Betwixt and Between

Sound issues with our Livestream meant that most people did not hear this message Sunday. The joys of technology.

Genesis 3:8-15     Common English Bible

During that day’s cool evening breeze, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden; and the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God in the middle of the garden’s trees. The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

The man replied, “I heard your sound in the garden; I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree, which I commanded you not to eat?”

The man said, “The woman you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?!”

And the woman said, “The snake tricked me, and I ate.”

The Lord God said to the snake,

“Because you did this,
    you are the one cursed
        out of all the farm animals,
        out of all the wild animals.
    On your belly you will crawl,
        and dust you will eat
        every day of your life.

I will put contempt

    between you and the woman,
    between your offspring and hers.
They will strike your head,
        but you will strike at their heels.”

For those of you who have been interested in joining my Thursday Lunch break, we will be taking next week off.  We just finished Nadia Bolz-Weber’s book Shameless, and on June 17 at 12:15 on Zoom we will begin Robert P. Jones book White Too Long.  I had the privilege of hearing Mr. Jones speak twice this last year, and his book will provoke some lively discussion.  If you want to know more, just send me an email or give me a call.

I am tired of trying to navigate through this time.

Waiting

Wondering

Anxious for what is next

Scholars have a term for this --- they call it liminal space or liminality.

The word liminal comes from the Latin word ‘limen’, meaning threshold – any point or place of entering or beginning. 

A liminal space is the time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next.’ It is a place of transition, a season of waiting, and not knowing.

Liminal space is where all transformation takes place, 

if we learn to wait and let it form us.

Richard Rohr who I quote often from is a Franciscan Priest, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation and author of many wonderful books describes liminal space as:

where we are betwixt and between the familiar and the completely unknown. There alone is our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence. That’s a good space where genuine newness can begin. Get there often and stay as long as you can by whatever means possible…This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, and a bigger world is revealed. If we don’t encounter liminal space in our lives, we start idealizing normalcy.

These thresholds of waiting and not knowing our ‘next’ are inevitable and most are incredibly disruptive.

But we have all learned that over the last year.

I would be lying to you if I didn’t say that next Sunday terrifies me.

It terrifies me on many different levels.

First, it is now summer at Meridian Street and I know what attendance is like in the summer.  

So many of you have told me you cannot be here next Sunday . . .

Many of you are watching or listening to this service today from the lake.

And the good news is you can continue to do that next week!

So instead of missing Meridian Street while out of town, Meridian Street can come to you!

But I am terrified wondering how many will actually show up next week.

Second, It is going to be different.

Yes it will be wonderful to be together again!

Yes it will be filled with JOY

But it will be different

We are firmly in that space between what was --- and what will be.

People often talk about liminal space as being a doorway between here and there.

This is not a new experience --- living in the space between what was --- and what will be.

Being challenged to walk through a door and cross the threshold to a world that is unknown.

Our Bible is full of stories of people having to navigate through decisions and doorways.

And maybe one of the most significant stories of liminality is the story of Adam and Eve.

We all know the story at some level.

Adam and Eve are God’s first human creation

They have been put in the garden of Eden where they have everything that they could ever want or need.

They live in a state of absolute innocence

There is no sin

They are in perfect harmony with God.

But something happens

In this ideal --- perfect --- garden --- there is an animal that was more “crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made.”

The serpent is able to convince Eve and Eve is able to convince Adam that they should eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the center of the garden.

And, when they do, innocence is lost.

We then have the exchange between God and Adam and Eve that Roger read to us this morning.

As a result of their eating of the fruit God says:

“See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

Since the creation --- we have been living in the space that is no longer Eden --- but have a desire to return.

The Biblical story is the story of US (you and I) trying to restore that perfect harmonious relationship with God that existed in the Garden.

God even sent Jesus to try and restore the relationship.

But to move from this door --- into the next room requires CHANGE --- and who wants to change.

We are all pretty comfortable here.

Even though we know what God has promised us is good --- we are inclined to just normalize the here and now and call it good.

But if you open the newspaper or turn on the TV --- we know it isn’t what God intended for us.

We are not living in Eden.

But there is also another group here today that is in a liminal space.

Over the last couple of weeks, a number of our family members have crossed an important threshold, as they walked across a stage to a new beginning.

Angel Akinleye

Hadley Barr

Henry Boak

Ellie Huffman

Kate Loftus

Megan Long

Ava Null

Harrison Smith

They all graduated from High School and are now in that transition space as they move forward with their lives.

But we also celebrate today 

Heather & Monica and their graduations

Along with 

Brittany who will be ordained next weekend

It is an exciting --- scary time as they move from what was --- to what will be.

They will be faced with all kinds of 

Opportunities

Temptations

CHOICES

Between which doorway they will choose 

--- what path they will follow.

It is an exciting time --- but also stressful and for some fearful.

Go back to Rohr’s definition:

we are betwixt and between the familiar and the completely unknown. 

our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence. 

[It’s a] space where genuine newness can begin. 

This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, and a bigger world is revealed.

It is the same place we are as a church.

We cannot go back to the old!

What kind of new are we going to create?

If one is not careful, we will indeed do what Rohr warned against.

“If we don’t encounter liminal space in our lives, we start idealizing normalcy.”

This is the Ying and the Yang

Opportunity and danger

As we come back next week

Will we pine for what is no longer?

Or will we look to create new and more loving traditions?

I love the challenge that the Sufi poet Rumi gives us, when he speaks of liminal space in his beautiful poem: This We Have Now.

This we have now
is not imagination. 

This is not 
grief or joy. 

Not a judging state, 
or an elation, 
or sadness. 

Those come and go.

 
This is the presence 
that doesn’t.

So how do we navigate through these liminal spaces that we find ourselves in.

The first thing is, even though we don’t want too, we must embrace the liminal spaces.

Rohr writes:

Over the decades, I’ve seen the need for such liminal spaces again and again. Without some sort of guidance and reframing, we don’t understand the necessary ebb and flow of life, the ascents and descents, and the need to embrace our tears and our letting go as well as our successes and our triumphs. Without standing on the threshold for much longer than we’re comfortable, we won’t be able to see beyond ourselves to the broader and more inclusive world that lies before us.

But as we wrestle with the uncomfortableness of liminality, we need to keep one thing in mind.

While in the story of Adam and Eve the suggestion is that we are separated from God.

That we are on a quest to return to Eden. 

That is not the whole truth.

I have told you a few times that many moons ago I was asked to identify a life verse.

When that happened, I had no idea what a life verse even was.

Because it is not something that often goes around in United Methodist circles.

A life verse is fancy, Christianese term for finding a verse in the bible that gives you strength or peace ---or whatever thing you’re feel like you are lacking. 

A life verse is a verse from the Bible (or a small passage) that you choose to be your most favorite verse; it is the one that you commit to memory to share with others and hopefully exemplifies what you believe your calling from God is.

I spent a great deal of time choosing what I felt God was putting on my heart.

I am not sure I would pick the same one today, but this verse has gotten me through some of the toughest moments of my life.

It is found in the book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible --- what we often call the Old Testament.

Joshua 1:9 (NRSV)

I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

I love that verse --- because even then --- early in the biblical story --- way before David --- way before Jesus

God is reminding us that God is always with us.

That is quite a bit different from the message of Genesis --- Where Adam and Eve are sent out of the garden forced to seek God and look for Eden again.

David asked the question: where is God?

In the 139th Psalm he writes:

Where can I go from your spirit?

    Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning

    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

    and your right hand shall hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

    and the light around me become night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you;

    the night is as bright as the day,

    for darkness is as light to you.

And Paul too reminds us when he asks: (Romans 8)

If God is for us, who is against us? 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

And of course, he answers his own questions when he writes:

For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The liminal spaces can be scary and exciting.

But the good news is

The really good news is

God goes with us!

“The Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

I don’t know what the future is going to look like.

I only know it will not look like the past.

My prayer is that we will work to make it better.

But that is up to us.

Are we going to form a back to Egypt committee and pine for the past?

Or will we create an even better present?

This We Have Now
This we have now
is not imagination. 

This is not 
grief or joy. 

Not a judging state, 
or an elation, 
or sadness. 

Those come and go.

 
This is the presence 
that doesn’t.

May we with courage --- as a church --- as High School graduates ---- as individuals --- may we have the courage to embrace this presence and cross the threshold to a new more just tomorrow.

“For those who come here seeking God,
may God go with you.
For those who come embracing Life,
may Life return your affections.
And for those who come to seek a path,
may a way be found, and the courage
to take it, step by step.”