[AI translation] The miracle of the Christian church is described in the Word read. The church of Jesus is a new kind of ecclesial community in which the most diverse people are all built into one body, one living organism, by the Spirit of Jesus, one Spirit. Thus, too, the apostle says in the previous verses that through the one Spirit all, Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, poor and rich, have been baptized into one body. So the differences of language, origin, wealth, culture and race which otherwise cause so much trouble and warfare between people are not obstacles to people understanding one another in the church of Christ. To really understand each other, to really understand and help each other. This is how the Christian Church entered the world 2000 years ago, and this is still its essence today, this total community of love.And among the members there are not only Jews and the free, as we read in the Word, but also such members: the weaker and the stronger, the eloquent and the less eloquent, the suffering and the joyful. On this very Sunday, let me put it this way: older and younger, healthy and sick. This difference also tends to cause a great divide between people. There can be a great divide between the old and the young, the sick and the healthy can be very far apart, but it is precisely because in the church of Christ it is different. Thus, "those who seem to be the weakest members of the body are very necessary" (1 Cor 12:22): "That there be no likeness in the body, but that the members care for one another" (1 Cor 12:25). Old and young, healthy and sick: they are for one another! They are for the benefit of one another. They are a mutual gift and duty to each other! This is what I would like to talk about on this Sunday of the old and sick.
Let us first see that both old age and the sick state have their own particular burden, but also their own particular richness. What the burden is, every old and every sick person feels it very well. But the problem is that, for the most part, they are the only ones who feel it, the relatively younger and healthier ones do not - and are therefore not sufficiently understanding of it. One of the most difficult burdens to bear is that the old or sick person is constantly forced to feel that they are dependent on others. This is one of the reasons why so many people have an almost instinctive fear of growing old or becoming ill. How many times have I heard people sigh, "God forbid that I should be dependent on the kindness of others! One feels a burden when one has to be served. It hurts one's self-esteem if one can only get a glass of water with the help of someone else. "I am a burden to everyone," said a sick old man when I visited him, "why doesn't God take me? This constant sense of dependence on others makes one bitter, restless, impatient. It depends on the younger and healthier whether this sad feeling of the old and sick man is intensified to the point of utter despair or completely removed from his heart. For both are possible. It is a terrible thing to make a man feel that he is a burden - but it is a still more terrible, downright cruel thing, to make a man feel that he is a burden! A burden, because he has already given everything: youth, beauty, strength, material possibilities: everything! But it is not a burden! How can someone who can still be loved and served be a burden? Someone who can still be cared for? For there is nothing in the world that enriches a man's life so much as to be able to surround someone in need of loving care. There is no purer joy in the world than to give joy to someone who already has little of it. - And another thing: what will Jesus say on the last day? "I was sick and you visited me..." (Mt 25,36) So Jesus comes behind all the sick and old, almost invisibly, and says: here I am, love me, take care of me, visit me, feed me, honour me, until it is too late! For whatever you do or do not do to them, my little ones, you do or do not do to me! Behold, then, even in the fact that we can love them, we can visit them, they are in fact giving to us! They give us the opportunity to meet - with Jesus!
Behold, that is how much we need them! So true is our Word: "the things which seem to be the weakest members of the body are very necessary" (1 Cor 12,22) So much for each other, for each other, for each other, so much are we mutually a gift and a duty to each other! Tell the old and sick around you that they can only accept with a good heart the care of God that he exercises through you. It is the order of nature: since they contributed to the welfare of the young when they were breadwinners, why should not the younger ones now contribute to their welfare when they are dependent on it? After all, they took care of the younger generation when they were helpless - so why shouldn't the younger generation take care of them now, when they are old and helpless? I heard in a social home that among the old people living there, rank and 'rank' is not determined by what job one has held in the past, or by one's financial means or origin, but solely by how often one's relatives visit. There's an old couple, and every day their son comes to visit them with a flower or a small token of affection. The other residents look upon this old couple as if they were princes, but they are just ordinary people, and they are lifted up by the grateful love of their son! Oh, how little it takes to lift a little higher with the arms of our love one who feels deeply! Try it, you will have the greatest joy because of it! Thus it is written, "He who refreshes others refreshes himself." (Prov 11:25) So much need is there for those who seem to be the weakest! They help "refresh" us! Spiritually refreshed, strengthened!
Another great burden of old age and sickness is that such a person feels useless. There is no more terrible state of mind than when someone feels that he is useless, that no one needs him anymore, that no one can benefit from having him! There are so many things that he would like to do, that he would be happy to help out with, or that he would be happy to do some useful work. But no one needs it, or even if they did, they would be prevented by inertia. This feeling then overwhelms and despairs the stagnant or sick person. He sees that everyone around him is running around, working, doing and doing, and he is virtually cut off from all productive activity. Such a person slowly loses all self-confidence and self-esteem and becomes bored with life. But this should not be so, if we could take seriously that in the church of Christ, or in the Christian family, even the weakest members of the body are needed to 'care for one another'! (1 Cor 12:25) For old age lived in living faith is in itself a great gift and a blessing for the young. The old man has already overcome the struggles of youth and the tasks of adulthood: he now sees and appreciates everything from a higher and more objective point of view, free of illusions, above the vanities, passions, temptations and futilities of life. The believing old man is like a fully ripened fruit that has not yet fallen from the tree. The years of struggle, the many mistakes and disappointments, the joys and bitterness, the successes and failures he has gone through, have matured his personality. What a great gift it is when the enthusiastic idealism of youth is balanced by the wise realism of old age, when the rash haste is tempered by prudent moderation, when the enterprise and vigour of a long life are complemented by the experience of a long life! Thus are old and young for one another, together for the Lord! Indeed: they can be a gift and a task for each other. Oh, that young people would not realise this only when they themselves are old!
A sick person can also be a blessing to those around him. I have been by a sickbed where the peace and joy of heaven almost radiated from the wreck of a man writhing in pain. The sickness of that suffering man brought eternity so near and made it so real that one was almost strengthened in faith when one saw and talked with him. He did an unspeakable service to those around him by the way he suffered. He was a great burden, but a burden under which the faith of others, the goodness of others, the certainty of salvation, grew even more. Behold, a helpless life can also be a service in which Jesus glorifies himself on earth.
And in a very special way, the sick and old can be very necessary in the family, in the Church, in society. And that is in the service of prayer for others! I once sat at the bedside of an elderly, sick woman. She was complaining, as most people complain: "What bothers me most is that I can't work, when I am so much needed! I tried to explain to her that she could be useful to her family not only by cleaning the rooms, cooking the lunches, doing the laundry, as she used to do, but in other ways. He now has something that other people around him lack: he has plenty of time for quiet. And that is a great treasure! A great opportunity for service. A service that others hardly have time for: the service of praying for others. Those weary hands that can no longer hold the tools of the trade: they can still join together in prayer, and so bring unheard of great causes and human destinies before God. And thus, men excluded from physical productive labour may become blessed co-workers in the kingdom of God. For this world, especially now, is in unspeakable need of the fervent supplications of souls praying for it. Tell them that! That in this way they can make themselves useful. Yes, useful!
There is a beautiful scene in the Old Testament. The Lord's people were confronted by the Amalekites. Joshua was leading the battle, and Moses and two others were praying up on the mountain, keeping the fighting army in touch with the Lord. While they lifted up their hands and prayed to the Lord, down in the valley the Lord's people were victorious over the enemy. When those on the mountain grew tired of praying, the fighting army lost to the enemy. Could anyone say that Moses and his two companions were doing unnecessary work when they prayed silently away from the fighting? No! Because it was through their prayers that God gave the fighting troops the strength they needed to win. Praying for others is like holding the hand of the Lord with one hand and the hand of a fellow human being who is struggling in the struggles of life, who is not available or cannot pray, and so, in his own person, he maintains the link, the contact between God and the other person. Such a service can be rendered for us by our sick and elderly brothers and sisters who are no longer involved in the great struggle of life. They can help their families, their Church, their people to victory!
I knew an old pastor who, when he retired, tired of active ministry, said: now I will continue to serve my Church and my people with my prayers of supplication! And he served faithfully, until death! And in the wake of his ministry, immeasurable blessings have flowed! If you would tell your old and sick relatives, when you come here on Sunday, to keep the spiritual front from home during the service with prayer: the service here would be conducted in an atmosphere in which the Word would be a living force. Such an invisible prayer ring could be woven around us that we would all feel the real presence of Jesus! What a blessing it would be to have old and sick members of the body of Christ! If the members care for one another!
Yes: for each other. The old for the young and the young for the old. The sick for the healthy and the healthy for the sick! So we form one body, the body of Christ! That is how much we are for each other, how much we are mutually a gift and a task for each other! If only the Spirit of God would inspire us now:
"United in love
We are members of one body,
We can fight for each other,
If necessary, shed our blood."
(Canto 395, verse 2)!
Amen
Date: 11 June 1967 (Sunday of the Old and Sick)