The Beatles, the prominent 60’s and 70’s British rock and roll band, and specifically Paul McCartney, wrote and released a song in 1967 on their “Lonely Hearts Club Band” album, called “When I’m 64.” It’s a very clever and fun song about growing older and the expectations and fears we have about aging. An interesting fact about the song is that Paul McCartney wrote the tune to this song when he himself was about 14 years old. In 1966 as the Beattles were putting together this album, Paul’s father was turning 64, so Paul and his co-writer John Lennon put the lyrics together with that tune. It is essentially about a young man who is in love with a girl and wants to spend his life with her, but asks her the great question of his potential aging…. “will you still need me… will you still feed me… when I’m 64!” Just for fun, here is the first verse of the song is…
“When I get older losing my hair many years from now
Will you still be sending me a Valentine — birthday greetings, bottle of wine
If I’d been out till quarter to three would you lock the door
Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I’m sixty-four” (Lennon-McCartney 1966)
When Paul himself turned 64 in 2006, much of the world resurrected the song to find out if it was true.
Birthdays are usually pretty fun. Our 1st birthday (that means far more to parents than to the child); our 6th birthday marks the school years; our 16th birthday marks the driving a car age; the 21st birthday is the marker for being a grown-up. But when we get to the older birthdays, some people find them painful somehow… 30; 40; 50; 60… then 65! Now there is nothing magical about 65 years of age but just using this number as a marker for age, it is either a retirement age or at least close to it. Somehow that number is used as a marker that believes we should have it all together by now. At 65 we are on a sailboat and cruising off into the sunset, toasting wine glasses, and living the life that we had always dreamed of — the life we often believe that we have come to deserve. At least this is how it is advertised.
This Sunday in our series for the summer, “The Gospel in Every Chapter of Life,” I’ve been trying to address from the Bible what we are to do with different chapters – or seasons — of life, and how God uses us for the Gospel in each and every chapter. This week I will be teaching from God’s Word about aging to 65 and older. I’m going to be addressing the question, “Why does God let you live to be 65?” The normal question we often ask before that age is… “Will I make it to that long?” Then if we reach that age, we will often ask… “What am I to do now?” God’s Word says a great deal about aging, but I will warn you that it is not even close to what the world says about aging.
In order to prepare for this coming Sunday I encourage you to read ahead and contemplate on the following passages of Scripture: Philippians 1:12-26. It is in this passage of Scripture you will find the famous line “for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21). Contemplate and ruminate on this as we come to worship together this Sunday morning.
See you Sunday! No, we will not be singing for our worship “When I’m 64,” but we will be seeing what God has to say about it!
