Finding Light in Times of Transition

 

Matthew 4:12-23

“When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.

He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of

Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah

might be fulfilled: ...” 

    This was a time of transition for Jesus as he was relocating from Nazareth to

Galilee and made a new home for himself  in Capernaum by the sea.

It was a time when he was taking on a new leadership role because

his friend, and mentor John the Baptist who had Baptized Jesus was now

imprisoned. The disciples too, were transitioning from their old life as

fishermen to becoming disciples of Jesus. 

     As I write this, the Earth itself has gone through some transitions as well.

We are almost a month into the transition from 2022 to 2023 on the Julian

calendar. Those that follow a Lunar Calendar year have also just celebrated their New Year. Astrologically we have just come off of the first Mercury Retrograde of the New Year, and the first New Moon of the New Year. At Saint John’s Episcopal church we are getting ready to transition from our current rector Father Mike Lager to searching for a new rector. 

We don’t need to see what lies ahead during and after times of transition. As Father Mike and the book The Secret remind us “Think of a car driving through the night. The headlights only go a hundred to two hundred feet forward, and you can make it all the way from California to New York driving through the dark, because all you have to see is the next two hundred feet.”  So what do you do when you go through these times of transition? Well, in the words of my spiritual mentor John Stewart “For the eyes of sweet Virginia, Were headlights on the road, A beacon for the weary heart, that hardens as it goes. ... Hang on Dreams you ain’t seen it all...” You know who has seen it all?  God.  In John 8:12 Jesus says “ I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  

Changes

 Isaiah 43:19 (NLT):

“For I am about to do something new.

See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?” Well, change is coming in that our rector Father Mike Lager has announced he's leaving us and moving back to Ohio. I've experienced this type of change before and it can be a positive or negative experience depending on how it's handled. I've experienced both a positive transition and a negative transition both of which I will share.    

The negative transition took place when I still lived in California in the church where I grew up while I was a member of the Vestry. The  experience through that process not only caused me to resign one year into a two year term but ultimately led to my leaving that parish altogether. The positive experience took place at the church I attended after that. SO having gone through those experiences I have some pearls of “wisdom” or at least things I learned along the way that might prove useful. 

The first thing is it’s okay to be sad and happy at the same time. Being human is a wonderful thing. We can feel many emotions at the same time. Our emotions are a far more accurate barometer than our brains. In the words of the movie Bull Durham “Don’t think. It can only hurt the ballclub.” or in this case the church.

 So pray, meditate, contemplate as individuals, as parishioners, as vestry members where we are as a church and where we’d like to be. The church isn’t about thinking it’s about the feeling of the church. What feelings do you want the church to have going forward? What feelings did you have and do you have about your church? When I was looking for a new church after I moved to Oklahoma, I knew I wanted a church that felt comfortable and inviting. I knew I wanted a church in which the LGBTQ+ community and was welcome like my Episcopal churches in the Bay Area. I knew I wanted a church that was genuinely part of the community and not just lip service. 

That was the difference between the positive and negative experiences of the churches in transition. The negative experience the parish was coming into the new rector search on the heels of a failed capital campaign and the economic and political fallout from that. So the senior warden and half the vestry approached the selection from a very business-oriented thinking standpoint. They wanted a rector who could just come in and take the reigns day 1 and clean up the economic and political rubble. The other half of the vestry was coming at it from the standpoint of who feels right for our church who could build bridges back to the community. They chose the rector the senior warden wanted. A little over 6 months later I had resigned from the Vestry and left that Parish. For various reasons the church I had grown up in and had been confirmed in sadly no longer felt like my spiritual home.  My mom and I found a new spiritual home in a new Episcopal church shortly before we found out her cancer had returned. The rector had lost his first wife to cancer. Talk about God's putting you where you need to be. He was there through my mom's second cancer diagnosis and ultimate referral to hospice and had given the ministration at the time of death. He presided over her memorial service left and went back to minister at the church in his hometown in Tennessee.YI was fearful that this would be another traumatic and dramatic transition. Happily the process was so much smoother. The interim minister was instrumental in gently leading the congregation and the vestry to figure out what we wanted the church to feel like going forward. 

So I guess that's my main pearl of wisdom for what it's worth. Go with what feels good for the church. As Dr Wayne Dyer said "We are all essentially spiritual beings having a temporary human experience. This is our essence. This is where we come from.”