The Age Tax

When Mae Koscheski got her bill from the hospital after a recent medical emergency, she noticed a surcharge for $70 on account of her “extreme age.” She was 73 at the time. Age, whether it’s youth or maturity, can be used as an excuse or an opportunity. In God’s conversation with Jeremiah, there are lessons to be learned!

It’s a good thing she does, because one of her bills recently included a surcharge of $70 for — “extreme age.”

Getting old is bad enough. Hospital bills. Prescription drug charges. The cost of assisted living, nursing home and life-care facilities.

But paying an “extreme age” tax on your hospital bill! That’s salt in the wound.

Mae is 73. That’s old, but not “extremely old.”

Granted, there are days when taking the extreme age exemption might be worth it. We’d like to pull the covers over our heads, stay in bed, and skip the round of meetings that day.

In any case, extreme age is not what is bothering the young Jeremiah in today’s text. Rather than claiming an extreme age exemption, he falls back on the youth exemption. “I am only a boy” (1:6).

God doesn’t buy it. In fact, questions of service, mission and discipleship have no relation to age issues, or gender issues. God doesn’t seem to be limited at all by the categories that we think are important: Age. Race. Gender. Education....