Thresholds: Crossing into God’s New World

Threshold of Connection 

This Sunday we step deeper into Advent and into our new theme, Thresholds. Advent is a season of holy tension—standing on the edge between what has been and what could yet be. It asks us to listen closely for God’s call to cross into peace, justice, and bold, tender love. And this week, we’re exploring the Threshold of Connection—that fragile, beautiful space where God knits scattered people back together. 

Our reading from Ezekiel 37 is one of the most vivid stories in scripture: the prophet standing in a valley of dry bones, a landscape of everything lost. God asks a strange question: “Mortal, can these bones live?” In a world like ours, in a winter that can feel long and heavy—many of us quietly wonder the same. Where can hope take root? How do we reconnect when fear pulls us apart? 

But Ezekiel reminds us that God’s Spirit breathes life where we least expect it. Tendons find bone, breath fills lungs, and what once seemed lifeless stands tall again. This isn’t a story about pretending everything’s fine; it’s a story about a God who refuses to give up on us. A God who gathers people from the edges, restores community, and calls us into a future we cannot yet see. 

As we settle into another December—gray skies, icy windshields, the crunch of salt under boots—we will gather on this Second Sunday of Advent for a festival of music. Our choir and bell choir will help us listen for that breath of God moving among us. Their voices and ringing tones remind us that connection is not something we muster alone; it’s something the Spirit creates between us. 

So come as you are—tired, hopeful, grieving, grateful. Come wondering what new world the Christ child is calling us toward. Stand at the threshold with our church community, and let Ezekiel’s vision whisper again: God is not done. The bones can live. And together, by Christ’s coming, we can cross into something new.  

Peace, 

Pastor Katie