Let's Connect Week of June 7, 2020

OPENING PRAYER

At the starting line of this day, we called on your name, at the ending of this day we call on your name again, God of grace. We run the race you have set before us, help us to keep our eyes on your goals, not our own. When we falter, give us fresh strength and courage. When we are fleet-footed, let us give you the glory. Keep us from wanting to win at other’s expense or to count ourselves better than those at our side. All runners are your children. In the race You imagine, each one is a winner. Amen.

~ written by Carol Penner, and posted on The Contemplative Network. https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Contemplative-Network/219806301435597

SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 12: 1-3 & 14-15 (CEB)

So then let's also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let's throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith's pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God's throne. Think about the one who endured such opposition from sinners so that you won't be discouraged and you won't give up…Pursue the goal of peace along with everyone—and holiness as well, because no one will see the Lord without it. Make sure that no one misses out on God's grace. Make sure that no root of bitterness grows up that might cause trouble and pollute many people.

MUSING

Welcome to “Liminality!” that space between the beginning and the end. Liminal means the threshold of the door with one foot inside and the other outside. It’s like standing in the middle of State Street in Bristol Tennessee and Virginia where you can have one foot in each state and not be wholly in the other.

We are presently on the threshold of pre-pandemic and post-pandemic, on the dividing line between what was and the potential for what can be regarding racism and privilege. The problem with liminal space is that we are tempted to go back to what was even though we know that it can never be that way again and that it never was all that we remember it to be. Nostalgia is the enemy of innovation because it casts its false hope of a better day. It stops creativity and echoes the age-old phrase that stops everything, “We’ve never done it that way before.”

The beauty of liminality is that it allows you to ask the question “what if” it allows you to dream it could be something that it has not been and it gives you the space to begin creating it. The problem is that we must be patience. The new thing does not emerge on our timeline, to fit our needs or expectations. It comes when it does. Birthed in a time that we do not choose. And this is the problem, we don’t like being in this between space, this standing in two states but not being fully in one, this being part way in and part way out. It just goes against our basic desire for predictability and control. Liminal space is not controllable, not predictable. To come out of it in a better place then when you went in you must allow for the betweenness.

The equal rights movement, the women’s liberation movement, the Christian movement all are movements that grow in the liminal space and in the past they have tried to birth new things but the pull of the familiar, the enticement of control, the false memory that it was better when and the basic greed of some keep us from fully crossing over into the new space liminality calls us to. We have an opportunity when so much is in flux and some many of the things we once did can no longer be done or at least not done in the same ways. New habits are being developed, new routines established and new ways of engaging each other and the world are emerging.

Reimagining Life Together is an opportunity to relaunch your church and its ministries. You don’t have to do what you’ve always done. You don’t have to be what you were. Now is an opportune time to discern God’s dream for you and your people. Now is the favorable time to explore the scriptures and the history of the church and listen to that great cloud of witnesses. Now is your moment to see what it is God sees when God looks at you and your people and your church.

Most of the Reimagining Plans I have seen so far are fine. But they do not take advantage of this liminal space. They aren’t speaking into the emerging possibility. Please, please don’t miss this chance to dream God’s dream and envision the world as God would have it. Don’t rush to do what you have always done. Instead live in between for a while. Listen for the Spirit’s voice. See with new eyes what is being revealed from the fog. And know that the race we run is not a sprint but a marathon. Throw off the extra baggage and let the great cloud of witnesses remind you that the goal isn’t behind you it is in front of you in the distance and the only way to reach it is to step forward, across the threshold into what can be.

CLOSING PRAYER

God we are surrounded by a cloud

Faithful witnesses who have gone before

Those who have loved where we would have hated

Those who have healed where we would have hurt

Those who have spoken out when we would have remained silent

God may we walk in their footsteps

Learning courage from their sacrifice

May we learn to give so that others may receive

May we learn to love so that others may be set free

May we learn to die so that others might live

God may we join that cloud of faithful witnesses

Treading paths of loving obedience

Leaving footprints that others desire to walk in

God may we too lead kingdom lives

Amen.

— Christine Sine, on her excellent website Godspace.