Preaching a Resilient Vision in the Time of Pandemic
A year ago nobody could have imagined what we would experience every day under the COVID-19 pandemic. This unexpected pandemic has thrown us into an unwelcome new normal, reshaping our ordinary lives drastically. For those who have been struggling at society’s margins, its impacts are devastating. For someone barely making a living wage, losing one’s job might feel like a death sentence. Someone living without health insurance who gets a fever could well fear high medical expenses more than the prospect of having the virus. Those who are most socially vulnerable are the ones most likely to lose a loved one or become sick themselves. As the darkness has gradually engulfed lives, it has become more evident that life has changed into something far different from the normal we remember.
During this time, it seems hardly possible for a preacher to conceive of an ambitious vision. Witnessing the stark reality of despair and pain has wounded some preachers’ souls, and they might be afraid to conceive of or give voice to a vision. However, our congregants’ hearts have been wounded. They need to hear a vision.
The biblical witnesses show us that the most robust hope emerges out of times of traumatic suffering. Habakkuk is a good example of a biblical witness who seeks a vision amidst painful reality. The Chaldeans had destroyed Habakkuk’s world, and in the midst of his heartbreak he questioned God. By raising questions to God, he received a vision to rely on—a vision we seek amidst the pandemic. From Habakkuk, fellow preachers can learn three steps to preach a vision in the midst of suffering: 1) witness reality with compassion, 2) question God in faith, and 3) confess faith in God’s vision.
The first step is to listen. Preachers should listen to the voices of the people living in the troubled world and compassionately bear witness to their suffering. Although the book of Habakkuk begins with questions to God, the prophet observed reality and listened to the people prior to raising the questions. Once Habakkuk had noticed the pervasive violence, injustice, and evil devastating his world, he questioned God about it vehemently. He witnessed what the oppressed were experiencing at the hands of the Babylonians and gave voice to their suffering. The prophet saw that they were brutally robbed of their property,[1] unjustly forced to build houses and castles for their oppressors and shamefully ripped-off,[2] so that their barns became empty and their land unfruitful.[3]
Preachers could learn from Habakkuk to discern reality thoughtfully and then bear witness to that reality with compassion. To witness compassionately, preachers should approach the trouble as an insider, not an outsider. The task of preachers is not to analyze reality like a scientist but to embrace people with wounded hearts. When Habakkuk witnessed his world, he stood with those who were suffering rather than observed them from a distance. His “compassionate witness”[4] led him to question God on their behalf. Likewise, if more preachers would attentively hear the voices of suffering people and compassionately witness their lives, they could be better voices for those people and understand them more deeply.
Second, preachers must discern the deep structure of evil that troubles the world rather than focus on the ostensible troubles of the moment. Instead of oversimplifying the current problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic, preachers should think deeply about what is absent from the troubling world and how the ostensible issues are interconnected with what is absent. For instance, instead of naively asserting that “the coronavirus is God’s judgment against human sins” or simply listing the weekly death tolls of COVID-19, the skyrocketing unemployment rate, and the debate over online worship, preachers should attend to what is happening under the surface, such as the ecological crisis amid globalization and its association with the rise of pandemic, the rise in racial discrimination against Asian/Asian-Americans, the Black and Hispanic population’s higher death rate of COVID-19, and the medical vulnerability of racial minority groups. Only then should they name what facets of biblical justice or Christian virtue is absent in our troubling world. Just as Habakkuk identified the crux of trouble as the absence of law and justice and the pervasiveness of violence, we too should name the underlying troubles in our world.
Like Habakkuk, the preacher’s next task is to question God. The prophet questioned God in consideration of what he had witnessed, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? … Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? … why do you look on the treacherous and are silent?”[5] Habakkuk’s questions show his trust in God rather than his disbelief. As Thomas Long rightly points out, questioning God is “not a lack of faith but an expression of faith,” and “a deep and faithful hunger for God.”[6] Because he believed in God’s active work in the world, Habakkuk brought his question about the world’s troubles to God. He believed the answer to the questions should be from God, not from humans.
Unfortunately, some preachers mistakenly put themselves or others in the place of the answerer, which is God’s place. Neither preachers nor others, including government, media, renowned philosophers, or anyone else, can offer the right answer to the ultimate human concern, even if they can answer authoritatively in other matters. God is the only true recipient of the question because God is the creator and sustainer of the world. If we bring the questions to the wrong person, we will receive wrong answers. For preachers to bring the faith community’s questions to God on their behalf, they should read the Bible prayerfully, meditate on it, and listen to God for the answer to the question.
If we follow this process faithfully, we will arrive at to the final step, the confession of trust in God. Just as Job confessed his faith in God after a long dialogue God about his suffering,[7] Habakkuk’s questions of God resulted in him confessing of faith in God.[8] Habakkuk did not unwillingly accept God’s answer. He solidly and exultantly confessed trust in God who is good all the time, even in the time of trouble. This confession of faith nuances the tone and mode of preaching a vision in the time of pandemic. Like Habakkuk’s concluding confession, the sermon in a troubling time can be both celebratory and empathetic. This is possible not because we are ignorant about reality but because we are informed about who God is. Even though we know how distressing it is to live amidst a pandemic, even if we deeply grieve for the loss of our loving people, even if we worry about the unpredictability of life amidst the new normal, if we still trust God and God’s promise, we can preach a vision joyfully and confidently in this time of trouble.
Preaching anchored in faith in God moves from lamentation to celebration, as African American preachers have shown.[9] Because we believe in God’s presence amidst suffering, we keep our faith as we mourn and lament our troubling lives. Furthermore, because we believe in God’s active transformative presence even in our troubled world,[10] we cannot stay in lamentation. Instead, we go beyond it to celebrate with a vision in which God will transform the grief in ashes to the joy with garland.[11] Even though we cannot eliminate or perfectly control darkness, if we still trust God who is ever-present even in the most painful and troubling times, we can preach a resilient vision. “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.”[12]
[1] Hab. 2:9-11
[2] Hab. 2:12-14
[3] 3:17
[4] I use this expression in adaptation of Joni Sancken’s description of compassionate witness and Thomas Long’s witness. Joni S. Sancken, Words That Heal: Preaching Hope to Wounded Souls (Nashville: Abingdon, 2019), 12-14; Thomas Long, The Witness of Preaching, Third Edition (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), 54.
[5] Hab. 1:2-3, 13
[6] Thomas Long, What Shall We Say: Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011), 126, 128.
[7] Job 42:1-6
[8] Hab. 3:1-19
[9] Luke Powery, Spirit Speech: Lament and Celebration in Preaching (Nashville: Abingdon, 2009)
[10] Gennifer Brooks, Good News Preaching: Offering the Gospel in Every Sermon (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim, 2009), 14-23.
[11] Isa. 61:1-3
[12] Hab. 3:18
