I met Tinky Robertson back in 2012 when I was out in South Africa. She is ordinary not particularly important white South African woman who now works as a book keeper for the Diocese of Zululand. But back in 1994, just after the first free multiracial elections she lived in Pretoria. Tinky was out jogging one day when who should she meet but President Nelson Mandela, coming jogging in the opposite direction. He introduced himself to her as if he was quite an ordinary person, asked her her name and asked her a few questions about herself and then they both went off jogging in different directions.
A couple of years later, she was out jogging again when who should she meet coming jogging towards her from the opposite direction but President Nelson Mandela. “Hello Tinky” he said. This man who met with the likes of the Queen, President Clinton and Tony Blair, remembered an ordinary woman he had met just once for a few minutes two years earlier.
It seems everyone in South Africa has a Nelson Mandela story. People tell of how he would come back from International summits having bought presents for the children of the most junior staff in the Presidential offices, and having remembered what each child was into.
And yet, this great man, Nelson Mandela, achieved virtually nothing until he was 72 years old.
Indeed he spent 28 years in prison, waiting, waiting waiting for the time to be right when his Rainbow nation could be set free and he could bring in a new era of reconciliation and freedom for all.
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Former Mau Mau fighter Kimani Maruge enrolled in the first year at the age of 84 on January 12, 2004. He said the Kenyan government’s announcement of universal and free elementary education in 2003 prompted him to learn to read. And he didn’t stop there. In 2005 Maruge was elected head boy. He did have maturity on his side…
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Colonel Sanders didn’t start Kentucky Fried Chicken until he was 61
Tolkein didn’t write the Lord of the Rings until he was 62.
Ronald Regan didn’t become president of the USA until he was 69
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This Christmas 86 year old Pensioner Betty Williams hit first her local papers in Devon, then the national papers then the TV. Why? Well Betty loved her town of Ottery. People were very friendly most of the time. But at Christmas it got lonely. People went off to their families. It was fine when her husband was alive, but once he died twelve years ago, the Christmas season had become very lonely for this retired school teacher. so Betty approached the local pub, the Lamb and Flag, booked it out for 23rd December and paid over £1,000 to provide a meal and half a bottle of wine each for 50 other old people who would be lonely at Christmas. Then she approached the local Mayor to get him to help organise it and find 50 suitable guests. She tried to do it all anonymously but when it all hit the newspapers and got so much media attention she couldn’t hide any longer who she was.
The event took on a life of it’s own - the Town’s brass band played in the guests to the tune of O Come all ye faithful. The town crier welcomed them into the room,
After the town crier had welcomed the guests, Betty offered a short prayer thanking everyone for attending and reminding everyone that the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
And people who had heard about this event from as far away as Holland and America sent in cheques ensuring the event could happen not just this year, but for many years to come. All organised and initiated by 86 year old widow Betty Williams.
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Simeon and Anna aren’t mentioned in the bible until they are well past retirement age. They burst onto the scenes in their Zimmer frames, announcing that the baby before them will be the one to change the world. Simeon - we are told nothing of his age - only that he has been told by God the he won’t see death until he has seen the Messiah.
“Now Master you can let your servant go in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory of your people Israel.”
Anna - we are told - was “of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of 84”
Both these two characters are those who would be written off today as “past it” - yet it is they who tell to the whole Temple who Jesus is.
I remember meeting a lovely woman who in her retirement would go out to help her “old dears”. She helped at a lunch club, would take them to the shops, would help them with problems with their benefits etc etc. I guess when she started doing this she was in her 60s and her “old dears” were a good ten years older than her - but by the time I met her, She was in her mid eighties and all her “old dears” were a good ten years younger than her.
At the opposite end of the age spectrum, Malala Yusef was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17, the youngest person ever to be awarded it. Why? Because since the age of 11, she had been blogging about girls right to be educated. This young girl’s blogs became such a threat to the “Big Men” of the Taliban that when she was just 15 they shot her. By some miracle of God she survives and she continues to campaign for the right of girls to be educated today.
At the age of just 14, disabled athlete Ellie Symmonds won her first Gold medal the Beijing Paralympics.
In the year 2000 an 8 year old girl called Stephanie started a charity called “kids making a difference” initially to help endangered Manatees, a charity that is still going today raising thousands to help animals at risk.
By the age of just 28, Dickens was on his fourth novel, Paul MacCartney had left the Beetles after over a decade of fame, Alexander the Great had conquered most of Persia and ALexander Graham Bell was less than a year away from inventing the Telephone.
Simeon and Anna pick up a mere baby and say “this is the light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.” A few verses later we will read of Jesus at the age of 12 astounding people in the Temple.
We live in a society that constantly writes people off for being too old or too young. But we follow a God who never writes people off for being too young or too old. We follow a God who calls Abraham in his 90s and Samuel when he’s a little lad in the Temple. We follow a God who leaves Moses stewing for 40 years in exile in Sinai - a bit like Nelson Mandela I guess, waiting for those 28 years in prison - before calling him to tell Pharoah “let my people Go”. The same God who calls the boy king Josiah at the age of 8 to lead the biggest religious renewal in the Old Testament, a bit like Malala Yusef aged just 11 beginning her fight to ensure that the girls of Pakistan have the right to read.
Here at St Barnabas we are particularly blessed to have a lot of teenagers and lot of people over 70. Perhaps we lack a few people in certain decades in the middle, but we should give thanks to God for who we have here - because for God you are never too young and never too old. This is at the heart of my faith - I believe in the God who believes in us - the God who believes we are never too young and never too old, the God who if we will let him will use us - even here in little Northolt Park - to do amazing things.
Amen
