Deacon Digest

I was recently asked to offer a workshop on the topic, “Preaching in a Time of Crisis.” My initial but unspoken response was, “Good grief, when am I not preaching in a time of crisis?” Everything about preaching is oriented to crisis.

To be in crisis means to have come to a point where a decision has to be made, creating both limitation and opportunity. Crisis takes a negative turn when the decision to be made is unexpected or unclear, when the values used to make the decision are muddled or unconscious, or when the possible outcomes are unknown or unpopular. How do I decide to respond to the situation that prompted the crisis? Further, a crisis rarely seems to require a single decision, but often sets in motion a host of cascading decisions.

With every homily, preachers face the relentless crisis of discerning God’s Word for the assembly. To complicate this, there may be an immediate or looming crisis that pervades the atmosphere of worship. There may be the crisis of the preacher’s spiritual dryness, the feeling that I have nothing to say this week, but I have to say something anyway. There may be uncertainty about how to address some matter facing the preacher, the assembly, or the nation. This could result in ambivalence, being caught between two conflicting sets of values (ambi-valent), caught to the point of homiletic paralysis. Crisis, or decisionmaking, permeates the entire preaching enterprise. Yet, there can be a deep joy that comes from working through the crisis, discerning God’s Word in that crisis, and then discovering what emerges on the far side.

In a relatively short span of time, our world has experienced formative times of crisis—wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornados, recessions, and more—all of which have caused deep worry, considerable fear about the future and, for some, a redefinition of their understanding of God. A few big name preachers have made grand pronouncements about why these events occurred. I was startled when commercial television, shortly after 9/11, broadcast interviews of folks discussing how the events had impacted their understanding of God. For some, faith was deepened. For others, however, faith in, even belief in, God was damaged or destroyed. It is at the intersection of fear and faith that preachers have the opportunity to weigh in with a significant Word of God. But they have to recognize it, claim it as trustworthy, and then proclaim it convincingly to others.

Some guidelines may help to ensure that preaching truly addresses the crises that face us. The principles, of course, apply to all preaching. Any one homily may not employ the principles equally. Over time, however, they should be evident and achieve a credible balance. On the one hand, when addressing national emergencies, moral crises, personal tragedies, or natural disasters, preaching needs to acknowledge the reality of the situation. Superficial, glib assessments ring hollow. This may not be hard in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, whether civil or natural. But do not minimize the crisis. Without the sense that the preacher knows the depth of the crisis, any reflection, redemption, or resolution that is offered becomes “cheap grace.” As preachers we first need to be honest with ourselves. Why do you think this crisis occurred? Think it through carefully.

In the case of moral failure, we can only offer redemption to the degree that we demonstrate the need for that redemption. The trouble or tension needs to be made clear enough that the assembly accepts the premise that sin, trouble, tension, disagreement, and evil are real; that it is more than a matter of not trying hard enough. On the other hand, our preaching must make the Good News as visible, vivid, and viable as the bad news. Or the good news will simply drop out. This is a problem embedded in whatever methods or schemes of preaching preparation and homiletic structure one might employ. As I travel from church to church or spin around the radio dial on Sunday morning, I hear homilies that spend considerable time and energy detailing the gritty and gruesome reality of sin in the world, but the preaching gets far more abstract, remote, and stocked with platitudes when talking about God’s activity in the present. When the homily is finished, the chord that was struck observing the bad news simply overpowers the good news. A series of “musts” and “shoulds” often follows on the announcement of God as gracious and merciful. “We have been saved by God’s grace, therefore you must….” Instead, try substituting these phrases: “freed to…,” “empowered to...,” God has called us to…,” “God invites us to…,” and so forth. Times of crisis are often times of doubt and perceived inability to act. To further add a list of “musts” only deepens the problem.

How do we make the Gospel, the Good News, more vivid? Your homiletic antennae need to be operating constantly. Look around ever more carefully with eyes wide open. Where is God’s grace active in your life? Can you identify it as present? Look at the smaller examples, the more mundane evidence of God’s presence. The announcement of God’s grace is never glib, but it needs to be accessible to the assembly. Our personal examples and illustrations may not show up directly in any of our preaching, but if we truly cannot identify God’s activity in our lives, perhaps a sabbatical or a good spiritual director is in order.

Preaching in times of crisis calls for a deep and continuous listening. We listen initially to the assembly in our preaching preparation; then, to the Word in an ongoing, lively relationship; and, finally, to the Lectionary passages assigned for a given occasion. Then, when we preach, we both speak to and on behalf of the assembly, giving voice to their too often unspoken joys and concerns. Fulfilled in Your Hearing, the 1982 USCCB statement on preaching, addresses this matter by speaking of the preacher as a “mediator of meaning.”

The notion of preaching “in crisis” applies to all preaching. Even a joyous context requires making some decisions about what to say, how to say it, anticipating how the joy impacts both the preacher and the assembly. With each decision—or each crisis—comes the opportunity to convincingly proclaim the Good News of a faithful God as an ever present reality, whether in good times or bad. _____________________________

Dr. Richard Stern is Professor of Homiletics at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology where, for 21 years, he has taught homiletics and other communication classes both in the Seminary and in the Permanent Deacon Formation Program.