Living Wittily

What we owe the old is reverence 3 De-marginalising our old people

To reduce all aspects of life to a valuation indexed to usefulness, profitability, functionality, is to fall into the utilitarian nightmare. Such valuations see everything as a means to an end; now most things are, in fact, a means to an end; but a human being can never be reduced to such valuations based on usefulness, functionality, the status of means to other people's ends, or an organisation's ends, or a State's ends. What sets a human being apart in moral and theological terms is that a human being is an end in herself, or himself. Yet at the same time the first question of the catechism immediately provides an important qualifying perspective. A human being not only is an end in herself, but has a chief end - to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

It is because we are given our essential value, our enduring identity, our unique calling as gifts bestowed by God that we can never be ultimately reduced to mere means. We are created as those whose end is to love, serve and worship God. Heschel's theology of human existence, draws nourishment from a root system plunged deep into the Hebrew Bible, which is why he is so resistant to any view of the old person as burden on society, or as one whose provision should in any sense depend on ongoing usefulness and economic contribution to society. Here is a word whose prophetic note reverberates through four decades with compelling relevance:

There are alleys in the soul where man walks alone, ways that do not lead to society, a world of privacy that shrinks from the public eye. Life comprises not only arable, productive land, but also mountains of dreams, an underground of sorrow, towers of yearning, which can hardly be utilised to the last for the good  of society, unless man be converted into a machine in which every screw must serve a function or be removed.

All of which leaves me wondering about the level of provision made for the elderly in our own society; the refusal to benchmark the Old Age Pension to a reasonable subsistence level and then index it; the recognised epidemic of loneliness amongst the oldest members of the population; the relatively small amount of money invested in research into some of the ailments of human ageing; the impatience of motorists at traffic lights which are already set with the green man at such a short time frame that it takes levels of agility to get across in time that some of the motorists would themselves struggle to beat; the sheer complexity of applications for benefit, rebate, relief from all kinds of costs - not least Council Tax; the bewilderment and sense of being left behind by rapid technological changes that in any case presuppose significant funds to access them - broadband, mobile phones, digital TV. And just to avoid stereotyping, I know a nonogenarian who recently took delivery of the new laptop so that it could download quicker!

No society can do everything; and the Scottish Government intends well towards our older people, even if local government expressions of policy and commitment to fulfilling free care vary wildly. But I still think that within the Church that is the Body of Christ, there is a need for outspoken alertness on behalf of those older members of our community and society, who remain valuable, wanted, needed - not for what they do or did, but for who they uniquely, preciously, and at times expensively, are.

There are few more important ways of wasting time, than visiting old people - I use the word deliberately, in the way Dr Sheila Cassidy uses it - to waste time with people is to give them non-productive time in order to give your self, to gift them presence as a sign of their worth. I know about strategic planning, dynamic leadership, anointed preaching, every person ministry, purpose driven this and that. But I have a feeling Jesus would have found time to spend, waste, give, and in so doing would de-marginalise one of the pushed to the fringe groups of our cost/benefit analysis culture. In fact I rather like the term - de-marginalise.

Let justice roll and righteousness flow: "Was there nothing to fight for?"

For years now I've been a contributor to the Aberdeen Press and Journal, one of the few papers I know that has a God slot - a Saturday Ssermon, no less. Here's the one the good people of Aberdeen will be reading today.

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“There’s an epidemic of apathy, and I don’t care.”

“When people complain about a culture becoming complacent, I shrug my shoulders.”

These aren’t humorous remarks, they’re more like the resigned cynicism of a society so unsure of its future it’s hard to know what to care for. They’re the language used by paid up members of NMP – Not My Problem.

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In Alan Paton’s novel of South Africa, Ah ! But your Land is Beautiful, there is a conversation between a white school headmaster, and Emmanuel Nene, a local leader of the black community. Following the ban on white and black children playing cricket together the headmaster resigned his job, because he said, “ I think it is time to go out and fight everything that separates people from one another”. Both of them, white and black together, accept they will be wounded and hurt, that such passionate caring for what happens in their society will be dangerous. Their conversation ends like this:

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“Yes, and I’m going to get wounded, too. Not only by the government, but also by my own people as well.”
“Aren’t you worried about the wounds, Mr. Nene?”
“I don’t worry about the wounds. When I go up there, which is my intention, the Big Judge will say to me, Where are your wounds? and if I say I haven’t any, he will say, Was there nothing to fight for? I couldn’t face that question.”

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It’s hard to see how, by acting faithfully and living obediently to the words of Jesus, we can avoid those moments when we have to fight. They’re fair questions – where are your wounds? Was there nothing to fight for? Fair and just questions, because justice and righteousness are core values of a Christian worldview. And there’s plenty to fight for, and against.

For truthfulness, and against the pervasive dishonesty of much in public life;

for friendship, and against bullying that only thrives where it isn’t confronted;

for open trust, and against the creeping backstabbing nastiness that invades office space;

for commonsense, and against irresponsible front door promotions of buy one get one free multi-packs of booze in supermarkets;

for human dignity and diversity, and against racism, latent and blatant; against, well against whatever diminishes and devalues human beings and human life. 'Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever rolling stream' - not mere aspiration, but worldview, lifestyle, prayer that leads to practice.

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It’s Lent. Maybe complacency would be harder to give up than chocolate, wine, TV. It might be worth deciding what to fight for….and against. If we can be bothered!