Care for the Old

Lord God, teach us and change us through your Word and by your Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Our series on ‘Changing Britain’ on these summer mornings is urging us to change our nation by first changing ourselves. So far we’ve been urged to ‘Support Marriage’ and then to ‘Rethink Education’. Today the exhortation is ‘Care for the Old’. I’m going to be jumping around the Bible a bit, so please be ready to jump; and you’ll see that there’s an outline on the back of the service sheet. That’ll be useful for jotting references and notes as we go, if you’d like to do that.

The care of the old is a topic that’s very relevant to all of us. Not only do we all share that responsibility in one way or another, but we’re all either heading in that direction, or we’re already old (however reluctant to admit it!).

What is more, the care of the old has been all over the news in recent times.

In part that’s due to our rapidly changing demographics – in a word, more and more of us are old. Since 1985 the number of people reaching over the age of 85 has more than doubled, to 1.4 million. That number is forecast to reach 3.6 million in 25 years.

That has lead to massive changes, for instance, in pension provision and consequent unrest. So as one recent report puts it:

Resistance to pension reforms is now spreading from the public to the private sector as the government struggles to communicate the need for change in the face of demographic change.

Just a month ago the BBC broadcast Terry Pratchett’s documentary showing assisted suicide, which lead to a number of senior members of the House of Lords accusing the BBC of running an “orchestrated campaign” to change the law on assisted suicide, despite the fact that three attempts in recent years to change the law in the House of Lords have been lost by significant margins.

Then there’s been publicity about neglect in care homes. One old lady suffered who, ironically, used to be a midwife caring for those starting their lives. To quote a press report:

When she became old, frail and vulnerable, she was denied even the most basic care. The great-grandmother died aged 75, days after emergency treatment for severe dehydration. Care home records indicated that she had been given no food or drink for the previous four days.

And the reporter adds:

It is an account that shames Britain.

Just last Monday it was announced that the giant care home operator Southern Cross is to close down, with reports warning that its care homes in the North East are among those at most risk of closure.

Then a fortnight ago the Dilnot report was published with proposals for the funding of care for the elderly that would make sweeping changes to the system. And that’s generated a whole new wave of debate and publicity.

So there’s no doubt that this issue is all over the news. Mind you, it’s not exactly a new one. And the Bible has some things to say which are just as powerful and relevant now as they were when they were written thousands of years ago.

To get a clear grasp of what the Bible is saying, we need to put its teaching about care for the old into the context of its overall teaching about the old. I identify four major themes. They all need to be held together. And I’ve summarised them in the headings that you can see on the outline. First, God cares for the old. Secondly, The old are due respect. Thirdly, God uses the old in his service. And fourthly, The old who need care should be given it. We’ll work through those. So:


First, GOD CARES FOR THE OLD

Now there is a spectrum of what we might (respectfully) call the condition of the old. Either end of that spectrum is represented in the Bible by, on the one hand, those who are ‘elders’; and on the other hand by ‘widows’. There is a good deal in the Bible about elders, and also a good deal about widows. And it seems to me those two classes of the old really represent those who we might call ‘the robust old’ on the one hand, and ‘the vulnerable old’ on the other.

In general terms we all move from somewhere at the robust end of the spectrum to the vulnerable end. And ultimately, at the time of our death we’re all vulnerable and need care.

But we also fluctuate between robust and vulnerable, not least depending on the variable state of our health, both mental and physical, and also our degree of social isolation.

And indeed it’s quite common to be relatively robust in some aspects of our lives, whilst being vulnerable in others. To take the obvious example of bereavement – when one of us loses a spouse of many years, we may be in robust physical health, but nonetheless we’ll be emotionally highly vulnerable and in need of loving support.

Robust or vulnerable, the wonderful truth on which we can all rely as we enter and experience old age is that God cares for the old. And by that I don’t only mean that God cares for the old as he cares for all of us – which is of course true. We know that God loves us because he gave his Son to die for us, and he pours his love into our hearts by his Holy Spirit. We know and experience that love by faith whatever age we are.

But there is also a particular care that God has for the old. It’s a care that’s movingly expressed in the first passage that’s mentioned at the top of the outline, Isaiah 46.3-4. We heard it read earlier. Could you turn that up for a minute? You’ll find it on page 732. Here is God’s word to his people:

Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

The context here is that this is a word to the exiled and distressed people of Israel, in Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem and all they held dear. So this is a word to people in anguish.

And then just look at what the Lord is saying through Isaiah in the two verses before these. He is talking about the so-called gods of Babylon. Verse 1:

Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary.

Far from supporting and carrying those who worship them, these idols have to be carried themselves. They are a burden, not a help. And that’s true of all our idols. We think they’ll support us but they just end up being a burden. It’s a tragedy when we don’t trust God.

But, God says, I have been sustaining you all your life. And I’m not going to stop when you get old.

It’s a striking fact that God’s sustaining of our lives is said to begin at conception and to continue through birth and on and on to the end of our lives when our hair is grey.

And look at the emphasis. There’s the repetition in verse 4: “I am he, I am he who will sustain you.” And on top of that there’s the repeated “I”:

I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

The point being: don’t look anywhere else! We’re called to trust God and to keep on trusting God as we enter the unexplored territory of our old age, however difficult things get. There’s a little cameo of that kind of faith in the passage we heard read from 1 Timothy 5, in verse 5, where the apostle Paul says:

The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.

And the point is, she doesn’t do that in vain, because God is faithful. God cares for the old. As the Lord says in Jeremiah 49.11:

Your widows… can trust in me.

So when we think about care for the old, that’s really the place to begin. None of us is without care, however hard our situation. God cares. Jesus will be with us always, coming alongside us by his Spirit.

Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you… I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

That’s the first and really the most important point.


Secondly, THE OLD ARE DUE RESPECT

In Isaiah 3.5 lack of respect is portrayed as one aspect of disaster befalling the nation, where Isaiah says:

The young will rise up against the old…

Respect is commanded in Leviticus 19.32:

Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.

That respect is due for at least three reasons. First, there’s the wisdom of experience, represented by grey hair. So Proverbs 16.31:

Grey hair is a crown of splendour; it is attained by a righteous life.

And 20.29:

The glory of young men is their strength, grey hair the splendour of the old.

But we should note that the Bible is also realistic that old age doesn’t necessarily make us wise! Ecclesiastes 4.13:

Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning.

Secondly, the old due respect because of the troubles that they face – not least from failing health. There’s a picture of that in Joseph’s tenderness towards his father Israel. For instance in Genesis 48.10:

Now Israel's eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.

Thirdly, the old are due respect because of the debt younger generations owe. Back to 1 Timothy 5, and verse 4:

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.

Care between the generations is a theme that’s been explored in a thought-provoking way by David Willetts (now a cabinet minister) in his book ‘The Pinch’. He describes what he calls “the intergenerational contract within families” which is a …

… cat’s cradle of relationships between generations, half exchange and half obligation, which makes the world go around.

So for instance he identifies the benefit to the young themselves when they respect and care for the old – a benefit which cascades down the generations – in this way:

If we care for our parents now they are old, our children will copy us, and similarly care for us when we are old…

In 1 Timothy 5.1 Paul speaks of how this respect for the old should work out in one scenario in the life of the church, when he says to the young church leader Timothy:

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father.

John Stott, from his own vantage point of old age, catches the sense of that with characteristic pithiness when he comments:

Timothy is to give to senior members of the church the respect which is due to age and the affection which is due to parents.

The old are due respect. That’s the second Biblical theme.


Thirdly, GOD USES THE OLD IN HIS SERVICE

You can’t read the Bible without being aware of that, so it’s an obvious point to make but nonetheless important to note. There’s no concept of retirement from the service of Christ or his Kingdom in the Bible. There’s no ageism in God’s use of people for the fulfilment of this purposes.

Abraham was seventy five when he followed God’s call to leave Haran and journey to the promised land. Moses was eighty at the time of the Exodus. When Zechariah is told by the angel Gabriel that he and Elizabeth are to have a son, who is to become John the Baptist, he describes himself as “an old man”; and Gabriel describes Elizabeth to Mary as “in her old age”. The prophetess Anna who recognised the baby Jesus in the Temple was in her eighties. And so it goes on.

Psalm 92.14 says of the righteous:

They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.

On the Day of Pentecost, Peter quotes the prophet Joel saying that the Holy Spirit will be poured out on young and old alike – “your old men will dream dreams”. And in Romans 4 Paul speaks of Abraham’s still growing faith in his old age:

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old… Yet he did not waver through unbelief… but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God…

In his letter to Philemon Paul describes himself as “an old man now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus”.

There is no room for doubt that God uses the old in his service. And the other side of that coin is that we are to keep on trusting in Christ, obeying his Word, serving the church, telling the world, caring for needs and contending for truth while there is breath in our bodies.

God cares for the old. The old are due respect. God uses the old in his service. And finally:


Fourthly, THE OLD WHO NEED CARE SHOULD BE GIVEN IT

I spoke earlier of this spectrum from robust to vulnerable that we all move along. In 1 Timothy 5 (which you can find on page 1193) the apostle Paul speaks of elderly widows as a group who are potentially at the vulnerable end of the spectrum – in days well before any welfare state existed. Not that the needs of the old are purely financial.

One of the principles underlying what he says there is that care should be given where and when it is needed, but that those who can take care of themselves should do so. The robust are called upon to keep on giving, serving and leading. That’s the assumption behind, for instance, 1 Timothy 5.17 which says:

The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honour…

And Paul repeatedly talks about those who are “really in need”. That’s there in 1 Timothy 5.3:

Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.

And in verse 5:

The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God…

And again verse 16 speaks of the church helping…

… those widows who are really in need.

David Willetts makes the point that as we live longer, we are also, on average, staying healthier longer. He says:

We fear these extra years will be years of morbidity and ill health… On balance the news is good. It looks as if for most people these are extra years of good health. By and large we die fitter… As people live to be 80 instead of 75, they still need expensive health care but the health care will be needed in the last year, which is five years later than before.

So the robust should keep on giving, serving and leading. Nonetheless, the Bible is quite clear that the vulnerable old are not to be neglected but loved in practical ways.

Where should that care come from?

First and foremost, the responsibility to care for the vulnerable old falls on the younger and fitter members of the old person’s family. That principle could hardly be more strongly stated. 1Timothy 5.3-4:

3Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. 4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.

And again in verse 16:

If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.

And Paul leaves no room for doubt about the seriousness of this responsibility in verses 7-8 where he urges:

7Give the people these instructions, too, so that no-one may be open to blame. 8If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Care should come first from the family. But then if there is no family to provide that care, the next line of defence is the church. The church has a corporate responsibility to care for the vulnerable old in its midst. So, as we’ve seen, Paul tells the church leader Timothy (in verse 3):

Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.

And the clear implication of verse 16 is that the church not only can but should step in to help in situations where there is no family to do so.

And that’s something the church began to do very early in its life. So Acts 6 describes the early church’s daily food distribution to the needy, including the vulnerable old.

Then the third line of defence in the care of the vulnerable is the state. The principle of welfare provision for the needy is enshrined in God’s Law for the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 14.28-29:

28At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, 29so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

There’s a link between the continuing prosperity of the nation and its provision for the needs of the vulnerable.

How we care for the old is then a matter of applied common sense.

At the individual level, let’s be thoughtful and kind in practical ways to the vulnerable old that we know or encounter. And let’s give them the respect they are due, remembering that it’ll be us on the receiving one day soon.

At the family level, let’s make sure that the vulnerable old in our families have proper provision – poignant though that reversal of caring roles can be, not least for children who become the carers for their parents. That’s captured in the proverb:

When the father helps the son they both laugh.When the son helps the father they both cry.

And at the church level, let’s discharge our pastoral and practical responsibility with the utmost seriousness. For instance at this church for years on and off we’ve talked about sponsoring what is called a ‘continuing care retirement community’ – where a range of options is available all one site, from independent living all the way through to full nursing care. Surely before long, as these needs grow, the time will have come to stop talking and to start making something like that happen.

Let’s bow our heads to pray:

Teach us, heavenly Father, to love and care for the old as you love and care for them. In Jesus’ name.