How to Squeeze All the Juice out of Retirement
Recently, I listened to an
interesting TED Talk on retirement (Oct 13, 2022). The speaker was Riley
Moynes, with the title, “How to Squeeze All the Juice out of Retirement.” Mr.
Moynes emphasizes that as we plan to retire, it’s very important to be prepared
psychologically as well as
financially. He then explains the four phases of retirement. Phase one is a vacation phase. You wake up when you want, you do what
you want, you have no set routine. It’s relaxing. Freedom. But typically, it
lasts only for about a year or so. Then, you feel bored, you miss your routine
and structure, and you ask, “Is this all there’s in retirement?” You are
already moving into phase two. You
feel loss and lost. You lose sense of identity, you lose many of the
relationships that you have established at work, you lose sense of purpose, and
for some people there is a loss of power. We don’t see it’s coming. It’s
traumatic. You feel like you are hit by the bus. Phase three is a time of trials and errors. You begin to ask
yourself, “How can I make my life meaningful again?” The answer is you do what
you love to do and do really well. There will be some sense of achievement, and
also disappointment and failure. It’s a rocky road. But it’s important to keep
trying different activities. If you don’t, your chances are likely to slide
back to phase two. And not everyone makes it to phase four. Phase four is a time to reinvent and
rewire. It’s also involving answering some fundamental questions: “What’s the
purpose and the mission of my life?”
So where do we find our identity and the purpose of life? I believe we can find the answer in the life of the church – God’s beloved community. In today’s passage – part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us (his disciples, his church) who we are (“identity”) and how we should live our lives (“purpose of life”).
Salt: Alternative Community
First, Jesus says, “You are the salt
of the earth” (v. 13). In the Old Testament, salt is associated with the
following meanings: purity, covenant
loyalty, an element to be added to sacrifices, a seasoning for food. The
meaning of salt in this context is clarified when we focus on Jesus’ second
sentence, “if salt has lost its taste… it is no longer good for anything, but
is thrown out and trampled under foot.” Here Jesus is saying to the church, “Don’t
be conformed to the world, but be different. Be a peculiar community. Be an alternative community” (cf. Romans
12:2). Here a helpful image might be the church as a pioneering community, which takes a new path different from the
world, following God’s will, God’s vision instead of the American dream.
In his sermon, “Don’t Waste Your Life,” Pastor John Piper shares two different stories with us.[1] The first story goes like this. In his church two of the faithful church members, Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards, who went to Cameroon as missionaries, had both been killed because of a car accident. Ruby was over eighty. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing eighty years old, and serving at Ruby’s side in Cameroon. As people read this story in the paper, they said, “What a tragedy!” But no, that is not a tragedy. That is a glory. Then, Pastor John tells us the second story, what a tragedy is. He reads to us from the Reader’s Digest: “Bob and Penny… took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their thirty-foot trawler, playing softball and collecting shells.” Yes, there’s a time for relaxing and taking a vacation. But if the purpose of our life is the American Dream: a nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting shells, that’s a tragedy. If Bob and Penny’s life describes the last chapter of our life, what a tragic way to finish the last mile before entering the presence of Jesus who finished his last mile so differently.
As a pioneer, Jesus set a new path. He set a different precedent for us to follow. We, community of his disciples, are called to be different from the world and to follow a revolutionary way of life – the way of the cross. We are invited to life a life of love, justice, inclusiveness, servanthood, and forgiveness. We are the salt of the earth!
Light: Caring Community
The second imperative is this: “You
are the light of the world – not hiding, but shining” (vv. 14-15). Many
Bible scholars believe that when Jesus was saying this, perhaps he kept Qumran
community in mind. In Jesus’ time there was a group of people who withdrew themselves
from the world into a rigorous monastic community as they saw a moral
corruption under the Roman occupation. The Separatist Qumran people were living
in a way very different from the world – in a way, they were salty, (they were
living by the Dead Sea, which was literally very salty), but they were not
shining their light. They were hiding. Their saltiness became tasteless.
How do we let our light shine? How do we engage? Jesus is our perfect example. He came as a light into the world. But he came not to condemn or destroy his enemies, but to save them. As a good shepherd, Jesus came to lay down his life for the sheep. Jesus’ example shapes the tone of our engagement. As a shepherd, we (the church) nudge, encourage, guide, sometimes chastise, but do not seek to destroy enemies; rather, we lay down our life for them. During the Nazi period the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer took a stand against the Nazis, but at the same time, he confessed his own sin powerfully as a representative of German society. And he died a martyr. We need a church that is different not by authority but by caring, especially for the lost and the needy. We need a church that is a shepherd, the friend of sinners, the lowly and the brokenhearted. We need a church that is caring, repentant, forgiving, rather than finger-pointing.
Deeds: Disciple-making Community
The church is salt and light. We are salt and light. As a salt, we are
distinguished from the world. As a light, we illuminate the world through our
sacrificial and good deeds, following the way of Christ Jesus.
Probably, some of you have seen the film, Schindler’s List. German businessman Oskar Schindler bought from the Nazis the lives of many Jews. At the end of the film, there’s a heart-wrenching scene in which Schindler looks at his car and his gold pin and regrets that he didn’t give more of his money and possessions to save more lives. Schindler had used his opportunity far better than most. But in the end, he longed for a chance to go back and make better choices. The Nazis wanted to kill Jews. They desperately needed concrete help from non-Jewish people/Christians. It was not enough to pray for Jews. It was not enough to hope for the best for Jews. It was not enough to talk about helping Jews. They needed “Schindlers” who took risks and actually offered hiding places and fed them.
At the end of his sermon on the mount, Jesus concludes this way: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (7:21). When Jesus the King comes in his glory, he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed… for I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me a drink.” Then they will say to him, “Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will say, “Truly I will tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (25:31-40).
Sisters and brothers in Christ, as we welcome new church family member(s) today, may we remember who we are and what we live for. We are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. Let us be different from the world, following the way of Jesus instead of the American dream. Let our light, our good deeds, shine out for all to see, so that everyone will see Jesus in us and glorify God in heaven. Amen.
[1] John Piper, “Don’t Waste
Your Life,” https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/boasting-only-in-the-cross/excerpts/don-t-waste-your-life
No comments:
Post a Comment