WASHINGTON (AP) _ During frantic efforts to resolve the debt impasse, Senate Chaplain Barry Black has compared Congress to a sinking ship and a burning building.

In the invocation before Sunday’s Senate session, Black prayed, “Save us, O God, for the waters are coming in upon us.”

In Monday’s invocation, Black said he believes in the power of prayer, “Although life’s challenges sometimes prompt us to feel that we are rearranging furniture in a burning building.”

The chaplain’s increasingly dire imagery followed his prayer on behalf of senators Friday, when he asked God to “save us from ourselves.”