Sermon by Beth Henricks
Scripture: Galatians 6:6-10
I was cleaning out my car recently and I came across a memory document that our beloved Helen Davenport wrote in 2004. During her memorial service, copies of this were available for us to take. I took one then and glanced through it at the time but came across these pages of the details of Helen’s life in my trunk and gave it my full attention and read a fascinating historical picture of the Great Depression and WWII through Helen’s eyes.
In Jon Meacham’s book The Soul of America – The Battle for our Better Angels he describes the depression in 1932-1933 “consuming the United States, creating public anxiety and eroding trust in the most basic institutions. America seemed on the cusp of a violent break from the ancient regime of democratic capitalism. Would the nation save itself?” It is eerie to think about this in context of what we are facing today.
Helen was born one year before The Great Depression hit in 1929 and her early childhood was greatly impacted by these depression years as she wrote, “things came to a standstill for a number of years.” Helen was raised by two strong Quaker parents and much of their life revolved around their Quaker faith community Abbington Friends in Philadelphia. Helen’s family survived the many years of depression by being frugal - conserving and preserving. Helen’s mom spent the summers canning fruits and vegetables for the winter. Hand me down clothes were the norm. Fortunately, Helen’s father never lost his job as a traveling salesman, but he would be gone for 2-3 weeks at a time.
Helen remembers there were hobos (Helen’s term for these folks in great need) that would come around their home begging probably because her mother was a soft touch. She would offer them a sandwich and give them a few coins. Helen often came home from school and someone she didn’t know would be eating a meal on their back porch or in the kitchen during winter. They couldn’t understand why they came to their house so constantly but discovered later that they had signed the house in some secret marking that only the network of hobos would know. But then the family had the house painted and the hobos stopping coming and realized that they must have painted over the sign.
The depression lasted for years and changed every element of life and impacted everyone that experienced it or had parents that experienced it. I am sure we have heard similar stories from our parents and grandparents. It was the length of the depression that hit me in a new way of my thinking as we are faced with our own pandemic crisis today. For eight years folks suffered, were out of work, hungry, displaced, a completely altered way of life. And yet today after five months in this crisis, we are complaining about not going out, wearing masks, social distancing and pushing to open all of our schools with in person instruction. It sometimes seems like our current culture does not want to experience sacrifice or do what is best for our collective community.
Helen’s story continued remembering a big trip to Canada in 1941 as the depression years were easing in the late 1930’s. Canada was already involved in the war and Helen’s father commented that the US will be involved in this war before the year would be over. Immediately when they returned from the trip her dad bought new tires for the car, a case of coffee and other things that might be in low supply during a war. When rationing became common place, the govt asked everyone to declare what supplies they had, and Helen’s parents were honest and declared everything they had purchased so they were restricted in their purchases for the war years.
It is pretty incredible that after 8 years of misery, the United States became involved in WWII for 4 years. Of course, there was great debate at the time about the United States remaining isolated from this conflict or entering with allies to defeat the German regime. During these years so many supplies were rationed – meat, oil, gas so many common day items and folks were not allowed to purchase these things even if they had the money to do so. Individuals were encouraged to purchase war bonds to support the collective war effort. Once again almost every facet of normal life was altered. I remember my mom sharing that she went to work for a factory supporting the war effort for three years as there were no men to do this work – most of them were in the military.
It is hard to imagine living through so many years of a depression and then 4 years of war. There must have been such panic, such fear, such anxiety, such weariness – the same words we use to describe our current situation. But it seems like the idea of sacrifice for family and community was embraced differently back then. Helen really had no idea the level of sacrifices her parents made because they never spoke about their choices as sacrifices. Instead they modeled the values of what are most important in life – love for each other, love for their family, love for their community. This generation that endured the Great Depression and WWII is called our greatest generation. Maybe it was the experience of long-term pain and the sacrifice that so many were willing to make for their neighbors that embedded character and values of love and shared community.
We have all heard the famous words of FDR during this time of post-depression and active involvement in war – we have nothing to fear but fear itself (the words actually come from Henry David Thoreau). It seems like fear abounds now in every corner of our existence – a deep sense of fear about our future. I recently read a survey that one of the reasons for our high anxiety is that we feel as Americans that we’re entirely on our own. This survey indicated that we don’t trust our leaders to protect us. We feel like we have to make our way through a dangerous world not united as a community and feeling like we are all in this together, but that each of us is scrambling to determine how we can be safe and keep our families safe.
How do we stop our fear for our future? Jesus speaks into this a lot in his ministry and the New Testament is full of teachings and leadings about living this kind of life. The followers of Jesus were to have “faith in the assurance of things hoped, for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Jesus always calls us to a new way of living and loving. The call is to abandon that old way of life – not to have things get back to a perceived normal but to live in the Spirit and in a community of love, care, sacrifice and more concern for others than for oneself.
It seems to me that our real culture war is one of immediate satisfaction, relationships that aren’t deep and significant, lack of community, a sense of selfishness and entitlement and seeking the easy path. We want instant gratification. With the availability of easy credit, we buy things that we don’t have the money for and figure we will just pay it off down the road. If we don’t feel well, we want pills or treatments that will make us better now. In the face of a crisis like the one we are experiencing now; these values will not sustain us or bring about the beloved community.
Friends, I have always disliked messages from a pastor that speak about the idea of our life being a marathon. I guess because I have heard so many trite sermons that suggest this idea and talk about running for the prize. That we must embrace the Christian life as a marathon, preparing our bodies for this so that we can achieve eternal life. Paul’s well-known verse in I Corinthians 9: 24 says, “Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete in such a way but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it”. I do think Paul is suggesting that we need to model our life in the way of Christ and follow the teachings of Jesus to win the prize. But it is clear to me that most of us really want a sprint race – we want to get to the finish line in a hurry and achieve our satisfaction and prize. There is something about this teaching that connects with what we are currently facing. We must as a country and as a world understand that this deadly disease will not be defeated in a sprint and we must brace ourselves for the marathon. So how do we do this?
I love what Howard Thurman wrote in his autobiography With Head and Heart, as a way to face my fears – he says, “I felt rooted in life, in nature, in existence. When the storms blew, the branches of the large oak tree in our backyard would snap and fall. But the topmost branches of the oak tree would sway, giving way just enough to save themselves from snapping loose. I needed the strength of that tree, and, like it, I wanted to hold my ground. Eventually, I discovered that the oak tree and I had a unique relationship. I could sit, my back against the trunk, and feel the same peace that would come to me in my bed. I could reach down to the quiet places of my soul, take out my bruises and my joys, unfold them, and talk about them. I could talk aloud to the oak tree and know that I was understood.”
Bob’s message last week about contemplation and prayer is a practice that will be a balm for our soul as we prepare for the marathon. We need to be out of the daily barrage of news and into a spirit of presence and healing and love so that we will be fully present in this world and run in this marathon.
We need to care for each other, reach out to each other and find every reason to call or zoom or social distance with our communities. This will sustain us for the marathon.
We need to stand up for justice and safety and sacrifice – this will give us purpose for the marathon.
We need to study and read the lives of Jesus, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, John Woolman, The Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and so many others, and we will be inspired for the marathon.
The very last paragraph of Helen’s reflections says that it was humor and love that carried them through the dark and hard times. And those of us that knew Helen, knew her as one of the most kind, loving and encouraging persons we have ever met. If I wanted to model a Quaker and Christian life in all its aspects – it would be Helen. Let us laugh and love and sit under an oak tree this week and invest in the practices that will sustain us in this marathon.
As we enter our unprogrammed worship, please consider the following queries:
What are the practices I need to do to sustain me in this marathon?
What might I be willing to sacrifice?
How do I face my fear for the future?