“Friends, as I write this in 2023, I have been noticing that we’re using the word ‘emerging’ a lot these days. We feel that we are slowly emerging from the pandemic and we are cautiously finding our way ‘back to normal.’ But wait! Not so fast. Do we really want to just go back to the way things were? Or do we want to be transformed by our experience and find new ways to appreciate the blessedness of life? … I call this opportunity for change a ‘metamorphosis moment.’ … The seemingly tried and true practices we have known are being covered with the silk threads of a cocoon in which we will inevitably transform. It is an experience of liminality…”
So writes Dr. Marcia McFee, author of the “Emerge” curriculum we will be integrating into worship for the season of Easter. I found it poignant that not only has this been identified as a cultural emergence coming out of the pandemic, but also a timely reminder that this congregation is in the midst of its own “metamorphosis moment.” Perhaps many of you are still feeling the need for cocooning – with the loss of Matt and then of Sharon, so much from “before” is now gone. Not that they were cute fuzzy caterpillars or anything. But the metaphor sticks with me. Just what is happening in that cocoon that is 1st Presbyterian’s community of worship and practice? And what will emerge from the cocoon of this time?
Sunday we celebrate Easter – that once again mystery of Christ’s resurrection that becomes our metaphor for other small resurrections in our lives – the tomb being one kind of cocoon for the old way of seeing/living the life of faith now transformed by a new reality.
May we all be transformed through and in this time.
Pastor Scott
Worship will be streamed on our website, YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook page.