Holy Holy Week, Batman

Why is this Holy Week different from all the others?

The strangest Holy Week I have been through in my entire ministerial career has now come to an end. Suddenly I am serving as tech support and pastor. Seminary never trained me for this kind of experience, but I so am grateful for how well the congregation has rallied to the occasion. The same Holy Spirit that guided the church through crises in the past is guiding our efforts in this time as well. It is amazing to watch.

During this epidemic our society is doing difficult things. We are wrestling with hard choices in the areas of economics, health care, and governance. Too many families had to say goodbye to people they love. As this happens, we support them as they grieve and cry out in lament. It is a relief to know that we are not alone in our sentiments. The book of Psalms reminds us of the freedom we have to express openly all these emotions to the one who made us.

We know that we are going to come out changed by this experience. We know that we will look different on the other side of the epidemic. What passed for normal before the epidemic is not going to happen again. Eventually we are going to be okay, but it will be a long time before things settle back down. The challenge will be enduring this in-between time while doing what can for others in the situation we are in at this moment.

While preparing for Palm Sunday’s service I was more nervous than I have been about worship in many years. Setting up the technology necessary for online streaming was more work than we expected. We had everything lined up and ready to go, but right up until we went live on Facebook we were having trouble logging in. Fortunately, in the end our fears were unfounded and the system came through minutes before the start time and we were able to get going just fine. Our modified Palm Sunday service seemed to be well received and I was incredibly grateful for all the people who worked so hard to make it possible.

Sacrifice is part of the Holy Week story

It was hard to see that the nation was entering the most critical stage of the battle against the coronavirus during the holiest week of the Christian calendar. Right in the middle of this time where we remember Christ’s sacrifice on the cross there are people in our country risking their lives for the sake of others. Mostly that is coming in the medical world, but it also includes essential workers of all types.

Truckers, first responders, and grocery store workers are all working long shifts to make sure that our society has the things we need. We have to thank them for being willing to risk everything. We have to appreciate the risks they are taking, and the sacrifices they continue to make on a daily basis.

On the other hand, even for those who make it through this crisis perfectly healthy, the fact of the matter is that many people are going to be forever changed by the experience. This crisis is going to leave our nation forever affected. I pray that we have the wisdom to support them in the way they have supported us.

Most of this week was spent in a combination of online prayer times, pastoral care phone calls, and preparations for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. It was a pretty exhausting process, but I an incredibly grateful for the resiliency our congregation has shown. Although I have not been able to connect with all the people I would have liked to, these calls have been the most personally rewarding part of this past few weeks. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have this kind of relationship with the members of the congregation.

Sometimes technology can be a mixed bag

Unfortunately, none of the technology seemed to work the way we wanted it to on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. After several days of coordination, learning, and successful tests, when it was time, the Facebook Live stream did not work like it was supposed to. We made a last minute shift and put everything on Zoom, but all of Holy Saturday was spent learning how to build a presentation for OBS to feed into Facebook Live. It took far longer than I had hoped, but at the end of the day I was incredibly excited by the way things turned out. The quality of the Easter live stream was far higher than anything we have ever had and it looks like it is going to be far more reliable.

Despite all the stress I felt earlier in the week, on Easter Sunday itself the technology could not have worked better. Open Broadcast Software interfaced with Facebook perfectly. The transitions were smooth. The video quality was exceptional. This was, by far, the best worship service we have had since we moved to an entirely online format.

As has been the case since we first moved online, we had the chance to connect with people we have not seen in a long time. There were also many exciting surprises along the way. We  even got a brief visit from Rev. Terry Hord Owens, the General Minister and President of the Disciples of Christ. To know that she even took a moment to stop by meant a great deal.

Disciples doing amazing work together

All of the people who made videos did an amazing job and I was so happy with the resolution of the service we were able to put out. Several members of the congregation contacted me after the service to thank me for the work that all the people who contributed had done.

Additionally, it was a huge relief to have things finally work the way that they were supposed to go. Part of what has made the past couple of weeks so frustrating is the fact that whenever technology finally started to go in the right direction, something would change and we would be forced to move in a completely different direction, totally negating hours, if not days, of work that had gone into the previous effort.

Once the Easter service came to an end I had the most incredible feeling of relief I have experienced in a long time. The pressure of trying to make Easter services happen, take care of the members of the congregation, and learn new technology all while keeping Lily and I myself sane suddenly dissipated. It was a burden gone. I was able to relax and take several deep breaths. Lily and I had an Easter quiche (quarantine is creating lots of new traditions). I made several phone calls to the family and then proceeded to collapse onto the couch for a much needed nap.

In the afternoon I roused myself long enough to roll over, watch a couple of episodes of the original Star Trek series before collapsing back into my second nap of the day. When I woke up, I cooked pork chops while Lily spent some time chatting with friends online. What made that dinner and the rest of the evening so special was the fact that we have not been able to spend that much uninterrupted time together in far too long. Even though we are both working from home we are both still working full time. Getting our two schedules in sync is proving to be harder than we had expected.

All in all, I am quite satisfied by how well our church managed to make it through the Lenten season. It was not at all what we had expected, but it was still amazing to see the way everyone rose to the occasion and made the best of the situation we had been given. However this turns out, this is going to be a year people remember for a long time to come.