Midwestern parent Sarah experienced the first weeks of pandemic the same way many parents with school age children did, schools closed, kids home, kids still needing to learn. Perusing possible science experiments to try with her 6-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter, they settled on one titled “Changing States.” The worksheet began with a photo of an unbroken egg, nestled at the bottom of a jar.

The egg was larger than the opening of the bottle.

The three stared at the image, intrigued. How did it get in there?

Reading further, they learned how. First they must immerse the egg in vinegar for two days. They then watched as the shell gradually transformed from hard and brittle to yielding and springy. The result was a rubber egg they could press their fingers into. An egg and yet not an egg.

Next they needed to create conditions of pressure. Picking up the glass bottle with tongs, Sarah held it down in a pot of boiling water as the air inside expanded, molecules swirling against one another. Sarah then carefully placed the egg-not-egg on the mouth of the warmed glass bottle. The egg began to be sucked down through the opening of the jar, squeezed and contorted. They watched in wild eyed wonder at the spectacle of it all.

Under normal circumstances a whole egg simply can’t fit through an opening smaller than it without breaking. But under the right transformational conditions? A minor miracle is possible.

Betwixt and Between
Reflecting on this, Sarah, who is also a Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University, was reminded of the concept of liminality. Liminality is the quality of times people find themselves betwixt and between two more comfortable and recognizable states of status quo.

As individuals we experience liminal spaces betwixt and between two realities throughout life. It happens when –

• We complete that last college assignment, until the diploma is in hand
• We’re engaged to be married, until the moment we say our I do’s
• Our offer to buy a home is accepted, until the keys to the home are in hand

As a society we can experience liminal spaces collectively, betwixt and between two realities, as well. Arguably the altered reality of pandemic is a really good example of it.

Our children go to school, and yet not school.
We attend church, and yet not church.
We gather, and yet we don’t.

We look back, at the familiar ways that were, and we miss them.
We look around, at the current status quo, recognizing only parts of the whole.
We look ahead, at what we hope will once again be, waiting for it to arrive.

Liminal Christ
Rituals of our faith are filled with liminal moments. Times ripe with anticipation of the expected, but not yet come. We experience it on –

Christmas Eve, singing Silent Night, before the ultimate gift is symbolically born.
Easter Vigil, huddled in the dark, awaiting the dawn of a new Son to rise.

And a liminal moment appears, if we look closely, within a verse or two of scripture from Mark 1.

Then the action resumes, and poof, it is gone.

Immediately before the Mark 1 moment there was a cousin, a baptism, a temptation. And a claim, come down from heaven, stating whose this Son is.

And then an arrest.
That changed things.

Gone was the Baptizer, the messenger, the voice in the wilderness.

In John’s place was a void, a gap, an empty place;
A leadership vacuum needing to be filled.

Following the moment there were:

Disciples, miracles, healings,
Sermons, prayers, breaking of bread,
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We know these stories by heart.
They make Jesus what Jesus is.

Between the two,
After what was gone,
Before what was to come,

We see a liminal Christ –
Betwixt and between two more familiar states.

We see –
A leader no one yet followed;
A healer who hadn’t yet healed;
A savior who hadn’t yet saved.

A Christ.
And yet not a Christ.

The message from Christ, in this liminal moment, was simple.

He proclaimed the time past had been fulfilled,
And the kingdom of God, was now near.

A kingdom asking us to confess and believe in this good news.

Now and forevermore.

When those first fishermen dropped their nets to follow Jesus the liminal moment faded away. For in that moment Christ’s ministry, and all the characteristics we recognize from it, began.

Today
As the winter of our pandemic slogs on we may be tempted to only see what has been lost.

The people.
The spaces.
The rituals.

Loss of the ways of being to which we have become accustomed. What we knew before was familiar, comfortable, and we miss it.

But if we only see what isn’t, well that’s our loss. For liminal moments offer almost limitless potential to reveal what is possible in what is to come.

Those too are the stories of –
healings, breaking of bread,
of life, and death, and life once again.

Those too are the stories of –
care of creation, and
care for each other,
in ways both ancient and new.

Like that egg, we too are being asked to soften our hard, brittle exterior. We too, experience conditions of pressure changing us from within. We too can transform, both individually and collectively, achieving ways of being not possible before.

This is our liminal moment.

Dear Lord, in this time of transition teach us your kindness, your grace, your love. Unite us, strengthen us, mold us. Not back into what we once were, but what you call us to be. Dissolve us, reinvent us, recreate us. Change us into a new state. A state that cares for all of God’s children, without exception. A state that looks more and more, day by day, like you. Amen.

a reflection on this week, as seen through the lens of Matthew 2:1-12.

Four days ago, January 6, was a memorable, memorable day. People know well what this day represents. Those passionate about this sort of thing celebrate every time the date comes around. It puts some at ease. For others it creates anxiety. And for most? It is a sign of stability.

Even more, it represents something we can count on. No matter what.

The date signifies a time of transition, to be sure. A transition from one kind of leader, to another. It is a look back, at a major moment in the not-too-distant past. It is a certification, that the major moment matters. It is, ultimately, a look ahead. To a time in the not-too-distant future. A time marked by –

Change,
Peace,
Hope for brighter tomorrows.

The date, January 6, doesn’t matter just for Americans. The whole world watches. Amazed at the spectacle of it all.

The meaning behind this date is nothing new. It’s quite old; centuries even. Institutions called to oversee the date observe it with great care.

Following what this date represents, consistently, is why the meaning remains.

Heck if you Google it – just type in January 6 – the top search result will tell you exactly what is so very important about this date.

We’re talking, of course, about the Celebration of Epiphany.

Was your mind elsewhere?

Epiphanies
An epiphany is a –

Reveal,
Turning point,
Watershed moment.

The word originates from ancient Greek, epiphanea.
The concept has been around seemingly forever.

An epiphany is a –

Manifestation,
Experience,
Sudden, striking revelation.

An epiphany is a –

Feeling, bubbling up from within.
Rarity, not occurring every day.
Synthesis, of information, put together in new ways.

When epiphanies happen, and are understood and applied, they shape the future for –

Decades,
Centuries,
Eternally.

When epiphanies happen there is no returning to the way things were before. That simply can’t be. There is no putting the epiphany genie back in the bottle. What has been revealed in that moment, of epiphany, can never be undone.

When Archimedes took a bath one day, two centuries before Christ, he noticed the water level rose as he got in. He realized this approach, of placing an object in water, then measuring the amount of water displaced could determine the objects volume. And then realized dividing the weight by volume could determine the objects density. It was an epiphany.

So excited was Archimedes he jumped out of the tub, still naked, took to the streets, soaking wet, and shouted Eureka! I have found it! A major scientific breakthrough had begun.

When Isaac Newton took a walk in the garden one day he noticed an apple fall from a tree. In that moment he realized the force drawing the apple to the ground was the same force causing the moon to orbit the earth. It was an epiphany.

The law of gravity had just been discovered, opening up major breakthroughs in math, physics, astronomy. All thanks to an apple, a tree, a connection between the two never made before.

Epiphany
Most importantly, an epiphany, as the term was originally understood, is a revelation of the divine. It offers deep insight into the relationship between Creator and created. A divine epiphany carries with it –

Weight,
Consequence,
A reordering of all it is we think we know.

And *that* is what we celebrate every January 6.

When kings – tradition suggests there were three – saw a star in the heavens rise it carried new meaning. Sure, they’d seen stars before. But this particular star stood out from the rest. Some say it was brighter, others bigger. Perhaps they, too, heard the hosts of heaven proclaim glory to God that first Christmas day. Perhaps they too, heard those angels make a bold claim, that a savior, for all the world, had been born.

Convinced the stars in their orbit had been newly realigned, the kings traveled to where this one star led. When they found what they sought they bowed down, and they worshipped. They celebrated the arrival of a new king, still quite young. A king that would reign, now and forevermore, very soon.

They brought gifts to mark the occasion. It was a ceremonial coronation of sorts. The three kings certified this divine election, by recognizing Jesus for who he is.

That Jesus is the Christ, God incarnate.
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This wasn’t just an epiphany.
It was *the* Epiphany.

The manifestation.
The reveal.
The watershed moment for all human history.

The Epiphany was not without consequence. For new leadership, when recognized by others, can be scary for some.

Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran pastor, puts what happened next in scripture this way – “on Epiphany, an insecure ruler named Herod was so threatened by the birth of Jesus that he tried to overthrow the result by putting a hit out on a toddler.”

Ponder that for a bit.

2021
Four days ago, on January 6, our country came under attack from within.

Non-truths were repeated, seemingly without end. Some wielded weapons, others riot gear. The vast majority of rioters were white. Many brought flags: the Christian flag, the Confederate flag, a flag reading “Jesus saves,” just to name a few.

They marched,
They mobbed,
They destroyed.

They tried to disrupt what, in any other year, represents a simple clerical step, along the way to a peaceful transfer of power.

Instead, the day was marked by violence, injury, loss of life.

We’re left to conclude our democracy can’t be counted on as much as we may have assumed. It was a sad, sad day.

As we learn more about the events that unfolded we are left to wonder what epiphanies this day may hold. We’ll synthesize all sorts of information, trying to make sense of it in new ways. May we learn well.

Reflecting on this, for now, I’d like to make a few things clear.

Violence is never of God. Christ came as the Prince of Peace, not a tool of empire. When we see Christian flags, and “Jesus saves” flags, raised in the midst of a violent mob, we know people have been led astray.

White supremacy is sin. Period. For all of us were made in our Creators image, regardless of any differences people use to oppress. The confederate flags that entered our capital speak volumes. Forgive us, Lord. Show us your way.

We are called to love the Lord our God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, above all else. That includes love of country. When we worship a person, a party, or a platform, it is idolatry.

Six
Four days ago, January 6, was a memorable, memorable day. Christians know well what this day represents. We celebrate every time it comes around.

It puts us at ease.
It is a sign of stability.
It represents something we can count on.

No matter what.

The date signifies a time of transition, to be sure. A transition from a human leader, to a heavenly one. It is a look back, to a birth in a manger. It is a certification, by earthly kings, that this birth matters. It is, ultimately, a look ahead. To a time in the not-too-distant future. A time marked by –

Change,
Peace,
Hope for brighter tomorrows.

That’s the Epiphany.

Twenty
In ten days, January 20, leadership of this country will transition from one person to the next. It’s been that date for a while now. A sign of stability we can usually count on. This year is a little different; that once set-in-stone date may come earlier, depending on the actions of a Cabinet, a Vice President, a Congress.

Amid so many hopes, so many fears, let us pray, for:

Peace, during a leadership transition unlike any in our lifetimes,
Wisdom, for those tasked with keeping us safe,
Justice, for those that wrought violence, often in God’s name.

World leaders will fail us.

They have before.
They will again.

Instead, let us cling to the promise of Epiphany. A day when world leaders bowed down, prayed, and made a bold proclamation.

It is a promise we too can pin our hopes on, no matter what.
It is a promise we too can claim, despite the chaos that swirls around.

That Jesus Christ, over and above all else, is Lord.  Amen.