Brick Walls and Prophetic Greetings

​When Harry Potter is trying to find the platform for the train that will bring him to his new school, he faces a brick wall where Platform 9 3/4 should be. Mrs. Weasley, the mother of students who have made this trip before, gives him advice. She encourages him to run right toward the platform  promising that it will yield when he gets to it. 
Harry had to trust the message, that what was on the other side of that brick wall, was the promise of what he’d only been told was waiting for him.  
Running towards a brick wall required courage to leave behind the familiar.
Running towards a brick wall required hope for his own future.
Running towards a brick wall required imagination to try a new thing.
Running towards a brick wall required love shared with him.
Running towards a brick wall required trust that what was told to him was in fact true behind the wall. 
If it weren't for Mrs. Weasley's prophetic greeting and the assurance of hope, Harry may have never made it to Hogwarts.

Thresholds, physically, spiritually, and metaphorically, are places of crossing over, encounter and transition – between inside and outside, the known and unknown, here and there, and then and yet to come.   The front porch is the threshold that is at the edge of inside, the common ground of outsiders and insiders.  The front porch of a church serves as a prophetic greeting to the  community. 

Thresholds have moved further and further in our neighboring community.  No longer the sanctuary doors, not even the front doors of our church building...but to the sidewalk, the street, the top of the hill. But, the front doors of our church are most often the first threshold most people encounter.  The threshold of our own church home may feel comfortably familiar and surprisingly unfamiliar, recognizable and also unrecognizable to us upon return from the last time we spent time within.  The front doors of our church may also feel like a brick wall to someone courageously crossing our threshold for the first time. 

What can we do to make our threshold more permeable?  (bricks are technically porous after all)
What prophetic greeting are we proclaiming to our neighbors to give them a hopeful reason to step off the sidewalk?   What assurance of hope are we giving someone looking for the way into a safe, welcoming, and accepting space.   But even more importantly, does it match who we truly are beyond the threshold of our own church doors?  Are we are own worst brick wall or are we truly speaking a prophetic greeting to our neighbors that yields to their need for inclusion, acceptance, and support? 

Here are some of the Prophetic Greetings our NextGen group has brainstormed over time: 
Trans Youth Safe Here
They is a Beautiful Pronoun for God
Love is God’s Orientation
God is too Big for one Religion
Diversity Equity and Inclusion Practiced Here
​We Stand with our (Jewish, Muslim, AAPI, BIPOIC…) Siblings
People Exactly Like You are Welcome Here
We Welcome Your… (pronouns, expression of identity, doubts, opinions, perspectives, stories, etc.)
Church is a Practice, Unconditional Love and Justice is the point
​Kindness is a Verb

God who dwells with us, You command us to love out neighbors. We know You rejoice when we meet our neighbors where they are. We give thanks in advance for each and every stranger, neighbor, friend, and loved one, who has the courage to approach the threshold of our church home.  Remind us that all people, known and to be known, are made in Your image. Valued and Beloved. Guide us in being a reflection of Your extravagant welcome, inclusive acceptance, and radical love.  May we be, on the outside, who we believe ourselves to be on the inside.  Even in the midst of great change.  Amen.