Liminal. Ok, so in between-ness. Terrible grammar, I know. And exactly where we are.
This has been driving me along for much of this week because it is the way I am feeling about where things are. The weather is pushing the gardener in me to distraction. It is warm, and not quite warm. It is sunny and carries no warmth on the wind. It is readiness that is not there yet. I am itching to go early this year. I was itching to plant out nearly two weeks ago. And none of my plants would have survived had I done so. Yet, I am putting in some crop. The potatoes are going in now. No worries, they are covered and protected. You can even plant garlic in the fall and it will winter over until warm spring and summer conditions show up. Another root vegetable. It is the time of "there" and "not there".
It is tough to stand in this kind of space. Because you cannot go back to what was before. And you have not yet arrived into the next state of being. Like being in the middle of the Irish Sea, between Ireland and England. Or the middle of the Pacific Ocean, between the Galapagos Islands and Samoa. You are not a child, and not an adult. You are not a student, and not into a new job. You are not a citizen of the country you came from, and not a citizen of the country of destination. You are no longer Jewish, having spent three years with Jesus and being rejected by the religious establishment, and you are now ?????
This is the church in general and ours specifically at so many levels right now. It is so fitting that we have left Easter Sunday and are journeying into the promise Jesus made. And we have not arrived yet. Specifically, we have a call committee that is identifying possible pastors. And we are trying to choose one. As a Synod; we are saying 'goodbye' to a bishop. And have not chosen a new one yet. As a piece of the Protestant Church we have said 'au revoir' to the old way of doing things. And we have not yet fully grown into what we will become.
Recently, as the Anglican, Lutheran, Moravian and United Churches have been in discussions about the unfolding situation, we have been asked if someone else can join. There have been overtures from the Pentecostal Church. And all of us are short of clergy to serve. We are facing smaller budgets that mean changes in our physical structures. Yet, all of this is going on and we have not arrived yet. In this time of Easter, I invite you to spend time with Acts 1. This is just a glimpse of what the disciples were up to. In the meantime, we wait for the Holy Spirit to reveal all that God and Jesus have planned. Pr. Scott
