Skip to main content

Saging

 I have mentioned Lauren Winner’s Mudhouse Sabbath before. The book has a number of poignant and insightful observations. The following is appropriate for our community because many of us share the reality of being older than the average American. In the chapter on aging, Winner writes this:

The elderly are asked to age well, and the communities that support them are asked to help them do just that. (Rabbi Zalman Schecter-Shalomi has dispensed with the gerund “aging.” He speaks instead of “eldering.” I’ll admit a certain squeamishness with the term—it strikes me as a little twee, and every time I think of it, I have to adjust. But there is something vigorous about it too. To age is to be passive, to sit like a bottle of wine—you just sit there and time passes and age happens over you. To elder—or, in another of Reb Zalman’s clever infinitives, “to sage”—is to try to shape the last years of one’s life with intention.)

Aging is not just a process of physical decline. It can also be a time of the kind of stripping away that fosters spiritual depth, spiritual incline. The Hebrew word sayvah, gray—as in gray hair—is etymologically connected to the word for repentance, teshuva. The process of aging, then, is the process of setting wrong things right.” (p.98-99)

As we together age, do we also help each other sage? When you and I spend some reflection time, are there things that we might set right through the lens of maturity and increasing Christlikeness? Similarly, are there things that you and I need to let go of, relinquish, to forgive?

Are there, conversely, some directions, some areas of life--of real Life--that you and I can begin to step into, to accept, to allow to wash over us? 

This week of peace, what reverberations of forgiveness, reconciliation, of grace might we individually and collectively set in motion in our lives, our families, and our communities? What areas of growth, open doors, of opportunity might we enter with new vigor and intentionality?

 Winner, Lauren. Mudhouse Sabbath (2007). Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

He Remembers We Are But Flesh

In Job, often considered the first book written in the Bible, we are introduced to the accuser. In the introduction to the book, it is the accuser who accuses Job of being righteous and faithful to God only because of the blessings that God has given Job. We find the accuser again in Zechariah 3. The High Priest Joshua is standing in front of the Lord in filthy clothes, and the accuser is making accusations. The Lord rebukes the accuser and then says that he will cleanse Joshua.  Then in the New Testament, we see the appearance of the Advocate. The Spirit, we are told, is sent to walk beside us, to be a witness, to be an advocate for us. The accuser challenges us, questions our faithfulness, and questions our integrity as people who are supposed to follow God as His people, His disciples. This is an entre for being blamed and shamed. But God comes alongside us and advocates for us. We are told too that Jesus is our mediator with God. Jesus defends us and explains us to God so that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Elders redux

A reader (I am always amazed that people actually read this blog) submitted a rather long comment on the original post on Elders. It is apparent that the reader did some good homework as the comment has several, well, more than several, reference citations. It is clear that they both read the original post and did some Bible study before posting their comment. Because the comment was so long, I thought it appropriate to post another entry rather than bury the response in the comment log. In the following discussion, I have included the text of the comment without the Scripture references. If you want to read the comment in its entirety, scroll to the Elders post and click on the comment. --------------------------------------------------------- [Comment~~~~The church is expected to be a people in exactly this sense. We are the people of God who are charged with continuing and preserving the values, culture, hopes, and the identity of God’s people in our time.~~~~ Does this include th...
7 comments
Read more

Passover, The First Born, Abraham, and You

Israel has been in captivity in Egypt, Moses has completed his contests with Pharaoh, and the People of Israel have been expelled from Egypt. The death of Egyptian firstborn children and livestock has compelled their removal into the wilderness. At the end of Exodus 12, God institutes the Passover in remembrance of the Angel of Death passing by the homes of Jews on the night the Egyptian firstborn children were killed. Notably, they were spared if in a house with blood around the door.  The Passover is established for Israel herself, including their slaves who have been circumcised. If a sojourner wants to celebrate the Passover with you, he can after he circumcises all males with him. I suspect that pretty much eliminated any visitors participating. In chapter 13, the protocols include redeeming Israel's firstborn. In this discussion, God says your firstborn belongs to God, and you must redeem your firstborn or you must kill it. God has redeemed Israel's firstborn by the blood...
Post a Comment
Read more