Preaching Holy Week in the middle of a pandemic—again
Usually it takes courage to preach Good Friday. This year, it will take courage to proclaim “He is risen!” on Easter morning.
Lischer: Will, the number of American deaths from COVID-19 has surpassed the number of Americans killed in World War II, the country is still living with the violent fallout of Trump, and, by the way, it’s almost Holy Week.
Willimon: In your piece in the Century in December you said that Advent was a “sigh,” thus capturing our collective mood, Rick (“A season of sighs,” Dec. 16). Advent and Christmas were sort of joyful, magical; Holy Week is not. If Advent is a sigh, maybe Holy Week is a cry.
What a violent week we call holy! Gritty, realistic stories of betrayal, arrest, perjury, torture, mobs, death, and burial. (We wouldn’t know anything about all that, would we, Holy Week 2021?) Some years we preachers must labor to make connections between the gospel and our lives. This Holy Week, the world does all that for us.
