Self-Guided Easter Retreat for Preachers

Those who have “gone on retreat” with Backstory Preaching before will notice a difference with this one.

Rather than be thematically oriented to the Feast Day, this one is oriented to a single prayer: the “Serenity Prayer” by Reinhold Niebuhr.

Why? Because COVID-19 has reminded all of us of the true limits of our abilities and mortality, and how little is in our control.

“This desire to do more is really code for wanting to resume my fantasy that I am in control over this dreadful disease and the suffering it’s causing.”

Since this pandemic began many of us have asked ourselves countless times whether there was more we could or should do.

As a former ICU nurse, it’s been agonizing for me knowing what my former colleagues are enduring. I’ve asked myself whether my sheltering-in-place is cowardly—even though I no longer have a nursing license and haven’t practiced in more than 25 years.

This desire to do more is really code for wanting to resume my fantasy that I am in control over this dreadful disease and the suffering it’s causing: of course I can beat it back with my ancient blood pressure cuff and dangerously out of date knowledge of medications! Pure fantasy.

We must attend to the work set before us in reality, not fantasy. That means my work is tending to preachers, not patients.

And for preachers, that means ministering to your congregations in unprecedented ways.

The efforts of preachers have been herculean in the past weeks:

Learning to live-stream on Facebook and YouTube, hosting Zoom meetings

Communicating this tech as it evolves each week

Finding extraordinarily creative ways to reach all your parishioners—both those on the internet and those not

Crafting online liturgies rich with meaning, symbolism, and community

Employing creativity to preach truth, lament, and Good News through a screen

I’ve witnessed how preachers managed with grace and aplomb when technical glitches arose, when they were “Zoombombed” by intruders, or when toddlers who were bouncing off ceilings also bounced themselves right into parish council meetings.

Knowing their usual competencies were so inadequate, preachers’ humor rose quick to the surface—and perfectionism was given a mandatory vacation.

“It can be easy to mistake your efforts for not being enough. And yet, that couldn’t be further from the truth. ”

It can be easy to mistake your efforts for not being enough. And yet, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Whenever two or three are gathered, Christ is in our midst. And you’ve facilitated that gathering.

You have faithfully gathered [online] your people by twos, threes, and hundreds the last few weeks.

You welcomed back those who have not darkened the physical doors of your parish in years, and strangers who haven’t admitted their need for a Christian community in ages—or maybe, ever.

You looked them directly in the virtual eye, and your presence and sharing of the Gospel bore witness to the truth that they are not alone, that they are loved, and that they matter.

That work is of the utmost importance, because that truth is forever.

This pandemic will end.

So will our ministries one day.

And so will our lives.

But God’s love, never.

This is the most important work anyone can offer.

Be at peace this Eastertide, dear preacher, with what you did offer, will offer—and what you cannot offer.

In God’s eyes, that is more than enough.

Lisa Cressman+