Between Two Worlds
From The Pastor’s Desk—
I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to write about this month, so I decided to clear my mind. For me, that can mean: reading, meditating, going for a run, practicing martial arts, or making something. This time I opted for the latter, and set about carving a wooden spoon. I decided to try crafting this tool -from start to finish- entirely by hand. That means I took a piece of wood from our woodpile, split it down using an axe and a froe, and then used a carving hatchet and a handsaw to remove the unwanted parts of the wood. This was a relatively quick process (probably only 20 minutes or so), and what I have as of this writing looks vaguely spoon-like. It will take hours more work, with a drawknife, an adze, carving tools, and a cabinet scraper to achieve the final result.
I was having trouble settling on a topic to write about this month as there are so many possible topics. One idea (which I intend to cover in next month’s article) is about the rise of AI in all parts of our lives, particularly in our worship experience. As I was working on the spoon, though, I was struck at the dichotomy: I was using tools and techniques that stretch back thousands of years, while pondering a technology that is evolving each day. It was as if I was caught between two worlds.
Being caught between two worlds is a familiar place for a Christian to be. Our Bible is filled with people caught: between faithfulness to God and the desires of the world, between wisdom and folly, between life and death, between two masters, between Christ and Caesar, or God and Mammon. One of the unique realities of our faith is that, while we all feel this pull to go one way or another, we are not bound to one outcome forever, we can sin and be redeemed; we can have a change of mind, or heart; we can choose to live in new ways, or return to forsaken traditions.
A few months ago, I gave a sermon in which I described 2 theological concepts: anamnesis and prolepsis. Each of these concepts describes how our faith can transcend the dualism of the either/or dichotomy. Anamnesis is the act of remembering, and by doing so, to bring the past into the present. One example of this is how we remember Jesus’ Last Supper with the disciples each time we celebrate communion. We “tell the old, old story, of Jesus and his love” as we partake in the bread and the cup, in the here and now. Similarly, prolepsis is the act of bringing the future into the present; of living as though Christ’s reign has already come again. The New Testament is full of examples of how the disciples, Paul, and many others engage in this prolepsis. We participate in prolepsis each time we proclaim our faith, each time we feed the hungry and clothe the needy.
Living in between two worlds can be challenging. Where will we invest our time and treasure? How will we choose who to serve, and how to respond? Our faith offers us the freedom to understand each action, each moment, not as part of one world or another, but as our faithful response to the call God has placed on each one of us. How we respond will be as varied as we all are. Our responses may vary as we age. But all that we do, from the great to the lowly, is done in the service of the One who was, and is, and ever shall be. Amen.
Blessings,
—Pastor Jon
