OLD AGE AND SPIRITUAL LIFE

Consider how Scripture speaks to our spiritual life as our body continues to age.

Genesis 1:1-2: The same word for breath can be translated as Spirit. Remember earlier, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep while the “spirit” of God swept over the face of the waters.

In the midst of utter chaos, the spirit of God hovered over that chaos and order began to emerge. Creation had form and order or made sense.

Genesis 2:7: “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

When the body had been formed, it was still just an organism until God’s spirit was breathed into it. There is a difference between being an organism  that can go through the motions and a living being. Life that is connected to the breath or spirit of God has order and meaning to its life. Life is not just a chaotic set of forces or just going through the motions, but has order and purpose. What we do makes a difference.

Psalm 104, which is a hymn celebrating God’s creation returns to this theme of the spirit in verses 27-30. “These (all aspects of creation just named including humans) all look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open our hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, (spirit) they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.”

Now I direct your attention to the New Testament. Recall in Luke 4:18-19 Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” That is, it was the spirit of God that gave Jesus life meaning and purpose.

And then at the cross John 19:30 reports, “When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”  Without the spirit, Jesus was just another body among bodies.

And finally to Acts 2 where the frightened disciples were huddling in a room afraid that they would be arrested and crucified like Jesus. It was then that the spirit of God rested on them and gave them courage to take on the world. Verse 4 reports, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other language, as the Spirit gave them ability.” The divisions caused by different languages was overcome by a language of love that transcended their divisions.

Now think about this in terms of the Spiritual life committee and our tasks.

We know that one of the challenges of growing old is to become dispirited and withdraw from life. The organism of the body continues to go through the motions – eat, sleep, and take our medicine, but that is about all. Part of our task is to provide experiences by which people may regain the spirit of life.

If both Jesus experience and that of the disciples are our guide, then that spirit energizes us to reach beyond our self and rebuild community – especially for those who might feel excluded.  And remember in the story of Adam, the name can be roughly translated “the earthling.” Only later does the Bible speak about God’s role in the religious community. From the beginning it is clear that all humanity needs energy and purpose from beyond themselves. We Christians must remember that Jesus often pointed to the faith of those beyond the religious community as examples for all of us – eg. The Roman Centurion or the Syro-Phonician woman.

As we grow older and our bodies develop conditions often associated with our age development, it is important how this affects our spiritual life. What are some of the new spiritual practices that we need to practice at this final phase in our physical life?

A spiritual life is a life that has meaning beyond survival. We are breathing in God’s power that brings order out of chaos, makes our life more than survival, and gives us a way to live in community that celebrates our diversity and is connected with the greater plan of God who seeks to reconcile the whole universe to the divine purpose.