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Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come. (Psalm 71:17-18)

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We never retire from the Christian life.\xa0 From our birth and youth, until our senior years and death we are witnesses to the work of God.\xa0 That happens in two distinct ways.\xa0

Firstly, we witness what God does across our lifetime.\xa0 He teaches us through those who go before us, through the scriptures and prayer, through worship and sacraments, through provision in times of need, through comfort in places of distress, grief, or loneliness\u2014all across our lives we are learning about this God who has claimed us in our baptisms.\xa0 We witness, personally, his work in our lives as slowly the testimony of the scriptures become our own lived reality and belief.

These are the ways that we witness who God is and what he does.\xa0 These are the ways he teaches us.\xa0 But we also witness in another way. \xa0We are not only witnesses of God\u2014seeing, hearing, and receiving the things that God has done, but we are also witnesses to God\u2014declaring the things that God has done.\xa0 Witnesses see something, but witnesses also say something.

Again, the second form of witnessing begins the moment we are born.\xa0 The very fact of our life\u2014of a new life born into the world\u2014is itself a testament to the beautiful handiwork of God.\xa0 But as we begin to speak across our first few years, we begin to offer other testimony as well.\xa0 We learn the language of faith\u2014to say \u201camen\u201d and \u201cJesus loves me.\u201d\xa0 To offer those prayers pastor Michael mentioned yesterday of \u201cthank you,\u201d \u201chelp me,\u201d or even of \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d\xa0

And as we grow, we have more and more experiences of this God and of his people.\xa0 We hear more of the stories.\xa0 We learn more of the language of faith: learning things like lament, learning to wrestle and fight well with God, learning to submit and humble ourselves before God.\xa0 And in each new chapter of life, we have more testimony to give.\xa0 More witness to bear to the work and reality of our God as each year ticks by.\xa0

Our life becomes a witness\u2014a sign to others.\xa0 And we never graduate or retire from this work.\xa0 Despite the fact that we make profession of faith often quite early in life\u2014we\u2019re never done.\xa0 You elder saints among us bear a special responsibility in this regard: your memory stretches longer and your experiences deeper.\xa0 You become the living memory of the community, the ones who carry the wisdom of a life lived before God with all the joys and challenges therein.\xa0 When, around the Lord\u2019s Supper table we are implored to \u201cremember and believe,\u201d you elder saints are the ones who have to help the rest of us do it!\xa0

There is power in the stories of God\u2019s power revealed and witnessed to through the life of someone we know.\xa0 So: dear people of God, continue to tell the stories of God!\xa0 The Biblical stories yes\u2014but also the stories of where you yourselves have met God, where he has shown his faithfulness to you.\xa0 We all need to remember and believe again and again\u2014and this is a work and witness best done together, in faith.\xa0

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