On Jordan's Bank
On Jordan's bank the baptist's cry announces that the Lord is nigh...
Jordan's bank. The very name awakens memories, deep memories that offer
us a profounder perspective on Advent. Jordan: the river that fed the green valley
that Lot chose for himself. Jordan: the river that parted as the Red Sea had
parted to let the wandering Hebrews enter their long awaited destination. Jordan:
the river where Naaman the leper washed and was healed. Jordan: the river that
flows from the ancient land through the heart of believers and pours into some
of their most beloved hymns: "When I tread the verge of Jordan/bid my anxious
fears subside." "I looked over Jordan and what did I see?/Com'in for
to take me home./A band of angels coming after me./Com'in for to take me home." And
now at Advent: "On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry/announces that the Lord
is nigh."
Jordan's bank marks a boundary, a crossing point between two regions of
existence, between wandering and home, between illness and health, between death
and life, between promise and fulfillment. Jordan's bank is a place in the heart,
a realm in the imagination, a state of being that anthropologists call "liminal," those
times in our lives when we go through profound transition, leaving behind the
familiar and established world that we have come to accept as the real world
to enter what is a different reality.
To approach Jordan's bank is scary. If we pass through the waters, if we
plunge beneath the wave, what will happen to us? Will we survive? When someone
we love dies and we grieve, then we stand on Jordan's bank and tremble. When
we take on some great new project in life, a change in our career, a cause for
justice, then we stand on Jordan's bank and tremble. When we have an encounter
with the Holy Spirit that unsettles our comfortable notions of what faith means
and requires, then we stand on Jordan's bank and tremble.
And we would remain on Jordan's bank, unable to enter the water, unable
to live through our grief or to meet the challenge of our new life or to grow
into a greater knowledge of God, except that "the Lord is nigh." Christ
is coming to meet us on Jordan's bank, to join us in our grief, our challenge,
our growth. At the scariest moment, at the crossing point, in the liminal state,
there we will meet Christ, who is coming, coming soon. Listen to the baptist's
cry and get ready for the One who hastens to Jordan's bank. For at the precise
juncture of your greatest fear and hope Christ will join you and will be with
you when you plunge beneath the water and when you rise to new life.
Thomas H. Troeger Illiff School of Theology Denver, CO
