"Liminal Spaces" October 13, 2013

Jeremiah 29: 1-10 Luke 17:11-19 We begin this morning of this new day, the first day of this week in awe, gratitude and thanksgiving! We stand on the cusp of newness, recognizing we have crossed over and cannot go back, we recognize God is not finished with us in creation and redemption, but by the Holy Spirit Almighty God is leading us to a new identity we do not yet know or understand. That is a liminal space. “Liminality” comes from the Latin word “limens” literally identifying a threshold, a doorway, which is neither where we were nor where we will be, but the point of transition. Liminality is a spiritual position where human beings never want to go, but exactly where the Biblical God is always leading. Liminal Spaces are not the tried and true, the well-worn path where we instinctively and habitually know when we are to turn or what we are to do, or even who we are. Liminal spaces are the points of transition when we are no longer children, but not yet adults. When we have finished our education and yet not yet found a career. When we have buried our spouse and yet we still expect them to come to the table. When we have been diagnosed with a chronic disease, but we are not dead yet. When we have retired, when we have buried friends and siblings and we wonder if God has forgotten us here. When we have come to somewhere new, and we do not yet know if we will ever fit in, or even if we want to. Between us and Europe there is this enormous ocean and from our west coast to China an even larger span. Even by plane soaring across the skies it takes hours to go from here to there. Imagine our Puritan ancestors when this voyage between lands was not a matter of hours while we listened to our playlist or watched movies but months of stagnant water and stale air, being tossed from wave to wave and storm to storm. Christopher Columbus sought a faster more direct route for trade between Spain and the Orient, and on this journey between, once they had gone beyond the limits of their known world and had not fallen off, discovered a whole new world, a new continent they had never know. Even as a Nation, we have struggled time and again if we can be one people under God, indivisible, or whether we are so many different states, different cultures, different peoples, North and South, Red and Blue. Our Biblical ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were wanderers, nomads living in covenant with God, not yet with a name, not yet with a home, not yet with descendants. In Genesis, when the people decided for themselves to settle, God frustrated them, not because they attempted to build great towers, not because they tried to reach God, but God gave to them a babble of languages because we were not yet prepared to live a settled life. The people of God have always been a people striving for the “Not Yet.” For the last many generations the Church has recited stories of David and Solomon who fought against Giants, who built up the monarchy, who built palaces and temples of stone, who fought wars to defend what had been theirs, all the while the Church ignored reading of the deportation to Babylon and life there as refugees. The Babylonian Exile was not a one time event, when Israel was first beaten, the enemy took away the strongest, most educated, the best and brightest. Then they took the shopkeepers and tradespeople, those with skills and crafts of value. In exile, this refugee people, questioned who they were, what was to become of them? The pundits and prophets they most enjoyed, told them to sabotage and work to undermine the Government where they had been brought to live. This is not our land, not leaders of our choosing, so tear it down, anyone who is not for us must surely be against us. When this people in exile receive a letter from home! But the unexpected news they receive is not affirmation that they will soon be rescued or returned. The Letter they receive in exile from the Prophet Jeremiah, tells them instead to pray for the place where they live, to settle there and make homes there, marrying and taking spouses, both because they will not be brought back, they will not be rescued in their own lifetime, and because God is not limited to the mountains of Israel, Almighty God is ruler of all Nature, all nations everywhere. We are instead to believe in a new and different paradigm, that any who are not against us must surely be on our side! The God of Israel, is also God in Babylon and Mesopotamia, and to the ends of the earth! So instead of mourning, give thanks! The Gospel of Luke begins this passage with a strange identification. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, he has set his face on the cross and the redemption of the world is his destiny. As he travels he is in the region between Samaria and Galilee. Our difficulty is there was no greenbelt between these, over and over again historically the borders had been fought over. What was at stake between Israel and the Samaritans was whether we worship God on Mount Zion or Mount Nebo? Whether we are a racially and culturally exclusive people, or whether we encourage immigration and inter-marriage. To be Jewish in the Gospel of Luke was to obey the Laws of Moses, being separate from and set apart. Therefore to be separate from Samaritans. The region betwixt and between was like the De-Militarized Zone between North and South Korea, like territories disputed between Catholics and Protestants in North Ireland, like places fought over in Afghanistan, and in Iraq. Not a wilderness place of safety, but a place of armed aggression and fear. Leprosy covered a whole host of skin diseases, many so virulent that fingers and toes became infected and dropped off. Leprosy was a flesh eating virus, considered so highly contagious, that if the shadow of a person with leprosy touched you, you might acquire the disease. Like being of a hated and feared people, those with Leprosy were shunned, cast out of the cities and towns. I have had to learn by experience this week, for I had never before broken a bone, an arm or a leg. The cold, the flu, Chicken Pox, Mumps and Measles, all are maladies that we recover from in a few days. The concept that our bodies need to heal, that we have to be dependent upon others, that our condition makes us an inconvenience for others, was new. I can tell you, I FAR PREFER being on the other side, being a care giver instead of one who for 40 days and nights will wear a cast and corset. The idea that after 50 bones do not heal as well, and you may have to give up doing things for yourself, is a liminial space, I do not enjoy. Giving thanks requires that we change from being self-sufficient, to naming and claiming our need for others, our need for God. Giving thanks is the beginning of faith, because we recognize our need, not our choice, not our desire, not our purchase, but our need for others and for God. In the region between Samaria and Galilee, outside the city, Jesus saw Ten Lepers. As was the Law, while he was far off they cried out to him. But more than each ringing the bell around their necks, or crying LEPER, they called Jesus by name as with one voice, together they identified him as Master, which in the Gospels only happens four times, and only in Luke, and they asked the Savior for MERCY. Without stopping, without touching them, Jesus responds to their Unison Cry for Mercy and tells them to go as described in the Law of Moses to present themselves to their Priest. The issue of Leprosy was not only having the symptoms of disease, but being shunned and excluded from the city, from family, from home and worship, which only the Priest could redeem. Imagine a they went, each one individually notices that from the stump of a wrist a palm and fingers begin to grow! Imagine the one using a crutch to stand and hobble, suddenly has a new leg to stand upon! Imagine the one, whose face has been eaten away by infection and disease feels their nose and fresh skin as soft as a newborn's begin to grow! No longer Lepers, they are no longer united in misery, no longer a community of exiles in suffering, each one begins to run to the priest on his own. One suddenly stops and turns around. In the Bible, whenever anyone turns around, it is identification of redemption, of turning for forgiveness and new life. This one runs to Jesus, no longer far distant but right up in front of Jesus and bows down to lay prostrate his face in the dirt at Jesus' feet. This one is a Samaritan, this one knows that even if not a Leper he is still a Samaritan hated by Judaism, so he cannot go to the Priest, even if he did, the priest could not welcome him into that community of faith. So he ran to Jesus, bowing down and giving thanks, and Jesus claimed him, blessed him as having faith to give thanks. By turning round and bowing down to give thanks, this one quite literally crossed over to the other side.