“From Generation to Generation…We See God in Each Other”
Preached Sunday, December 18, 2022
In the face of what should be unthinkable war and violence, I know that we are eager to do *something* in the face of it all. Welcoming a family, helping them become resettled, and meeting their needs for safety, food, and shelter in the midst of this upheaval is something we can do.
Dr. Christine J. Hong writes this, reflecting on her parents’ immigration experience:
“My parents are Korean immigrants. My mother used to say that back in the days of their immigration, whoever met you at the airport decided your destiny. In other words, whoever greets you at the threshold as you become a new immigrant determines the direction your life moves. I remember her words and reflect on them whenever I reach significant impasses in my life—a new job, a move, when I became a parent for the first time. Each significant milestone feels like a threshold. When I prepare to cross those thresholds, I look for the people and communities waiting on the other side, people and communities to anchor me and hold me in the nebulous spaces of change, uncertainty, and fear.”
For this Ukrainian family, we at Grace are going to be those people that literally meet them at the airport, at this huge threshold in their lives. As they cross from one stage of their life to another - we will strive to be those people and that community on the other side to anchor them and hold them in “the nebulous space of change, uncertainty, and fear.”
Many of us can likely relate - maybe not with the enormity of what it is to be an immigrant and a refugee - but we can relate to threshold moments in our lives. I’d invite each of us to reflect back on those times and the people who met us at those thresholds - and how they changed our lives.
Indulge me, for a moment, to reflect back over my life and maybe it will also stir up memories and people in your minds.
Starting college is definitely a threshold moment for many. I remember the uncertainty of the time - and the feeling that my life was spread out before me and not 100 percent sure where it would go. And it was in those first days of college that I met Olivia and Rachel. *Picture* We have a dozen years of friendship between us now and I’m certain we will have many more. For those 4 years in school we were each others’ anchors, we grew a lot together, helped each other through hard times, helped each other hold fast to our faith…we were friends - and still are.
And then there was Divinity School. It was in my first couple months of marriage. First couple months truly “on my own” as an adult. And in a different state and different city. And then I met Autumn and Hayley. *Picture* And we gravitated toward each other, saw each other through uncertainty, hard times, and previously unsurmounted challenges. Div school is three years of trial by fire…or really, by a mountain of theology books and papers to write - and the three of us challenged each other and grounded each other. They expanded my mind more than any other two people in my life have.
And I can think of other threshold moments, of moving to Vermilion and the church members - you all - who met me here. Literally the ones who helped us unpack the U-Haul and the other ways you met us. The conference colleagues who welcomed me with open arms - even though I was afraid that coming from an out of state Div school, I’d be an outsider - and they are now my daily support as I pastor.
What threshold moments are you thinking about now? Who are the people that are on your hearts? Let’s take a moment and just shout them out to share with one another.
Let congregation answer.
Let’s now ground this concept in our Scripture from today and see how God is active in these threshold moments.
Hong writes this on our Scripture passage from today:
“Elizabeth greets Mary on the threshold, not only of her door but the threshold of something new in Mary’s life and for the world. Mary is met by her cousin who greets her with welcome, anticipation, and a powerful blessing. So rich was the blessing that the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt up and greeted Mary and the baby in Mary’s womb. Any fear Mary had was met with the contagious courage of Elizabeth, courage enough for them both. They were one another’s spiritual midwives—birthing together transformation, grounded in one another’s courage and steadfastness. They wondered together in liminal space, on the threshold of a new world. And through their spiritual and relational partnership, Mary and Elizabeth framed the path of partnership for their children too.”
Elizabeth and Mary meet at a threshold - the literal threshold of the door of Elizabeth’s house; the threshold of both of them being expectant mothers - and not only expectant mothers but expecting by Divine intervention; the threshold of not only their lives never being the same…but the the threshold of the world never being the same because of the babies in their wombs. And, Jesus and John, the children of their wombs, would meet each other in threshold moments as well. When Jesus came to the Jordan to be baptized, it was a threshold moment. The first step in Jesus’s public ministry. John met Jesus in the Jordan, at that threshold moment, and they shaped each other as they entered a new stage of life - and the world. Mary and Elizabeth were acutely aware, as expecting mothers usually are, that they were about to enter a new stage of life where there was no going back. And they also knew, through the circumstances of their conceptions, that the whole world was about to cross a threshold where there was no going back. It’s this realization of the Divine presence in each other that causes the child within Elizabeth’s womb to leap for joy. And that causes Mary to sing praises to God in a song that envisions this new world order her son would usher in.
And in meeting each other in that threshold - Mary and Elizabeth saw God in each other. They were God for each other - God in the joy of embracing each other, God in the love they shared together, God the great midwife, ushering them through the threshold.
And when we look back at those threshold moments and the people we think of there - we can see God in the people who met us. In Rachel and Olivia, in Hayley and Autumn, in the people of Grace, in my colleagues; in those who welcomed the Hong family in the airport; and we hope God will be reflected in us as we welcome this Ukrainian family. Meeting someone with love and walking with them in love through a transition in their life: this is an act of being the God of Love for someone else.
As we draw nearer to Christmas, I’d like you to think of thresholds that you can meet others with love at. Perhaps they are literal doors - like the doors of our church and the doors of your home as you invite people in to celebrate Christmas together. And perhaps they are metaphorical thresholds in the lives of those around us where you can greet someone with love as they enter a new chapter of their lives, where you can show them the love of God. These may be thresholds of parenthood, of retirement, of empty nesting, or grief and loss, of becoming sober, of coming out, of moving, or graduation, or, or, or… There are so many places in people’s lives where we can meet them in love.
AND - be prepared for mutuality. We might think that we are being God to someone, showing them the love of God, walking with them into a new part of their lives - and lo and behold, we find that we have been changed too. That in thinking we are going to usher someone through a doorway with love - we have also walked through that doorway, crossed a threshold, and our lives will never be the same again either. That in thinking we were going to show someone the love of God - they have shown the love of God to us.
Mary and Elizabeth saw God in each other.
The friends and communities we have met along the way - we have been God to each other and shared love with each other.
When we meet our Ukrainian family at this threshold - we need to know that it’s not just them who will be changed and shaped by our relationship - we will be changed too.
For this is how God works in this world - through the love we share with each other, through opening our eyes so that we can see God in each other, through changing and shaping us through the love we share with each other.
Let us view this Christmas as a threshold in which we will greet each other with Love and be open to ways we will be God to one another, changing our lives and changing the world.
May it be so. Amen.
“Elizabeth greets Mary on the threshold, not only of her door but the threshold of something new in Mary’s life and for the world. Mary is met by her cousin who greets her with welcome, anticipation, and a powerful blessing. So rich was the blessing that the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt up and greeted Mary and the baby in Mary’s womb. Any fear Mary had was met with the contagious courage of Elizabeth, courage enough for them both. They were one another’s spiritual midwives—birthing together transformation, grounded in one another’s courage and steadfastness. They wondered together in liminal space, on the threshold of a new world. And through their spiritual and relational partnership, Mary and Elizabeth framed the path of partnership for their children too.”
Elizabeth and Mary meet at a threshold - the literal threshold of the door of Elizabeth’s house; the threshold of both of them being expectant mothers - and not only expectant mothers but expecting by Divine intervention; the threshold of not only their lives never being the same…but the the threshold of the world never being the same because of the babies in their wombs. And, Jesus and John, the children of their wombs, would meet each other in threshold moments as well. When Jesus came to the Jordan to be baptized, it was a threshold moment. The first step in Jesus’s public ministry. John met Jesus in the Jordan, at that threshold moment, and they shaped each other as they entered a new stage of life - and the world. Mary and Elizabeth were acutely aware, as expecting mothers usually are, that they were about to enter a new stage of life where there was no going back. And they also knew, through the circumstances of their conceptions, that the whole world was about to cross a threshold where there was no going back. It’s this realization of the Divine presence in each other that causes the child within Elizabeth’s womb to leap for joy. And that causes Mary to sing praises to God in a song that envisions this new world order her son would usher in.
And in meeting each other in that threshold - Mary and Elizabeth saw God in each other. They were God for each other - God in the joy of embracing each other, God in the love they shared together, God the great midwife, ushering them through the threshold.
And when we look back at those threshold moments and the people we think of there - we can see God in the people who met us. In Rachel and Olivia, in Hayley and Autumn, in the people of Grace, in my colleagues; in those who welcomed the Hong family in the airport; and we hope God will be reflected in us as we welcome this Ukrainian family. Meeting someone with love and walking with them in love through a transition in their life: this is an act of being the God of Love for someone else.
As we draw nearer to Christmas, I’d like you to think of thresholds that you can meet others with love at. Perhaps they are literal doors - like the doors of our church and the doors of your home as you invite people in to celebrate Christmas together. And perhaps they are metaphorical thresholds in the lives of those around us where you can greet someone with love as they enter a new chapter of their lives, where you can show them the love of God. These may be thresholds of parenthood, of retirement, of empty nesting, or grief and loss, of becoming sober, of coming out, of moving, or graduation, or, or, or… There are so many places in people’s lives where we can meet them in love.
AND - be prepared for mutuality. We might think that we are being God to someone, showing them the love of God, walking with them into a new part of their lives - and lo and behold, we find that we have been changed too. That in thinking we are going to usher someone through a doorway with love - we have also walked through that doorway, crossed a threshold, and our lives will never be the same again either. That in thinking we were going to show someone the love of God - they have shown the love of God to us.
Mary and Elizabeth saw God in each other.
The friends and communities we have met along the way - we have been God to each other and shared love with each other.
When we meet our Ukrainian family at this threshold - we need to know that it’s not just them who will be changed and shaped by our relationship - we will be changed too.
For this is how God works in this world - through the love we share with each other, through opening our eyes so that we can see God in each other, through changing and shaping us through the love we share with each other.
Let us view this Christmas as a threshold in which we will greet each other with Love and be open to ways we will be God to one another, changing our lives and changing the world.
May it be so. Amen.
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