As they passed through the middle age years and headed for senior status, they took some measures to make sure that those years would be manageable years.
They took stock of their finances, for example, and made sure that there would be enough for everyday life and for at least a few emergencies. It only seemed prudent once you were past all the business of educating the children and paying off the mortgage to see to it that something was set aside so that if your health broke you would not be a burden on somebody else.
They got their home all fixed up too ... made sure that everything was in good repair, got it all simplified so that it would not be hard to take care of if they should get a little slow in these older years. After all, they had spent many years doing all their own work and sort of patching things together, just to get by, and now it seemed right to spend a little extra, invest a little more and get that home to the point where it was easy to live in.
Other things were done to insure a comfortable, quiet time. They still had family to deal with, but the family was on its own now, and that's the way they wanted it. The nice thing about grandchildren is that you can enjoy them until they need feeding or changing or spanking, and then it's somebody else's problem.
Everything was ready for a fine, quiet, fulfilling, peaceful, restful retirement. And then it happened. Then it all busted loose.
"When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared and said to him, 'You shall be the father of a multitude of nations ... No longer shall your name be Abram, exalted father, but your name shall be Abraham, father of a multitude … I will make you exceedingly fruitful ... I will give you to all the land of Canaan … and as for Sarai your wife, Sarah shall be her name, and I will give you a son by her and she shall be the mother of nations."
Ninety-nine years old, enjoying getting up late and going to sleep early, and you are going to have a son. Sarah, ninety years old, barely willing to fix her husband a sandwich, and now going to have a baby to look after. How ridiculous! What a crazy business! Lord, you’ve go to be kidding. And the Bible says that Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" Lord, you've got to be kidding, and it's not only that it isn't biologically possible, it's just not what I had in mind. Lord, this is some kind of joke, isn't it?
I guess it's a good thing that Abraham could laugh, and a couple of chapters later it says that Sarah also laughed about this whole business. In fact the son who was born was named Isaac, and Isaac means laughter. A good thing they could both laugh and take it in stride, because it seems like a real intrusion, doesn't it? Here they had a quiet peaceful few years all mapped out and now this. Diapers at age 100; and how would like to be paying college tuition when you are 120?
But I want you to notice that God speaks of all this as a blessing and as a delight. God says, look Abraham, I've saved the best until last, and through this son of yours I am going to bless the whole world. Through this Isaac, this laughter boy, I am going to give you a multitude of descendants and I am going to make a great nation. Abraham, the best is yet to be, the best is yet to be. You think you've lived your life out, but you don't understand. I am not finished with you yet, the best is yet to be.
The poet Robert Browning offers us this way of understanding God's provision for our senior years. In his poem Rabbi Ben Ezra Browning says, "Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be; the last of life, for which the first was made; our times are in His hand, who saith, 'A while I planned; Youth shows but half; trust God, see all, nor be afraid'"
The best is yet to be … you see, our God still has more up his sleeve for us. Our God always has something more for us to do, and it may well be that despite our feeling that our powers are diminishing, despite our sense that we are a little tired and run down, God may yet have our best years and our best work ahead of us.
We do live in a youth-oriented culture. We live in a time and in a nation which invests tremendous resources in young people. We spend billions of dollars on schools, on universities, on youth programs; we market products for young people, especially affluent young adults. We focus a great deal on preparing young people for adult responsibilities, and all of that is fine. I would not want to take away from that for one moment.
But if we fail to see what all this is leading to, then we've missed the full picture. And if we think of our lives as reaching a peak somewhere in the middle years and then declining, we have missed God's intention. Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made.
Old Abraham, if he had laughed off God's promise and had rejected it ... what he would have missed. He would have missed the joy of seeing this fine young man Isaac grow and develop ... what a loss that would have been. If old Sarah, confused and perplexed as she no doubt was, had refused the gift of a son – and who could have blamed her at ninety years old? – but if she has refused this gift, if she had not seen Isaac as a gift of God, what she would have missed. And what bitterness she might have felt. If you and I do not see our senior years as the crown of all that God has been working to give us, what we will miss and what blessings we will give up. The last of life, for which the first was made … the best is yet to be.
Now I am a number of years away from senior status; don't you plan my retirement party just yet. But I have to admit that at a certain point in middle age you do begin to think about retirement and plan for it. I notice a certain eagerness in myself when the quarterly statement arrives from the Southern Baptist Annuity Board to tell me what kind of income I might expect when I retire. I notice a closer attention when the AARP magazine arrives in the mail. But I also notice that some folks work harder after they retire than they did while they were officially employed. Some folks find that there is nothing attractive about quitting your job so that you can become a couch potato in front of the TV set or so that you can head off to Florida and its shuffleboard courts and its salt-free cafeterias. Some folks find that God is not finished with them and that in the senior years, His best for them is yet to be.
I know one couple – he was an accountant, she a teacher – and when retirement came, they sold their house, they moved into something smaller, and then took off for a year to serve in mission work in Israel. No salary, no boss, no time clock –but laughter. Isaac laughter, the joy of becoming a blessing for somebody else … the last of life for which the first was made.
I had another friend who retired as the pastor of one of the churches here in Washington, but who found himself busier, happier, more fulfilled …he estimated that he had preached about 300 revival meetings in the ten years or so after his retirement, and used to laugh and brag about not having to go to deacons meetings or church business meetings or committee meet1ngs … you see, the best is yet to be. It’ll have an Isaac in it.
And you and I know folks in this church whose whole life is spent in service … people who visit nursing homes, who see to it that others get the attention they need, who invest more hours in labor than they ever did when they were employed, and now there is no boss to tell them what to do, there is no time-clock to punch, there is no worry about office politics … there is only laughter, Isaac laughter, the best is yet to be. God always has more for us to accomplish, and I believe that for each one of us there is an Isaac out there. There is something that God has for you, something with meaning. He wants you to live life ‘til you die, and to know, with laughter, that the best is yet to be.
II
But now there is another facet of this Biblical story that intrigues me; there is another name which shows up in this account. Alongside the names of Abraham and Sarah and Isaac there is somebody else, and that is Ishmael. Ishmael, older than Isaac, already the son of Abraham … but not his son by his wife Sarah but his son by Sarah's servant Hagar.
I will not take the time to repeat that story, but it's enough to say that Ishmael represents the mistakes that Abraham and Sarah had made. They had not lived out their lives in perfection, after all; they were no plaster saints, selected by God for special service because they had earned something. They had made their mistakes, they had committed their sins, and Ishmael was the tangible result of that. Ishmael was the product of their poor judgment, of their immaturity, and of their inability to wait on God's good time.
Now what does God say about Ishmael to Abraham and to Sarah? He says, Yes, I am going to give you your own son. I am going to give you Isaac, through whom the world will be blessed; but I will also bless Ishmael and I will make him fruitful ... "he shall be the father of princes, and I will make of him a great nation."
God is saying to us, "Yes, you’ve made mistakes. You’ve done some things over the years of which you cannot be proud." But do not imagine that that gets you off the hook; do not imagine that that disqualifies you from being what God still has in mind for you, for He can forgive us our Ishmaels, and he can even bless our Ishmaels, he can bless our mistakes, and can even use those so that still the best is yet to be.
I know someone who went through a very messy divorce. She came out of it feeling terrible about herself, sour on her former husband, down on the church where they had both worked. It was a mess. It was an Ishmael. But at the same time she thought she heard God's call to give herself to a particular kind of mission work, and here she was, well along in years, suddenly divorced and suddenly burdened with a harvest of mistakes, not all of them her own mistakes, but mistakes nonetheless. What could she do?
She simply trusted God for her future. It sounds deceptively simple, but that's the way it was. She simply came to Washington, found a place to live, and went to work, as a mission volunteer, at the task she felt God calling her to do. And slowly, gradually, but surely, over the next few months, it was not that the Ishmael left her life, not that the problem just went away, but rather that God used it. God used her failed marriage and all that she had learned through that experience to reach other people in the same circumstance. She became an understanding counselor, she became a loving and caring friend, and even her Ishmael became a blessing.
The best is yet to be. Even though years have passed living with a mistake, the best is yet to be, and God has not given up on us. Even though we believe it's too late and that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, do not believe it. God has a way of using all those Ishmael issues and making them into Isaac laughter. The bumper sticker says, "Please be patient with me, God has not finished with me yet". The best is yet to be.
There was a night when certain men – and although we do not know their ages, I rather expect they were as tired and as weary as we think of old folks being – whatever the calendar said, these fellows were worn down and worn out. There was a night when certain men gathered in an upper room and there heard their Master speak to them about that which lay ahead. It looked grim, it looked terrible, it seemed to be a tiresome road indeed. And I can imagine that their lives seemed to be Ishmaels, one huge mistake. If the Master were on the way to the cross and if all they had given themselves to over these three years was now to be lost … well, it must have seemed as though they had come to the end and there was nothing more for them to do. Ishmael, a huge mistake.
But do not count out this Christ. This Christ who spoke of broken body and of poured out blood, this Christ who spoke of the end of his days, this Christ also spoke in those precious moments of the day when he would eat and drink anew in the Father's Kingdom. He spoke of a new day, a Kingdom day, yet to come, and he promised them that they would be a part of that. It would be an Isaac day, a laughter day, a blessing day. And he said, "Behold I make all things new."
Do not count out this Christ, for if we are along in years and feel as though we are only marking time until the inevitable, through this Table he reminds us that we can be His Isaacs, as we give ourselves to the work of the Kingdom, being blessing and laughter and joy to the world.
Do not count out this Christ, for if we have made a few Ishmaels, a whole lot of Ishmael mistakes along the way, here at this Table he tells us that he has paid the price to forgive us, that he will make all things new, and that ahead of Him there is an empty tomb, there is life eternal, there is something more. Ahead of him, ahead of us … the best is yet to be.
