Biblical retirement

I took early retirement at age 62 so that we could move to the deep South and use more sun screen and learn a new accent. Well, actually it was so that we could be close to our granddaughter and daughter and be part of their lives. We are happy we made that decision.

Shortly after my retirement some of my clergy colleagues threw me a retirement party with good food and beverages. At one point a pastor friend of mine asked me (tongue-in-cheek) if I could actually retire in good conscience since there is no Biblical reference or support for retirement. I didn’t have a Biblical answer at the time. I simply said something like, “I don’t care what the Bible says, I’m retiring.” 

Well. Now I have Biblical support. As I was reading The Presbyterian Outlook magazine the other day an article quoted a Bible verse about retirement! It’s in the Book of Numbers, which makes sense because when you start thinking about retirement you have to deal with a lot of numbers—numbers which are never high enough. 

This verse in Numbers is sort of a reference to clergy retirement too; it doesn’t reference priests, but Levites. (Remember the priest and the Levite that pass by on the other side of the road in the parable of the Good Samaritan?) The Levites were an order of ministry in ancient Israel. Whereas the priests were more like pastors, the Levites were sort of ‘lay clergy’ (analogous in some ways to Elders in the Presbyterian Church). They assisted the priests and handled sacred objects, and also functioned as a music ministry. And here is what the Bible says:

The Lord said to Moses, “This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the Tent of Meeting, but at the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the Tent of Meeting, but they themselves must not do the work. This, then, is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites.”

(Numbers 8:23-26, NIV)

         

So, there you have it. By retiring I have done a Bible-approved thing. Of course there is no one-to-one correspondence between the culture of ancient Israel and our North American 21^st century culture. But the principle of retirement seems to be present way back there in the Torah.

Now, I actually don’t need a Biblical proof text to feel good about retirement. I was simply intrigued to find ‘retirement’ mentioned in Scripture. 

In all the political arguments today about the economy, the possibility of raising the retirement age above 65 is discussed. It will inevitably happen. The tragedy is that poorer people who have the more physically demanding jobs are the ones who need to retire earlier. The poor always get left behind. Wouldn’t it be a more just world if garbage collectors could retire at age 55 with full benefits, and CEOs had to continue to age 70 to receive full benefits? But that ain’t going to happen. The world is ruled by the wealthy. Even the Democrats get their election funding from the wealthy, and therefore, tend to give them the listening ear rather than the poor. As Bill Moyers points out in his new book, we are ruled by an oligarchy—a small group of people who hold bag of money. 

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