John 1:29-42<\/p>\n\n\n\n
January 16, 2011<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When January 1, 2011 came around, the first wave of baby-boomers were now eligible for retirement. They started to reach the age of 65! 10,000 of them everyday! You may be thinking about that long-awaited vacation that you have coming to you. Your AARP card will soon become the most popular card to carry around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The boomers are enjoying their new status if they can afford their new life after the economic meltdown of the last couple of years. But even if times are still tough for new retirees, they have to keep in mind that hanging up their work clothes at a certain age is a relatively recent phenomenon. For thousands of years, the retirement plan for most senior citizens consisted of working the crops or herding the sheep until keeling over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retirement in many cultures was moving in with the kids who, by law, had to take you in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although we read in Genesis that there were some people who lived many years, the average life expectancy of most people in biblical times was most likely in the 20s. This was due to disease, malnutrition, traumatic child birth for women and almost constant warfare among men. Life expectancy figures remained virtually unchanged for most of human history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In ancient Greece, life expectancy was 20. When the Declaration of Independence was signed, life expectancy was still just 23; the median age was 16. Even as recently as 1900, most Americans died by age 47. At last year\u2019s Seniors Retreat, Dr. John Chuck told us that from a medical standpoint, our bodies are really made to last about 30 years and at best 40. After that, we are all living on borrowed time. That\u2019s the reason why we have hip, knee, heart and who knows what replacements!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1890 about 120 years ago, only 2.5 percent of all Americans made it to age 65. It is no wonder that, until recently, retirement was a word mostly associated with going to bed\u2014and hoping one would wake up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By 1997, life expectancy has climbed to 76.5 years, up from 59.2 on 1930. The number continues to climb. Many of the first baby boomers (those born in 1946) who are beginning their retirement this year may have as much as 20 years or more of living still ahead. I will turn 62 this year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
65 is now the new 55 so the idea of moving to Arizona and eating dinner at 4:00 PM for senior discounts don\u2019t make sense anymore. This new generation of retirees prefers to start a second career instead of playing shuffleboard on the deck of a cruise ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, we need to ask ourselves if there\u2019s such a thing as retirement? With all these changes in life expectancy, not just quantity but also quality of life, perhaps we need to rethink this whole idea of retirement and especially for the baby boomers. After all, there are some vocations from which you can never retire. Take parenting, for instance. While you may have raised your kids to be independent and even when they\u2019ve become adults, you\u2019re still Mom and Dad for life (even as you pray that they won\u2019t move back in with you). Perhaps the most permanent lifelong vocation is being a disciple of Jesus: a vocation from which you never really retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Come and See<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In our text from John\u2019s Gospel for this morning, the first disciples of John the Baptist started to follow Jesus after he was baptized. John the Baptist exclaimed, \u201cLook, here is the Lamb of God!\u201d and people started to follow Jesus. When Jesus noticed this, he asked them, \u201cWhat are you looking for?\u201d You might think that these would-be disciples just asked a goofy question. People have great difficulty figuring out who Jesus is or what he is talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet perhaps the question is not so strange. \u201cWhere are you staying?\u201d may be the first fledging attempt to figure out Jesus. Like many of us, when I was growing up in Boston, a frequent question that was asked of me, \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d My immediate gut reaction was always that they were trying to deny my citizenship! I would go through this long explanation about my father serving the U.S.<\/em><\/strong> Army in Germany in World War II, notice the emphasis on the U.S. I would then say I was born in Kenmore Square in the shadows of Fenway Park. The assumption is that if you can discern where someone\u2019s hometown is, you know who the person is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus responds to their question, goofy or not, with a strange response: \u201cCome and see.\u201d \u201cCome and see\u201d is similar to \u201cfollow me\u201d in the other gospels. Jesus is calling them to change from one vocation to another: from fishing for fish to fishing for people; from collecting people\u2019s taxes to collecting their lost souls; from scattering seeds to gathering fruitful disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An interesting detail is the order of the words, \u201cCome and see.\u201d For us today, we would prefer to first see something that we like before deciding to come along. But here the \u201ccome\u201d precedes the \u201csee\u201d so that what\u2019s implied is that some disciples first follow Jesus and only later do they \u201csee\u201d who Jesus really is and the direction in which Jesus is heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a way, that\u2019s the way it is throughout the Gospel of John: disciples stumble after Jesus and only later, along the way, as Jesus corrects their misunderstandings and misperceptions, do they gradually come and see who Jesus really is. The Christian faith is one of those experiences that you really understand only from the inside out, as a committed, active disciple. You need to come along before you\u2019ll have the opportunity to see the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who were invited by Jesus to come and see remained with him. \u201cCome and see\u201d for them becomes not only an invitation to discipleship but also a promise about discipleship. They gradually come to see who Jesus is, and in the process they become the ones who do the inviting later, \u201cCome and see. We have found the Messiah.\u201d They have gotten a new vocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disciple\u2019s Vocation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Before Simon Peter met Jesus, Peter probably didn\u2019t have a retirement plan. He was more likely to be drown in his fishing business before he was 40 than about setting up a fish-funded annuity. Following Jesus offered a different kind of future, though it\u2019s clear that neither Simon Peter nor the other disciples realized where it would lead them. But it must have been compelling when Jesus promised them, \u201cYou will see greater things than these\u2026Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (vv. 50-51).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The disciples would see many other things as well: people being healed, demons cast out, pompous leaders put in their place and multitudes fed with the equivalent of a little snack. The gospels tell us that the disciples\u2019 association with Jesus and his miraculous deeds was leading them to believe that Jesus\u2019 kingdom was becoming a reality\u2014and that they would likely have a famous supporting role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus kept trying to tell them they were following him to the cross, the ultimate symbol of failure, but they kept hearing about greatness, status and power. Because the Roman society valued leisure over work, the disciples may have imagined that once Jesus booted out the Romans, they\u2019d be able to enjoy at least a little of the good life themselves as they stay enthroned next to the new king. Sounds a lot like what comes to mind when we think about retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Jesus had a longer vocational plan in mind\u2014one that had eternal significance. Jesus was on his way to the cross, and it was pretty likely that the same fate would await those who followed him. Jesus\u2019 death at roughly the age of 33 was so violent and brutal that it\u2019s hard to imagine one\u2019s life being cut short in that way. People in polite Roman society didn\u2019t even mention crucifixion because of its stigma. And yet, Jesus knew he was going there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was no plan to preach a few years and then retire quietly to a little village somewhere up in Galilee where he could enjoy sitting on the front porch and chatting with old friends stopping by. Jesus knew that his mission would take him right to the bitter end, but, even then, it would continue with those he had called to follow him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tradition and the book of Acts both tell us that Jesus\u2019 disciples never got to hang up their sandals and collect a pension. Most of them met pretty horrible fates, dying in some brutally imaginative ways. John himself, if he is the same John who wrote Revelation, had a kind of forced retirement on the island of Patmos but still spent his time writing and working to encourage the next generation of Jesus\u2019 followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only death could interrupt the work of these disciples and, because of what happened on Easter, they knew that even that wouldn\u2019t keep them down from leading others to \u201cCome and see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n No Vacation for Christians<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As 21st<\/sup> century Christians, we don\u2019t have the same sense of urgency, as did those early disciples. Our lives are longer due to better health, and our financial and personal security aren\u2019t threatened on a daily basis. We have the ability to go where we want and we tend to see retirement as an opportunity to kick back and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Some Christians reach retirement age and think to themselves, \u201cWell, it\u2019s time for the younger generation to take on all these tasks in the church and in the community. I\u2019ve done my time. I\u2019ve finally graduated from Sunday school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem is, the call of Jesus to follow has no expiration date\u2014and no gold watch as a reward for doing one\u2019s time. The work of the kingdom is ours to do whether we\u2019re 17 or 70. Living life with an eternal perspective means that we see our whole lives as belonging to Christ from beginning to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of you have expressed to me your concerns for our church to have descendants. We would never want our church to not have a multigenerational cross-section of people in our membership. We want to have children who would grow up to become teenagers. We want young adults who might get married and have kids and to bring them to come to church. We want adults to remain actively involved in all facets of our church throughout their long adult years. Our commitment to search for a new pastor who would pastor the growing 9:10 congregation is an emphatic and absolute support for the younger laity in our church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I want to also affirm today that those of us particularly who are baby boomers retiring from the work force as many as 10,000 each day should not just think about vacation and not vocation. While we might think that we have earned or deserved to kick back and be laid back on our backs and take a vacation to Arizona to see the Diamondbacks, Christians regardless of how old they might be have no retirement. There is no such thing as retirement in the Bible!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I strongly believe that our church is in good hands when there are so many people who are baby boomers. While we invite the younger generations to assume leadership in the church, we are not to recede or regress or fade into the background. We are to continue to lead and be involved in the life of the church because we are not about to go on vacation but to be in our vocation as Christ\u2019s disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a reporter who was interviewing a 104-year-old woman: \u201cAnd what do you think is the best thing about being 104?\u201d the reporter asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her simple reply: \u201cNo peer pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the past you may have felt that your service to the church was the result of peer pressure. But as we all get older, we are committed to the life and mission of this church because we understand that to serve Christ is our true vocation from which we find meaning and purpose in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As newly retiring baby boomers, we can begin to reverse the trend of seeing retirement as an end and, instead, teach us how to see it as an opportunity to use newly found free time and disposable income for fulfilling the purpose of God\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us not only think about taking a vacation when God is calling us to a vocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We confess to you, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, that others have pointed the way and we have not followed. Friends have testified to your truth and we did not believe. Scripture has assured us of your mercy and we would not receive. Lead us to come and see that as long as we have a breath to take and a will to follow you in costly discipleship that in faith you still have a purpose for us to accomplish. Challenge us not to grow apathetic and content when there\u2019s much to be done on earth as we know is already true in heaven. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, we pray. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John 1:29-42 January 16, 2011 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. When January 1, 2011 came around, the first wave of