Rev. Susan Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church

Texts: Matthew 22:15-22; Isaiah 43:1-7

When I was in my first call as an Associate Pastor, the head of staff and his wife were moving and having a garage sale. When I came browsing, she gave me this framed Scottish prayer – it hung for many years in one of the boy’s bedrooms, and now hangs just outside ours. It reads: From ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us.

We’re all afraid of some things. I’m afraid of the dark, and I’m pretty nervous about plane travel. In weeks before a trip, as I am now 8 days out from the trip to Colombia, I always get a little nervous and wonder if I should write a last letter to the boys, in case of a disaster. I know, of course, that I am in more danger on my way to and from the airport than I am on the plane, but nonetheless, I worry.

We all worry. Some people worry about their health, others about being alone, and these days, pretty much everyone is worrying about the economy. These are uncertain times.

But the fact is, all times are uncertain. Life is not safe. In the late 20th and early 21st century we have had the illusion that life is safe, perhaps since the year I was born and the polio vaccine became available. Or maybe it was since the early 60’s when we stopped having air raid drills in schools. We, in the wealthier, developed parts of the world, have no longer had to worry about famine, plague and pestilence. We have been living at a time and in a place where life has been much safer than it has been for most people throughout time. Because life has usually been pretty precarious. I remember when I was in my freshman year of college, taking a class called Basic Conditions of Life in Historical Perspective, and I learned about demographics, and also learned that the average life expectancy figures are pretty misleading. Many of us thought that because the average life expectancy in the Roman Empire was about 35 years, or in the United States in 1900 was 47 years, that it means that people died at about age 35 or 47. Actually, lots of people lived to a ripe old age. But as many as half of babies didn’t live for a whole year. Many women died in childbirth. For those people who survived being babies or having babies, life could last a long time.

In our era, with antibiotics, immunizations, climate controlled homes, smoke detectors, and airbags, we have grown to think of life as safe. But many of us have had that illusion torn away at some point or another. It was when one of our children was molested that I realized I couldn’t keep us all safe. For someone else it might be when a friend or family member is killed by a drunk driver, or when that apparently random diagnosis of cancer strikes. For our country, there was a major shift after September 11, 2001, when we realized that we were vulnerable like other countries. Much of our national anxiety and foreign policy since then has been aimed at restoring a sense of national safety.

But life isn’t safe. It never was, and it isn’t now.

In 1997, William Strauss and Neil Howe wrote a book called The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny. In it, they describe a pattern that can be seen in Anglo-American history dating back to the fifteenth century. They describe seven saeculums, or cycles of generations and turnings. Briefly, each saeculum includes four turnings, four generations, or one person’s lifetime, roughly 80 years. For example, currently many people have seen themselves described as being part of the Silent Generation (those born from the mid-1920’s to the mid-1940’s), the Boomer generation (born from the mid 40’s to the early 60’s), Generation X or the 13th generation (born from the mid 1960’s to the early 1980’s) and the Millenials (born from the early 80’s to about 2000). Any given point in history is shared by about four generations. Within a saeculum, there are four generations, and also four turnings, or eras with a distinctive feel. And these repeat predictably, according to Strauss and Howe.

The first turning is a high, an upbeat era of strengthening institutions and weakening individualism. In our time this would have been the post-World War 2 era as suburban life and values took hold, mainline Protestantism was in its heyday, and TV got off the ground. The second turning is “…an awakening, a passionate era of spiritual upheaval, when the civic order comes under attack from new values….” Anyone recognize the late 60’s and 1970’s? The third turning is an unraveling, a downcast era of strengthening individualism and weakening institutions – the old civic order decays and new values develop. Strauss and Howe point to the Culture Wars of 1984ish to the early 21st century as the current manifestation of this era. And the fourth turning is a period of crisis – a decisive era of upheaval. Former crises include the Great Depression and World War 2, the Civil War, the American Revolution on back to the War of the Roses in the fifteenth century.

Strauss and Howe published their book in 1997, and predicted that the next fourth turning was on the horizon, a time of crisis that would shape the coming century. In 1997, they predicted that it would come around 2005, give or take a few years. In years to come, will we say that the crisis began with 9/11 or with the current economic crisis? Who knows, but it seems clear to most people that times are going to be harder before they get better. And for those of us who find politics fascinating, it is instructive to see that the cycles of history press forward no matter who is in leadership. Clearly elections matter, and leaders help to shape the response to particular events. But crises come and are resolved, for better or for worse, and we would be mistaken to credit or blame all that happens on the individuals in leadership at a given moment. Each of us makes choices that help shape the era.

For us, perhaps it is helpful to realize that the current times are not unique. And that we can learn from the wise decisions as well as the foolish choices of our forbearers. But ultimately, we each have to choose how to respond to the era we are living in. And our choices say a lot about what grounds our lives. Warren Buffett had a column in Friday’s New York Times, in which he gave some financial advice that looks pretty sharp. But he explained the advice with what he called his own simple rule: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.” This may lead to good stock market decisions, but it is a terrible rule of life. Buffett didn’t say it is his life rule, to be sure, but as we look reflectively at our culture, I’m sure that I am not alone in sensing that many folks do base their lives on fear or greed, and in some cases, on fear and greed.

As I’ve said, most of us are fearful from time to time. But we are in trouble if fear is the ground on which we stand most of the time. Rabbi Michael Lerner, in his book The Left Hand of God, has described that for much of the last several thousand years, the world has struggled between two competing world views: the voices of hope and the voices of fear. He has pointed out that the fundamentalists in most world religions have more in common with each other than with more progressive wings of their own faith. We have heard those fundamentalist voices from many traditions: in India, fundamentalist Hindus have undertaken violence against Christians, although Hinduism is, by and large, a tolerant faith that lives at peace with other traditions.

Fundamentalist Muslims have waged violence against what they see as the corrupt West, although most of us understand that Islam is not a religion based in violence. Christian fundamentalists have murdered doctors who perform abortions, and have waged public campaigns of ugly hate against our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. Within the Bible, we see these competing strains: one strain concerned with purity and legalism, another strain characterized by loving hospitality and welcome to all. So it’s not enough to have a religious world view – many hateful, fearful people are deeply religious. We need to ask what is the ground of our life? Is it love and goodness? Or is it fear and exclusion? Are we comfortable in a tradition that seeks common ground with other people and wants to rid the world of poverty, hunger, and violence? Or do we tend to feel that others deserve what they get and so do we?

As I read the Bible, I think that Jesus and most of the prophets were embodying the hopeful tradition, and were often in conflict with those who were more concerned with purity or legalism. And by the way, many of us from time to time fall into these camps: who wouldn’t like a checklist, a simple set of rules to govern all of life? But Jesus seems to consistently toss out the checklist and argue for a more discerning way. Our story today describes such an encounter. Some came to him to ask whether it was appropriate, within religious law, to pay taxes to the emperor. But Jesus understood that they were trying to trap him into either capitulation to the oppressive Roman rule, or encouragement of sedition. Jesus asks whose image is on the coin and then gives the famous answer: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” What is left unsaid is the corollary to the coin: what is it that bears the image of God? The religious people of the time would have recognized that the Bible teaches that it is humans who bear the image of God. So Jesus is teaching here that our lives should be grounded in God, not in the accumulation of wealth.

What we are grounded in will show itself in our fears and where we spend our energy. As I heard recently – we invest in what we want to see more of in the world. If we want a world that has more plastic in it, we should buy more plastic things. Similarly, if we want a world where fewer people are hungry, where justice is a way of life, where love guides us, then we should invest our time, our energy, and our money in feeding the hungry, in seeking justice, in embodying love, and in teaching our children how to make these choices. As Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

In our Isaiah passage, God and the prophet Isaiah are talking to the people of Israel, who are afraid of danger, afraid of conquest and exile. And God reassures them in saying, the waters and fire will not destroy you, and that eventually, people would return from exile. God didn’t say there would be no flood, no fire, and no exile. But God did say that these wouldn’t destroy the people of God, and that in the midst of them, God would be with them, loving them. We always have a choice – do we let the circumstances of our lives define our lives? Or do we choose our response? The Bible teaches that we can choose where our heart lives, we can choose whether to be fearful or hopeful, greedy or loving, joyful or despairing, and that fundamentally this choice is about where we choose to ground our life. Stewardship is really about our choices – all our choices – how we choose to make use of the time, energies, abilities, and money that we’ve been given. Our choices not only determine what happens with our stuff, but who we end up becoming.

At an earlier crisis in our nation’s history, Abraham Lincoln became President, and in his first inaugural address he closed by hoping that our hearts and homes would be touched by what he called “the better angels of our nature.” Lincoln knew we have choices.

There is a Cherokee folktale that I know many of you are familiar with – at least one of you has sent it to me, but it bears repeating for it reminds of the choice that is always before us:
An elderly Cherokee man was teaching his grandchildren about life...He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil -- he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego. The other is good---he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."
They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied: "The one you feed".

We have choices. I am like everyone else: a thoroughly imperfect person. As I said at the beginning of the sermon, I have many fears, and one of them is flying. I did not choose to be afraid of flying. But I choose to not let my life be diminished by living out my fears instead of my hopes, and so a week from tomorrow, I will fly to Colombia, and have my perspective and my heart enlarged by getting to know our brothers and sisters there. And yes, I am afraid. I always am before a trip, and my awareness of the violence in Colombia makes me more fearful. But I am choosing to not make my plans based on fear.
One of the last letters of the Apostle Paul was written to the church in Philippi, when Paul was in prison. Prison was a dangerous and brutal place in the first century. But Paul writes to the Philippians, urging them to make choices. He writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.  Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.  Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things…. [and he continues] I have learned to be content with whatever I have.  I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

All of us are living in a period of uncertainty, perhaps crisis, and many of us will experience hardship. Our Stewardship chair, Otis Laird told me Friday that because of economic troubles his company had laid off many people, including him. He also said, “I know I’ll be OK.” Yes he will…because Otis’ life has not been grounded on his financial condition. He has a generous and joyous temperament that comes from a different foundation.

Things happen, life is not safe. But we can make choices about what we value in life, where our own sense of wellness comes from, and these choices can render us safe in any circumstances. Julian of Norwich knew that life could be dangerous, and that evil was real. Let us take courage in her words: “I know that sin is necessary, but all will be well and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.” My dear brothers and sisters, bad times may come, hard choices will be before us, …but we can choose to be well, we can choose to be generous, we can choose to love. Thanks be to God, in whose love and care we can always be well! Amen.