Good morning…
“Every time our ordinary life bumps up against an unavoidable loss, there are choices to be made,” concluded our blog post yesterday morning, Our Passage To New Life. “Will we allow the loss we are currently facing to be a passage to something new, something wider, something deeper? Like the Israelites following God’s lead out of controlling captivity to the abundance of the Promised Land, how might the passage at hand be an exodus to greater life and freedom?”
When the worldwide pandemic was at its peak, my husband Steve wrote a memorable devotional message about the Jordan River. This wondrous body of water has long been a symbol of leaving behind the past and stepping into the future, courageously crossing over into the abundant freedom God has planned. As we begin to cross over from our current form of captivity, finding safe passage into our hopeful future with God, might we emerge into something new, wider, deeper?
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Nov 1, 2020 – Lectionary Reading: Joshua 3:7-17, Devotional by Rev. Steve Allen
I stood in the Jordan River having just performed a baptism for a woman who was a member of our group that had travelled to Israel. As she came up out of the water she was weeping. The next person stepped up; as he emerged from the water he too came up in tears. Why the emotion? It could have been the baptism but I’ve done adult baptisms before and they weren’t accompanied by tears. No, this seemed to have had something to do with the place. The Jordan River. It brings out emotion like nothing I’ve ever seen and it happens every time.
The Jordan River is the body of water that runs between the country of Jordan and the country of Israel. But it’s more than just a body of water that borders two countries. The Jordan River represents so much more. In today’s text (Joshua 3:7-17) the Jordan River symbolized a dividing line for the Israelites between the slavery of their past and the Promised Land of their future. In order to complete their journey, they first had to cross the Jordan and they did so in incredible jaw dropping fashion. John the Baptist performed his baptisms in the Jordan River. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. Those enslaved in America sang spirituals with one of the central metaphors being the Jordan River.
I looked over Jordan what did I see
Coming for to carry me home
A band of angels coming after me
Coming for to carry me home
“Swing Low Sweet Chariot”
The Jordan River has long been a symbol of leaving behind the past and stepping into the future. It’s the kind of place theologian Richard Rohr calls liminal space. It comes from the Latin word “Limens” which means a threshold – a doorway. The Jordan River seems to represent this liminal space as a threshold between the no longer and the not yet; a place where people let go of their old way of being and embark on a new journey; a place where they leave behind the present reality and become open to a newness of life. It’s a place where people encounter God. I think this is why the Jordan River elicits such emotion.
I’d love to be able to take everyone to Israel to experience the wonder and emotion of the Jordan River but not everyone can make that trip. And yet, perhaps we can create a liminal space of our own. Perhaps there’s a way we can set aside a time and a place in our homes where we can stand at the threshold of a newness of life. It could be a quiet place for prayer before everyone gets up in the morning or before we go to bed in the evening. It could be a private room in our house at a time when no one will bother us. The point is, based on the tears I’ve seen, I believe we all yearn for an experience like what happens at the Jordan River. I believe we all long for an experience that leads us across a threshold to a newness of life. I believe we all long for an encounter with the divine. I like to think this can happen outside of Israel so I invite us all to create a little Jordan River in our homes; a place where we can meet with God each and every day; a place where we can leave behind the old and embark on the new; a place where we can encounter the newness of life that God wants to offer us all.
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In this liminal space, the threshold between the no longer and the not yet, we encounter the living Christ in the here and in the now. Come closer, and hear what your God, the Eternal, has to say: Today you will see a sign that the one, true living God is present among you… (Joshua 3:9b-10a, VOICE).
Today we will see a sign that the true living God is with us. Will we listen? Will we follow? Will we courageously step forward into newness of life?
…Sue…
P.S. For the very first time I will join Steve on his annual trip to the Jordan River with adults this spring. Currently we have about twenty in our group, singles, couples, families, people in their twenties through their seventies. If you are interested in receiving a detailed brochure describing our March 3-13, 2022 trip to Israel, please reach out to Steve directly at sallen@lovett.org.
