Preaching Economics?

The economic crisis we are in has been ballooning over the past couple of months.  I have yet to hear a sermon that addresses the anxiety that is raging these days.  A few weeks ago I was in a congregation, a large evangelical congregation.  The text for the day was from Philippians 3, where Paul proclaims his re-valuation of all things that matter in light of knowing Christ—his embrace of suffering the loss of all things, prized things he has now come to count as dung.  Not a mention of living faithfully midst the turbulence of the times when assets can so quickly become liabilities.  Last Sunday I was in an Episcopal congregation on the coast of Maine.  The Lectionary text was from Matthew 25, the parable of the Talents.  Rather than picking up on the condemnation of burying assets for safekeeping out of fear rather than investing them wisely (even if conservatively), the Rector chose to reflect on the Collect of the day which pointed to the exhortation to read Scripture.  I have been in an American Baptist Church not too far from my home for two Sundays—not a mention of things economic.

It seems we, the Church, have much to answer for in these times and certainly much to speak to.  At the very least we have to confess that we have cooperated with this debt-based economy.  Our readiness to address finances tends to coincide with our need to pledge the budget for the fiscal year to come or to ramp up for the looming capital campaign.  The connection to debt and sin is unmistakable in the New Testament, particularly the Gospels.  In the mind of Jesus, there was a correspondence between the experience of enslavement to sin and the experience of indebtedness.  This does not necessarily lead to an equation between debt and sin—but it does provide an interesting point of correlation worthy of exploration in a time when the dangers intrinsic to debt are being elaborated on as never before in the society at large.

If you have a sermon (perhaps one you preached or you heard) that addresses the current economic crisis in an effective, evocative way, send it along ( dwood56@earthlink.net ) and we’ll post it on the site.  Preaching economics is always important…but especially in these times.

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