Liminal

 What’s up with the Epistle reading for today?

            Does it raise some questions for you?

Is this the way you hear death and resurrection life in Jesus 

            described commonly in the Episcopal Church?

Or does it leave you wondering about 

            what some other denominations call The Rapture?

 

The Apostle Paul writes in the earliest letter of his that we have:

            “For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord,

             that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, 

            will by no means precede those who have died. 

            For the Lord himself …

            will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 

            Then we who are alive, who are left, 

            will be caught up in the clouds together with them 

            to meet the Lord in the air; 

            and so we will be with the Lord forever. 

            Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

 

I want to take a little time unpacking this reading,

            and maybe then we can see something from this passage 

            that will link in with what is close to home for us right now.

 

This passage really needs some context.

            Note that it is written to a church community 

                        at a time within living memory

of the earthly ministry of Jesus and his death, resurrection and ascension.

 

This epistle is short, not as impactful in its message as, say 1 Corinthians

                        or Galatians or Romans.

It doesn’t have some of warmth and depth of Paul’s character

            shining through, such as in Philippians. 

But 1 Thessalonians gives us a window into

            how these first Christians understood 

            the practical connection of the Resurrection 

                        with their own lives as they continued to live in the world,

            while also in anticipation of what they believed would be 

the imminent return of their Lord.

 

They lived their lives with a sense of urgency,

            and this urgency was not just in anticipation 

                        that Jesus would return any minute now,

            but also because of the times they lived in.

And now that immediate return of the ascended Christ was not happening.

 

These Christians were living in a wide variety of places already – 

            that’s how fast the Gospel was spreading.

But from the first the followers of Jesus were a suspect group,

            by the Jews, by the Romans, by their neighbors 

                        who adhered to the prevailing religious practices of their region.

Christians were an easy target to scapegoat and persecute.

            They were a minority that didn’t conform to the culture around them.

 

Paul gives us the earliest attempts 

            of a developing theological statement about resurrection 

                        which we can see expand and deepen and mature 

            through his following epistles, if we were to read them chronologically.

Compare this passage with chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, for example.

 

But the immediate issues here in today’s Epistle reading are two fold.

 

First, what about those who have died before this final coming of Christ 

            that would ultimately bring the Kingdom of Heaven 

                        and end the kingdoms of this world.

 

It’s a matter of time:  

            linear time versus the infinite presence of the God of creation 

                        who holds all time in the eternal NOW.

Yes, you heard me right.

            God holds all creation eternally beyond the space-time continuum

                        in an eternally present moment we call NOW.

 

So don’t worry about those who have already died.

            They aren’t hanging out in Sheol or Hades, the underworld,

                        some dark, dismal, silent place of eternal waiting.

God holds them and us in the infinite and eternal now.

 

The ultimate goal of all spiritual practice 

            is to become aware of our union with God 

                        and when that happens those enlightened persons all say

                                    there is only NOW.

And this most certainly exists now,

            before the Kingdom of God has been fully realized on earth.

 

There is only NOW.

            Well, how to describe this NOW?              Paul starts with this similey: 

It is like being caught up in Christ in his Resurrection Presence, 

            not physically on earth 

                        where, obviously, the Kingdom of God has not yet come, 

so in the air, the space above earth, 

                                                in that liminal space 

                        where one crosses the threshold into divine space.

 

That takes us to the second point – living into the Resurrection.

            Live as though you are ready to step into the next moment of the NOW

                        across the threshold into the full realization

                                    of God’s Presence 

                        here and now where we live out our every day lives.

 

So the Gospel reading for today – it gives us a quirky parable

            about an improbable bridegroom late for his own wedding

                        with a message about staying awake and watchful,

                                                and about being prepared.

And today we here as a faith community are in a liminal time.

 

COVID puts us in a waiting time of caution,

            be vigilant, wear your mask, wash your hands,

            don’t let down your guard.

One day we will cross the threshold and be in a post-COVID world

            but it’s not yet here.            Stay alert!

 

We are also in the liminal time between rectors,

            in the process of calling new clergy leadership,

                        not yet over that threshold 

            but in the midst now of a call process,

                        a call process that is also calling each one of you 

                                    into greater participation in that process.            Get fueled up!

 

Where this is going is not just to a new rector,

            but also a deeper understanding 

                        of your own identity as a faith community,

                        who we are as Nativity.

And this is just as important as finding out who will be your next priest.

 

And then there is another liminal, threshold time in which we currently exist.

And that’s the political situation at the moment.

We have hung in a sort of state of suspended animation

            while the votes were being counted.                    But the counting is not over yet.

And at this time we can see quite clearly the divide in this country politically.

It almost looks like we are two countries.

This time it is not a north-south divide; it’s a right-left divide.

We are poised between tearing ourselves apart as a nation,

            or finding a new way through this divide.

 

This is my statement now.

We, as a nation, have got to grow up and stop yelling at each other,

            and sit down together and listen to each other

                        and revitalize old concepts like consensus and compromise,

            and put all discussion into the first value and goal 

                        of what is best for ALL of us as basic human beings

                                    without political labels.

You may say I am dreaming, that I’m an idealist,

            but have you got another idea?  Do share it!

 

Here’s what the Rev. Wes Granberg-Michaelson, 

                                    former head of the Reformed Church in America, 

                        has to say about for how faith and politics should relate.

 

“Usually…,” he writes, “we get it backward. 

Our temptation is to begin with politics 

and then try to figure out how religion can fit in. 

We start with the accepted parameters of political debate and, 

whether we find ourselves on the left or the right, 

we use religion to justify and bolster our existing commitments. . . .”

 

Instead, he points to the reverse.

             “When deciding how we want to act in the public sphere, 

            we are first called to begin with

             our personal experience of God’s overflowing love for all the world.”

 

Now there’s a thought.

            Start there,

                     then meet each other with a heart-felt desire to hear one another’s stories.

 

Meanwhile in place of that old Gospel hymn,

                        “There’s going to be a meeting in the air,

                        in the sweet, sweet bye and bye.”

 

Let me draw your attention to this:

 

“Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven,

we laud and magnify your name as we sing,

            Holy, holy, holy … ”

 

The Eucharist is that meeting place in the air, in the Kingdom of God space,

            in that liminal space where past, present and future all touch each other.

 

That is why in the Eucharist, in our Anglican way to looking at it, 

                                                like that of the  Eastern Orthodox theologians,

our liturgy is not a re-enactment of the Last Supper,

            nor is it recalling/remembering a past event.

 

It is a participation in the One sacrifice,

            a re-membering as a bringing the various members together 

                        reassembling the members from all points in time and space.

The Orthodox surround the altar with icons of the Saints,

            the iconostasis, 

            to express this bringing together past, present and future

                        in this particular moment of sharing in the One Eucharist.

 

This is the still point which is foundational

            and the axis on which everything else revolves.

This is a Resurrection moment here, every Sunday.

 

But it’s not like that out there in the world.

When we’re out there,

                        which is most of the time,

            we need to be vigilant, awake, watching, prepared,

                                    prepared for the long haul

                                                with enough oil for the lamps.

Get it here.