The In Between Times

This morning we celebrated the Liturgy for Holy Saturday.  Several people asked me to write down my comments from that service, so here they are.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem there is anything to celebrate today.  There is neither the “thrill of victory” (Easter), nor the “agony of defeat” (Good Friday).  Why have a service today?

If we look a little closer, though, we see today has a lot to teach us, because most of our life is not lived at the extremes of victory or defeat.  Most of our life is lived in between the two; times when it seems like nothing is happening, or if something is happening, we’re not sure what.  We have to wait and see.  We have to wait and see how things will turn out.

It’s in the “in between” times that we need to learn to be faithful; to trust in God even when it seems like nothing is happening, when our lives are just the same old thing over and over again.  To trust in God while we wait, wait for graduation, wait to see what college will accept us, wait to see how a relationship will develop, wait for a child to be born, wait to see how a medical prognosis will turn out, wait to see wait will become of a tragedy.  This is the thick and thin of real life, of everyday life, and if we are not faithful in these times, we are not faithful at all.

Today we heard of Joseph of Arimathea.  We are told that he was a secret Christian, and that he was rich.  We can understand why he was secret about his faith:  as one who had so much, he had a lot to lose.  But it is in this in between time that he must stand up and be counted, and he does.

He goes to Pilate and risks everything, asking for the body of Jesus.  In the middle of the great crowds that were surely watching, he indisputably declares his loyalty by tenderly carrying the body of Jesus to his tomb.

Nicodemus does the same.   When we first meet him, he comes to Jesus by the night.  He too has a lot to lose.  If he declared loyalty to Jesus, he would lose respect, social Standing, his job, and in the wake of Jesus’ death, potentially even his life. 

And yet it is in the in between time that he must stand up and be counted, and he does.  Now it is by day that he also accompanies Joseph, carrying the spices need to anoint Jesus’ body for burial.  There will be no more questioning where his sympathies and loyalties lie.

We too must make our stand in the in between times.  We too must decide whether will be counted as among Christ’s faithful follower, and whether others can count on us.  We too must decide whether we will be present to God in the thick and thin of our everyday lives—which, despite the great promises made to us by preachers preaching success and prosperity (and it is not just the “prosperity gospelers” who preach this), are nothing so much as they are ordinary and mundane.

And finally, we must decide whether in these times we will be present to one another as well.  While we are waiting for something, anything to happen, can we still sit and be present right now with those who need us? 

I mentioned last Sunday how many of people are suffering, and suffering more deeply than we might expect.  Suffering is harder to see in the in between times, but believe me, it is very much there.  There are people sitting right here today whose hearts are breaking with the burden of sorrow they are carrying.   Will you stand up and be counted, when it would be so easy to do something else, something more productive, than simply sitting with someone waiting, dwelling no so much here or there but caught with them somewhere in between?

Most of our world is far too busy, far too caught up in making things happen, to dwell with us where we dwell today.  And that is sad, because it is often here that God calls us to dwell, with him, with others, often those who need us most.

Comments

[jan]

Nice sermon, Father Rob.

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