This week I was in Washington, D.C. speaking to various groups on my new book, Seeing Gray.  I was staying a few blocks from the White House where both presidential hopefuls met with the President and senior leaders of congress to try to work out a plan to avoid a financial disaster.  While writing this blog it was announced that Washington Mutual was taken over by the FDIC representing the largest bank failure in history.

While in D.C. David McCallister-Wilson, president of Wesley Theological Seminary, asked what I would preach next weekend if on Monday the President announced a “bank holiday” and next week saw a complete collapse of the U.S. economy.  I don’t anticipate this happening, but many think we came close last week.

So what would I preach on the day after a financial meltdown?  I imagine four points to the sermon.  I would begin with the words of Jesus, “Your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions.”  We would consider what these words mean in the light of the crisis, and search for a biblical perspective on what was lost.

The second point would focus on trying to understand the causes of the crash, particularly those that relate to our values, priorities and credit practices in America that created the crisis - not only Wall Street’s mistakes, but the mistakes we made as ordinary people.  A society that is driven by the constant quest for “more” and which finds the ideas of contentment and simplicity to be at odds with our economic models will ultimately end up where we have. We would weigh these values in the light of the Bible’s teaching about “simplicity, generosity and joy.”

A third point would consider where we go from here.  In many ways this economic crisis is like a serious heart attack requiring quadruple bypass surgery.  The patient (America) has eaten too much of the wrong things, refused to practice self discipline or to exercise.  She could have predicted the attack based upon her lifestyle.  And though doctors had warned her of the likelihood of an attack, she chose to ignore their warnings.  Following a lengthy surgery, and after a period of recovery, the patient will feel so much better.  But there is still the matter of changing her lifestyle.  If she goes back to eating fatty foods,  far too many calories, and never exercising, she will be back on the operating table, or perhaps worse, within a few years.  This is where America finds herself.

Those who have survived heart attacks consider them a blessing in disguise - a kind of warning and a powerful incentive to change their lifestyle.  The wise ones make appropriate changes and live long full lives in good health.  The foolish ones go back to their old lifestyle once the immediate danger has passed. My fear is that Americans would return to business as usual within a few years.

The concluding point of the sermon would look at the teachings of scripture regarding who is ultimately in control of our lives.  Our hope is not in Wall Street.  Our hope as Christians is in the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.  I would invite us to consider the words of Isaiah written to those in exile who had lost everything:  “The LORD is the everlasting God…He will not grow weary…He gives strength to the weary…[so that] those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength.”

That’s the sermon I would preach if the financial system collapsed in the next week.

In November I will be preaching a sermon like this as a part of a series entitled, “Reset” in which we will be considering these things.  I’ll be inviting our congregation to reset, recalibrate and realign our values, habits and lives.   We’ve had a brush with economic collapse this week and we’re not out of the woods yet.  But if we don’t reset and recalibrate and realign some things, our next attack might be fatal.