Like an inflamed bug bite, I have not been able to turn my mind away from the future this week. My husband recently accepted a job requiring us to relocate from Pittsburgh to central Ohio next month. I have not been able to stop researching, thinking, and stressing about what our future might look like. Should we opt to live in the small town where Chris will work? Or should we live closer to Columbus? Should we choose a smaller apartment to save money? Or would we quickly grow annoyed with a small space? Will we make new friends? Where might those new friends be living now? How can we meet them?
We are in a threshold moment — a space between, a space of waiting with our hands open and outstretched, a space where we do not have much control. Perhaps you know the feeling. We move through our days making hundreds of decisions, often providing a feeling of stability and authority. Yet, every so often, we enter seasons largely dictated by factors beyond our control. As people of faith, all we can do is pray, wait and watch.
In today’s reading, we see Abraham (Abram) in a threshold moment. He has received God’s promise to make of him a great nation that will be a blessing to others (Genesis 12:1-3), and God has told him that the land of Canaan will belong to his offspring (Genesis 12:7). Abraham does not yet see how these promises will come to be. What will the future hold after he separates from Lot? Will he and Sarah (Sarai) bear the children they desire? There is much Abraham doesn’t know.
What Abraham does know is that God continues to show up. God shows up in Genesis 12 when Abraham leaves home and travels to Canaan, where he receives the land as a promise. And God shows up in Genesis 13 when Abraham separates from Lot and returns to Canaan. Again, God promises Abraham the land. After each encounter, Abraham acknowledges his interaction with God by building altars.
We believe in our modern theology that God is infused in our everyday reality. Our creator reaches out to us through intermediaries — a passage of text, a conversation with a friend, an encounter with a hummingbird. We also believe Christ is present when we gather together (Matthew 18:20). This view of God differs from the reality that Abraham and the patriarchs inhabited. There was no central sanctuary at this time. Abraham and his people were nomadic. Before the construction of the tabernacle, God was not perceived as ordinarily dwelling on the earth. These altars are places where God may be encountered in worship (Exodus 20:24).
In other words, the altars that Abraham builds are his way of marking the occasions when God meets him at a threshold moment and reminds him of God’s promise. They mark the times God calls Abraham to greater faithfulness. The altar is a worshipful response to God’s covenantal relationship.
As I mention above, Christ’s life, death and resurrection as well as the introduction of the Holy Spirit have changed our understanding of God’s presence on earth. By God’s grace, we can encounter God in many different places and in various ways. However, there is still something to learn from the example of Abraham in today’s reading. How can we model Abraham’s worshipful response to God’s activity in our lives, especially in threshold moments?
Scripture makes it clear that God does not need our worship to be God (Acts 17:24-25) and publicly acknowledging God’s presence in your life can be a slippery slope into performative faith (Matthew 6:5-8). However, outward actions have a way of affecting our internal worlds. We can look no further than the closest relationships in our lives. It means one thing when your sibling tells you that they love you in an annual birthday card and another when they fly across the country to sit with you.
We are physical beings. Marking significant moments of faith by using our bodies to create something somehow allows us to align the diverse components of our selves together. A response to God’s faithfulness might look like building a cairn in your backyard, wearing a piece of jewelry, painting a watercolor, starting each morning by facing east and saying a gratitude, donating a birdbath to a local park or church, or writing an essay.
To be completely honest with you, I’m not sure how I will mark my current threshold season. Perhaps we will begin in Ohio with a blessing of our house. Or maybe I will commission a small painting of our home in Pittsburgh to remember God’s goodness during our years here. Whatever we do, I am glad I had the opportunity to write this lesson because it has reminded me that threshold moments, while stressful, also provide the opportunity to check in with God and see how our Creator shapes our lives and provides sometimes painful and beautiful opportunities.
For reflection
- What are some threshold moments that you have experienced in your life? What did they teach you about God?
- What did an altar mean during the time of Abraham? What does it mean today? Have you experienced or built an “altar” in your own life? What did it look like?
- How do you acknowledge God’s presence?
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