Liminal Space

ALLOWING GOD TO WORK IN OUR LIMINAL SPACE

An abridgement of a sermon by

Mary Anne Isaak

 

When a couple decides to get married there normally is an engagement. This time of engagement is a unique season of life. The future husband and wife are no longer single, but they are not yet a married couple either. They are in that in-between season—in liminal space.

Liminal space is the "threshold" between the old which is passing away and the new which is not yet clear. It is a season of dreaming and discussing. It is a season of saying good-bye to one way of being in the world and imagining, but not quite knowing, what the new way will be like.

Think about the liminal space that is part of your own experience. Two times every twenty-four hours we experience the liminal space between night and day. Dawn and dusk are the moments when the sky is most full of creativity and colour.

Think of the teenagers in your life. In those liminal years, they are no longer children but not yet adults. It is a season of discovering who they are becoming. It is a time full of risk and possibility.

Think of the graduates who have finished their programs but are not yet employed. Many have identified a career, but have not yet experienced it.

Think of the people diagnosed with terminal cancer. They may receive numerous rounds of chemotherapy or radiation but face many uncertainties. They are in that liminal space of facing death and yet fighting to live.

Or think of larger bodies and institutions. Schools sometimes need to downsize or relocate. Institutions may face changes in leadership. Being on the brink of some kind of change puts people into a liminal space. The familiar past is changing, the future is still unknown. Any transition forces the affected individuals into a liminal space.

This liminal space—that time of betwixt and between—is dynamic and full of potential because exactly in this space God works in powerful ways.

When we look at Luke's recollection of Christ's resurrection and ascension—see Luke 24—we are reminded of that time in between these two events. Jesus is still present on earth, among the disciples, but he has already begun the process of leaving. For the disciples, it is an in between time as well. Everything they know about God and the world has been transformed by Jesus' ministry during the last few years. Now they are beginning to imagine an existence without Jesus' direct, physical presence guiding them. But at this point, they don't know how to envision that newly configured community and mission.

In Acts, Luke indicates forty days of transition time between Jesus' resurrection and his ascension. In the gospel record Luke cranks up the intensity of this liminal space. Luke tells the story of the appearances of the risen Christ as if they all occur on Easter day with the ascension taking place immediately after. Luke gives us a picture of Jesus and his community of faith moving intensely through liminal space together. And they find life and hope, not INSPITE of the change; and not just AFTER they manage to survive the change. They experience fruitfulness and growth right in the MIDDLE of the transition, because God works dramatically in liminal space.

In his book, Dying Well, Dr. Ira Byock founder of a hospice home care program in Fresno, CA shares story after story of the human potential for growth as patients and their families travel through the liminal space between life and death     in the last months of a terminal illness. He states that dealing with relationships in liminal space can transform the history of an entire family.

Dr. Byock's hospice caregivers focus on gently steering patients and families to do work that accomplishes what they call "completing relationships." In the same way that Jesus and the disciples     examined wounded hands and feet together, the hospice workers empower patients to have difficult conversations with loved ones.

First, "I'm sorry" and second, "I forgive you." The third statement "I love you" is easy for some while for others it is really difficult to express. Finally Dr. Byock encourages two further conversations. These are "Thank you" and "Good-bye."

When we are in liminal space and these statements come from deep inside us, they are a way of touching another person's soul just as in Luke's story of liminal space Jesus touched the disciples deeply.

Jesus makes links between the past and the future. To begin with Jesus looks backwards. "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you."

He reviews his identity as Messiah and the message of salvation he has been preaching all along. Jesus has tried to communicate these very things before. Not just once, but three times before his crucifixion, Jesus takes the twelve aside and warns them     that he will be killed and that on the third day he will rise again.

But back then, in the thick of it all, they don't really understand; in fact, what Jesus says is hidden from them.

This time though, in liminal space, something new happens. This time, when Jesus summarizes his role in the salvation story the minds of the disciples are open to understand the Scripture.

 

Together Jesus and the disciples recognize how God has been active in the past. They review how the past is good, even the disorienting and difficult parts. And they recognize how what is happening now is in harmony with what God has been doing and planning all along. In liminal space God opens opportunities for clarity and perspective.

God uses these reviews of the past to become meaningful stories that guide us into the future. And as the past is put into perspective, the future becomes clearer as well. All of us need a vision of what is coming next in order to know how to live in the present. Whether we realize it or not, we organize our current reality by what we anticipate the future will look like.

In Luke, the disciples are preparing to move into the future without Jesus' physical presence among them. But with their leader gone, and without a new vision arising among them, they don't know how to continue living and proclaiming the good news of God's kingdom.

So Jesus commissions them. He doesn't supply them with a timeline, or a detailed blueprint of the church that will emerge. His commission does hook their God-filled past to a God-filled future.

He says, you are witnesses of who I am and how God has worked through me. You know my vision for the good news of the kingdom of God. Continue what we began together. Extend it to all nations. And don't feel like you have to rush. Wait. Wait until you are clothed with power from on high.

The disciples don't know exactly for what they are to wait. They aren't told how long they are to wait, nor how they will know when the waiting time is over. All they have is Jesus' word that God is involved in creating their future. And that is enough.

In our lives today, when we are in liminal space, we are saying good-bye to one way of being in the world, and imagining, but not quite knowing, what the new way will look like.

In liminal space, let's follow Jesus' example and look for opportunities to complete relationships.

In liminal space, let's review the past in light of God's word and work; and look for the goodness.

In liminal space, let's expect God's promise of power in our future.

From Jesus' example we know that despite the discomfort and disorientation of liminal space, this is where God works.

From Jesus' example we know that within the excitement and the energy of liminal space, this is where God works.