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Pilgrim Uniting Church, Doncaster Vic. |
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The Pain of Transition Preached by Rev Darryn Hickling on Friday 21st March 2008 - Good Friday Scripture: John 18: 1-42 Have you had that experience where you eat some food, normally its some meat or something else that gets stuck in your teeth. Most times it’s stuck in between one of your molars or your front teeth. Then your tongue goes and explores it to see if the food that’s stuck can be dislodged. It’s awkward and uncomfortable for awhile until the food is taken out with dental floss or a tooth pick. Good Friday has a similar effect on the Church, as it’s awkward and uncomfortable. The pain of transition. Today is a somewhat awkward day in the liturgical year. Awkward because the Church finds herself wrestling with questions and there is some unfinished business. Jesus the leader of a movement within Judaism was executed primarily for the way he lived. And for today this is the end of the story. The Church has and continues to wrestle with Good Friday some 2,000 years after the event. What do we do with it? On Good Friday is a day of complexity of the known and the unknown. When plans (be that prophetic or not) just don’t work out. Have you ever been in a position when the plans you made just didn’t work out? Where you’re caught in a position of being in between the known and the unknown. It’s a difficult position to be in. The disciples found themselves in this position. The hopes, their dreams of an Israel out of the hands of occupying army (Romans), of the chosen one dawning a new age in their relationship with God came crashing down. STORY: The Pain of Transition He thought it was all going reasonably well. The plans he had made were coming to fruition. He had made promises to the leadership in the company he worked for. They in turn had made their promises to him. All of them wanted growth but what sort of growth were they looking for? How could growth happen if the shareholders wanted things to remain as they were? Any form of change comes with a price tag. Often there is some questioning, pain and uncomfortableness. Even the word change itself has negative connotations for some people. One of the managers had over a period of years built up the company with projects and programs and had a drive which drew people to him and it was a surprise when he moved on. But the shareholders were extremely upset by his actions, the thoughts he expressed and the way he spoke to people. When the manager discontinued his services, some questioned their faith, their belief, some wondered how the company would survive? Others looked to the future, with uncertainty and wrestled with the unknown but believed they could press on and move forward. Will the current situation remain the same as it has been? With all the programs and projects simply continue on, some asked and wanted it to be as it had been. But the situation had changed it couldn’t remain as it had been. There was a generally feeling of the people in the company of grief. A grief which needed to named and recognized. Grief affects us all in different ways and may not be felt immediately. It can sit and linger and then surface at an unexpected time. There was pain being felt in the time of transition. All people in the company from those who were very new to those who had been there for many years, they all had an investment in the company. Decisions had to be made, sometimes difficult decisions, what can continue? What needs to be ‘put on hold’ for awhile? What direction are we heading in? The people in the company asked. And the people felt uncomfortable. But it was a place where they needed to be for awhile. The answers to their questions would take time to unravel. Some of the people in the company recognized that contemplation takes time and is difficult in a their part of the world where meals can be purchased as quick as placing an order at a drive through then moving to another window and the meal is there ready to be taken away, where microwaves can heat food at any extremely fast rate, where by turning on theTV or radio there is instant access to news from a global village, where messages to people can be sent instantly to people by email or text. The words ‘wait’ and ‘be’ were hard to live. Yet it was necessary for the people in the company to ‘wait’ in a time of transition and uncertainty. While the people had questions for which they didn’t have an answer they did have the knowledge that they had their beliefs, they had their faith and they had each other even in an uncomfortable time[1]. The story of Good Friday is our story as
well. We sit with it and it sits with us, with confusion, hope, certainty yet
uncertainty and we sit with our uncomfortableness and our questions. [1] The Pain of Transition by Rev. Darryn Hickling 21-3-08 |
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