Thoughts from Our Bridge Pastor
Rev. Barbara K. Peronteau
Not too long ago I was watching the news on MSNBC. Someone was being interviewed. I forget the topic being discussed and who the person being interviewed was. I vaguely remember Rachel Maddow as the host. What I clearly remember, however, is that the Zoom wasn’t working. The person was on mute. Rachel was speaking loudly, “You’re on mute! We can’t hear you.” Neither she nor the professional technicians at NBC could get her sound going. Then we lost her.
Rachel grinned, threw up her hands and said something like, “Life with Zoom. It’s a wonderful thing when it works.” Ah, yes, life during these times! In that moment I didn’t feel so bad. If it could happen to a professional organization like MSNBC with all its technical wizardry, then I don’t feel so bad when it happens to someone like myself whose kryptonite is technology. Misery love company, right?
To state the obvious, these times in which we live in are not “normal.” We are living in liminal times. Times that are in-between yesterday and tomorrow. I want to say these are like no other times that came before us. I can’t. The Plague ravaged Europe, India, and China in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Our great grandparents experienced the Spanish Flu just a short century ago. We have lessons to be learned.
One of those lessons is that we are in the middle of something greater than we can imagine. Most of us are doing our best to get through it. The word muddle comes to mind. A worldwide pandemic is not the only thing we in which we find ourselves in the middle of.
Here at Arlington Community Church, we are between Pastor Nate’s ministry and whoever comes next. A liminal time all on its own. We are in the middle of and in the process of creating a combination in-person and on-line hybrid church. Another liminal time. We are living through multiple in-between times all at the same time. It’s a lot.
One week we think we have it, then by Thursday of that week the CDC recommends we wear our masks. Masks on! Masks off! Masks on! We change and pivot and change and pivot yet again. On the whole, I think we are doing well.
I’d just like to say there are, and will be bumps, hiccups, and false starts and starts again along the way. I would like to come out and say this is all very exhausting and tiring. All this produces fear and anxiety and frustration that might even lead to anger. If I could put my virtual arms around you and hug you, I would say of course you feel this way. It’s okay. I also want to say give yourselves and others some wiggle room. Be kind to others and give yourself a break. More than any other time we need to learn to breathe in, hold out your hands with palms up, souls open, and receive God’s holy grace. Not only for yourselves but also for your fellow travelers traveling on the same bumpy journey in these liminal times such as this.
Peace and wonder,
Rev. Barbara K. Peronteau