Sacred Connections: Transitions
Transitions seem to be the recurring themes this week, showing up in so many different aspects of our lives. There’s more talk of finishing school years, attending graduations, venturing out more, planning more weddings, celebrating more baptisms, arranging memorial services for those who died during the pandemic. Some people are moving to new homes, and many are anticipating travel again.
Last year, transitions that did occur were experienced in much quieter, different ways. Last year graduations were virtual, proms were cancelled, many weddings and funerals were delayed, major birthdays became drive-by events, anniversaries were honored quietly at home.
Last week, I had to empty a closet to enable access to a crawl space and the relocation of the raccoons who had taken up residence there (the crawl space – not my closet). It was only then that I realized I had never switched my shoes around from winter to summer last year. It was as if my closet was a time capsule and the sameness of the days over-rode seasonal changes. My sneakers simply fit all my needs spring, summer, winter and fall and no occasions required dressier footwear. It was such a small thing, not changing out shoes, but it seemed symbolic of much more.
This year, we see things stirring again, and it’s exciting and befuddling all at once.
As more are becoming fully vaccinated and beginning to have greater access to previous activities, we find ourselves confronted with choices. What changes have we adopted during this past year that have been truly beneficial, life enriching? What do we want to keep? A number of people have been speaking about what they want to hold on to versus simply returning to their previous ways. Sometimes it’s having more time at home, a gentler schedule, a closer connection with the loved ones in our daily lives. In a Second-Half ministry planning meeting this week, Mary Jo Schottelkotte was talking about how we might share the gripes and gifts from this time. We all know the gripes very well. We may still be discovering the gifts. The gifts are equally important, if not more so, because we have the chance to hold on to them if we choose.
During Downtown Bible Study this week, there was considerable agreement that one of the gifts of the livestream has been the joy and amazement of watching Thomas Heidenreich at the organ. The camera setting has given us a bird’s eye view of the extraordinary mastery and agility Thomas contributes to our worship service. We may want to be physically present in the Sanctuary, but the continuing livestream offers us the opportunity to participate in different and inspiring ways.
Last Sunday was a momentous transition for us after our pews had been empty for the last fourteen months. Even with our limiting the number of reservations, the sanctuary was filled with energy we hadn’t been able to share in person there for over a year. It was beautiful, and humbling, exciting and sobering.
Looking out at people gathering and seated in the pews, the thought kept coming to me that we have been through a “great ordeal”. For many of us, our most familiar reference to that phrase is “the great ordeal” in Revelation 7:14, but for me the phrase was not apocalyptic, it just felt fitting. We have shared a very difficult time that has touched so many of our lives in profound ways, and we are finding ourselves beginning to emerge on the other side. We have been through so much, some suffering very greatly, some suffering still, some losses deeply grieved, and we are discovering what is becoming available to us now, and what lies ahead.
We have come so far, and yet we have a distance to go. We will always have a distance to go; that is simply the nature of the journey of our lives. We walk together through difficult seasons and blissful moments, through periods of transition and ordinary times. And throughout it all, we always have the opening to deepen in our love of God and our love for each other. May we always seek to live and walk a path of love.
