Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it—not for sordid gain but eagerly.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, August 7, 2022
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God encourages us to open ourselves to the wisdom of generations that are not ours.
In my first call as a pastor at the tender age of 31, I thought I was all grown up and knew stuff about stuff. After worship each Sunday, I would stand at my post at the back door, greeting worshipers cheerfully and blissfully. When the kids would come, I’d kneel down so that I could greet them on their level. I thought I had it all down until one Sunday after I greeted one of our regular elderly ladies. As she left, I heard her say to her companion, “She always speaks to me like I’m a child!” And then I heard it and couldn’t unhear it. I had always spoken to the kids and the elderly as if they weren’t fully functioning humans. I’d had very little experience with the elderly. My grandpa had spent his last few years sliding steadily into dementia. I did my clinical pastoral education on the Alzheimer’s unit of a nursing home. Of course, my gut reaction was to speak to the elderly the way I had spoken to the ones with dementia—that’s all I had known.
Her comment changed me forever. I started to realize I had discounted an entire generation of wisdom. So, I started seeing them. Really seeing them. I watched their interactions and I listened to their stories. I asked questions. I started absorbing their wisdom. God gave me a gift that day and I have not squandered it.
1 Peter spoke to this, too. He encouraged the elderly not to rest on their laurels, but to take care of the younger generation as a shepherd cares for a flock. He went a step further. He encouraged the flock to respect to the authority of the elders. In a sense, he gave the younger generation a gift—not to squander the wisdom of their elders. We can all learn so much if we open ourselves to those who are older or younger than we are.