Choices?
At a Residents’ Meeting in one of our Care Homes, someone spoke up to bemoan the fact that when ice cream was on the menu, it was always vanilla.
“Not a problem,” said the Manager, and promptly dispatched the chef to the supermarket to buy some other flavours. So the next time ice cream was on offer, there was a choice of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry flavours. But everyone who had ice cream that day, and indeed most days, chose vanilla!
One of the biggest changes during the lifetime of most of those MHA works with is the amazing plethora of choices that has become part of everyday life. “Any colour as long as it is black,” was Henry Ford’s motto in 1922, whereas nowadays cars come in innumerable shades of blue and green, let alone all the other colours. The supermarket shelves heave with more varieties of tinned soup than there are days in the month to eat them, and one could go on. Making choices is one of the things we learn to do as we grow, and living with the consequences of those choices is something we learn a little later. Asserting our right to choose, and blending that right with those of others, is part of learning to live as part of a family or wider society. From the earliest chapters of the Bible, human choosing is at the heart of our quest for identity and our relationship with God.
As we move into older age, it is not uncommon to discover that other people make more choices for us, while the number of options open to us begins to diminish. Isn’t that what Jesus promised Peter at the end of John’s gospel? But the need to have choices and to make them remains part of our human make up, even up to how and where we die, and what happens afterwards.
At the heart of MHA’s mission, to improve the quality of life for older people, inspired by Christian concern, is the recognition that each person is an individual, with their own needs and requirements. So part of our strategy is to provide as wide a choice of means of support as possible. Live at Home schemes, sheltered housing and residential care homes were for several years the only options we could offer. Then we added nursing and dementia care in homes and more recently we have offered care in housing. Now we are developing properties for sale as well as rent, and we have taken on our first retirement community.
Methodist Homes Sunday this year falls on Sunday 14th June – and our theme offers an opportunity to explore this idea of Choices. We remember Moses’ injunction to ‘choose life’ and in MHA we aim to make the later years of people’s lives as meaningful as possible, paying particular attention to addressing their spiritual needs.
So on this Methodist Homes Sunday, we are asking again for your generous support. We invite you to remember the work of MHA, and in your worship to look at ways of enhancing the lives of older people in your community.
These worship materials illustrate ways of building a service round our theme. The material can also be used in a midweek meeting or housegroup. If you want an electronic copy of these materials, they can be downloaded from our website at . You will find some further illustrative material there as well.
We hope you will want to join with us on this, our special Sunday.
About us
MHA exists to improve the quality of life for older people, inspired by Christian concern.
We began in 1943, a group of Methodists inspired to improve the lives of isolated older people. From the beginning MHA care has been open to any older person in need, regardless of faith.
In 2009 MHA has more than150 projects throughout Britain, offering residential, nursing, dementia care, supported retirement housing, day care and community schemes.
Our aim is to provide the full range of support relevant to the needs of older people, from companionship to intensive 24 hour nursing care. We have a philosophy of care that appreciates and values each person as an individual, and as a Christian organisation we recognise the spiritual needs of all those involved in our work.
Why we need your help
MHA is a charity, and any surplus funds are ploughed back into extending our services. Charitable gifts also help us to provide the extra resources that make a difference to the lives of over 12,500 older people for whom we are privileged to care.
Your generous support can help us to reach out to many more.
Choices
For many older people choice is a luxury they don’t have and responsibility is often taken away, albeit for good reasons. We aim to offer our older people the choices and opportunities that we all take for granted in our daily living.
Society has changed dramatically since 1943 but our mission is still as relevant today.
In response to today’s needs we are:
- Building new projects whilst redeveloping or extending some of our older homes and schemes;
- Expanding our chaplaincy support;
- Encouraging older people to live life to the full through our ‘Seize the Day’ opportunity;
- Supporting end of life care with our Final Lap training;
- Developing further personalised activities and interests;
- Extending therapy services such as aromatherapy and massage.
Methodist Homes Sunday is an opportunity for:
- Celebration – of the work of MHA and the value of older people
- Awareness – of future needs and ways to respond
- Fundraising – to make a difference to the quality of life for older people
- Volunteers – working together
- Recognition- of “The Church in Action” for older people.
Bible readings
The Lectionary Readings (11th Sunday in Ordinary – Year B) relate well to our theme.
1 Samuel 15:34–16:13: God regrets having chosen Saul and, through Samuel, opts for the unlikely David. Verse 7b gives us the thinking behind the decision while the rest of David’s life and legacy remind us that most choices are neither straightforward nor 100% successful.
Ezekiel 17:22-24: Rather like some of the kingdom parables, this is an expression of hope that in God, small beginnings and big decisions can both lead to times of blessing.
Mark 4:26-34: A parable about a sower and one about a mustard seed. The first contrasts the activity of the sower in sowing with his complete inactivity afterwards. The second parable contrasts the size of a mustard seed with its finished product. This parallels Ezekiel’s story rather well.
2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17: Paul’s description of the life of faith, based on having chosen to follow Jesus, ends with the hope and the promise of everything becoming new. Is that in this life, or only in the next one?
Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15: Verse 14 again links with Ezekiel’s cedar tree. “In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap.” How does that relate to our attitudes to ageing?
The following passage also merits consideration.
Deuteronomy 30:14-31:4: Moses’ farewell injunction, aged 120, is simply ‘choose life!’
There are countless examples of good and bad choices being made in the Bible, as well as their consequences and attendant dilemmas. You are spoilt for choice!
Other resources
One Hundred Wisdom Stories by Margaret Silf (Lion, 2003) includes some relevant material. In particular, The Forever Tree (p 29f) and The Mustard Seed (p 196f) merit consideration.
Doorways to the Soul: 52 wisdom stories from around the world edited by Eliza Pearmain (Pilgrim Press) also includes a Mustard Seed story (no 24).
Present on Earth from the Wild Goose Worship Group (Wild Goose Publications, 2002) includes a lot of material based on people’s response to Jesus. In particular, Four Changed Lives (p 183f) is a useful meditation.
There are many Christian biographies which concentrate on the implications of an individual’s choice, both in terms of following Jesus and in terms of a specific calling or ministry. The story of Gladys Aylward is a well known example.
From the Buddhist tradition, the story of Kisa Gotami is particularly relevant today as it involves a mustard seed.
Don’t forget the resource which many Churches have in abundance – older people themselves, and those with responsibilities of caring for and supporting them. Use the opportunity for them to share their stories of the choices open to them and those they have made.
Some other resources, hopefully including pictures to add to PowerPoint presentations for use in worship, will be available through our website from Easter onwards.
Visit
Hymns and songs
BPW / HP / MPC / MTW / RSA universe of rich delights / 9
For the fruits of his creation / 123 / 342 / 153
Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go / 381 / 159
Hail to the Lord’s anointed / 142 / 125 / 204 / 127
Lord of our growing years / 514
Now the green blade rises / 257 / 204 / 243
O Jesus I have promised / 352 / 704 / 501 / 509
Rejoice, O people, in the mounting years / 657
See how great a flame aspires / 781
See the kingdom grow and flourish / HON 584
The choices which we face today / 112
The kingdom of God is justice and joy / 321 / 139 / 651 / 200
Through all the changing scenes of life / 544 / 73 / 702 / 685
Thy hand O God has guided / 784 / 705 / 567
BPW = Baptist Praise & Worship
HON = Hymns Old and New
HP = Hymns & Psalms
MPC = Mission Praise Combined
MTW = More Than Words
RS = Rejoice & Sing
1 Pausing, we contemplate our journey:
how great the distance we have run!
So much has happened that has shaped us;
so much we, too, have said and done.
Some of our memories are painful,
some we shall treasure to the last:
yet we are conscious of your leading
along the pathways of our past.
2 How often we are at a crossroads,
needing to know which way to take:
whether to follow or ignore you –
such is the choice we have to make.
Yet you have promised to be with us –
no longer need we feel alone;
help us to seize the present moment,
making its full potential known.
3 Here on the threshold of the future,
laden with many hopes and fears,
turning our thoughts to new horizons,
we look ahead across the years.
Who, though, can number their tomorrows
on paths no human eye has scanned?
May we continue on our journey
holding – and held within – your hand.
Martin E Leckebusch (born 1962) © 2000.
Reproduced by permission of Kevin Mayhew Ltd. Licence Nr. 901021/1.
Suggested tune: Rendez a Dieu (HP 599)
Developing the act of worship
1: Explore the Basis of Making Choices
Both the 1 Samuel and Mark readings give examples of surprising choices being made. Human instinct would rarely have opted for the young David, when faced with his brothers, or thought much of the tiny mustard seed. God’s value system however suggests that the unlikely choice was well-made.
Such a paradox allows us to explore attitudes to older people in general as well as to our own ageing. So much of what we aspire to in life is only possible in our younger years, something which the advertising industry reinforces. The Church is a place where many older people are – but do we choose them or value their gifts and roles? And what of the choices that older people and those who care for them have to make? A Care Home may be the last place people would choose to live, but it can be the best last place to be, for the older person and their family.
2: A New Creation / Choose Life
In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul speaks about the treasure held in clay pots. Then, in chapter 5, he points our vision forward to the hope of becoming a new creation. In our frailer days this is a sustaining hope of a life to come, but can it also inform our ageing as well?
Moses’ injunction to ‘choose life’ echoes throughout the Bible, and there are many examples of older people being at the heart of the community’s new life. On MHA Sunday, why not build your act of worship around the testimonies of those who, beyond traditional retirement, have discovered new forms of discipleship or ministry which have brought life to all, including themselves?
3: Unexpected Outcomes
The passages from Ezekiel 17, Psalm 92 and Mark 4 are all good examples of the Biblical tendency to highlight a surprising or counter-cultural outcome. Making a choice to go with God is to make oneself open to possibilities which are not always apparent at the beginning. Christian history and the contemporary church are full of examples which illustrate this.
MHA’s story is a good illustration of this, both within each project and when taken as a whole. The ‘sprig of cedar’ with which Walter Hall began in 1943 has borne fruit indeed.
Nevertheless, our approach to older people and our own ageing can often suggest a story with a predictable downward spiral, as if nothing new ever happens once we pass a certain age. How can we encourage one another to bear witness to the Psalmist’s assertion that ‘in old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap’?
4: Spoilt for Choice
Samuel’s luck seems to be in when the family he’s sent to turns out to have eight sons to choose from. But it didn’t make the choice any easier. A feature of the consumer society is the amazing array of varieties of almost everything we need to buy. In such a world, choice is seen not simply as good, but as a right. Nowadays this has ethical dimensions, both from an ecological point of view and when debates occur about choice and rights at the beginning and end of life.
At the beginning of life, people make choices for us about all sorts of things, but as we grow we assert our right and ability to choose for ourselves. Jesus’ words to Simon Peter (John 21:18) suggest a view of ageing which many share – i.e. other people increasingly decide our fate. MHA works to offer choice, both in the types of housing and care available, and in the way in which older life is lived day by day. How might we share that aspiration for ourselves and for those older people in our family or church?
All age worship
Have you ever been the last to be chosen when someone is picking teams? How does that make you feel? (Ask for suggestions)
Sometimes, inside us, we may have big ideas. E.g. ‘I would like to play football for Man United’ or ’I would like to be a brain surgeon or travel round the world’. We know what we want to do but we give up because we have too few resources, lack expertise, we feel too young or old, or we feel others will think we are not good enough.
Discover whether there are people in the congregation who have chosen to do something unexpected, e.g. left the family business or gone to another country to start a new life. Perhaps, as this is MHA Sunday, find someone who has chosen to begin a new life in a care home or a sheltered housing scheme and ask them to describe one of the new opportunities that they have discovered.
Jesus’ story of the tiny mustard seed shows us that sometimes very small beginnings can produce amazing results that are way out of proportion to the expectations.
[NB the mustard plant referred to is not the ‘mustard and cress’ we are familiar with.]
- Mother Teresa of Calcutta began an orphanage with such a vision. She told her superiors, "I have three pennies and a dream to build an orphanage." "Mother Teresa," her superiors replied very gently, "You cannot build an orphanage with three pennies ... with three pennies you can’t do anything." "I know," she said, smiling, "but with God and three pennies I can do anything." The parable of the mustard seed reminds us that God’s beginnings may be small, but the results great. (see also stories of Gladys Aylward and others).
- Without a kite and Homan Walsh, a ten-year-old boy, the Niagara Falls Bridge would not have been built in 1847. The problem was how to get the first line across the steep cliffs, rapids and swirling winds. First Homan crossed the river on a ferry lower on the river since the prevailing winds came from the Canadian side. He hiked back to the cliff chosen by the engineer and launched his kite and released more and more line as the kite sailed to the American shore. Then he waited for the winds to subside after sunset. It was a long wait, but finally the line became slack, and he reeled it in. Unfortunately, the line had fallen into the gorge where the sharp ice had shredded it. Because of bad weather Homan stayed with a family on the Canadian side for eight days before a second, successful, attempt. After securing the initial kite string, progressively heavier and heavier line was fed across until a steel cable that connected across the gorge, and the bridge construction could begin. Homan Walsh was rewarded with a $10 cash prize.
- Knowing that there are choices to be made can empower people. The tale is told that some residents in a care home complained to the cook that they were only ever offered vanilla ice-cream. Could they not have chocolate or strawberry as a change? The following week three flavours of ice-cream were offered, but only the vanilla was chosen. But everyone was happy and felt better because there was now an option to choose.
Prayer