Excerpt:

But now that many people have been “victimized” by the greed and dishonesty in the system, perhaps there may be room to get the conversation going and ask some of these formerly-resisted questions: How did we allow ourselves to mix Christian faith and Wall Street economics so completely that we find it difficult to tell where one leaves off and the other takes up?

Today’s meltdown may actually force us to deal with the justice question: is it truly Christian for some to live so well while others—not just lazy people—live so unwell.

Justice has not been well-taught subject for most of us … until now, possibly.

As one preacher out of many, I can tell you of the times when the mere use of the word justice in a sermon invited angry accusations of being “liberal” (a horrible word for many) or even un-American.

But let any of us see our retirement accounts evaporating, or our jobs being dissolved, or a few flying corporate jets while the rest of us go Greyhound, and suddenly the word justice takes on fresh and very personal meaning.

The biggest question

Maybe the most important question is this one: When things melt down, what do we do for the many people who begin to search for something that can offer them a better way of living, a reliable hope?

Some are open to a word from God. One might dream that such people would hear of a Jesus who never let money or stuff or status define him. One might be tempted to brood on the significance of His words, “The son of man (the prince of Heaven) does not have a place to lay his head.”

In these days of economic distress we will no doubt hear much about a historic 19th century depression that hit in 1859. America and much of Europe was then plunged into fiscal chaos. Unemployment in American cities neared 25 percent.

While not having a complete economic stimulus plan, a man named Jeremiah Lanphier one day got a simple idea. Why not, he asked, get some people together each day at noon to pray? Lanphier was the key guy who got churches up and down the east coast to open their doors at midday and admit people for the purposes of prayer. And by the millions—in America and in Europe—people began to pray.

I doubt that Lanphier ever got a scintilla of credit for the eventual economic recovery of the nations. But, on the other hand, he originated a spiritual bailout.

All I know is that what became known as the Noontime Prayer Revival touched several generations before its influence ended. But it took a fiscal meltdown to get it off the ground.

Jeremiah, where are you when we need you?

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