iHOPE

Growing Wise About Getting Old: Sermon from August 16

It’s not easy growing old. I know, because I’m doing it. People sometimes ask how long it takes me to write a sermon. I tell them it depends on the topic and the week. I can tell you this sermon took me 60 year. I turned 60 this summer. I am officially an ‘old guy.’ Granted, my daughters have been telling me this for much longer. This year, the facts are on their side. 

New Worship Time for Fall...wait, what?!

We are switching worship times on September 13, but it's not what you are expecting. It's not what we were expecting either! So why are we moving our Fall worship time to one service at 9:30 am?

I think everyone expected that we would move back to our regular worship times  of 9:00 and 10:45, since that has been the worship schedule since we moved into the new sanctuary. I know I did. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Fall schedule. When we stepped back to review the summer and the experiment of going to one service, we realized...

People REALLY enjoyed worshiping together in one service! 
The energy in worship- including the singing, has been contagious, and the response from visitors show that they felt the same thing. The experience of worship changes when we are all together. The spirit of the congregation grows when we aren't running past each other. 

Having a single service was an experiment we wanted to try this summer. It is an experiment that accomplished what we hoped- and more! But why  extend this schedule into Fall when everyone is expecting us to go back to two services? Here are some of the reasons:

Getting Old or Aging Well?

Here's a question: "What's the best part of getting older?  What's the worst? I'd love to get your thoughts this week. It's all part of our series this fall, "Growing Wise in the Seasons of Life."

We are using scenes from films to help highlight the issues of getting older- through all stages of life. The first week was "Big" and last week, Erik showed a scene from "Second Hand Lions". This week we'll see a scene from "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" and the issue is "aging".

What are the fears that are stirred up by getting older? What are the benefits? While you're thinking about your answers, here is a passage on "Old Age" from Frederick Buechner:

The Perils of Becoming "BIG"

We started our annual "Moving Pictures" series on Sunday with a clip from the movie, "Big." The theme for this summer is "Growing Wise in the Seasons of Life", and we are using movies that talk about growing older. 

There are seasons in life just as there are seasons in nature. As in nature, we don't control the seasons of life. All we can do is respond and tend to the work of each season. "Big" is a movie where someone desperately wanted to be in a different season of life- and then got a glimpse of what he would have to give up to stay there.

Do you know what season you are in?

There are seasons of waiting, healing, gathering and losing. Some are in seasons of loss, saying 'good-bye', saying 'hello' or having to say, "I'm sorry'." Some are in seasons of needing to learn new things and others are having to unlearn things that no longer work.  The seasons of life aren't always pleasant or what we would choose, but they are nonetheless the season we have been given. When we treat a particular season as a problem that needs to be solved so we can get back to "normal", we miss not just the work of that season, but the presence of God. Another quote we used reminds us that,

This season is not a problem to be solved,

it is the next chapter of your life

that is waiting to be written.