The local paper recently ran a piece which included some comments about the former pastor of a church in our community. His friends and family talked about how he had “retired” several years ago. Scare quotes in the original. Webster tells us that scare quotes are “quotation marks used to express especially skepticism or derision.” Apparently, the former pastor’s friends and family are skeptical as to his actual retirement.
This summer will mark the fifth anniversary of my – no scare quotes – retirement. Also, the fiftieth anniversary of my entry into full-time ministry. I’ve been thinking about retirement, its meaning and its purpose. If you will allow me a little self-indulgence, I plan on using the next four editions of Observations to reflect on retirement:
- Retirement as a gift from God
- Retirement as a gift for others
- Retirement as a call to look forward
- Retirement as a time to look back
Before I begin the first installment, I should add that my retirement is pretty traditional. Five years ago, I quit receiving a paycheck, moved out of my office, and was no longer bound to a position description and job expectations. In those five years our retirement income has proven to be more than adequate, my health is good, and my energy level is high. We also moved 600 miles from the place we had called home to a new house and home we enjoy greatly. I understand that some people cannot afford to retire, and others enter retirement with regrets and worries of different sorts. So, as I think about retirement, most of the data comes from my own good experience and from conversations and observations from those around me. I will cite no studies and offer no footnotes.
In my denomination, as in most, ordination to the pastorate is for life. And, interestingly, the IRS allows retired pastors to continue to claim part of their retirement income as housing allowance. “Once a pastor, always a pastor” has some truth to it. But beware the retired pastor who tells you retirement is never mentioned in the Bible and uses that line as an excuse to meddle, pontificate, and remain in charge wherever he or she goes. In fact, retirement is mentioned in the Bible. Moses mandated retirement at age 50 for the temple priests (Numbers 8:24-26). And while there was no Social Security Administration in Roman-occupied Judea and Galilee, Jesus made it clear that adult children were expected to provide financial resources to support their parents in the final chapters of their lives (Mark 7:9-13). A retirement from the working, income-producing world is a biblical expectation. And it is gift from God.
The Preacher of Ecclesiastes reminds us that “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Retirement is a new season of life and should be received as a gift from God.
I will talk more about how we might fill our retirements next week, but just as we don’t water ski in the winter or snow ski in the summer, retirement is a season when many of the activities of our pre-retirement life are no longer appropriate. Too many retired pastors try to keep on water skiing during the winter months of retirement. I have felt the temptation. Before retirement, I was in charge in my workaday world. I made decisions and cast visions. I offered counsel and taught classes. I preached sermons and planned worship services. I was important, or at least I thought so. Not so much after retirement. Do I miss that world I called home for 45 years? Sometimes. But how foolish it is to try to replicate the busy-ness of those days or bask in their occasional acclamation a little longer.
Retirement is a new season, a different season, a gift from God season. As I think about retirement as a gift for others, a call to look forward, and a time to look back, I am discovering that there is no place in retirement for clinging to the past or longing for the way things were. Like all gifts from God, retirement should be joyfully received, no turning back.