Sermon “Deep Economy” The Rev. Rali Weaver

This is the beginning of what I hope will be a long conversation about economy. Not exactly my grandmother’s economy the one that said if you had a coupon for it you should buy it to save the money but instead the grander idea of the deep economy the economy that looks at where our resources are going and what we are really supporting with them. I want us to consider how our liberal values are reflected in our choices and how we spend our money. Not just as individuals but as a church.

For generations economists have centered their theories on growth as the economic ideal. It makes sense in a way if things grow you have more, if you have more you can do more.

We think this way in churches as well. We think if we grow we will be better somehow. But on this stewardship Sunday I want to open a discussion about what types of growth will really serve our common purpose.

These days we hear more about Economic Stimulus then we do Economic Growth.

We hear about how the government will or won’t be able to help homeowners stay in their homes, how the government will or won’t help people who lose their jobs. And it seems to me at least the government is playing with illusionary resources. Where do billions of dollars come from when there are American Citizens hungry and loosing their homes, and living in our city streets?

Yesterday I arrived at the Brewer Fountain in the Boston Common over an hour early for the Iraqi War Remembrance I helped to organize. Sitting on the park bench I witnessed as hundreds of men and women gathered to receive prayers and sandwiches from the street ministry in Boston. As I sat on my park bench I listened as the receivers of the sandwiches spoke of reduced resources. How there weren’t very many clothing drives anymore. How none of them could find a decent coat or shoes. “Times are changing” one man said, “There isn’t as much to go around.”.

“There isn’t as much to go around.” That sure sounds as though it is the opposite of growth. In a time of decline perhaps we might need to reevaluate our goals.

I am not saying I relinquish any responsibility to grow this church in numbers. I want to do all I can as your minister to make this a welcoming place, make our worship attractive and spirit nurturing. I want you to invite your friends. I want us to grow tall and wide as a tree adding braches each spring.. But as we explore that goal of growth I wonder if we might also consider what would be required to deepen our roots.

In his book Deep Economy, Bill McKibben gives countless examples of ways that more intentional and localized economic choices might lead us to growing instead of upward ways, much deeper ways that firm up our foundations.

He gives the example of the farmer’s market, where people have more real interactions and as a result create deeper connections more readily than they do in grocery stores. You have probably experienced this phenomenon. I have, when I run into someone I know in Starr Market or Shop and Save, I hurry my conversation and get back to shopping. If I run into the person later in another isle I am always a bit embarrassed as though I am following them. I agree with Bill McKibben, I feel this way in part at least because large grocery stores are designed for efficiency. They are created with the concept of economy of time in mind. And so having a long leisurely conversation in the grocery store is incongruous with the mission of the store – to get as many customers in and out as soon as possible. In contrast, at a Farmer’s Market, I am more likely to go to with a friend, and often when I am there I talk with other friends. I even talk with strangers. Farmer’s markets may not be the most time efficient venue to buy my groceries but they are full of hidden benefits. McKibben’s point is basically that there are unseen un-counted benefits to every financial choice we make.

Perhaps this leads to the real question of this difficult economic time- how do we prioritize? If every choice has a risk and a benefit how do we evaluate which will take priority and which we will leave behind?

Our local news points to one answer to this question. As so many institutions are faced with astronomical budget cuts Paul Levy the President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston decided to do something different. In response to 20 Million dollars in cuts that needed to be made Levy, instead of quietly making budget cuts with a few key people behind closed doors brought the problems to the staff, shared with them what he knew and opened the discussion to their ideas. Instead of just a few people protecting their own interests, or trying to decide for the collective the discussion of how to prioritize needs was opened up to the wider group to discuss.

The next thing Levy did was cut 10% of his own salary. And you know what happened? 13 department heads took pay cuts totaling $350,000 to help keep the jobs of their lesser-paid co-workers. And since that time, other doctors have also chosen a $27,000 pay cut rather than loose much needed personnel.

For the time it took to include everyone in the decision making Levy has been able to save countless jobs.

Of course not every story in the news is that rosy. There are countless jobs, which will not be saved.

Just last week my friend Tori who was visiting from San Francisco, read in a newspaper that the company she has worked at for nearly 20 years (Sun Microsystems) will most likely be swallowed up by a bigger company (IBM). From an objective point of view what IBM is doing of course has some logic to it. IBM is swallowing up their competition. It makes perfect sense. Is there some business in your way to growth? Swallow them up, If you own the competition there is no more competition. But I ask what are the hidden losses?

Certainly the less competition the less innovation, and if there is less innovation there is less quality control. We have seen it happen in communism where regulation can regulate away innovation. There are countless reasons why a pure capitalistic economy thrives on competition and why monopolies and large corporate discounting inhibits a competitive and quality driven market.

The concern of the populace that was evident during the “Great Depression” of the 1930’s is our same concern today. The question is how do we eliminate the risk to the worker without also reducing economic opportunity for “growth” through excessive governmental control?

According to his book titled “The Great Depression” Michael Bernstein suggests (as have many other economists) that it was the relaxation of antitrust laws in reaction to the economic crisis, which, exacerbated that crisis.

Today the questions in our media seem the same. Without government controls what is the responsibility of large corporations to their employees? With government control how can there be the freedom that comes from true supply and demand economics?

And how and when will we ever recover what has been lost?

To be quite frank the “how” might be easier to answer than the “when” because the only certainty in our current economic crisis is that it took us a long time to get here and it will most likely take a long time to recover.

So I ask what can be done?

Since I am minister instead of an economist, and I get to look at everything from a place of faith, I think the first and most important thing we can do is redesign the lens through which we look at the problem.

In a tight economy where growth in dollars or size is unlikely perhaps the first thing to do is create a more measurable goal. Here at church we might use this time to evaluate how much we grow in the spirit or in love instead of how we grow exponentially.

From this new vantage point and with our new goals we might go about doing some bigger picture prioritizing based not on economic growth but on growth of the spirit.

Just as you might choose to shop at the farmer’s market to increase your social connections we might choose budget line items prioritized only in what we hope will help us to develop more in spirit. If we are focused only upon the goals of the spirit we might choose financing equal exchange coffee at social hour over keeping up the weekly all-church email.

When we shift our perspective the true gift of difficult economic times is that we learn to prioritize what is essential.

Here at First Church this type of prioritizing has been going already for a longer time than I have been here, and probably a longer time than I know about. Balancing a budget when resources change can be challenging, but this church has always faced the concern of limited resources with an eye to creating a budget that works for the greatest number of people and for this we should be proud.

For those of you who were here, remember last year? When the nursery school left and we were facing over 23,000 in budget losses with a need to raise more money for a new paid position of a Director of Religious Education. The needs were clear and we set our intentions and our diligent treasurer did his best to create a budget that works. And we have followed that budget all year.

This year we are at the same juncture.

And so it was that much in the way that the question is asked in that classic film “It’s a Wonderful life” church committees have been asked “What do you need?” And the numbers come back at a 13% needed increase in revenue need.

Now you might stop the conversation just there, you might want to say: “a 13% increase- in this economy, preposterous!

Of course I am tempted to be as the Rabbi who went into his congregation and said “1 don’t want you to worry about the budget this year. We have all the resources we need, they are right here in your pockets.”

I am teasing of course, that would be a preposterous thing to say in this economy.

But what I will tell you is that I am not worried about our budget for next year, and I don’t want you to worry either. I know we have all the resources we need, right here in each of you.”

The cool thing about a church budget is that while never made of fluff it is made of real people and real resources. And our resources do not only include dollars and cents but is also about how we help each other.

The true gift of this economic time is not only that we can reframe our output goals and expectations but also how we can reframe our input expectations.

What if the old axiom “God helps those who help themselves” was changed to reflect the more communal truth “God helps those who help each other”. In our church it is not whether the thermometer goes up to the perfect degree that matters, it is how we help each other through these economic times. It isn’t the growth of dollars, and it isn’t the growth in membership that matters it is this growth in our connections to each other we should measure and prioritize in our budget discussions because these are the connections that pull us through.

In these difficult economic times perhaps it is the Stone Soup Story we should be remembering.

You remember the tale. Some travelers happen through Dedham, and all they have is an empty pot. Nobody in town will give them a morsel to eat. So they set up the pot right out on our green and they start a fire, and they put a big rock right in the bottom. Pretty soon I come out of the parsonage and I ask them what they heck they are doing. And they say “oh we are making this marvelous stone soup,. It tastes great except we could use a bit of garnish.” Always wanting to help out making a good soup I offer some cabbage I have in my refrigerator. Then Sam walks by and he sees their need and he too can’t pass up an opportunity to help improve the soup so he brings out a tomato he has in his truck. Coming buy to mow the lawn Jeff brings out a carrot and Judy Barrington stops by and offers some celery and Judy Butler has a potato and then Tam stops by with an onion and before you know it we have a perfect soup.

It isn’t one ingredient that makes the soup possible, not one person helping themselves, but it is in the sharing of ingredients that our soup becomes a reality. Not one of us but all of us together. This way of thinking is all that is required of us in these times, it nourishes not only our bodies but our spirits, it is the only economy we need, and it is the question our stewardship committee is asking this year “what do you have to offer to spice up our soup?”