Only a few of us in here this morning have any personal memories of the Great Depression. Only those in their 80s can actually recall what it was like. And no one here has the memory of being a prosperous adult who suddenly lost everything in the Depression.
I can recall hearing stories that my parents would tell -- stories about the family going off to pick cotton or making a little money sitting around the kitchen shelling pecans for a company. My parents were both very skilled at shelling pecans, for they got a higher price for perfect halves than for broken pieces.
We are not likely to return to the devastation of the Great Depression. We are not likely to see 25 percent unemployment or an economic downturn that lasts more than a decade.
But what we are seeing is bad enough. Economists, with a gift for informing us of what was already painfully obvious, recently announced that we have been in a recession for a year. And while no one can predict the future reliably, most of the reputable experts I am reading believe that this recession will last into 2010 and that unemployment may hit ten percent. This is probably the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. You have seen all the terrible news: home foreclosures, the stock market decline, the Big Three auto makers begging for billions, and all the rest. Just day before yesterday there was a news story about job losses for the last month being the worst in 34 years, with more than half a million people losing their jobs.
I am pretty sure my home is worth less than I paid for it. I really don’t want to know. A week or so ago I received an e-mail from Fidelity regarding my retirement account. All I had to do was click on the link to see the current value of my retirement savings. I couldn’t bear to look. And I am pretty fortunate. Luckily, I had no intentions of retiring anytime soon. Good thing. I used to joke that my financial plan was to work for ten years after I die. It’s not funny anymore.
I know that this sanctuary contains dozens of people who are retired and who have seen the value of their retirement funds and the value of their homes plummet. I know that people have lost jobs and many others fear losing theirs. These are anxious and uncertain times for many of us.
What are we to make of all this? Is there a religious dimension to all this? I want us to explore the deeper meaning — the religious aspect — of what we are experiencing. How shall we respond to the current crisis? The issues are huge and they exist on several levels.
This morning I would have us look at the personal dimension, the congregational dimension, and the larger social dimension. I also would have us bear in mind that our most personal emotional reactions and feelings of stress are linked to our community and, eventually, to the great social issues of our time.
Let us begin with the personal dimension. There is so very much to talk about just on this level!
Let me start with a couple of points that are so obvious that we can easily forget. First, no one in here today has his or worth determined by the market. You are not worth less because your portfolio has taken a beating. You are not less worthy if you get laid off from your job. We all know this, of course, but we tend to know it in our heads and not in our hearts. It is easy to get down on ourselves in hard times.
Many years ago I had to leave a dream job in Spain and return to the states for a family medical emergency. I was suddenly unemployed. It took several months to find a job. After a couple of months unemployed I felt useless and worthless. Of course, I was the same person who had just won a competitive fellowship, but I felt the stigma of being unemployed. Don’t fall into that trap. Everyone who loses his or her job during this mess is just as capable and important as you were when you were working. And the same is true if suddenly your investment portfolio is a shadow of its former self. It isn’t your fault.
Life’s crises can be a blessing in disguise. They really can. Sometimes it takes a serious illness or a brush with death to make us realize what is truly sacred in life. An economic shock can remind us once again that money does not buy happiness. All kinds of psychological studies have shown us that what spiritual leaders have said for centuries is true: rich people are not happier. I know that in my own life my sense of fulfillment has had nothing to do with how much money I was making.
Hard times can be great teachers if we are open to their lessons and if they shock us into greater awareness. It is also a time for you and me to take stock of how we are living. Do our lives truly reflect our values?
None of this, of course, is to diminish the pain so many will encounter. It is one thing to economize and to focus on what is essential. It is something quite different to lose one’s home or to face the anxiety of not knowing how one is going to just stay afloat. When things are that bad, we need help.
At times of stress it is especially important to be part of a supportive community. We need to feel that we are not alone. One thing I see some people do in difficult times is pull away from church just when they need it most. Once in a while someone who goes through a financial crisis feels badly that they cannot maintain their pledge and so they drop their membership. Don’t do that! Your worth here is not determined by your pledge! If you need to lower your pledge or even stop paying it for a while, we understand.
As this recession unfolds, we will be looking into providing special support groups and other ways to help people. While we are not in a position to replace an income, we do have some limited funds for emergencies. If a family faces not having money for groceries at the end of the month or faces having utilities disconnected, let one of the ministers know.
Of course, our congregation is not immune from hardship. We are being very vigilant about our finances. So far we are doing all right. You have done a wonderful job of supporting this church. However, we are seeing some troubling signs. Some of our members have had to cut their pledge payments. This could be the tip of the iceberg. I am hearing troubling reports from some of our sister churches. Some have had to lay off capable and dedicated. As we go forward, I think those of us who are less affected by this crisis need to do our part. We all need to think about how much this community means to us.
If the time comes when we need to cut expenses significantly, we will need to cut personnel costs. Churches, like schools, spend most of the budget on salaries. I hope that time does not come, for I would hate to see us cut back on our programs when they are most needed. Should we have to cut, I hope we can do it in a way that avoids laying off staff and in a way that protects the most vulnerable on our staff. This is a time to live our principles. Should we be forced to cut, I would propose that we cut salaries of full time staff first and cut more from those who are highest paid.
We are in this together. And we will get through this together.
While people in our congregation will suffer through this crisis, there are those who will suffer much more. As always, the poor, those with little education, those with health issues, are the most vulnerable. This is a church which has always looked beyond its walls. We must not stop now.
During Christmas week our Interfaith Hospitality Network program will house four homeless families in the Mills Building. Imagine what they are going through! This is a good way to get involved. We are once again adopting families from the Family Tree program and will take special offerings Christmas Eve to support local agencies that help the most desperate among us. These agencies need our help more than ever. Again, those of us who can should consider doing a bit more this year.
An essential part of looking beyond our walls during this crisis is understanding how we got into this mess and what our role is in the future.
I am not an economist. I do not want to discuss the technical details of what has gone wrong. Nor do I want to discuss the pros and cons of bailing out which banks or whether we should loan money to General Motors—or if we do how much and with what strings attached.
I want to talk about deeper causes of the present crisis. I am convinced that if we stay at the level of fiscal policy we will miss the essential issue. And if we miss the essence of this crisis, we will never create a world where this kind of mess does not recur.
In a very real sense, we are in a moral and spiritual crisis. Or, more accurately, we are witnessing the inevitable results of a moral failure that goes to the core of our culture.
Make no mistake, this crisis is the result of malfeasance and misfeasance by the economic and political elite. This is not a natural disaster. It is entirely self inflicted. But it goes deeper, much, much deeper, than that.
What makes the madness of wild, irresponsible speculation possible? First, it takes a complete abdication of responsibility by the people charged with overseeing this the system. But let’s go further and look at what creates the climate in which this can occur in the first place.
We are a culture that, in the words of Mark Twain, worships the almighty dollar. Worse, we are a culture that makes heroes of people who make outrageous sums of money. In such a culture, those who become fabulously wealthy are celebrated as ideals, as role models. We are taught to define our relative worth in terms of our income.
We are taught a kind of acquisitive individualism that desensitizes us to the cost of such wealth. So we get government run by ideologues who elevate the market to a kind of idolatry. We get tax policies that favor the richest among us. We create a society where wealth is bizarrely disconnected from productivity. We get what we have today, a nation where a tiny portion of the population controls vast amounts of wealth while the bottom half languishes. And the reason this does not matter, has not mattered, is not a question of economics. It is a question of morals, a question of our values. Ultimately it is a spiritual and a religious question.
We will only tolerate a world of extreme wealth and of extreme poverty if we have abandoned the ideal of the common good. This is as old as the Hebrew prophets protesting the exploitation of the poor in ancient Israel.
And the situation gets much, much, worse when we look beyond our borders. Look at what the global system has done to the poor in Mexico and Latin America. Look at the economic and humanitarian disaster that is Africa today.
Our economic crisis is the result, the inevitable result, of a moral and spiritual failure. When we lose sight of the fact that we are all connected, when we lose a sense of common good, when we no longer feel the suffering of others—that is when we create a society of wanton excess, of conspicuous consumption, of environmental destruction, of gross injustice.
We need a religious vision of the common good, a vision grounded in a respect for human dignity, founded on the realization that we are all connected and all interdependent, and guided by a sense of justice.
We need a vision of the good life that is founded on the truth that becoming rich will not bring fulfillment. It never has. The good life is not one where we are all economically equal, but one in which we do not impoverish thousands to make one person fabulously wealthy.
The vision of all the great religions is very much the same. It is a vision of a compassionate society where everyone is valued and where everyone is cared for. It is a vision of a common good. It is a vision mistrustful of great wealth, for all religions recognize how great disparities corrupt human relationships.
How about those for guiding principles. Everyone matters. We are responsible for one another. Compassion should guide us. No one should be exploited.
It is good religion. It is good politics. It is good economics.
This is a difficult time. Economically speaking, things are almost certain to get worse before they get better.
Our first task is to get in touch with what truly matters in our lives. We need to reach out to one another and support one another. We need to preserve and maintain this spiritual community and all the good work it does.
But that is just the start. We must not stop there.
This is a wake up call.
We must realize that our suffering related to this crisis, and the suffering of our neighbors, is not simply personal. And it isn’t the inevitable result of natural or cosmic forces.
We have allowed this to happen. As a nation, and a world, we have worshipped a false god of consumerism. And this crisis is the result.
Our first task, now and in the weeks and months ahead, is to take care of one another. We need to focus on what truly matters in our lives.
Our next task is to create a world in which this kind of madness does not occur. We can create a different world. We can create a world that is just and responsible and sustainable.
Let’s join hands and get through this together.
Then let’s join hands and work to create a world where our economic system is an expression of our most deeply held values.
All this suffering and anxiety are needless. We can change this world. We can free ourselves from this self destructive madness.
This crisis is an opportunity to come to our senses. It is an opportunity to help one another. And, most importantly, this crisis is a chance to create something new and wonderful.
Let us seize the moment.
May it be so.
Amen.