Between Realities

And again he said, "To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." - Luke 13:20-21 (NRSV)

Last Sunday the Re-Imaging Team of Vermont Hills UMC presented its case for a Re-Imagined church. We had some very good discussion and we had some heartfelt reaction. One of the many things I came away with was a strong sense of the fact most of us know we are living between realities. One reality is what we have known all our lives as the church. It is what I was trained to be and do as I grew up and especially when I went to seminary. We all learned our lessons well and we dutifully worked to put those lessons into practice. But while we were being so faithful to this reality another one was being nurtured into life. This other reality was born of frustration with my reality. It was born from a realization that the answers my reality provided didn’t fit the experience, situation and reality that others were living. As I have been in professional ministry for over 30 years and a natal Christian I know the reality I have been taught and lived. But this other reality has become too real to ignore any more.

In a recent Musing I talked about the three-tiered universe model and how that has passed away. In other Musings I have talked about the shifts and changes in what people want and need from a church. Many times I have Mused about spirituality and belief and how so many of us are frustrated by what we do and don’t find in the church as we have been taught it. I have shared about why we have gotten to this place and what it has meant for my beloved church. Last week I realized once again that this time in history is a between time; that we are living between realities. I don’t believe that one is a correct reality and the other is not. I believe that we have come to a place where reality is shifting and we are caught between realities.

Maybe this is the multi-universe theory becoming evident. Maybe it is common to other points in history when there have been seismic shifts in all aspects of life, science, and faith. Maybe I am just dreaming. But what I experience, what I know, what I have observed, what I have sensed and felt and known is uniquely different from what I have known and experienced in the past. I was at dinner last night with a friend and he and I talked about the future of the church. Our conclusion, the church as we have known it will not be the church of today and tomorrow. Sure there will remain bastions of the past where some will still find community, connection and God. There will always be a place for the church as I have known it but it will no longer represent the church that is and that is needed in our world today.

I will confess that I do not like living between realities. I know the one well, it is familiar and comfortable and dare I say predictable. It is where I found God and connections with people that run deep and true. It is where God called me to be. I mistook that call as a life-long agreement. I entered professional ministry with an expectation that what I knew and was trained for would be the reality for the rest of my life. I assumed God wanted me to help stay the course and see that this reality survived through the storm. Little did I know that what God was calling me to was to sail into the storm on a ship that would be broken apart and that reassembly of some other vessel would not be completed before I left the calm of the eye of that storm. Maybe it is more accurate to say I have a foot on the deck of two vessels, one that is struggling in the storm to stay on its pre-determined course and one that is trying to find a way through it no matter where this might lead.

I guess that I am having trouble putting into words what it is I am feeling and experiencing. But one thing is for certain, I can’t go back and the way forward is not clear but to not move is to die. So I’ll trust in God and those who are willing to risk the journey with me and together we will find a way trying our best to follow The Way to whatever that might be. I know that we aren’t in Kansas anymore.

Dear God, help me find peace living between realities. Help me to be open to whatever course needs to be taken to get to the reality you would have for me. Be with everyone regardless of the reality they find themselves in and help us all to find a way to live together in peace. Amen.