Homily 10th of July “Our Liminal time”
Fun fact friends. Did you know that the word wait occurs no less than 129 times in the Bible? Yes, that’s right 129 times. As far back as Noah waiting for the dove to return from its reconnaissance trip at the end of the rainy season, right through to Revelation where the angels are given a nifty white robe and told to wait a little longer, our good book is full of people just sitting around waiting.
We wait especially when we are in what our bishop calls a liminal time. One thing has finished and another is yet to begin. A very vivid example is when a priest finishes one parish and is yet to begin another. It’s liminal for the priest, it is liminal for the parish that the priest is leaving and it is liminal for the parish that the priest is going to.
But this liminal waiting thing happens in all sorts of ways to all sorts of people. You and I experience this frequently with the different chapters in our lives.
When we wait for the alarm to go off, when we are waiting for the doctor or another appropriate guru to see us; or simply when we are waiting for mass to start or the bus to come.
Something is finishing and the next thing is not quite yet.
Whenever I read the parable of the good Samaritan I wonder whether The Master knew of such an incident or had heard about such a tragedy. Maybe Our Lord had seen neglect from the people who he expected to be supportive and they had failed him. Maybe he had seen a complete stranger or someone quite unexpected, step up and offer some fabulous pastoral care.
No matter the back story, it’s certainly a pertinent reminder that our Church community should always be first and foremost in caring for those who are less fortunate than ourselves and especially those who come to us from different places. The travellers and those who are vulnerable.
In the parable, Jesus tells us the gentleman who is mugged on his trip from Jerusalem to Jericho, has to wait for the right person to come along and help him. His liminal waiting is the period of time from when the thugs and bandits abandon him on the road, to the time when the Samaritan comes and does some first aid, making sure that he has a comfy room, a pot and a parma at the local.
No doubt it would have been quite an uncomfortable wait for our victim and further, it would have been an excruciating experience when the lawyer and the local parish priest passed by on the other side of the road.
Waiting is not easy, especially when our plans are torn to shreds by outside forces that we did not see coming and we could have had no way of preventing, plotting or seeing the consequences of the unforeseen.
I think about this a lot. Maybe I think about it a little too much but I reckon that we are very much in a liminal time. We are emerging as people, community and church from one thing but the next thing hasn’t quite happened yet. We are still trying to get our head around what has happened, whilst all the time trying to work out our new environment with its tricks, its joys and unforeseeable complexities.
And it is frighteningly easy to be so absorbed in these mind games, that we forget that it’s really OK just to wait in this liminal time. We might be brutalised like the guy on the side of the road. We might be wondering when on earth some help will come our way and how come the folk that we thought would be of some help, brutally ignore us. And isn’t it an extraordinary and lovely miracle that the person that we have always been suspicious of, was the person who cheerfully looked after our every need and the needs that we didn’t even know we had?
What if we turned it around and in our giddy, hurdy-gurdy, must always be frenetic world actually said… Waiting is cool, good and groovy. Liminal times are the place where we learn most. They make us stop and breathe which is always a positive. The liminal space and place might not always be comfortable but it can be fruitful.
Usually, when we hear this parable we might think about which of the three people we are. The priest, the lawyer of the Samaritan. Sounds like the start of a joke. But there is another possibility. What if we are the victim on the side of the road who is just patiently waiting? Is it not possible that we are them and if so how can we best use this time to God’s glory? How might we transform our piercings into proof of His love and our love of others?