Miyamura in English　 Encouragement of a 100-Year-Old

沖縄、琉球神学 聖書味読・身読 神学宣教日記 聖書神学 宣教・説教 この方、あの方との対話 エキメニズム 日常生活

Miyamura in English
Encouragement of a 100-Year-Old

[ ]Introduction
I am so thankful that we can worship the Lord together this morning. I would like to say thank you, that you gave me the oppotunity to　study the Bible with you.
When I heard the theme of your Exchange Program, the Role of Christians for the Aged Society", even at first,I had conviction that you must have important study through your program. We have been praying for your meeting at our church.
Whenever I read the Bible, I am always interested in times, dates, ages or things like these in the Biblical text.
For example Genesis 25:21, let me read this in NIV
gIsaac prayed to the Lord on behalf his wife, because she was barren. The Lord answered his prayer,and his wife Rebekah became pregnant." If we read this Bible verse without being careful of its context, we get the impression that Isaach's preyer was answered soon. So we may think there is a gap between this and our real day-by-day experience.
However, we need to read carefully just one verse before Genesis 25:21, this is,20.
Genesis 25:20gand Isaac was forty years old when he marriaged Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean."
Then, we must be careful to read verse 26.
It says, when Isaac's prayer was answered and Rebekah gave birth to Esau and Jacob, Issac was sixty years old.
Therefore, Isaac had benn praying fof his wife Rebekah, nearly for twenty yeares, day after day.
Genesis 25:21 inclues within its short verse nearly twenty years. This fact makes us be careful when we read the statement of times,
ages, dates and so on, in our Bible.
Among the persons who the Bible mentions about their ages, Joseph, one of Isaac's grandsons,is especially noteworthy.

[ ]Joseph, the grandson of Isaac
In the case of Joseph, the Bible writes clearly his age three times. that is,
Genesis 37:2, Genesis 41:46 and Genesis 50:22
Let me read each of them.
Genesis 37:2 g---Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers,---"
41:46 gJoseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt."
50:22 gJoseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father's family. He lived a hundred and ten yeares."
After we moved to Okinawa from Tokyo area in Aprile 1986, we continueto experience blessings of our Lord, even though it is true
that we face some difficulties. One of the precious blessing is to participate in the Sunday afternoon worship service of Mt.Olibe
hospital elderly people's home every the 4th Sunday over ten years.
From this experience, the story of Joseph's life became much more meaningful for me. At Mt. Olive elderly peoples home worship service,some are in their 80's, or 90's and several are even 100 years old. One of them, Granma Inafuku will be 101 years old on her
next September birthday. She is the grandma of our church member, so I have known her very well for the last 15 years. Whenever I meet her, she says,gI am Genki", just like this.

[ ]To understand a 100 year old person life, through the Bible or by the Bible.
After we moved here, I am interested in reading the Bible not only at this new place, but also in understanding the new place through the Bible or by the Bible. To know the content of our Bible and preach it, is necessary and important. But it is no enough. We need to
understand everything of our daily life through the Bible.
We read the life of Joseph in our Bible. Then we learn to see and understand the existence of Joseph, not only at sixteen years old, but throughout his life. We see the 17-year-old Joseph, the 30-year-old Joseph, and 110-year- old Joseph. In this way, we really understand who Joseph is.
In the same way, I learn to understand each precious life of Mt.Olive hospitale old people,through the Bible text of Joseph in
Genesis.

For example, about
17 years old
We can think of the life of each one of elderly home people, at 17 years old, through our picture of 17-year-old Joseph.
17 years old Joseph. Of course, there is back-ground before that time. Joseph was created in his mothers womb, just like the Psalm 139 shows us. The Psalm says.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your
thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

Joseph went through each step one by one, untill he became 17 years old and he was separated from his family and home land, and then was moved into the new circumstances.
Just like Joseph, quite a few of our elderly people of Mt.Olibe hospital had to leave this beautiful land, for one reason or another and live in mainland where they experienced discrimination.

30 years old
We can imagine each one at 30 years of age, through the picture of the 30 yeas old Joseph.Joseph went through adverse circumstances one after another, but he did his best faithfully in every situation. His rights were not recognized, but he was made responsible for all that was done there. And finally Jpseph got his life work at 30 years old.
Through this picture, we can understand the lives of each noe of our elderly people, when they were 30 years old. How faithfully they continue to live in any particular situation.

Especially the picture of Joseph's life makes us think about the days of their lives from 30 years old to today.
What a heavy step each one of elderly people went through in the middle of the hard days in Okinawa through and after World War .
Let us see how Joseph saw his whole life.
I would like to read Genesis 50:19,20.
Genesis 50:19
But Joseph said to them,gDon't be afraid. Am I in the place
of God?
20 You intemd to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what was now being done, the saving of many lives."
Joseph clearly saw that the living God guides his total steps of his whole life, and confessed the faith of Divine Probidence.
Just like Joseph, now Grandma Inafuku recognizes tnat her Lord guides her whole life and she praises the name of the Lord by her whole existence.

Conclusion
What is the encouragement of a 100-year-old person, like Grandma Inafuku, for us who are given the theme, gthe Role of Christians for the Aged Society"?
I think there are two teachings at least.
The first one is encuragement that gives hope.

Second is encouragement of sound mind.

Let us think about first point. As you know , elderly people think and tell things from many years ago like yesterday.
For just Grandma Inafuku,the past 50 years, even 70 years is quite a shout time.
She can see through the whole process of it at a moment and she praises the Lord for it.
But it is not the whole story. As a true 100-year-old person, she can see through the next 50years, or even 100 years like tomorrow, while many of us see the dificulties and some of us became pessimistic, even disappointed. She encourage us by her existence as Joseph says the following gGod will surely come to your aid."

Second, sound mind( timothy 1:7)
I would like to read Timothy 1:7
gFor God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of soun mind."
Of couse, Grandma Inafuku is no longer a 17-year-old, or 30-year-old. Now, she is helped in many ways by other people. In the present situation, she express the fulfilment of Isaiah 46:4 gEven to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you.
I will sustain you and I will rescue you."
I would like to read the last part of Isaiah
40:3, also.
gYou whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth."
Not just at our mother's wonb, not just our old age. But from the first moment of our existence to the end of our earthly journey, the Lord continues to carry us, even though we do not usually recognize it.
We, as a Christian, confest that it is the living God who carrys us even while we are young and strong as a 17-year-old or 30 year old. This understanding is part of what it means to have a sound mind, to free from haughtness.
gThe Role of Christians for the Aged Society."
It is to show the real humanbeing befor the Lord, by our existence, as Grandma Inafuku does. The real humanbeing, whom the living God created and redeemed. The real humanbeing with hope, and with sound
mind.
Let us prray. Our Heavenly Father thank for this oppotunity of
worshiping You together. Please use each one of us at the real
situation of our society for your glory in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ.