October 27, 2023
Thresholds
When architects design an interior space, they pay attention to boundaries. Boundaries are most often defined by walls as they separate indoors from outdoors, and one room from another. This also allows for spaces to be distinct from one another. Like a hall from a bedroom, or a living room from a dining room. Of course, you need to have some way to get through the wall to get to what lies behind. These are often doorways, cut out from the wall to allow for passage. However, some architects design spaces to create less distinction, creating more flow and less separation between rooms. In older homes, some people will remove some or all of a wall to create the sense of unity between a family room and a kitchen, for example. In either type of space, you may walk from the kitchen to the living room, but the experiences are different with one having a more distinct crossing point, or threshold, the other being more gradual, being less clear when you leave one and enter the other.
When we describe human life and its passages we use the architectural concept of “threshold.” Some thresholds are distinct, like marriage, the birth of a child, a graduation. Others are more gradual, like one’s development as a student over the years, as a spouse or partner over the decades, or as one grows in competence in one’s vocation, often across both employers and years. Yet even these gradual developments are marked but particular markers that indicate accomplishment of transition—anniversaries, promotions, recognition of accomplishments. We acknowledge these moments in “rites of passage” or “threshold” rituals. We mark our lives and other people’s lives to acknowledge—however gradual, however distinct—the progress of our life’s journey together.
This past Sunday Derrick Bowers was baptized. You could say it came through a process of Derrick’s assessment of his life and his relationship to God over time. You could also say it was Derrick’s decision to become a part of our church and to be baptized, which occurred at a particular moment in our worship service. Regardless, Derrick was baptized into the Body of Christ universal through the local expression of Christ’s Body in our church. And we did this together, Derrick and us. We all confessed our faith and we all made promises, to God and to one another. In the end, our relationship to each other and to God had changed; which means we crossed a threshold; one end marks a new beginning—for one and for all.
On November 18, we will cross another threshold, that being a leave-taking for Pastor Steve and Marilyn. Steve is retiring from ministry in our church, and from a career in ministry. It is a threshold moment for the Eldes, no longer being a pastoral couple. Steve and Marilyn plan to return to our church as members after some time. But when they do, it will not be the same, Steve will no longer be a pastor.
This is a threshold rite for us as well. We are changing as a church. Since I arrived, we have gone from three pastoral staff to just one, and are now in the process of hiring a second, full-time pastor. When that search process has concluded, we will have another threshold rite, the installation of a new pastor, indicating the creation of a new church staff and a new season in our church. But on November 18, we will celebrate as we commemorate: celebrating Steve and Marilyn and marking this transition in their lives, celebrating the healthy state of our church, and celebrating the new people who are coming and asking to be a part of our community, and celebrating all the opportunities the future holds. And though we may cross many thresholds in the future, I pray we will always celebrate the faithfulness and goodness of our God wherever we find ourselves.
Thanks be to God!
~ Pastor Todd