For the Times In-between

They stopped looking up toward heaven and looked at each other, and got going with the commission given to them: ...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

In other words, they (and we) are to go to the places close to home, to the familiar territories and also the prickly places where we don't want to go or they don't want to have us be, and everywhere else also.

No person or place is left out of the scope of Jesus' commission given to us.

Not even the places we don't want to go and the people whom we we don't want to see.

These are truly overwhelming words, and yet the disciples did not shrink from tackling the work.

One observer in the Third century was so impressed by Christians and their way of life that he wrote down this description:

Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of humanity by country or language or customs.

They do not separate themselves into cities of their own; they use no special language; nor do they follow an eccentric way of life.

Their doctrine, unlike that of many religious movements, is not based on human ideas of philosophy.

Although they live in Greek and barbarian cities and follow the usual customs of those cities, they never cease to witness to the reality of another city in which they live.

They share everything as citizens, yet endure everything as aliens.

Every land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land.

They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not expose their unwanted infants to the elements.

They share their board with each other, but not their marriage beds.

They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.

They obey the laws of the land but in their own lives they go far beyond the law's requirements.

They love all people, and by all people are persecuted.

They are put to death, and yet they are brought to life.

They are poor, and yet they make many rich; they are completely destitute, and yet enjoy complete abundance.

They are dishonored, and in their dishonor are glorified; they are reviled and yet they bless.

Those who hate them find it impossible to justify their hatred.

What the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world.

These are in in-between times

We are living in that space and time between Jesus' resurrection and our own.

The question is: what should we be doing with this time?

An error of a hundred years ago was called the “social gospel,” which reduced the message of Jesus and the work of the church to caring for one another.

But the church is more than another social service agency, one that happens to pray.

It is first of all the gathering of those who hear a promise of Jesus and know that they need to hear it again and again in order that it become the center point of their lives.

Then it is the gathering of those who know that they need to encourage one another in this promise, and then need to live like they know that the promise is true, and invite others into the covenant community.

And a part of that living is refusing to let the brokenness of this world and all of its problems be the final word.

With the promise of the completeness of heaven guiding us, we say and do the things now that point out the problems, and work in ways that will be a sample of that completed kingdom of God.

With all of that framework in place, I remember writing a paper in seminary where I went through the books of the Old Testament prophets and listed all the ways in which they spoke of the problems of their society; the economic oppression of the widow and orphan, the selling of justice to the highest bidder, the mistreatment of the sojourner, the lack of hospitality to the stranger.

Someone else did it more dramatically: he used scissors and cut out the passages referring to these things, and quickly discovered that the Bible literally fell apart when he was done cutting.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

How so? Let's imagine a scenario:

A man spoke to an attractive woman, “Look, I really like you; let's stop by my apartment.”

She replied, “No, I don't think we're ready for that; we need to spend lots of time together first.”

“Have I said something wrong? he asked.

“No, it is just that I am not going to your apartment,” she replied.

“Why?”

“Well, because I'm a Lutheran.”

“What is that?”

“A kind of Christian,” she responded quickly.

“And what is that?”

“A Christian is one who believes that some things are right and others are wrong, that God has plans for us which we ought not violate.”

And the man was so surprised, never having had anyone say”no” in a society where everyone is expected to say yes to anything and everybody, that he asked if he could go with her to this Lutheran place called church to hear and see some more. And he did.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

One student said to another, “I've been watching you. You're different.”

“What do you mean by different?” she asked in surprise.

“I mean, in class you show respect for others.

When you speak, I can tell that you care about what they think and say and do.

I've asked myself, Why? What makes him different? I don't know, so I thought I'd ask you myself.”

And she told the fellow student about their high-school Sunday group and how they have such thoughtful discussions, and what the Christian faith means in her life...and invited the fellow student to come with her next week.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn lived because of a witness made to him.

He was a prisoner in the Russian gulag, and had finally had enough and was ready to die.

He was sick and so very tired.

He simply laid down his shovel and sat down and waited for the blow from the soldier that was sure to come, and end his misery.

An older prisoner shuffled over to him, and sat beside him for a moment.

He spoke not a word, but with a stick scratched the sign of the cross in the dirt in front of them.

He got up and shuffled away.

Solzhenitsyn stared at that cross, and then got up wearily and went back to work.

Christ was not done with him yet, he realized because of that old man's wordless witness, and Christ has already done the great things that we need to know.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

So we would not wish to be in such difficult circumstances, but in our daily lives there will arise the opportunities to say and do, to be Christ's witnesses; perhaps with many words, perhaps with few words, or with no words at all.

We have much to do in this in-between time, because Christ is risen,

He is risen indeed. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.