Back to the Future Virtues: Reclaiming the Wisdom of the Elders
by Ken Wilson
Having completed Back to the Future on early chapters of Acts, shift gears and launch new series, Back to the Future Virtues.
Attempt to apply biblical wisdom to new economic era. Set stage today. God is calling us to honor those who have gone before us by learning the virtues they tried to pass on to us--virtues that got them through the last major crisis--because our future depends on it.
Begin with a little time-travel based on book I've found helpful of late: The Fourth Turning. History thru the lens of generational trends.
Last CRISIS 1929-1945. G-parents adults during this era; parents grew up. Necessity is mother of much virtue, and I heard these often: Waste Not, Want Not; Make Do. My elders reused everything without calling it recycling: tin-foil, rubber bands, glass jars. You didn't leave lights on or water running. Daily showers unheard of.
They embraced necessity of sacrifice in present for sake of future. The things they built were built to last.
These virtues, forged in crisis, of necessity, led to era of prosperity: HIGH (1945-1964.) 94% global wealth in U.S.. Major corporations unions, American middle class, highways, schools, churches built.
Boomers raised during HIGH. Relative economic security, many unsolved issues: nuclear threat, racism, sexism, childhood diseases.
We had enough security to rethink values of our elders. Grew up more materialistic than they, but dismissive of virtues that led to prosperity. HIGH followed by AWAKENING: civil rights, Jesus movement, New Age, women's movement.
Time of cultural protest. We threw baby of our parents hard fought wisdom out with the bath-water of things we didn't like about the world they passed on to us.
UNRAVELING, mid-8o's to 2008. Culture wars, fierce individualism, high divorce, exploding consumerism, riding dot.com, credit-housing bubbles to extraordinary paper wealth. [show consumer video]
Necessity, the mother of virtue, is bringing this to a to a grinding halt. Entering a new CRISIS. Time to recover virtues of past to embrace the future that is upon us: Waste Not, Want Not; Make Do; A Stitch in Time Saves Nine, A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned; We (not I) Shall Overcome.
WISDOM SAYINGS: LEARNING FROM THE ELDERS
Proverbs are pithy sayings packed with hard fought wisdom born of experience. Powerful wisdom transmission tool. A whole book of bible devoted to proverbs. [reading assignment for series]
Jesus used proverbs: love enemies, do unto others as you would have em do unto you, he who has ears let him hear, give and it will given
AA uses proverbs: easy does it, one day at a time, first things first, this too shall pass, let go & let God, keep it simple stupid
Proverbs are communal wisdom--forged in common experience--to help us get through hard times together. (why teams use them)
Proverbs are designed for generational transmission.
We receive proverbial wisdom from our elders.
"Hear my son, your father's instruction, and reject not your mother's teaching" ( 1: 8)
Listen, my sons, to a father's instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. I give you sound learning so do not forsake my teaching. For I too was a son to my father, still tender, and cherished by my mother. Then he taught me, and he said to me, "Take hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands, and you will live. Proverbs 4: 1-4
When the relationship with our elders is disrupted, the generational transmission of wisdom is disrupted and we pay a heavy price.
This is sad legacy of my generation. Invented "Generation Gap." Most generations differentiate from elders--always some gap, but we drove a Mack truck through ours. As a generation, our rebellion was intense.
It takes humility to receive wisdom from elders who, like us, are frail human beings.
Parents' gen beat up by tough luck. Unemployment 25% before gov't safety net, social security, food stamps. World War subjected a generation of young men to a lot of trauma. (Gave free cigarettes to GI's! How many survived combat and later succumbed to lung cancer? No treatment for depression, no recovery movement.) To say nothing of those oppressed by poverty & prejudice.
Did those thoughts even occur to us when we were young, judging our elders so harshly?
As you get older and face your own frailties, these thoughts dawn on you. You realize how easy it is to be hard on your parents.
But 10 Words to live warn us: First commandment with a promise: Honor your father & mother, that it may go well with you!
What if we had actually embraced the wisdom of our elders?
Waste Not/Want Not; We doubled rate of consumption in past 50 years; we use twice the living space of 30 years ago; now more TV's than people in average home. If everyone in world used as much stuff as we do, require 3-5 planets worth of stuff. We can't go on like this.
Make Do: Patch jeans, resole shoes. Make do with what you've got for as long possible, then replace. [Shaq on a shoe tour….in Harlem]
A Stitch in Time Saves Nine: Preventative maintenance. Friend bought a new car, never changed oil, engine blew up after a year. Oil change in time would've saved thousands of dollars.
A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned: Live Within Your Means. Ebony: "A fool and his money soon shall part." 1960-1980 savings rate about 10%; by 2005 fell to minus .5%, with boomers getting much closer to retirement!
During same period, giving went down as a percentage of income. .
We Shall Overcome: Our elders lived under no delusions about how tough life can be. Didn't expect to dodge suffering but to endure it gracefully, with hope, and team spirit. We Can Do IT.
Out of a shared experience of hardship the strongest hope arises….and strongest hope is always communal hope
So what is God calling us to do? Refocus & Remember….
REFOCUS: Yes, there are lifestyle changes ahead. Whatever we're using up now, energy, water, stuff, don't increase….consume less
But a relational root to our repentance that is even more powerful.
If we haven't by now, need to ditch harsh judgments toward elders that harden our hearts to wisdom God trying to give us through them.
Noah also lived during a great crisis; a cataclysmic flood, a reboot of human race after a bad, violent, destructive beginning. After the flood: Genesis 9: 20-28
Ham failed to honor his father by uncovering his shame, broad-casting his fraility. Look at our father! Drunk as a skunk and lying there naked! Elders are frail human beings. Shame is part of human condition. It's one thing to learn from the sins of your elders--decide not to repeat those sins, but it's another to broadcast their shame.
In last thirty years a noble thing to broadcast how parents messed us up. (I don't mean confronting an abusive or alcoholic parent. I mean culture of blame & broadcast.)
By now many boomers have lightened up on their parents frailties. But one last act of honoring our elders: receiving their wisdom!
To get through mess we're in we're going to need some new wisdom--new technologies, new ways of doing business. The world is a different place than it was during last CRISIS.
But we're also going to need wisdom from the past, forged in fire of experience of last CRISIS.
REFOCUS & REMEMBER: Generational memory lasts about 70 years or 3 generations. My kids can't learn what my parents and g-parent taught me unless I receive it first.
We have our own generational tensions in church, thank God. Because we are an inter-generational church. Tension is a sign we're doing something right!
One example: Polls show younger generations more concerned about environmental distress. Older more likely to be annoyed by concerns. No one anyone under 35 saying, "Cool it on creation care already!"
Younger generations comfortable talking about carbon footprint, sustainability, buy local, etc. Many boomers hear that and it sounds foreign, like some PC bandwagon talk.
But boomers have cultural memory of parents & grandparents teaching same things with different language: waste not, want not, make do, a stitch in time saves nine, we shall overcome (together).
Wisdom of our elders is stewardship, not consumer wisdom. Exactly wisdom needed to care for environment...and we boomers have the cultural memory so let's love each other; learn each other's language, find common ground.
PRACTICAL TIPS [God offers a way of life that can be tried, even before it's believed. Taste and see the Lord is good]
1. Read book of Proverbs scanning for wisdom we need to face new era together. Not just what you need as an individual, but what we need. Talk about the things we're gleaning with each other.
[If you're unsure of your faith, or whether Scripture is power packed, try it, and see if God comes through for you.]
2. By end of series, settle on 3 proverbs to make your own, to live your life by. Share these with others because power of wisdom is communal.
3. Cultivate memory of generational wisdom from the elders. Remember what momma said. Receive it and share it with youngers.
4. Interview a cool old person who lived through last crisis.
5. Leverage the power of church community to transmit wisdom.
Economic Response Initiatives