{"id":1340,"date":"2024-04-15T14:29:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T18:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimlife\/?p=1340"},"modified":"2024-04-15T21:02:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T01:02:03","slug":"get-thee-behind-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimlife\/2024\/04\/get-thee-behind-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Thee Behind Me!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

For generations, people quoted the Bible for non-religious purposes, including the phrase, \u201cGet thee behind me, Satan<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 We all know what it means.<\/p>\n

Or do we?<\/h3>\n In two days I shall be on my way back to France, as mentioned in my last post<\/a>.\u00a0 While all the details are accounted for, down to a roll of toilet paper, there is always a lurking sense of uncertainty.\u00a0 \u201cWhat have I forgotten?\u201d \u00a0This feeling will only grow until I am actually on my way and there can be no going back.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n

Thresholds.<\/h3>\n \ Jesus was crossing a threshold when he rebuked Peter. \u201cDon\u2019t hold me back,\u201d he was saying.\u00a0 How many of us have hesitated at the threshold, uncertain of what lay ahead.\u00a0 Better a bird in the hand as they say.<\/p>\n Visible or invisible, thresholds are real.\u00a0 They tell us we are leaving one place and entering another.\u00a0 Not for nothing did Greeks and Romans have liminal dieties<\/a> as they are called.\u00a0 They marked the the p;hysical threshold between outside and inside, literal crossroads where choices must be made, the places where life and death intersect.<\/p>\n Uncertainty it to be expected at such times.\u00a0 If I were not uncertain, I would not be doing the spiritual work of pilgrimage.<\/p>\n

For the pilgrim, crossing the threshold means \u2018putting it behind you\u2019 quite literally.<\/h3>\n \ You leave where and who you are to take hold of where you are going as a pilgrim.\u00a0 Medieval pilgrims wore a badge to signify their new identity \u2013 the scallop shell of Saint James is the most familiar\u00a0 \u2013 but the Via Francigena has one as well which I have sewn onto my hat.<\/p>\n \ That will be who I am.<\/h3>\n \ Instead of being Fred Wooden the blogger and preacher, I will be Fred Wooden the pilgrim.\u00a0 Along the path in France I will introduce myself as a \u2018pelerin\u2019 when I seek a credentual stamp or arrive at my lodging.\u00a0 It will forgive my poor French and invite sympathy more than suspicion.<\/p>\n \ I spoke of invisible thresholds, too, which are not unreal so much as internal.\u00a0 My older son crossed one many years ago when he told us one morning that he we starting his third year at the same school. Until he began 7th grade he had never been in the same school for more than two years.\u00a0 That was a threshold for him.\u00a0 My mother called me when her mother died, saying that even at 55 it felt odd to be an orphan.\u00a0 That was a threshold for her, and one that I felt when she died.<\/p>\n

Most thresholds are like this<\/h3>\n They are not visible, but they are real.\u00a0 A reading from Archibald MacLeish, in the old Unitarian Universalist Hymnal<\/a> I grew up with, came to mind as I pondered this and my my uncertainty.<\/p>\n " \u201cThere are many who come to the frontiers between times and did not know them \u2013 who looked for the sentry box at the stone bridge, for the barricade in the pines and the declaration in two languages \u2013 the warning and opportunity to turn.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sometimes we only realize we have crossed a threshold long after we have crossed a threshold.\u00a0 There was not moment when we say, \u201cget the bhind me.\u201d<\/p>\n A pilgrim is one who wants to recognize thresholds, places in life where we can say, \u201cget thee behind me,\u201d and move on.\u00a0 Our pilgrim journeys train us to see them coming, and meet the thresholds of life head on.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the theory at least.<\/h3>\n** ** Even pilgrims miss some thresholds, though.\u00a0 That is why we go on more pilgrimages. So off I go once again, to greet each bed as a welcome home for the night and leave the next day, saying \u201cget the behind me,\u201d as I press on.<\/p>\n ** Note: I may not be able to add to this blog for a time because I will be in the French countryside. However, I may post notes on my facebook page along the way.\u00a0 You can find me at this address:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/fred.wooden.5<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ** **For generations, people quoted the Bible for non-religious purposes, including the phrase, \u201cGet thee behind me, Satan.\u201d\u00a0 We all know what it means. Or do we? In two days I shall be on my way back to France, as mentioned in my last post.\u00a0 While all the details are accounted for, down to a roll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4842,"featured_media":48,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGet Thee Behind Me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crossing thresholds is hard, but there comes a time when we must, saying, "Get thee mehiond me." 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