Debt Relief
The Rev. Dr. Matthew Johnson-Doyle
February 6, 2011

Litany: We Acknowledge our Debts To One Another

I invite you to join me in a litany of indebtedness –
there is so much which we owe, to ourselves, to one another,
to our ideals. It is good to remember our debts. So I’ll speak some words of honor and recognition, and then I’ll ask you to say together:
“we acknowledge our debts to one another.”
Let’s practice.

We come in gratitude and wonder for all we did not create,
which is given unto us.
This beautiful world, the seasons in their power,
the gift of life itself, the food on our plate and the water in our glass.
In the presence of the earth and its gifts,
we say together:
“We Acknowledge our Debts to One Another.”

We are the inheritors of beauty and strength –
the great arts, music, books, learning, discoveries of science –
places like this church, which were built and sustained by those who came before
our ancestors, known and unknown, have given us so much,
and so we say:
“We Acknowledge our Debts to One Another.”

This common world we share is made wondrous, livable, hopeful
by the work of community.
The fabric of a place, of a people, is made of how they treat one another –
kindness, vision, hard work –
these things are gifts, and we are thankful,
and so in the knowledge that we cannot live in peace
unless we all decide to do so,
we say:
“We Acknowledge our Debts to One Another.”

How many times have we been lifted up, helped, encouraged,
by another? Every kind word, every material help, every steady hand –
we are so grateful for these mercies.
In response to this compassion, we can only say:
“We Acknowledge our Debts to One Another.”

We are only the temporary occupants of this planet,
of this church, of this community.
We owe a debt, we know, to our children and theirs –
that we might build the world better than we found it,
that they might inherit, as we did, the chance to live and love and grow.
Before the faces of all who will come to be,
we say with humbleness,
“We Acknowledge our Debts to One Another.”

And in our moments of wonder, in our times of joy and despair,
when we turn inward to our center,
or outward to the universe itself,
there are times when we are blown away,
when we are struck and amazed,
when we feel the power of the spirit of many names,
a power we participate in but do not control and do not own –
and in times such as these,
we don’t say, we sing, we sing,
“We Acknowledge our Debts to One Another.”

Reading: From “America’s Other Deficit” by Ezra Klein

America . . . has two deficits: The budget deficit we're all used to hearing about. And the investment deficit that often goes unmentioned. And both need to be addressed.
The two deficits are more alike than people realize. …. "You run a deficit both when you borrow money and when you defer maintenance that needs to be done. Either way, you're imposing a cost on future generations." A dollar in delayed road repairs and a dollar in borrowed money are not, in other words, that different: Both mean someone is going to have to spend a dollar later. …
Infrastructure is the easiest place to start. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the nation needs about $2.2 trillion in infrastructure repairs and upgrades merely to bring the existing infrastructure up to "good condition.". . .
Our runways are clogged, our rail system is decrepit, and our levees - well, the ASCE gave our levees a D-minus - and its report came out four years after Hurricane Katrina. But in 2011, infrastructure is more than roads, rails and runways. The United States lags the rest of the developed world in broadband speed, penetration and cost. The country has no smart grid to speak of. We don't just need to bring our infrastructure up to "good condition." We need to make it better.
Here's the good news: Infrastructure investment is the best deal in the economy right now. Government borrowing costs are lower than they've been since the 1950s. Unemployment in the construction sector is above 15 percent, which means companies are desperate for work and bids to complete projects are coming in low. A weak global economy means cheap raw materials. Bottom line? These investments are more affordable now than they're likely to be in a few years. We'd be foolish to miss this opportunity.
But it's not just our physical capital that needs investment. Our human capital does, too. Our schools spend a lot of money but fail a lot of children. We don't have a national system of pre-kindergarten, despite an almost endless amount of evidence that pre-K education has huge returns for every dollar spent and is probably the single most valuable investment we could make in the country's future. We know that the value of a college education has increased in recent decades but that the percentage of Americans who graduate from college has stagnated - a trend that …accounts for about two-thirds of the run-up in our skyrocketing income inequality.
Then there's intellectual capital. Research and development are good things in normal times but are even more necessary when the 10 hottest years on record have all been within the past 13 years and every attempt to price carbon has fizzled in the Senate. We either innovate our way out of climate change, or we're not getting out of it. …
Not all of this requires new money. In many cases, what's needed is not money at all, but the resolve to make difficult decisions …
Reading: The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Message: Debt Relief

Note: The sermon is an oral event. This manuscript may not reflect the exact spoken words. If you want to hear what was actually said, you can listen to sermon visit our website at www.uurockford.org. © Matthew Johnson-Doyle, 2011.

I want to tell you about a family I know –
this is a family close to my heart,
and I love them very much.
They don’t actually exist, of course –
This is one of those Mostly True stories –
a story that comes out of your stories, and my story,
and the stories I hear from my friends and neighbors.

This family is dear to my heart because they are so much like us.

The family – two parents, a couple of kids –
they remember five or six years ago,
when they were looking to buy a house–
and everyone said –
oh, your home will be your best investment.
So they saved up a little and bought a place.

Nowadays, they aren’t underwater on their mortgage, like some people,
but if they took off the 6% for the realtor,
they’d lose money on the place.
They’re getting by,
but that debt, what they owe on the place, seems like a lot.

That’s not their only debt, either.
A few years ago they got a decent safe reliable car,
and owe a few thousand more on that.

Both of them have student loans –
just a few thousand for Chris,
but closer to 25 for Kelly –
those are their names, Chris and Kelly,
and if you were listening two weeks ago,
you know it doesn’t matter what gender each of them is,
you just fill that in in your head however you like.

Student loans, they thought, are a great investment –
low interest rates, big payoff –
but now they worry.

They’ve got just a little credit card debt left over from Christmas shopping,
but that’s not a big deal, really, though it gnaws at them.

If you add it all up, they owe around $170,000 –
which seems, when you add it all up, a whole big pile of money.
They try not to think about it too much.

Kelly is the one in the family who reads the news,
and it seems like every story is about debt –
and how we all have to worry about it,
how we all have to cut back to do something about it.

The local school district is all up in arms about a projected $50 million deficit.
It sounds like a lot of folks are going to lose their job –
Kelly’s sister, a new teacher, among them.
It sucks.
Kelly finds it particularly troublesome because a little birdie told him
that the 50 million number was a guess, and it could be closer to 30 –
which is still a lot of money, but maybe they wouldn’t have to give up
things like Kindergarten or librarians.

And Kelly knows that a big chunk of that deficit is because
the state is way behind on its bills.
The state just cut its projected deficit by raising taxes.
Kelly didn’t like that at all, not with those mortgage and property tax payments,
but what are you going to do?
They sort of looked into moving – maybe Wisconsin?
but quickly realized their taxes would be even higher there.

Of course, the state deficit is nothing compared to the federal government –
1.5 Trillion dollars this year.
That’s such a big number, Kelly can’t even get a handle on it.

And everybody seems up in arms about it.
Not serious about it –
god no, not serious.
If they were serious, there would be plenty they could do –
but they are up in arms.

These are the thoughts that keep Kelly and Chris up at night.
Debt and deficits,
all that is owed,
without a real plan to pay for it,
and the consequences of such things –
that the ones who seem to pay the price are the kids –
not just the kids who might lose state services,
or lose educational opportunities,
but, let’s be honest – Kelly and Chris’s own kids –
that house was supposed to be the investment
that would be their way to save for college,
and now, well, they’re not sure how that’s going to play out.

Anybody here every feel like this?
Oh, come on, I’m sure you do.
Whether or not you worry about your own situation –
and I know that some of you worry a lot,
and some of you a little,
I know a lot of us worry about the school district, the state,
the country –
indeed, now it seems we have to worry about the world –
will Spain default on its debt? Ireland?

Really, didn’t we have enough to worry about already?

Well, one day, let us say –
that Kelly and Chris decide they are done worrying,
and they are going to do something.
They are going to figure out a way to think about this,
and a plan of action,
to make things better, different.
They are going to find some way towards Debt Relief.

They decide not to pay attention to those shouting voices
on the pop-up internet ad –
the voices that say “get out of debt quick!”
They know better than this.

The first thing they do is make a budget.
Track all their expenses.
They decide to cut back on going out,
and put off a vacation,
and they do the math,
and they can make it work.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel,
and despite what you might here from certain blowhards,
it isn’t an oncoming train.

So they take a deep breath,
and relax a little about their own situation.

But what about the schools, or the state, or the feds?
They weren’t on the super-double-secret committee,
and they aren’t high-powered lobbyists,
so they don’t get to write those budgets.

But they can write letters, and they can talk to their friends.
So they do their homework, and learn about it.

And they write some letters.
They speak up at town meetings.
They get on the phone and call their representative.

Now, they were nice enough to give me a copy of some of their letters –
it was the least they could do,
since I created them out of my imagination,
but they are generous people.

Here they are (hold up).
They’ve asked that you write a letter like this –
use your own voice, of course,
speak from your own heart,
but you should speak up too.

The first one, here, is addressed to David Kelly, president of the school board,
and a bunch of other folks are copied –
It says:

Dear President Kelly,

Like many in Rockford, we are deeply concerned about the proposed cuts to the school district budget. Of course, many cuts are simply unavoidable. We do not want the district to completely use up its reserve. Consolidating schools that aren’t full, reducing the number of administrators, and many other cuts make sense. So does asking the employees to pay more for their health insurance – everyone seems to agree that will have to happen.

But the cuts we make should not destroy the long term future of our children or our community. Cuts that hurt our most vulnerable children – like the elimination of all day kindergarten for low-income kids – as well as cuts that drive middle-class families and their tax dollars out of Rockford, like threatened cuts to the gifted, honors, Montessori, and sports programs – these cuts should be avoided. We’ve experienced the greatest economic disaster since the great depression – and what, after all, is a reserve for if not for this?

We urge you and the school board to be hopeful in these troubled times. The state has raised our taxes so they can catch up on their bills. The union cares a lot about our kids, and may be willing to give up more than we think, temporarily, if they are treated with respect. Don’t be naïve – but do be hopeful. We are.

Sincerely,
The family of Chris and Kelly.

That’s a nice letter, isn’t it?
They are good writers. 
The point isn’t any specifics – which you may or may not agree with –
but that they spoke up,
and they spoke up for hope.
Despair breeds despair,
and hope breeds hope.
I believe that,
and so should you.

They wrote another letter, here, to Gov. Quinn and Speaker Madigan.
I’m not going to read that one,
it kinda goes on for a while.
Some of it is pretty strongly worded.
It even has an appendix,
where they suggest the elimination of dozens of commissions, boards,
and such things where people are paid to give advice.
The urge the state to get their act together
and pay up to the schools right away.
And they have a ton of advice about
reforms to the state government,
because they recognize that the biggest problem
is in how decisions are made – or rather, not made.

And I’ve got a third letter here, too –
this one addressed to President Obama, as well as a collection
of legislative leaders.
It encourages them to read Ezra’s column on America’s other deficit
and talks about the situation in the local schools,
and how this is really the time to invest in education,
keeping good teachers on the job, building and rehabbing schools,
and so on.
That letter, too, has a list of both particular suggestions –
and a passionate plea for better governance, for more teamwork,
for serious adults to stop throwing up their hands
and get out their pencil, paper, and calculators.

So that’s one thing Kelly and Chris do –
the write letters. They tell their friends.
They are struck by the idea of an investment deficit,
and they realize that there are different kinds of debt –
some of it good, some not.

This is true in their own life, too:
their home, which they thought was an investment,
wasn’t really –
but they live there, and they like it.
The car was not an investment,
but the student loans were an investment, and a good one.

Chris and Kelly feel better about their situation –
and they feel like,
even if nobody’s listening, they’ve said their piece about the world.

But something’s missing.

This business about the infrastructure deficit has got them thinking,
thinking about how our discourse can be so limited,
so truncated.
We talk about debt and deficit,
and all we think about is money.
Dollars and sense.
As if this was all that matters,
as though these were the only debts that counted,
that needed to be honored, acknowledged, and in some way, repaid.

We also have an infrastructure deficit.
Clearly, we have a governance deficit –
a failure of leadership to address serious problems with seriousness,
instead of name-calling, gimmicks, or delaying tactics.

But what else?

Well, we have a freedom deficit, and a hope deficit.
That’s for sure.
Too many are held in bondage – literally, sometimes,
and metaphorically, often,
held in debt-slavery – trapped, without a path to hope.
St. Peter, don’ you call my name, I owe my soul to the company store.
The immigrant, who owes so much to the smuggler
that they have no choice but to run drugs or sell their body.
That’s not much different from the young man in our story for all ages today.
Oh, he was foolish, in the beginning –
spent everything his father had earned.
But his father was clearly the fool, too –
for not trusting his wife instead of his son, first of all,
or teaching his son to handle money well.
And then the son finds himself in a bad spot,
and he makes poor choices,
and has bad luck, and despairs.

But there is a turn in the story, isn’t there? Love.
The princess looks upon the man, and loves him.

That’s another kind of deficit we have, don’t we –
a deficit of love.
We could use more of it,
more of our relationships could be driven by love,
strengthened by love, awash in love.

And so the princess, clever girl that she is,
saves our young man – how?
Through the instigation of empathy.
What if your flesh was cut off, too?

What if every bank that made a loan they shouldn’t have
had to give away a foreclosed house to a family in need?
Well, that would change things in a hurry, wouldn’t it?

This is one of our great deficits –
a deficit of empathy.
We let these huge forces control our lives,
and there doesn’t seem to be another person on the other end of the line,
someone who could open their heart,
who could be persuaded to be forgiving,
to rebuild rather than tear down.
We lack empathy for one another,
particularly for those most vulnerable,
for those who suffer the consequences of austerity –
for I tell you, it is not the wealthy, and it is not even most of the middle class,
who will pay the price for our debts,
for our cost-cutting measures,
no, we will balance the books, once again, on the backs of the poor-
the backs already scarred, over the centuries,
by the crack of the whip and burned under the heat of the sun.

This story, of the young man, the creditor, and the princess,
it asks us to change how we do the math –
to think, instead of the specific debits we owe,
to think of the debts we hold and owe to each other –
that human community, our past, our future, our ability to be humane and civil,
depends upon the acknowledgment of the debts of honor and respect
that we owe to, and are owed, by other human beings.

This is debt relief.
Not simply forgiven of debts we owe,
debts of money, of treasure.
Not just that.
Debt relief is the realization that these monetary debts are not primary –
these debts of money hold only a secondary – tertiary, even –
title on our lives –
the primary debt is mutual, it belongs to and is owed to each of us,
and it is this title,
this responsibility,
which allows us, when we read it clear,
that allows us to bid farewell to every fear,
to have hope in our soul,
and move on from what was to what might be.
Debt relief is knowing that there is more than this,
that love is stronger than greed and hope is stronger than fear.

Kelly and Chris and their kids played in the snow Wednesday afternoon,
after the sun came out.
They went tromping up to their waist
and then sat inside and watched the sun glisten off the icicles.

And the thought, of course, crossed their mind:
we did nothing to earn this:
it is a gift given to us,
and we owe so much, such a debt of gratitude,
to this earth our home.
In this winter season, and in the spring which is –
I promise, really truly, I promise –
the spring which is to come,
and in the fall with all its colors,
and on a summer day –
and tell me, they say, what are we supposed to do?
Oh, walk lightly, care for this place,
recycle and reduce and all that –
sure, but what, really –
what really are we supposed to do in the face of such a gift?

The poet answers: Stop.
Wonder.
Be amazed.
By the sun, the fields, the grasshopper in your hand,
this one with it jaws moving up and down.

Start here.
Be relieved of your burdens, for they matter not,
not in the presence of beauty, the love of the spirit,
the embrace of God, the splendor of the universe, our home.
Be relieved.
Be amazed.
Be idle and blessed.
Pay attention.
Be amazed, be relieved,
remember what you really owe, and really are owed,
is beyond objects, beyond words,
but lives in the heart and the spaces between our lives
and in the wind that blows across the earth.
Be grateful for all you have been given,
and repay that gift with wonder and love –
do this – do this with your one wild and precious life.