I’ll tell stories from my own life, with some references to stories by Rebecca Parker and Vanessa Machado de Olivieri, the author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism. Within the stories I hope the essence of my sermon will be two parts: a reassurance that the times we are in may be unsettling, but it’s not new in history, and a challenge to be honest about where we are.