To what do we turn when the world rocks and tilts, and we lurch about for something firm to stand upon? What has our collective tribe--us, homo sapiens--turned to whenever the fear, the outrage, and the uncertainty of the times have left so many of us bereft of hope and courage, struggling to find a way in the new wilderness? From the dawn of time, we've sung our songs and muttered our poems and painted on cave walls, created tales and plays and carved in stone or wood. Art is no mere luxury; it is a necessity.

In this sermon, I explore its spiritual power for us in this time of crisis. Meditating on the contribution of artists like Elizabeth Alexander, Audre Lorde, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Leonard Cohen, the prophet Daniel and Saint John, as we'll as what you yourself might bring to light in this time of our world's trouble, I invite us to find courage for our times. . . .