Living in Between

Living in Between

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope." Romans 15.13

As a young boy growing up in the 1950s, Christmas night was always one of the most tantalising and frustrating. It was so near to Christmas day and yet not Christmas Day. The anticipation was amplified by the fact that Christmas Day is my birthday as well.

And although the presents were only going to be a torch and a dinky toy and a Rupert Annual – all labelled ‘for birthday and Christmas’ – the wait was nearly unbearable,

Throughout those dark December Advent days, I felt like the children in CS Lewis’s Narnia, where it was always winter but never Christmas. I would fall asleep on Christmas night, exhausted by hope.

Christians are arguably always caught up in the 'in-between times'. They never arrive. It is in the nature of our faith. And although we would sometimes like to know our future, it is better that we should not know. We live always in hope. The Bible tells us all we need to know about the future and more importantly, about living 'in between'.

First there was the time between the Garden of Eden and the giving of the Law to Moses.

Then, between the giving of the Law and the coming of the Messiah, the fulfilment of the Law.

And for the early disciples there was the wait between the events of Holy Week, and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, and the birth of the church.

And some years after Pentecost, Paul is teaching that the Church is still 'in between'. The Saviour who had come, would come again.

So here we are on an 'in-between' Sunday – an Advent, waiting-in-hope Sunday. We have closed the curtain on the annual drama of the liturgical year, and start again, preparing, awaiting, the long-expected Jesus.

Traditionally in Advent, we consider the last things: heaven, hell, judgement and the return of Christ. It is heavy stuff. But it is part of a bigger theological picture.

The revelation of God in Trinity has had particular foci - historical events - over the past five thousand years.

But the work of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, from the point of view of the final return of Christ, bringing in the kingdom described in Isaiah’s prophecy this morning; this work of God has been evident, retroactively if you like, throughout all of history.

So before the Law was itemised on Mt Sinai, men and women still had consciences, and societies drew up their own laws. St Paul talks about this in the opening chapters of his letter to the Romans.

And before the saving work of Christ's passion, men and women were still saved through faith in a merciful God. The letter to the Hebrews makes this clear.

And before the day of Pentecost, God's Holy Spirit was at work through prophets and kings, through harlots and pagan dictators. Scripture bears witness to it.

Now on this second Sunday in Advent, in the 2004th Year of Our Lord, we are poised between that first coming of Christ nearly 2000 years ago, and the end of the world, or our own death, whichever comes sooner.

The early Christians expected Christ’s return before their own deaths – an issue which Paul addresses in his letter to the Thessalonians. Most modern Christians only vaguely comprehend or expect the second coming of Christ – we say it in the creed each week, but have no idea how it might actually happen.

Well, not to worry. We will see how events unfold, either while we are here on earth as part of the church militant, or in heaven as part of the church triumphant.

But before that time, retroactively if you like, the coming kingdom of God, is the ideal which must empower our Christian living, ‘in between’. We struggle to fulfil the vision of Isaiah when, ‘They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.’

This is what we mean every time we pray, as we will this morning: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven."

This was the objective of Adam and Eve as they were cursed and expelled from the garden. For they would not re-enter the kingdom of heaven through the garden gate, guarded by the angel with the flaming sword. They would only move towards paradise regained through the passion of Christ and with the help of the Holy Spirit at work in the Church.

These ‘in-between times’ have always been as potent as the special events that sandwich them. Becoming is every bit as important as arriving. All of our life, as human beings, is caught up with 'in between', which is one reason that we are so preoccupied with the passing of time.

When we are young we cannot wait till the next event. When we are old, the years shoot by, and we wait with some apprehension for the one and only event left for us.

But at whatever stage we are in our life’s journey, a consistent theme throughout Scripture is to live as if life matters; to make our life count for God and for others. In the words of our Lord: "I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly."

And a consistent theme in the teaching of the Apostles, is that we must live in love-driven hope. So in the verse following our text today, Paul prays that God, the giver of hope, will grant us a spirit of unity as we follow Christ.

Peter says when he deals with this subject in his epistle, that living this way will cover a multitude of sins. Sin is that destructive agent at work in our life and in our world. It is trapped in the 'in between' time with us.

So John the Baptist in today’s Gospel calls us to repent of sin, to turn from its self-centred destructive force, and to see that the kingdom of heaven is near – although it is not yet here, in between, we must live as citizens of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of love. The judgement theme of Advent, is a judgement of love. This is the touchstone of our Christian living.

A policeman stops a man driving the wrong way up a one way street. "Didn't you see the arrows?" he asks. The driver replies "I didn't even see the Indians!"

What is important about living in the in between time, is seeing the arrows. It is knowing where we have come from and where we are heading. Of course we don't always get it right, which is why we need the constant dialogue of prayer with God and engagement with his Word and with each other. As Paul says in today’s epistle, ‘that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.’

So it is the past and the future, the coming of Christ, whose power is present now, that draws us on, to the time when there will be no more 'in between'; to the eternity of God.

Meanwhile, we are the 'becoming' ones, always growing and moving on. I'm reminded of that now rather quaint description of this process as it is described in the 1920s children's story The Velveteen Rabbit by Marjory Williams:

"The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.
"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." (Heinemann 1989 (1922))

In the 'in between' we are becoming - drawing closer to Christ personally, and trying to shape our society on his coming kingdom principles of justice and mercy.

Christian hope is the ability to hear the music of the future.
Christian faith is the courage to dance to it in the present.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope."