Liminal Space

Each Thursday a group of us meets for Coffee Theology here at the church and we have great conversations. This week we had a conversation about Advent. The authors that create these conversations do a great job of not assuming this resource is being used by any particular faith group so it didn’t assume that everyone celebrated Advent or knew what Advent was about. To put it simply Advent is a time of waiting for and anticipating Christmas while fully realizing that it is not yet Christmas. In other words we are waiting for the coming of the promise of the baby Jesus, but it hasn’t happened yet.

And how many times do we find ourselves in this kind of situation? Where we are in-between things; one thing has ended and something else has not yet started? Perhaps we have ended one job and haven’t started another one yet. Or perhaps we are going through a loss of some kind and we are still working on figuring out life after that loss. In the last couple of years I went to the Bishop’s Fall Gathering for pastors and leaders of the church, and we talked about this very topic. The terminology they use for this is called Liminal Space: “Liminal is from the Latin word ‘limen’, which means threshold.  A liminal space is the time between ‘what was’ and ‘next.’ It is a place of transition, a time of waiting and not knowing the future.”

Doesn’t that sound almost exactly like what I just described Advent as being like? Now I know that we all know Christmas is coming and we know that what it means, but it’s not time to celebrate Christmas yet, it’s time where we anticipate the coming of the light of the world, where we are at the threshold of celebrating and living into that reality, but it’s not quite here yet. Without going too far off on a tangent it would be like the Magi following the star. Everyday waking up and following and working toward that star to find out what it means and what comes next after you discover what it is trying to show you. Their life was something different before that, and it will be something different after they find the child, but in the time of following the star they were in this in-between anticipating time, they were in a liminal space.

As I was reading and studying Joel, there was a comment from the Word Biblical Commentary that really helped me see how this passage from Joel is perfect for the season of Advent. The commentary says that the first half of the book talks about the present distress and trouble that the people are facing and then in the second half of the book it talks about future deliverance. And we get a glimpse of that in just our four short verses that is our story for today. While we don’t know the exact time or context for Joel’s prophecy, we are able to understand that life has changed for them and there is a danger approaching them, but that in the future there is a promise of hope and comfort. Joel is preparing the people for a time of living in a liminal space. Joel doesn’t just prepare the for it, but with God offers a way for them to live into that liminal space. And maybe these words will help us to be able to better live into the season of Advent and any time we find ourselves in a liminal space, an in-between time.

The words that I have found that have been the most helpful in the opening two verses from Joel is the beginning of verse 13 where Joel invites us to rend our hearts and not our clothing. Throughout the Bible we find times when people have rent, or torn their clothing when they are upset, when they feel deep distress or when they find out something that rocks the to the core. We see this happen when Josiah hears the word of God and realizes that they had not been living by it. King David tears his clothes multiple times upon hearing the death of people. Recently we heard the story of Jonah and how the King of Nineveh tore his clothes as a sign of repentance to show God they were sorry for their ways. So this is a typical way of expressing deep emotional distress for something happening.

God obviously knows that is how people express themselves, and God wants them to use that visual and that way of thinking, but instead of tearing their clothes God wants them to do it with their hearts. In other words God wants the people to come back to God with broken hearts. Perhaps the wording of broken hearts is a much more understandable phrase than rending or tearing our hearts. But why? Why does God want a broken heart? I don’t believe God wants us to come to God a mess and devastated, but I believe God wants us to return to God with broken hearts so that we are open and willing to explore what God is planning next for us. God needs us to be in a liminal space so that we are preparing ourselves for what is coming next. Perhaps a broken heart will allow for humility and space to be made for us to listen to what God wants next for us.

And that is when God offers to us the future promise, or anticipation of the giving of the Spirit to all flesh. Just as God called for people of all ages to come and engage in the breaking of our hearts, God too engages with people of all ages in the pouring out of the Spirit. We see that pouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost when God gave God’s Spirit to the whole world and gave us gifts from the Spirit.

And what this tells me and what we should all take away from this is that when we find ourselves in a liminal space, and in-between time, we should focus our hearts and our minds on God, whether it’s a hardship or the season of Advent, and when we do we will know that God is present in that space and that God is working in that space along with us to bring about the new thing that God is working on. And although we don’t get this part of the prophecy from Joel I do want to point out that in verse 27 God, through Joel, specifically says that God is in in the midst of us. There is always the promise that no matter where we are and what we are going through, God is in and among us. So don’t rush to Christmas too soon. I know the music is amazing, I know the message is second to none, but wait for it, anticipate it. Live into this time when God is working in and through this world and in and through all of us to make something new. Amen.