Threshold of Birth
Christmas is coming! Before we know it, the presents will be unwrapped, the hundreds of cookies will somehow be devoured, and a quietness to winter will start to settle over our communities. Yet the Christmas season won’t be over. The story isn’t done. And neither are we.
This week’s gospel drops us right onto another threshold—the threshold of birth. We will celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas Eve, and then we’ll come together again on Sunday to celebrate the birth of recognition, the birth of calling, and the birth of what God is doing next. John the Baptist stands waist-deep in the river, surrounded by people grasping for hope in a tumultuous world, longing for change. It is not so different from our world now.
John keeps telling people, “I am not the one.” In a time of fear and longing, he refuses to pretend he’s the savior. Instead, he points. He gestures toward the One who brings hope to the people. “Here is the Lamb of God,” he says—here is the One who meets us at every threshold with grace strong enough to carry us through.
As a church community, we understand thresholds. We know what it is to live in the in-between, to hold our breath between endings and beginnings. We know what it is to pray for direction while the world trembles. We know what it is to be desperate for good news that actually means something.
And yet—right here, in the cold quiet days of winter—John reminds us that God’s new world is already pushing its way into the old one. Something holy is being born, even now. Not because we are ready, but because God is faithful.
I can’t wait to see you this week to celebrate Christ’s birth on Christmas Eve. And then, we’ll gather again this Sunday, to listen for that same birth. We’ll look toward the One John points to. And we’ll cross the threshold together—into hope, into courage, into God’s unfolding new world.
Peace,
Pastor Katie
Contact
