Liminal Time
“O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit…”
Collect for the Seventh Sunday of Easter
Book of Common Prayer, page 226
As we near the end of The Great Fifty Days of Easter, we find the disciples of Jesus back in Jerusalem waiting, filling their time with prayer and electing a replacement for the betrayer, Judas Iscariot, but mostly waiting for the promises of Jesus to be fulfilled.
Liminal time is that space betwixt and between. It is a time when our former way of living has ended, but the way forward, the life that is to be, has not yet been revealed. We can feel rudderless, vulnerable and sometimes open to what is to come when it comes. We frequently experience this liminal time throughout the major shifts that take place in the human journey: the transition from childhood to adulthood, marriage, divorce, birth of a child, death of a child, empty nest, a move, a new job, loss of a loved one, loss of an identity, loss of a job, retirement, a life-altering health diagnosis, etc.
Liminal time forces us to confront that we are not in control. The way forward will open, but generally not on our timetable. Liminal time can be a fertile time, if we allow it to be. In it, we can learn greater trust and reliance on our God and one another, as we see our illusions of self-sufficiency for what they are and as we discover in this place of “in-between.”
After the initial confusion of the empty tomb that greeted them on Easter morning, the disciples soon had the comfort of the resurrected Jesus’ presence. With His ascension to the Father, they were back in an uncomfortable place of not knowing, not seeing their way forward. They had no knowledge of the timetable for Pentecost or the details of the new lives into which the coming of the Holy Spirit would thrust them.
The entire world has lived through a liminal time together over the last 14 months, as the COVID-19 virus has shut down our “normal” lives. Glimmers of that old life have begun to catch the corners of our eyes as healthcare workers disseminate vaccines. However, there are also signs that the disparities that became so apparent during these stark and difficult months will not drift away.
As we move from this liminal time, how will you live the new life ahead? Will you just try to get back to “normal?” Is God calling you to a new way of living, a new way of being or a new way of loving?
