This week, a friend retired after 25 years in one academic institution. She was ready, and yet weepy when the last boxes of books went into the car. It was the end of her work there. It was also the end of her identity as a seminary professor: those books were left behind.
Surprised by her tears, she had been looking forward to this day. It was not the end of her teaching, but it was the end of her faculty position. Where was the joy and relief that we had expected? Instead, her tears spoke the truth of her inner transit from known to unknown.
Endings like this often take us to the “thin place” between now and not yet–where Jesus seemed most at home. “My peace I give to you,” Jesus said,* as he tried to prepare his disciples for his impending death. Then he describes that peace in many different ways: if you live as I have, My Father and I will make our home with you; we will not leave you “orphaned,” but will be present with you; we will teach you and guide you – help you remember what we have done together. With all the care of a loving mother, Jesus promised he would not leave them alone to fend for themselves.
The disciples seem too dense and too literal to understand what he is talking about, and yet to every query, Jesus responds with another image of hope: vine and branches, from servant to friend, seed to fruit, sorrow to joy. In each, endings morph into new beginnings. Chapters 14-17 in the Gospel of John are ripe with these examples of connection as Jesus tries to convey the reality of God’s presence in and through them.
The peace of Jesus is dynamic, fertile and verdant as Spring. It is heart-full action, not blissful detachment. Yes, death and endings are part of that peace, but presence and companionship is the sustaining message. Again and again we are summoned to those thin places in the veil of mystery between now and not yet, as though the fullness of our very lives depends on it. I believe it does.
–Marjory Zoet Bankson, Seekers Church
Questions for Reflection
- When have you felt loss and the tenderness of hope? What images come to your imagination?
- What does the “peace of Christ” mean to you?
