Once there was a beginning to time and creation; at some time there will be a culmination of God’s purposes in his creation.
But – in between the beginning and the end, there are many different moments.
At any moment in our world –
- someone is crying and someone is laughing;
- someone is shouting and someone is whispering;
- someone is rejoicing and someone is mourning;
- someone is finding and someone is losing;
- someone is being born and someone is dying.
In today’s gospel reading we come to a specific moment – a moment which hangs between life and death.
It is a moment that Jesus deliberately prolongs.
It is a moment where some cry, some hope, some believe and some criticize.
It is a moment of waiting between death and resurrection.
It is a moment in which God is teaching us something about what it is like to live in in-between times, and what to do in those in-between times.
We know that there are many beautiful and good things about our world.
We also live with the reality that this is a fallen world, and that many things about human existence are broken and distorted.
In scripture we read of God’s promise that one day everything will be put right and we will be whole again.
But – until that day – we live in in-between times.
We wait for the scars and the wounds that we carry around to be completely healed – but, as we wait, we need to ask ourselves what we can do to facilitate that process of healing.
As Jesus approaches Lazarus’ tomb, we realize that this is an in-between time for him – Jesus is at a moment between life and death.
Even though Jesus will rise again – just as he restores his friend to life – the pain and the suffering and the dying that he will choose to endure for our sakes is not negated.
And – one of the things Jesus does in this in-between time is to weep – in this in-between time there are tears for us too!
God’s people can be ridiculed and persecuted in the in-between time.
As a result of their unwillingness to believe, or to commit, or simply to act, God’s people can, so easily, descend into the realm of self-destructive antagonism.
But – there is hope in the in-between times.
There is hope because God himself is the one who walks with us through all of those difficult and challenging moments.
God himself is with us – God himself is weeping, and working, and hoping that we will finally get the message and journey with him.
In the opening of Paul’s letters to the churches in Corinth, he addresses his words to all the saints within those communities of faith.
Paul was not writing just to the ‘super-holy’ – he was writing to everyone who had accepted the Christian way of life, and who committed themselves to living according to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
We – like all the saints who have gone before – are journeying through an in-between time where there are tears, where there is work, and where there are hopes.
And, in this in-between time –
- someone is crying and someone is laughing;
- someone is shouting and someone is whispering;
- someone is rejoicing and someone is mourning;
- someone is finding and someone is losing;
- someone is being born and someone is dying.
As committed followers of Christ we are called at any moment –
- not to give up;
- to keep going;
- to hang on;
- to rejoice.
No matter what we see and experience in this world – we need to remember that Jesus will come again – he will come back for us!
At that moment –
- God’s voice will beckon us into his living presence;
- our tears will be wiped away;
- our work will be done;
- our hopes will be fulfilled.
At any moment we need to be ready to join with the whole Communion of Saints and rejoice in our wholeness, our healing, and the profound joy of being home with God, our Lord and Father.
Amen.
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