In the Borderlands, Grace!

These are the strange 
moments or places where the presumed rules, beliefs, certainties (perhaps hopes or 
expectations?) seem to be missing or turned upside down. Such are places where we feel 
fearful or confused, grieving or lost, where some other reality penetrates life and 
overwhelms us. They may be places where we feel bored, hopeless, or just have to endure 
with resigned neutrality. This borderland is the place where much life is lived and where 
growth and transformation often happen – much of it forced upon us in this strange land. 
There are the specific times like a long drive to a holiday destination. Feeling tired or 
stressed from life and just wanting to sit and relax in some enchanting place, we drive 
hours to get there. The time in the car is often felt as wasted and frustrating. Can’t we just 
‘beam me up Scotty?’ Then I wonder if the time in the car is the transformative space that 
provides time and distance from ordinary life and allows me to engage more fully in the 
holiday time? There are also periods of life that may seem mundane, an endless cycle of 
routine that seems to go nowhere. Yet this is the milieu of life. There are many such times 
and spaces in my life that I tend to write off as wasted time but when I reflect on these 
moments they are often filled with unique possibility. These are the places where life is or 
can be lived. These are places of wonder and pausing to experience the sacred and holy in 
my midst. For example, on our walk this morning we stopped to look at the black snake 
by the side of the path sunning itself. There was a family of ducks swimming in the creek. 
Cockatoos, magpies, and a multitude of other birds squawked and sang through the creek 
valley. Lizards scurried of the path and ants and insects went about their busy work. 
Daisies are in full bloom, as are the bottle brush. The walk was filled with wonder and 
beauty and was thoughtful pondering. This walk was a gift filled with wonder and grace. 
Once upon a time such a walk for a walk’s sake, would have seemed a ludicrous waste of 
time. Now it is a space of wonder, reflection, prayer and of being. It is filled with the holy 
and sacred, the presence of God. The borderlands are where God is often encountered in 
the unexpected, the simple, the beautiful and the wondrous. 
Not all places are life-giving in this way. I have walked through valleys shadowed by 
grief and pain, where death or fear looms large and overwhelms. Being thrust into these 
places is never easy nor one I would choose to venture if given the option. Whether it is 
the place of my own life or where I am called to enter with another, to walk with them into 
uncertainty and chaos, it is a borderland that is hard. These betwixt and between places 
are often places of waiting, waiting for the grief and pain to subside and some measure of 
new reality to unfold and new life to ‘miraculously’ embrace us. Sometimes it is the 
waiting for news, or healing or even the threatened, feared outcome to emerge. These may 
be times to endure, hard places of life that seem to have little, if any meaning and only 
present pain. We may one day look back and recognise moments of grace imbued within 
the moments of darkness. We may return to this betwixt and between place wishing to 
reverse the outcome but never-the-less cognisant that we somehow survived and more than 
that. We lived and through the painful reality we learned to see more deeply, to become 
aware of life and the precious gift that it is. Perhaps we have been transformed in this dark 
borderland place, a crucible of death and resurrection in our life?
This week we read two passages. The first (Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7) speaks into the betwixt 
and between places of Jewish exiles in the 6th century BCE. The Babylonian armies 
invaded Jerusalem and finally broke through the wall. They razed the city, destroyed the 
Temple, and took many leading people into exile to Babylon. There the people grieved in 
their lost, confused, powerless state of exile in a foreign land. Into this god-forsaken place 
and wilderness, the prophets, including Jeremiah, spoke words of hope and transformation. 
Jeremiah tells the people to live! They are to live, to take houses, build new lives, have 
children and be a light of grace into this dark world in which they live. It was through the 
borderland place of exile that the Jewish people encountered a deep transformation in 
world view and faith. It was during this time that Israel’s understanding of a monotheistic 
God (one God rather than many through the surrounding nations) evolved. Many of the 
writings of the Old Testament – especially the first 5 books – were written in their current 
form at this time. The borderland place of exile was a crucible of new life, transformation,
and deeper faith.
The Gospel reading (Luke 17:11-19) begins by saying that on his way to Jerusalem, 
Jesus was passing through the region between Samaria and Galilee. This was the 
borderlands between two nations where many Jews refused to journey. It was a place 
where the despised enemy, the Samaritans, lived. Jews would not venture through this land 
but go around it. For whatever reason, Jesus is in this borderland place, and he encounters 
ten lepers, people with a skin condition that could vary from a mild allergy to something 
very serious. They called out to him, and he told them to go and show themselves to the 
priest – a requirement to prove they were now clean and could re-enter society. The ten
men were healed but only one returned to thank Jesus and praise God – a Samaritan. The 
one who was lowest of the low, a despised Samaritan leper proved himself the only one 
who understood the grace he received and became a model of faithful discipleship. In this
borderland place Jesus encountered those who needed grace, offered healing and one came 
back grateful and understanding, a sign of gracious discipleship and new life.
This man recognised the depth of grace he had received – freely! It was this one, who 
had traversed the depths of borderland lostness, who recognised the deep, life-giving grace 
and love of God, received it fully and offered generous worship as response of gratitude. 
He received the life and love of Jesus and understood himself as belonging to God. 
In the borderland spaces of life there is the impossible possibility of something new 
and transformative occurring. In the barren wasteland of grief or the boredom of routine 
to which we are resigned, there is the possibility of grace filtering through and the sacred 
being revealed in our midst. It is a complex space where change or growth exerts itself 
upon us through quiet reflection and awareness or the harsh reality of enforced change. It 
can be discomforting, intense and stressful until the peace of resolution, of arriving at the 
next point on the journey and finding rest and grace.