Aging in faith

Looking at elderhood is different now, ten years after I wrote "Invocation" (the prayer/poem below).  

When I wrote it I had been interviewing all the men over 55 active in one congregation, a small group but one with wider differences among its number than one might expect.

This is a group within that congregation who were, perhaps due to a becoming reticence, less often heard on the issues involved in becoming elders. We need to hear from these people and make their voices more audible.  How are they aware of the vocations of elderhood? How they are embraced by and within the context of congregational life? 

To hear experiences and perceptions of elderhood in their own voices, I have been asking older men active in one congregation a few questions.

How has your faith developed as you have gotten older?

How has the congregation participated in this growth?

What calls you now as a vital way to live out your faith?

How does the congregation embrace or celebrate it with you?

As I recall it now, the people who had already developed an active and thoughtful life of faith continued that into their senior years, and those with a definite sense of vocation were adept at describing where they were at in their life and faith and how they were with the congregation, and the congregation with them, in that place in life. Disappointingly some felt little sense of connection or support from within the congregation for this important life stage or transition. 

And that is probably part of what provoked "Invocation"... as I look back on it, now that I have passed my own "Social Security" birthday, the prayer feels just as relevant now as then.

INVOCATION

Creator, you called all into being; through your Word you brought all things to be that are, were, or will be. Creator, you called us into humanity; we are called to be your people. Creator, you called us into community; we are called to become people of praise, to glorify your Name. And you called us through your Son to become agents of reconciliation, working to bring the kingdom of heaven into being in this world.

You called us into the fullness of being, completed in the work of your Word and Spirit. And you called us to bring this completion of creation closer for all creatures, our fellow human beings, and to be stewards of all you have made.

You call each of us to become fully human, to become the persons whom you know and love in aspiration. Fulfill in each of us our common calling and the unique calling of each person. Help us to honor that communal calling – and that uniqueness – in one another.

You call each of us to journey through our life, closer to you, passing through, as you will, nascency, infancy, youth, adulthood, seniority, and the completion of life in death. Help us to become in each part of our lives fully your own people, as you have intended us to be.

Help us to rejoice in your creation as we develop in our capacity to serve and enjoy the world you have made. Guide each of us in times of folly and of wisdom; help us discern in each other and our selves how you would have us to be.

And at each stage of our lives you call us into ever-developing relationships with you and each other. May we in all our lives, together and alone, from beginning to end, grow into the fullness of life, gathered through Jesus your Word into the one community of heaven.

Amen.

https://tucson.com/lifestyles/aging-in-faith/article_6c7cb566-ede6-5079-b0ae-68929d51f758.html

(October 4, 2020)