BIBLICAL IMAGES OF AGING

PSALM 90:10 The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span* is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.11 Who considers the power of your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due to you. 12 So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.

THEY WHO WAIT FOR THE LORD SHALL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH;    THEY SHALL MOUNT UP WITH WINGS LIKE EAGLES;THEY SHALL RUN AND NOT BE WEARY;    THEY SHALL WALK AND NOT FAINT. ISAIAH 40:31

PSALM 103 1Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—3who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,4who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,5who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. . . .

PSALM 103 cont..15 As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field;16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, 18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.

Psalm 92PSALM 92:12-14 The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap, showing that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

The Call to Resurrecton as the Way to Life Abundant and

Eternal—NOW! 1 PETER 1:3

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-4, 16-19 For we know --if indeed, when we

have taken it off we will not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

Behold New Things!

ISAIAH 40:18-192 CORINTHIANS 5:17REVELATION 21:5A

18 Do not remember the former things,   or consider the things of old. 19 I am about to do a new thing;   now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?I will make a way in the wilderness   and rivers in the desert.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation, everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.

See, I am making all things new.

MORE “NEW” STUFF

LAMENTATIONS 3:22-23 EPHESIANS 4:22-24

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.

{you were taught{ to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life…and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Moses

THE ARC OF A LIFE

Birth narrative Calling Challenges,

Successes and Failures—his own and those of others

Crowning achievement

Limits Old age and death

The Arc of MosesDeuteronomy 31:1-6

31 So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. 2 And he said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to get about. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ 3 The Lord your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, as the Lord has spoken. 4 And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. 5 And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you. 6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Naomi

THE ARC OF A LIFE PAINTING BY WILLIAM BLAKE

Born in Bethlehem Married into an alien

land Widowed Return Home Family and legacy Old age: restoration

and nourishment and fulfillment

Ruth 4:14-17

Samuel

THE ARC OF A LIFE

Birth narrative Childhood and calling Judge, prophet, warrior,

priest (not Levite) Family failures (sons) The Anointings and the

Disappointings Retirement and death

and appearance at Endor

The Arc of Prophet Anna

.36 There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage. 37 then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Life as daughter, wife, widow, prophet, evangelist sustained in trial and trouble by the spiritual disciplines of fasting and prayer.

Jesus

Birth narrative Calling Dormant years Temptation Ministry Passion—betrayal,

suffering, death Resurrection

Jesus

MANTEGNA GAUGUIN

HEBREWS 12:1With so many witnesses in a great crowd all around us, we too, then, should throw off everything that weighs us down and

the sin that clings closely and with perseverance keep running in the race

which lies ahead of us.