly, in our dominant US culture, we're not used to aging and 74 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:20.759 old being lifted up as good, desirable, or holy. In fact, 75 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:26.519 more often old is hurled as an insult, and old age is readily lampooned 76 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:33.799 and belittled. Age is to be hidden, denied, downplayed. It's a 77 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:39.639 source of shame, not celebration. Almost a third of older people report being 78 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:46.120 ignored or not taken seriously because of their age. Walk down a birthday card 79 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:54.279 isle and notice the unrelenting pot shots on old age get barraged by anti aging 80 00:08:54.480 --> 00:09:01.320 products at every turn. Turn on late night talk show, and here the 81 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:07.480 aged based jokes hurled at our current president and the perverse scrutiny of his old 82 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:13.679 age. Note the unquestioned negative assumptions about old age and television shows, movies, 83 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:20.840 and even our most esteemed newspapers. Notice the gendered agism of women newscasters 84 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:26.159 being fired for their gray hair, or the rarity of older women actors receiving 85 00:09:26.200 --> 00:09:35.720 oscars. And even our beloved Disney movies have fed the negativity as old women 86 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:48.559 appear as wicked queens, kidnappers of Dalmatian puppies and haggish villains. Agism the 87 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:54.879 stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination related to old age, aging processes and older 88 00:09:54.919 --> 00:10:05.159 adults. It's common socially condoned type of discrimination in the US, touching each 89 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:13.480 of us. A few weeks back, I zipped through my neighborhood grocery store, 90 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:18.080 a store called the Garden of Eden. So I was zipping through the 91 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:22.559 Garden of Eden, grabbing a few items for dinner, and when I checked 92 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:31.840 out, the cashier asked me if I received the college student discount. I 93 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:35.480 let out a little chuckle. Oh no, honey, not by a long 94 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:41.840 shot. And you know what, I left the grocery store smiling, ear 95 00:10:41.919 --> 00:10:46.399 to ear, a little spring in my step, fancy that I was mistaken 96 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:54.519 for an undergrad. A few days later, I zipped through the Garden of 97 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:58.440 Eden again, and when I checked out, a different cashier scanned my items 98 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:09.759 and she asked me if I received the senior citizen discount taken aback, I 99 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:16.159 squeaked a polite but perturbed no. And you know what, I did not 100 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:20.440 leave the grocery store smiling, ear to ear, feeling happy, springing my 101 00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:26.200 step. My face had fallen and I admit I felt a tinge of embarrassment 102 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:37.320 and mild offense. Why why is being mistaken for older seen as an insult, 103 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:41.120 but being confused for younger a point of pride. Why is there such 104 00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:48.440 a heavy negative judgment assigned to appearing older, or even appearing the exact age 105 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:56.080 you are. I work every day to try to reduce this negative age bias, 106 00:11:56.360 --> 00:12:01.960 and yet there it was, staring me right in the face, my 107 00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:11.799 own internalized agism. This is what agism does. It creeps into our spirits, 108 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:18.240 gets absorbed by us so that we two by the lies that we are 109 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:28.320 less than. It seeps into our interpersonal relationships manifesting and condescension or stereotyping, 110 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:35.399 and it finds its ways into our institutions, our policies, our practices, 111 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:41.639 our priorities. Qualified older workers, especially older women, are routinely pushed out 112 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:48.120 and kept out of jobs simply based on age bias. Nearly three and five 113 00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:56.759 older workers report age discrimination, which has far reaching negative impacts not only on 114 00:12:56.799 --> 00:13:01.279 the people themselves, but on their families and on the workplaces that miss out 115 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:07.159 on their contributions. Despite the fact that in New York City, the fastest 116 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:15.279 rising demographic are people over sixty five. Our mayors proposed twenty twenty four budgets 117 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:22.240 suggests twelve million in cuts to senior centers and home delivered meals. The aging 118 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:28.120 advocacy organization Live on New York says these cuts will disproportionately hurt older people of 119 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:33.320 color, LGBTQ, older adults, and other groups who have been historically excluded 120 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:39.600 from city services, and these cuts continue a legacy of discrimination in who our 121 00:13:39.639 --> 00:13:48.559 government chooses to prioritize. Agism is so common that it often goes unnoticed, 122 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:56.879 unnamed, just the way things are. But it's not mild or benign. 123 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:05.240 It shortens lifespan and threatens our collective quality of life. And for those of 124 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:15.000 us who are not old yet, it generates a negativity toward and fear of 125 00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:26.799 our own future selves. How dysfunctional is that? But there's good news. 126 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:35.200 As people of faith committed to justice, we reject all that which diminishes individuals 127 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:41.080 and communities. We know that the same forces that elevate white, young, 128 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:46.840 healthy, wealthy, male and straight people are the exact same stifling forces that 129 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:52.919 discount and devalue non white, old, disabled, poor, queer people. 130 00:14:52.840 --> 00:15:01.000 The injustices interlocke we know that in God's realm, beauty and world have no 131 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:09.120 qualifying conditions and no expiration date. Because if old is an insult and God 132 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:16.559 is old, well, then we are insulting God. And let us not 133 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:26.879 call profane what God has called good. There's resurrection work afoot. Individuals and 134 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:33.720 groups are charting a more excellent way. Movements such as the Gray Panthers of 135 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:39.480 New York City, the Conscious Aging Movement, Saging International, the Anti War 136 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:48.960 Granny Peace Brigade, and Third Act are rejecting agism and rejecting the idea that 137 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:58.039 generational differences must equal competition and animosity. Climate activists Bill mckibbon and Achaia Winwood, 138 00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:03.600 both in their sixties, found the organization Third Act. Third Act harnesses 139 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:10.240 the know how, the historical memory, the skills and time, and in 140 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:15.919 some cases the financial power of older people in order to protect the climate and 141 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:22.960 to strengthen democracy. McKibben and Winwood recently published in New York Times editorial in 142 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:29.399 which they highlight the importance of what they call with a wink codure power. 143 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:37.799 They wrote, what really should scare the corporate and political bad actors is the 144 00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:44.279 prospect of old and young people connecting, because there is real power if we 145 00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:52.159 work across generations. When young activists called for demonstrations outside the fossil friendly big 146 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:59.600 banks and invited Third Act to join in, Third Act members brought not only 147 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:07.559 their fierce determination but some good humor to the demonstration. Fossils against fossil fuels, 148 00:17:10.839 --> 00:17:18.720 read one of their banners. We need only look around our own neighborhoods 149 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:26.559 our own church to know that old is not a liability but a source of 150 00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:41.680 strength, and that cross generational connection and that cross generational connection is not just 151 00:17:41.720 --> 00:17:49.480 a nice idea, but it's actually embedded and foundational to our faith. In 152 00:17:49.559 --> 00:17:56.480 our New Testament passage today, we find an aging Paul addressing his younger friend, 153 00:17:56.039 --> 00:18:03.759 mentee and fellow missionary Timothy, close to death and imprisoned. Paul encourages 154 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:07.799 Timothy to hold fast to the faith, to rely on the power of God, 155 00:18:08.279 --> 00:18:15.920 and to guard the good treasure entrusted to him. Timothy is well equipped 156 00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:22.599 for the journey, not only because Paul has offered his instruction, but also 157 00:18:22.759 --> 00:18:33.640 because Timothy was taught a sincere faith by his grandmother Lois and his mother Unus. 158 00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:42.079 Timothy's cross generational spiritual lineage is foundational to his development and to the early 159 00:18:42.200 --> 00:18:49.640 Church. We don't know much about grandmother Lois and mother Unus. Unus is 160 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:56.079 referred to an acts as Timothy's Jewish mother who becomes a believer, and Lois 161 00:18:56.200 --> 00:19:02.039 is likely her mother. There's no mention of their husbands. They stand on 162 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:07.640 their own two feet as faithful. I imagine they may have been local leaders 163 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:12.039 of the church, feeding and clothing the widows and orphans, instructing others in 164 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:18.200 the true faith, and fending off false teachers. I imagine they preached, 165 00:19:18.440 --> 00:19:23.400 and they prayed and worship. Perhaps Paul has met them before, perhaps they 166 00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:30.359 were co laborers with him. Perhaps Paul simply knows them through Timothy's glowing reports. 167 00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:37.200 But one thing is for certain, the mentioning of Lois and Yunus is 168 00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:45.839 no accident. By naming them, Paul marks their importance. Lois is the 169 00:19:45.880 --> 00:19:55.240 only person in the New Testament specifically identified by the term grandmother. There's a 170 00:19:55.279 --> 00:20:02.559 common turn of phrase, especially in advertisement, this isn't your grandmother's fill in 171 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:10.519 the blank, This isn't your grandmother's salad dressing recipe, or raincoat or dinner 172 00:20:10.599 --> 00:20:17.119 theater, or this isn't your grandmother's tech company. It's meant to be cute, 173 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:21.920 But what lies behind it is the assumption that whatever is or was your 174 00:20:21.960 --> 00:20:29.680 grandmother's is unquestionably worth setting aside, that it's worse than what we have now, 175 00:20:30.359 --> 00:20:34.000 that it's bad or ugly or uncool, that it's okay to roll our 176 00:20:34.119 --> 00:20:41.720 eyes at whatever was grandmother's. By lifting up Lois, Paul is saying to 177 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:48.680 Timothy and to us that this is your grandmother's church. Grandmother Lois is every 178 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:56.200 bit as important and indispensable as young Timothy. Without Lois and Eunice, there 179 00:20:56.240 --> 00:21:04.279 would be no Timothy. One generation is not the church's discarded past. Another 180 00:21:04.359 --> 00:21:11.920 it's vibrant present, another it's hopeful future. Every age cohort is the Church's 181 00:21:12.079 --> 00:21:22.480 present and its hopeful future. We need each other. On a sunny summer 182 00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:29.519 day in twenty twenty one, longtime member Mace Anderson appeared in the doorway of 183 00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:34.880 my office, pressing me you have to come with me now. Mace explained 184 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:40.119 that scaffolding would go up soon around the church and he wanted me to see 185 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:45.640 something called the women's porch before it would be obscured. Well, I had 186 00:21:45.720 --> 00:21:52.240 little idea. What is the women's porch, but was possessed of enough sense 187 00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:56.480 to know that when May says go, you go, so going at a 188 00:21:56.519 --> 00:22:00.960 good clip. He led me out of the church's Claire entrance, up the 189 00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:06.200 sidewalk onto the corner of Riverside Drive and one hundred and twenty second Street. 190 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:14.519 And they're carved into the facade are four women from the Bible and a series 191 00:22:14.599 --> 00:22:22.920 of symbols surrounding these women, intriguing symbols like a peacock to represent their immortality, 192 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:27.920 a beehive to celebrate their labor, an owl their wisdom, a strawberry 193 00:22:29.160 --> 00:22:36.440 their good works. So who are the four women? The two facing north 194 00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:42.359 are the sisters Mary and Martha. And do you know who is looking across 195 00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:49.359 Riverside Drive, their faces pointing westward, leading us toward a hopeful horizon, 196 00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:59.319 none other than Lois and Unice. Mace shared how important his grandmother had been 197 00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:04.160 to his face and how much this architectural feature of Riverside meant to him. 198 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:10.519 On this old adult Sunday, I am taken with the fact that an old 199 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:15.359 woman, a grandmother, one of the earliest disciples, Lois, stands as 200 00:23:15.359 --> 00:23:29.000 a spiritual sentinel etched into our church's very architecture. Right back here at riverside, 201 00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:33.960 her legacy will not be forgotten. She serves as a powerful reminder that 202 00:23:34.039 --> 00:23:41.200 we are only whole as a community when we celebrate and listen to the Lois's 203 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:48.720 among us. Right behind this very pulpit, she is anchoring us, unmoved 204 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:52.640 by the whipping winds of the Hudson, pointing us to a God whose steadfast 205 00:23:52.720 --> 00:24:03.119 love endures from generation to generation. Oh what good news. And so we 206 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:12.839 thank you, Ancient One, for being with us today, Ancient of days, 207 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:18.599 teach us to celebrate our days, to honor, our aging selves and 208 00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:26.640 our aging church as gifts from you. We pray this in the name of 209 00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:30.799 the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God, 210 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:34.920 Grandmother of us. All Amen.