On Sunday I joined the Dean of the National Cathedral, Samuel T. Lloyd III, for a forum on the intersection of faith and politics in the midst of the economic crisis that you can watch on their Web site. Among other things, we discussed how the nation should respond to this crisis and, on a deeper level, what are the ways that we as Christians are called to lead.

I also preached later that morning at the Sunday service, and the sermon is also available on the Cathedral Web site.  In my sermon, I referred to an event last Thursday night — you might have missed it —  but there was a happening and a shift that I hope we all will soon feel.  Some likened it to the storming of the Bastille, crates of tea thrown into Boston harbor, a populist uprising.  Some spoke of King Lear’s dark fool who spoke truth to power when all others were mute, others likened it a prophet in the wilderness, and others finally breathed a sigh of relief as they heard plainly spoken … “the king has no clothes.”

Last week, on this blog, I called it Sunday school with Jon Stewart.  The sermon commented on the comedian/prophet of Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, invoked Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s First Inaugural address, and related both the lectionary text of the day about Jesus’ turning over of the “money changers’” tables in the Temple. I ended with a reflection from another gospel passage about the “feeding of the 5,000” and how a young boy who shared his lunch shows us an alternative to “business as usual” in an economic crisis.

The recent revelation of the $165 million that will be paid in bonuses to executives of AIG from the same unit of the company that has brought the company to near collapse has shown how deep anger is running for many in this country.  As Christians, we can not simply exhibit anger without an alternative.  We must be ready to present alternative values as well as new institutions and practices to show that the way things currently are does not mean that it is the way things must be.