…but [Jesus] holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. — Hebrews 7:24–25

Liminal is from the Latin word limen, which means threshold.  A liminal space is the time between ‘what was’ and ‘next.’  We see and experience liminal spaces in all sorts of ways, some more obvious than others.  Examples of liminal spaces include turning the calendar to a new month or year, the solstices and equinoxes, sunsets and sunrises, the shore (being the threshold between sea and land).  The picture above captures several liminal spaces at once — the beach at the transition from low to high tide at sunset.  Many religions, such as the druidic religions of medieval England, make a big deal about these liminal spaces, believing that they are places and times where the veil between heaven and earth is particularly thin, thus allowing better access to the gods and the afterlife.

The idea of liminal spaces is something that we recognize intuitively, if not consciously.  We are drawn to liminal spaces like the beach, because something about it makes us feel closer to God.  We make new years resolutions each year because we see the start of the year as an opportunity for a “new beginning.”  We try to take advantage of these times and spaces because we hope they will enable us to reconnect with, draw near to, or simply grow deeper in our relationship with God.  But what we learn from Jesus Christ and Scripture takes the idea of liminal spaces and simultaneously transforms it and deconstructs it.

Jesus Christ has transformed liminal spaces by making our entire faith, at least at this time, a prolonged spiritual liminal space.  When Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, He inaugurated the Kingdom of God.  However, the Kingdom of God will not be fully consummated until Christ returns at the end of the age.  Until then, we live on the “threshold” of the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God is already here, but it is not yet here.  Martin Luther speaks of our walk with God as a liminal space when he says that we are at once justified and yet still sinful; we are both sinner and saint.  Paul describes this tension so well in Romans 7:7-25.  The life of faith itself is a liminal space, between what was and what is next.

However, Jesus Christ has also deconstructed liminal spaces and times.  We don’t need to find liminal spaces and times in order to draw near to God.  When Jesus died on the cross, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.” (Matt. 27:51)  The curtain in the temple separated the Holy of Holies, the place where heaven touched earth and the high priest would commune with God.  It was a liminal space.  Because of Jesus Christ, the barrier between us and God has been removed.  Thanks to the presence of the Holy Spirit, we don’t need liminal spaces or times in order to draw near to God because God is always near to us and with us.  That is the promise of Emmanuel, “God with us.” 

This year is a little bit unique.  On January 1, we not only start a new year and a new month, but also a new week.  It’s quite natural to want to take advantage of this particular liminal time to commit to some changes. There’s certainly nothing wrong with making new years resolutions.  However, don’t forget that, as our Scripture above reminds us, we do not need liminal times and spaces in order to draw near to God, because Jesus Christ has already done everything needed for us to do so.  We are able to draw near to God any time, any where, because He has already drawn near to us.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. — James 4:7–8

Blessings,

Rev. David Garrison