OUR LIFE IN THE MIDDLE – Revelation 1:4-8

Today is known in the church calendar as Christ the King Sunday. It marks the end of the church year. One of our readings today is from the trial of Jesus in the Gospel of John. While it may seem out of place as we are preparing to celebrate the coming of God in Christ in Advent and Christmas, its presence is important. We need to be reminded that the life of Christ was not just one of a new beginning that started in the manger in Bethlehem but that the trial and subsequent death of Christ on the cross also led to a new beginning.    But what makes these two beginnings meaningful is what happened in the middle.

We are a people who love to be reminded of the birth of Jesus Christ because it speaks to us of hope, peace, joy, and love.  But to be reminded of Christ’s death at this time of year as the trees lose their leaves and we get ready for the coming winter is a good thing because it speaks to us of a new hope, peace, joy, and love. Just as the birth in Bethlehem marks the beginning of a new earthly life and relationship with God, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus marks the new beginning a life eternal and a continued relationship with God that goes beyond what anyone had ever imagined possible. But it still loses its real significance when we forget that the journey from one beginning to the next is taken in the middle.

All of life is truly lived in the middle, is it not?  Each of us has a moment of birth and each one of us will have a moment of death. But what will be remembered or needs to be remembered even more is what we make of this life in the middle. For it is the middle that builds and strengthens and confirms our faith and our commitment to the way and will of God and it is that that brings us to that moment when we pass from this world to the next.

We focus so much of our attention on the beginning and ending events in the earthly life of Christ, but it is Christ’s life in the middle that really gives meaning to everything that happens at the beginning and at the end.  It is all the encounters Jesus had with people as he journeyed through the land, and it is all the lessons he imparted through different situations that shaped and gave meaning to his coming into this world and his departure from this world.  Taken in isolation, the moment of his birth would just stand as a fact in history just as any other fact. His death would just stand as a statistic recorded in a book of ancient writings.  His resurrection might not have even made an impact if not for the witness of those first believers.  If all Jesus were remembered for was being born and dying, his story would be not unlike the story of anyone else who walked the earth.

What gives real meaning to his life and his death and even his resurrection is the life he lived in the middle – the life he shared with those who were living their middles with him.  And as much as the coming season of Advent and Christmas may give us warm fuzzies and fill us with a sense of hope and mystery; as much as our reflection on the crucifixion of Christ may give us shudders as we reflect on the cruelty of that act; it is only as we live our lives between and around these events that we will find real meaning and purpose.

Our second reading today comes to us from the book of Revelation.  It stands in the genre of literature known as Apocalyptic which means literature that speaks of a future time or end time.  It paints a picture of what the future will be for the people of God and the world in general. But the Revelation of John is different in that it does not just speak of future things; it also speaks about the present. John ties together present and future as he addresses the seven churches in Asia.  He does this because he knows that while the people in the churches have a future hope that they are looking for and preparing to receive, they also need to be fully alive in the present time.  They cannot simply sit back and wait for the second coming of Jesus to put all things right. They need to recognize their place as believers in their time and to witness to the message of God in Christ living their life in the middle.

Their middle is like our middle; physically, we are living between our birth and our death, but we are also spiritually living – like them - in the time between the resurrection of Jesus and the second coming. They faced the daily, weekly, and even yearly challenges of life as Christians expecting the coming of the Lord. Perhaps they lived with even more expectation as the last words of Christ seemed to herald a quick return. But even they were beginning to become weary of waiting.  As humans we can only hold our excitement for so long. Have you ever been part of a surprise party? Gathering for the event in order to surprise someone you know well can be a wonderful thing but if the person gets delayed for too long, the excitement can begin to fade, and we can even lose interest.

John knew that life had lost its excitement for the people in the churches. The expectation of Christ’s return was so anticipated that they were on high alert. But time had been passing and nothing had happened. How to keep the excitement going?

All John could do was to encourage them to keep the faith, to keep believing that their commitment to God in Christ was not in vain. He encouraged them to maintain their hope for Christ’s return by reminding them that the love of God in Christ was ever there. He encouraged them by reminding them that they were a part of God’s kingdom and that even though the time seemed long, they should not lose hope.  Using the Greek alphabet – which they all would be familiar with – he reminds them that as the Alpha stands at the beginning of the alphabet and Omega stands at the end, so Jesus who is the very creative Word of God from the beginning of time is also the same Word of God that will be there at the end.  The life they lived in their middle was bookended by God Himself in Jesus Christ.  It was for them to live their lives in the middle assured that the same God who began all things would be there at the end of all things. They were assured that the same God who appeared in this latter time as a child in Bethlehem living, teaching, and healing was the same God who would come again.

He is the Alpha and the Omega for us; he is the beginning and the end, but he is also the middle. He will be with us through it all so that we can live our lives now in the middle of our time with hope and strength and grace!

AMEN.