A Witness, Part 2

 Continued from Wednesday...

As we were meeting with Sue Nelson Kibbey, she asked us, “What is it that you are looking forward to about General Conference?” There were lots of answers, but one of them from a delegate (who was not me) was something like, “I have so much hope for the church and for a fresh start.”  Those words have brought hope to me about a General Conference around which there is usually such worry, fear, and frankly, hopelessness.

Each year, I ask my studnts to talk about a liminal time in the church.

In a book I’m reading, Walter Brueggeman says liminality is an unsettling feeling at the threshold of something new, when life is gathered into a wholly new configuration.  It most often is experienced when the church doesn’t offer unambiguous answers and certitudes, when we are in a nighttime of the church – when there is bewilderment and confusion – he says these are holy time.  Liminal times. 

Does this feel like a liminal time to you:

The author of the book of Esther would say we are here “for such a time as this.”  In this holy time, when God is waiting for us to let go of fear and bring light in the darkness, I hope you will join me in examining whether we are building a church of fear or a beacon of hope. I pray God takes us by the shoulders, turns us away from fear, and uses us to build a church of hope.  This is a holy time – a time for hope-bringers.