Embracing the Vocation of Elderhood within a Congregation:
A Heart of Wisdom: Theology, Spirituality, and Pastoral Care.
Theology as a process of growth of
the individual person, adapting to transition, opens a way for us to understand
how to foster development of the human person into the fullness of being for which
they were created. Among theological themes, vocation offers the richest
possibilities in our explorations of elderhood.
An elder is a person with a
vocation, to whom we turn for wisdom based on knowledge and experience,
experience salted with humble reflection. An elder may be a senior person
recognized as having gifts to exercise, including, for example, discernment and
encouragement, in a ministry of wisdom and presence, on the community’s behalf.
A call to elderhood is a call to seek wisdom and to serve community with that
hard–gained gift.
Call and Community, Vocation and
Transformation
Drawing on imagery from the Bible
we can trace a progression of vocation, a developing sense of the call of God.
It begins with creation, and the call into being. Adam and Eve are the human
figures in this call. It continues with the call into relationship – a
relationship of trust; Abraham and Sarah are exemplars. The call to follow God
as his servant, and learn to keep faith with him, is represented by Moses. In
the story of Eli and Samuel we glimpse a nascent sense of call – but we also
see the humility of elderhood in giving honest guidance. In the story of Elijah
and the passing of his mantle to Elisha we learn of legacy and the passing of
the gift and burden of a calling from generation to generation. And in Jesus we
see all calling in ultimate terms: from creation to completion, from promise to
fulfillment, from service to freedom, from humility to exaltation.
The Call into Being: Adam and
Eve
The book of Genesis and the gospel
of John begin with God calling all things into being. It is the call of
creation. It is the Word at work. All things came into being through him,
and without him not one thing came into being.
(John 1:3)
Adam and Eve represent to us the
call of creation, the call to humanness, and the call into relationship with
God as creatures. God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he
created them; male and female he created them… God saw everything that he had
made and indeed, it was very good. (Genesis
1:27, 31a)
The Call to Renewal of Life:
Noah
Noah was a righteous man,
blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9) God blessed Noah and established a covenant with him.
After the Flood, Noah was called upon
to lead the renewal of creation after it passed again through the primordial
waters of chaos. A dove moves across the face of the waters, bringing news of
peace, of the restoration of harmony and the beginning of new life on the
earth. The creatures go forth in all directions to fill the earth with life.
The Call into Relationship:
Abraham and Sarah
Abraham and Sarah represent to us
the call into relationship as God’s faithful people. The story of Abraham and
Sarah and the promise of God can be read many ways but I would like to look at
it in terms of vocation and generativity.
Abraham and Sarah spent the years
between leaving their family of origin and having a child together wandering
from place to place looking for that context until they finally rested in the
place of God’s promise, the place where they received the blessing of God. They
passed on the blessing to their son and through him to a multitude of peoples.
When he receives God’s promise
Abram is past the age when it would be reasonable to expect him to produce
biological progeny – and after he does, it is as a sign of God’s pre–eminent
activity in the world, an action of covenant faithfulness, and points beyond
genetic descendants to children of faith, children countless as the stars.
As for your wife Sarai, you
shall not call her Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her; indeed
I will give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she shall give rise to
nations; rulers of peoples shall issue from her. (Genesis 17:15–16. JPS)
Abram, meaning “exalted ancestor,”
becomes Abraham, “ancestor of a multitude,” and Sarai becomes Sarah,
“princess,” and mother. (Coogan) Their children are the product of their faith.
Their generativity begins with their faithful response to God’s call, God’s
promise. They keep the faith. Faith in God’s promise is their legacy, their
entrustment, which they transmit to future generations.
The Call of Mission: Moses
More overtly about vocation is
God’s call to Moses, tending his family flock out there in the wilderness. God
knows where to find him, and where human encounters God, there it becomes holy
ground. (Exodus 3:5) And from that ground God sends Moses to Pharaoh to bring
the Israelites out of Egypt and to call them onto the faith journey into freedom.
The Call of Elderhood: Eli and
Samuel
The story of Eli and Samuel
represents to us the call to be God’s servants.
And the Lord called still again to Samuel, a third time, and he rose
and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” And Eli understood
that the Lord was calling the lad.
And Eli said to Samuel, “Go lie down, and should someone call to you, say,
“Speak, Lord, for your servant is
listening.” (1 Samuel 3:8–9. Alter: 255)
The calling of Samuel (1 Samuel 3)
evokes for us images of vocation. The focus is generally on the young boy
serving the altar, but for us, examining vocational issues of later life, the
faithfulness, generosity, and practical wisdom of the old priest matter more.
In the case of young Samuel, what
we know is that he had an experience of call – without knowing specifically
what the direction of the call would be. When he went to the old priest for
guidance, Eli was able to supply a theoretical framework in which Samuel could
interpret his experience and act accordingly.
As one elder, speaking of an admired elder in
another congregation, said:
I’ve frequently pondered what it was about him –
certainly one of, perhaps the most remarkable, people I’ve ever known, but I’m
not quite sure what made him so. On the personal level he wasn’t that different
than anyone else. The closest I can come to describing that is that he was the
most purely transparent person I’ve ever met. He might not be right in detail
about everything he was saying, but he was telling me what he believed and no
more.
Eli may in some ways not be
entirely admirable; but in advising the young Samuel he is transparent, or at
least honest, and does not go beyond what he knows in what he says. He is
functioning as an elder.
Eli coaches the boy to say: “Speak,
Lord, for your servant is
listening.” This was generous of the old man, who had seen his sons fail to
follow the call of their ancestors, and knew that now the mantle of prophecy
was passing to a new generation. So we see an elder, with the wisdom of
experience and of traditional knowledge, pass on the best of what he has, in
advising the youth to respond to an as-yet inchoate vocation.
The Call of Legacy: Elijah and
Elisha
The story of Elijah and the
mantling of Elisha represents to us the entrustment of a call: its passing from
generation to generation.
And after the earthquake a fire;
but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And
it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and
went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a
voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? (1 Kings 19:12–13. KJV)
Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me
what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me
inherit a double share of your spirit.” … He picked up the mantle of Elijah
that had fallen from him... (2 Kings 2:9,
13. NRSV.)
The passing of the mantle of Elijah
to Elisha, which comes as part of his legacy, dramatizes the transmission of a
legacy – a gift of ministry – from one generation to another. In looking at the
Scriptures, we see that this is accomplished almost accidentally, in the midst
of the imploring grief of the disciple and the death of the elder man of God.
And yet it can give us an image for the passing of a charism, a spiritual gift
that is used not for the self-validation of the individual but for the service
of God among his people.
This image of “mantling” may be
useful in the recognition by a community of the gift of elderhood. Rituals for
this affirmation have been developed (Changes). Impromptu prayers in worship services may accomplish the same
purpose; that is: to recognize individuals whom the community has discerned
have gifts of the vocation of elderhood.
The Call to Transformation:
Jesus and Nicodemus
In the third chapter of the gospel
of John, Nicodemus approaches Jesus at night – the time of hidden–ness,
mystery, and uncertainty, and he seeks illumination. Jesus calls him into more
than earthly knowledge. Jesus tells him one must be born anew, from above, to
grasp the kingdom of God. One must pass through the waters into new life. And
the Spirit, the Breath of God, must conceive and bear forth this new way of
being. So the water, the wind and the spirit, all point to the need to be
changed in one’s essence.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that his
heritage, his status as a ruler of the people and his law–keeping as a
Pharisee, are all part of the natural, fleshly, order, when what is needed is
something to come from outside and above, not of his own will or his doing, but
in the inexorable purpose of God. Like the children raised up to Abraham, it is
the promise not the heritage that brings one into home-fellowship with Jesus
and with God. The Prologue of John speaks of all those who receive Jesus and
trust him becoming God’s children. (John 1:12) That birth is God’s work not the
result of human effort. It has nothing to do with being deserved. It is a call
not to validation in oneself but to transformation in the Spirit.
The water, the wind, and the spirit
hearken back to the Flood and before it to Creation. So we see in Jesus the
recovery and transformation of God’s purpose for humankind, no longer just to
‘rule over’ and tend the earth but in partnership with God himself to bring the
completion of God’s creative and redeeming work into the fullness of
everlasting life.
Jesus, first and last of all,
represents to us the Word of creation at the beginning (John 1:1–3) and the
word of fulfillment in the consummation of time (Revelation 1:5–8). Jesus
represents to us humility and obedience (Philippians 2:5–8). And Jesus brings
home to us the call to serve God as his creatures; to be fully human, called to
become complete in his grace; his people called into relationship, as God’s own
beloved children; called to service, and called to mission, justice, and the
completion of God’s work in the world.
We are called not only to begin to
follow Jesus, but to continue to follow him in the Way. Through Jesus God calls
us to believe and to grow in faith throughout our lives. He calls us into
fullness. And through the Holy Spirit God calls us into communities of
transformation, to engage in the work of transformation of self, society, and
church.
We begin by sharing our common
story. As we grow together in faith as a community, we may reach a level where
our complementary gifts work together as each individual realizes the potential
of their unique vocation, sharing their own gifts, limits, and calling.
The God who creates us is the God
who redeems us is the God who calls us into holiness. The God who called us in
to being is the God who calls us into relationship with himself. The God who
calls us all into common mission – to carry on love’s redeeming work – calls
each of us to express our unique personhood in ministry.
“Each person and every community’s
engagement with and response to God’s invitation to participate in the fullness
of the divine life is similarly distinct.” (Portaro: 22)
Every human person is called into
the fullness of life; each individual enjoys a particular calling and manifests
their humanity in the expression of their specific vocation. “God has called
each of us, with our unique range of gifts and our unique pattern of limits,
and calls us to a vocational adventure that is distinct from that of anyone
else.” (Fowler: 84) Guiding members of a congregation by discerning gifts and
encouraging their expression may be one of the most rewarding activities of a
pastoral leader.
Just as the various types and
temperaments of personality balance and support each other, so the variety of
gifts and ministries exist in complementary relationship for the furthering of
the purposes of God. Together we build toward a hopeful future.
To be in vocation, then, is to
respond to an inner prompting, and by responding to become authentic in one’s
experience of God. It is to be called to be creature, human, mortal; follower,
servant, friend, and disciple; kingdom-bringer, minister, missionary. And in
our calling and our response we receive gifts. Gifts are not for keeping to
oneself; they are to do something with. Implicit in each gift is a calling, an
invitation into joy.
Transformation
Be transformed by the renewing
of your minds. (Romans 12:2. NRSV) Fix
your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. (Romans 12:2. MSG)
James B. Lemler, in his preface to Transforming
Vocation by Sam Portaro, wrote:
Individuals and communities of faith
require a strong sense of call, purpose, and identity for this new time. Where
are the seeds of transformation to be found? God’s love is vital and real;
God’s mission can transform people’s hopes and lives. Will we participate in
the transformation? Will we be bearers and agents of transformation for others?
Will we ourselves be transformed? (Portaro: viii)
Throughout our lives we are called
to transformation: of ourselves into Christ’s likeness, of our world into God's
kingdom. Jesus in his life – as we in ours are called to follow – announced and
embodied the coming of God’s reign of truth and justice and peace, forgiveness,
reconciliation, and harmony: all the fruits of the spirit. I have come, Jesus said, in order that you might have
life — life in all its fullness. (John
10:10. TEV)
We are called into a community of
transformation, to embody, proclaim, and inaugurate the coming-in of God’s
reign through the Spirit.
Faith grows in strength as it is
transformed through the process of doubt and rebirth. Baptism is a miniature of
the process: we die to the old way, we are immersed in a period of not knowing,
not being, and we emerge, we begin to emerge, into new life.
Transitions are like that. They
begin with an ending, and then pass through a neutral zone (a muddle), before
they reach a new beginning. It’s like crossing St. Charles Avenue in New
Orleans, a divided road. You leave the curb and cross the lanes of traffic
going one way, until you reach what they call the “neutral ground,” the
in–between place; it’s just a gap between one way of going and another. And then
you cross to the other side. But you don’t get to the other side until you
leave the first curb, pass through the scary in–between of the naked neutral
place, which you’d just as soon skip, and then you can make your way onto new
territory. An end, a muddle, and a beginning. Simple. Difficult.
Transfiguration came at the
midpoint, at the crisis point, of Jesus’ vocation. Would he accept the glory
and the passion, the pain and the joy? Jesus took with him Peter and James
and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was
transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes
became dazzling white. (Matthew 17:1–2)
Jesus freely accepted the call of
God. And he went forward. To Jerusalem, and glory. What happened on the
mountain was a transfiguration, a change in appearance, one that revealed a
reality beyond common knowing. And what happened on the mountain was a
transformation, a change in being, which revealed the purpose of God. We are
called into that purpose. We are called into that transformation.
And all of us, with unveiled
faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being
transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this
comes from the Lord, from the Spirit. (2
Corinthians 3:18)
We too are in the middle of the
story, in the confusion – the muddle – that precedes every transition and
transformation. We are in the middle of the story, from baptism to
resurrection, from creation to Glory, to the completion of God’s purpose, when
our faces will shine as we reflect that image of the invisible God who is found
in Christ Jesus, as the light of Christ illuminates us and shines forth from us
to a newly lightening world. Jesus came to embrace humankind in the love of
God. He came to proclaim and embody the coming of God’s reign. And he came to
call us into that work.
We are called, ourselves, to be
transformed, to be fully his people. We are called, individually, that we
individually might be transformed into the image of the likeness of God. That
we might, in other words, become God’s people as he made us to be, as we are
called to become. We are called, together, that we together might become the
agents of transformation, heralds of the presence of God in the world. We are
called, that the world God has made might be transformed into the joyful
kingdom it was meant to be.
We are called to be a community of
transformation. We are called to call others. We are called to be church,
first, for others – and then, for our fellowship together.
We are called into this holy
mystery that we might take part in its working out in the world; as it works
out in us, in our lives, in our words and acts.
We are called to take our place in
the larger purpose of God.
For we do not proclaim
ourselves, we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for
Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who
has shone in our hearts to give the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:5-6)
So we are called for a purpose
greater than ourselves. And we are called to live into that great calling which
is ours in Christ Jesus.
Mission and Purpose
Drawing on tradition from the Book
of Common Prayer and similar sources, we
can garner insights into the communal nature of calling and its expression in
ministry and mission.
The service of Holy Baptism in the
Episcopal prayer book includes these words: “We thank you, Father, for the
water of Baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his death. By it we share
in his resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.” (BCP 306)
Because Christ is risen, because he
is raised, and we are called to him, we are alive in Christ. Death is not the
end. But what happens after that is in the hands and heart of God.
What we know, now, we the living,
is that we have a mission to carry on, to carry forward, and it is not our own
plan, our own agenda. Our true gift to the future is our legacy of hope – hope
in the resurrection – and joy in the life lived to God’s glory.
In many denominations the mission
of the people has become more clearly spelled out as the implications of
baptism have taken a more central place in teaching and worship. In the study
congregation, for example, the Baptismal Covenant introduced into the Episcopal
prayer book in 1979 is recited by the whole congregation, led by the pastor,
not only at services of baptism or confirmation, but on such major holy days as
the Baptism of Jesus, Easter, Pentecost, and All Saints, and on the days of
parish meetings.
Will you continue in the apostles’
teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
Will you persevere in resisting
evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
Will you proclaim by word and
example the Good News of God in Christ?
Will you seek and serve Christ in
all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and
peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
(BCP
293–294)
Indeed, the canons of the Episcopal
Church mandate that each diocese provide teaching and support for the common
mission of all God’s people as they learn about and carry on with the ministry
of all baptized persons.
Canon 1: Of the Ministry of All
Baptized Persons
Sec. 1. Each Diocese shall make
provision for the affirmation and development of the ministry of all baptized
persons, including: (a) Assistance in understanding that all baptized persons
are called to minister in Christ’s name, to identify their gifts with the help
of the Church and to serve Christ’s mission at all times and in all places. (b)
Assistance in understanding that all baptized persons are called to sustain
their ministries through commitment to life-long Christian formation.
(Archives)
What is the mission of the
church?
The mission of the church is the mission of Christ.
The catechism in the Book of
Common Prayer of The Episcopal Church gives
some useful and provocative encapsulations of the vocation and ministry of the
people of God:
The mission of the Church is to
restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.
The Church pursues its mission as
it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and
love.
The church carries out its mission
through the ministry of all its members.
The ministers of the Church are lay
persons, bishops, priests, and deacons.
The ministry of lay persons is to
represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be;
and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ’s work of
reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and
governance of the Church.
(BCP
855)
Because we are the body of Christ –
we the followers of Jesus – we are the heads and hands, hearts and voices, that
he has to continue his mission. And that mission is to proclaim the coming of
the kingdom of peace, that peace that is the reign of God, and to begin to live
it out and show it, witnessing in our words, and in our lives, our worship and
our work, to the presence of God.
How do we fulfill that mission
here, locally, as God’s people, called together in this place? To whom is God
sending us? And whom is God sending to us?
An elder observed: “I agree
that the future of the church lies with young people, but a church is called to
serve the people who are there, and we have an older congregation.”
These are the people of God’s
sending – these are our neighbors: people who hunger, with the same hunger we
all have, for a taste of the living bread, the communion of the kingdom. These
are people who thirst for righteousness, that is, for a right order of things.
Who are our neighbors? What do we
have to offer them? First of all and most of all we have the presence of the
redeeming gift, the living Lord, who is present in the word proclaimed and
understood, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers, and in our going forth
to the world God made, and, having made, saw was good. We invite people to join
us in the rest of the Sabbath, and in the rest of the week to carry forth with
them the joyous news of our Lord.
Creating, redeeming, sustaining,
God is at work in the world. We are sent – to proclaim. We are charged – to
serve. We are invited – to rejoice. We are invited to rejoice together in the
gift of life. We are gathered to celebrate together in common worship. We are
charged to go forth together in the one Spirit, with a common purpose: to bear
the word and be the good news of Jesus Christ, in this time, in this place, to
the people whom God has gathered here around us.
Glory
to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or
imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in
Christ Jesus for ever and ever.
Amen. (Ephesians
3:20, 21. BCP)
Legacy
On my fifty–fifth birthday, on my
way in to a celebratory dinner, I received a telephone call. The planned giving
officer of the diocese, a man a little older than me, had died suddenly. In his
stead I would be giving the Legacy Sunday sermon the following week. And so I
asked the congregation: What is it that we have to pass on? What is it that
really matters? What is it that will last, beyond ourselves, into the future of
the promise of God?
A living tradition is something we
pass along, something that gives strength, something that gives skill and even
power, to those coming along.
The first disciples, the witnesses
to the life and death and resurrection and ascension of our Lord, passed along
what they had seen and what they had heard, what they had touched with their
hands and embraced in their arms, to those who came along after them. And what
they received, they also passed on – to us.
What we have received we must also
pass along. And we must decide what matters, and what matters most, and that is
what we must make sure to share with the new generations that are coming along.
What is it that matters most to us? What is it that will last?
As Herbert O’Driscoll has preached,
what we know, what we have received, as church, as the family of God, always
sustains us through these several elements: the sacred Word, the story of the
love of God for humankind; the water of Baptism, in which we receive a sign of
new life in Christ; the wine and the bread, transformed for us and, received in
faith, transforming us ourselves into the body of Christ; and then the gift of
each other, that Body of which we are all members; and – the Holy Spirit, in
which all this lives and moves and has its being. (O’Driscoll)
These are things that we have
received, that we live by, that we pass on. These things are all gifts given us
to give others, to share with them the grace and peace of God.
After Easter, Jesus’ appearing to
the disciples, the women at the tomb, the apostles, and many others, is the
beginning of something new. He is the first born of the new creation, the first
fruits of the resurrection. He tells us that there is something beyond life
under the powers of this world; that life lived in God is life that lasts.
The Lord is Lord of life and death,
and of life that lies beyond death. The hope of the resurrection, in the risen
Christ, is not for the restoration of what was but of the beginning of what
will be. Even in death, we proclaim, life is changed, not ended. Changed. (Not
a tape or a film rewound in the projector and played again, but the mounting of
a new reel altogether.) We are transformed in the newness of life. Resurrection
is not a return to the old life, but the creation of something new – it is
moving forward, not back.
What we have to pass on is a living
faith in a living God. It is renewal, it is new, it is life itself: it is life
in Christ, not the old way of law and sin and death, but the way forward into
life in Christ, into the kingdom that begins now, that indeed is all around us.
What our legacy is might not be abundantly clear right now. It may not be clear
until we too share in the resurrection, when our hope is fulfilled in the
kingdom of Christ.
For now we see in a mirror,
dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will
know fully, even as I have been fully known.
(1 Corinthians 13.12)
But we have a pretty good idea of
what lasts: the things we have spoken of, the word, the sacraments, the fellowship,
are things that bring us closer to God and carry us forward together in God’s
mission and God’s purpose.
All of these things come to us in
the gift of the Spirit. And it is the abiding promise and presence of God that
shows us what really lasts, what really gives life meaning. Some things will
pass away, good things as they are, for when the time for them is over, they
will fade away. We know that; we look for the things that last, that are our
greatest gifts to pass on to those coming along in our midst and coming after
us.
REFERENCES:
Alter, Robert.
2013 Ancient Israel: The
Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. 255.
Archives of the Episcopal Church,
ed.
2012 Constitution & Canons
Together with the Rules of Order For the government of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in the United States of America Otherwise Known as The Episcopal Church
Adopted and Revised in General Convention, 1789–2012. General Convention Office. Title III, Canon 1, Section 1.
New York: Church Publishing. 67.
Changes: Prayers and Services Honoring Rites of Passage.
2007 Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. The Episcopal
Church. New York: Church Publishing.
Coogan, Michael D., ed.
2010 The New Oxford Annotated Bible. Fourth Edition. Textual notes on Genesis 17:5, 17:6,
and 17:15. New York: Oxford University Press. 33-34.
Fowler, James W.
2000 Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian: Adult
Development and Christian Faith. Rev. ed.
San Francisco: Jossey–Bass Publishers.
O’Driscoll, Herbert
Portaro, Sam.
2008 Transforming Vocation. New York: Church Publishing.
Abbreviations
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from
the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) Bible.
Quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version.
Quotations marked NIV are from the New International
Version.
Quotations marked TEV are from the Good News Bible: The
Bible in Today’s English Version. New York:
American Bible Society. 1976.
Quotations marked MSG are from The Message: The Bible in
Contemporary Language by Eugene H.
Peterson. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002.
Quotations marked Alter are from Ancient Israel: The
Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter. New York: Norton. 2013.
Quotations marked JPS are from the Jewish Publication
Society tanakh translation.
Quotations indicated by BCP and the page number are from the
Book of Common Prayer (1979) of The
Episcopal Church. The Book of Common Prayer: and Administration of
the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church: Together with The
Psalter or Psalms of David.
JRL+
