Liminal spaces

Jeremiah 29:1,4-7
Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles in Babylon
These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Luke 17:11-19
Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Remember those Boney M lyrics:
By the rivers of babylon, there we sat down
Ye-eah we wept, when we remembered zion.
When the wicked
Carried us away in captivity
Required from us a song
Now how shall we sing the lord's song in a strange land?

In our first reading this morning, Jeremiah is given a message to take to the exiles in Babylon - Gods people - driven from their own land, taken into captivity and forced to live in a foreign culture. People wondering how to be the people of God in a foreign land. People wondering how long they will remain in captivity and how they can ever maintain some sort of identity as the people of God when removed from all that is familiar to them. And the message Jeremiah proclaims is one of encouragement to put down some roots where they find themselves:
Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile.
The message to these people is that their business is not to mark time. It's not about holing up and waiting for release, waiting for things to get better. Their business is to LIVE where they are - to enjoy life in its fulness.
Although they find themselves in a border land, their task is to discover God in that place with them.
To affect the culture in which they find themselves.
To make a difference right where they are.
Isn't it incredible that a message written some 2,500 years ago to Gods people in exile has just as much relevance for the people of God gathered in worship today?
Our task, no matter how irrelevant or how marginalised we perceive ourselves to be is to find new ways to sing the Lord's song, to find new ways to positively affect the culture around us.
There are more and more signs of people of faith being exiled today.
From schools to work places to offices of government, faith is being sidelined.
Those who speak up for faith are being driven to the margins, forced to exist in the border lands, treading a fine line between faith and offence.
But it is often in the margins, under stress, that creativity comes to the fore.

A word I loved to use when I worked in Hospital Chaplaincy is liminal.
For me, that word described perfectly the interface in which I often found myself working - encompassing faith and ritual and tradition and superstition - straddling the chasm that folk often felt when their experience of life and faith to date no longer accommodated the place they found themselves in the landscape of illness - their own or that of a loved one.
That place where there were no easy answers - or any answers at all.
Liminal - a place of transition, a border land.
According to the fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia,
During liminal periods of all kinds, social hierarchies may be reversed or temporarily dissolved, continuity of tradition may become uncertain, and future outcomes once taken for granted may be thrown into doubt.

That sounds just about right for the church right now.
We can't be sure that traditions will continue.
We can't take things for granted - like our place in society and especially our right to maintain respect and influence.
But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Being in that liminal space, being in the border land demands that we get creative.
And just like the exiles were encouraged to do in Jeremiah's day, we too are called on to
seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
We may not be in exile but we are certainly moving nearer the margins.
But rather than be disheartened by that, we can be energised to find new ways of singing the Lords song in a strange land.

In our gospel reading, we also find Jesus in border territory.
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.
In that border territory, 10 lepers approached Jesus, but keeping their distance as demanded by law.
Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priest.
It was in that moment that they were healed. As they went, they were made clean.
Nine of the healed lepers knew the drill.
The custom was that they had to go and show themselves to the priest so that they could be declared fit to be accepted back into community.
The foreigner, the Samaritan, wasn't so invested in custom and culture.
And that freedom was what allowed him to grasp the true nature of the healing he had received and to return and give thanks.
The Samaritan wasn't so caught up in ritual and so was much more open to recognising the sheer grace of God present in the healing he encountered.
He saw his healing, not through the eyes of centuries of custom and tradition but with the freshness of an outsider.
And so he was able to experience not just Jesus' healing but his blessing too.
Jesus said to him: “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Reflecting further on our two readings today, we might want to ask ourselves:
Where, today, do we find ourselves in those border lands?
What are the boundaries, real or perceived that we would like to traverse today?
What are the boundaries that discomfort us?
How might we affect the culture in which we live - for good?
How might we share faith in new and imaginative ways?
How might we get creative and straddle those liminal places in ways that reveal the grace of God to others?
How might we sing the Lords song in the strange land in which we are called to work for God today?
seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

May our prayers be for the welfare of this parish and community we serve today.
May we get creative in finding new ways to witness to God and to live out our faith.
And may we influence those we meet daily with the love and grace of God.
For the glory of God.
Amen

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