Crossing Over

There is a Hebrew expression for this word - abar - which defines the experience of not being able to go back to the familiar nor being able to stay where we currently find ourselves.

 " to pass over or by or through, alienate, bring, carry, do away, take, take away, transgress"

You are going places where you have not gone before.

The journey has such a decisive edge to it.

The critical point has taken place and now we find ourselves in the middle - this is where it gets hard - how do you describe to anyone who asks how you got there and where are you going?

This has become not a time to consider how to survive or a problem to solve.  It is time for God to make something new.

Read these words from Jonathan Wilson:

Choosing Life. How we live in relationship to other people and the world around us is often called “ethics” in Christian teaching. Because all of us have to make decisions every day about what we are or are not going to do, ethics is often portrayed as decision making, especially in extreme situations. We often think ethics is about whether Christians should fight in war, have sex outside of marriage, practice invitro-fertilization, or “pull the plug” when a loved one is at the end of life. These are, indeed, ethical considerations. But if we are to make these kinds of decisions “in Christ,” it is more important for us to know the peculiar way of Christ in a community of peace than it is to think hard about what we would do in an extreme case.

In this regard, actual extreme cases sometimes make the point best. In the midst of World War II, when Nazi Germany was committed both to the extermination of Jewish people and to expansion in Europe, a village in occupied France quietly harbored hundreds of Jews, sparing their lives. Given the lack of resistance in so many places—and the high cost that so many resisters paid—it was a heroic act. Yet, when asked why they did it, most of the villagers simply said, “We never thought of not doing it.” For years a priest named André Trocmé had patiently Andre Trocmetaught Jesus’ example of forgiveness and nonviolent love at the village church. Over time, these people had become a community of peace. When the extreme case happened, the way of Jesus was an unquestioned habit.

“If anyone is in Christ Jesus,” the apostle Paul wrote to the early church, “there is a new creation.” Yes, the patterns of an old and broken order continue, causing a great deal of suffering and frustration. But the advent of a whole new world is the basis of New Testament ethics. The “old nature” that Paul calls us to battle against is part of the old order that is passing away. It is the set of habits that humans developed in a world where violence had the last word. In Christ, however, we are raised to a new reality. Because this reality of new creation re-defines how we see the world, it re-frames our habits of social engagement. Disciples take up their cross and follow Jesus not because they have learned to make the hard choice in an extreme case, but because they can’t imagine acting differently in light of the good news they have heard and seen. Their habit of choosing life is one they have learned by getting to know the way of Jesus among the people who are Christ’s body. It is, for the most part, slow and undramatic work. It is also how God chooses to engage our world in love.