The Space Between

When I was a child my family and I took a lot of trips. Not like super fun vacations, but on almost a monthly basis I would either be in the car with my mom driving from our house in southeast Pennsylvania to see our family in Connecticut, or with my Dad heading to upstate New York to see his side of the family. Both drives were about 5 hours, which is a pretty long time for a little kid.

As I grew more aware of my surroundings I learned the way that we went. Well mostly I learned the way because I asked one question a lot… How much longer? Sometimes everyone’s favorite variation — Are we there yet? My highly patient parents finally just broke it down for me, and in a sneaky way forced me to do some math. And so I knew.

30 Minutes to New Jersey, 1 Hour on the New Jersey Turnpike, 1 Hour on the Garden State Parkway, 30 Min on 287, and then 2 hours on the NY Thruway if we were going to Saratoga Springs or 2 hours between the Merritt Parkway, 95, and 395 to get to my brother’s house in Connecticut.

Eventually I figured out how exit numbers worked and the number of miles and the speed we were going and would spend far too much time trying to calculate how much longer it was going to take. Especially to get out of New Jersey because, no offense to my Jersey friends, but that place is like the wild west of automobile situations. You Florida people think I4 is bad, but those 2.5 hours driving from the bottom to the top of New Jersey will get you into a much more intimate relationship with Jesus I’ll just leave it at that. New Jersey is where we always got stuck in accidents, Shore traffic, yeah we don’t go to the beach up there, we go down the shore. The trip was truly based around how much time we were going to spend in New Jersey.

New Jersey to me growing up was like this space, right smack in the middle of a trip, kind of far from home, but still super far from my destination. This space between where I was kind of stuck. Stuck wondering how much longer? And usually IM SO BORED. I hated it. Now I look back and those are some of my fondest memories. Because in that space, we didn’t have cell phones. In that space we had maybe some ok music on the radio. I mean we had disc men, (you know portable cd players) but every time you hit a bump it skipped. And roads up there are like 75% pot holes so you can imagine how that went. In that space we had each other. Uninterrupted. I had no choice but to talk to my mom. To talk to my dad. Or read a book until the sun went down. And the thing about my parents is you can’t read a book around them without being roped into a conversation about the book.

In that space, what we theologian people call “Liminal Space” which is a transition between 2 states of being I find that I had the one thing that so many people have yearned for their entire lives. I had my family.

Liminal space. A transition between 2 states of being. When you’ve left where you were, but you aren’t quite where you’re going yet. It kind of sounds like the concept for an album from the 70s psychedelic rock era or something. It’s one of the most common elements of our human experience, and it’s one of the more pervasive themes in the story of the Bible.

The Ascension of Christ

So I don’t know if you know this, but today is a special Sunday in the life of the Church. It’s kind of an often overlooked week, but this is the week that we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God. And this day marked the beginning of a transition time for Jesus’s followers. Until this day they had spent the last 3 years or so with Jesus. Following him and learning from him. And then, when Jesus was crucified and lay in the grave for 3 days they were lost. Do you remember the story? They all just like hung out in Jerusalem for Friday and Saturday, grieving and then bam, Jesus was back! And for 40 days they travelled with Jesus and learned more from him and his street cred had gone through the roof because he was dead and now he’s alive. And the disciples are all like yes, this must be it. This must be how the world is going to be fixed. And then we get this story from the very front end of the book of Acts.

The New Revised Standard Version The Promise of the Holy Spirit

1 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 2 until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So we have the author, Luke, tying this book to the Gospel of Luke. This is kind of his signature and the link between the two volumes. Followed by some recap right, like hey Theo, previously on the Chronicles of Jesus and his people this is what happened. Jesus was here, he did stuff that was amazing that proved he was the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God and when he had all of his followers on board he said STAY in Jerusalem, WAIT for what’s coming to you. The Holy Spirit is coming to you.

Now to us looking back that sounds reasonable. We might kind of remember what happens soon and what that all means. But the disciples… not so much. They are really trying to understand what’s happening but their response is a little… well off.

The New Revised Standard Version The Ascension of Jesus

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”

HOW MUCH LONGER JESUS? ARE WE THERE YET? All of a sudden Jesus is like a parent on a 5 hour road trip. Jesus are we there yet? When will we get there. I’m hungry. I have to pee. Peter wont stop poking me. Ew what smells.

Ok we laugh, but seriously this is all the disciples have the capacity to see. The restoration of Israel has been the sought after hope and dream of every Israelite for like 500 years at this point. They been clobbered, subjugated, oppressed, taxed, and used by empire after empire, each one more vile than the last. All they want its to finally breath again but they can’t catch a break. Every leader just fails them and sells out to Rome, every uprising comes with harsher punishment. So yes, all they want is to get there. To get out of this place where the promises of God seem so far away from their current reality.

So they ask: How long? Are we there yet? Is their relief in sight. Are you going to save us sir?

The implications are vast. Israel was promised to be the nation who would bless the world. Right now Israel is just the joke of the Roman Empire. A nowhere place filled with nobodies. They could be wiped off the earth and no one else in the empire would bat an eye. Pretty far off from being the nation who would save the world right?

So Jesus come now, do it. Restore the kingdom, give us the power to do what you said we would do.

Jesus’s response?: Not what they expected...

The New Revised Standard Version The Ascension of Jesus

7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

They are like Jesus are we there yet? And Jesus is like you’re not allowed to know when we’ll be there. But come on over here, time for you to drive. You’re going to restore the kingdom for me. With my power.. (but that’s for next week). And while they are all trying to figure out what the heck just happened the story continues:

The New Revised Standard Version The Ascension of Jesus

9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

As Jesus departs the disciples, and they gaze up to where he came from, a familiar scene plays out. You may remember that at the tomb of Jesus, on Easter morning, two men in white robes appeared and asked “Woman, why do you look for the living among the dead?”

That account which signaled the transition from Jesus’s death to Jesus’s resurrection, also written by our author Luke is echoed here. And now it signals another major shift. From Jesus’s resurrection to Jesus’s enthronement as the Lord of creation, the one who “sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From thence he shall come...”

So why are you looking up there. We aren’t there yet. Keep your eyes on the road Peter, John.

Remember Jesus’s words… Stay in Jerusalem, Wait for the promise.

Upside Down Expectations

The disciples wanted Jesus to use his power to take back and reestablish Israel. To become the King. What Jesus did was he became the king of the entire world, and he promised his disciples that they would be his witnesses, the carriers of his blessing, his stewards on earth. They would be the hands that built and restored the Kingdom, with his power that was coming.

The disciples wanted to be there already. Jesus wanted them to sit together, and to sit with him and enjoy the ride.

Jesus could have said yup! Let go take the palace! We’ll be royalty by the end of the night. Rather, he established a space. A space between the world they were leaving behind and the kingdom to come. In fact he created a space between leaving them and truly equipping them to go and build the kingdom. Space for them to just… be. Space for them to be a family. Space for them to pray. Space for them to replace Judas as an apostle. Space for them to process. Space for them to prepare for the road ahead. Space for them to stop and be in relationship with one another and with the God they served.

Jesus gave the disciples the gift of liminal space, so that they could get their bearings straight. To realign and work through all of the shattered expectations that they had about what the world would look like after Jesus completed his mission. To reassess their place in all of this. To feel the tension.

And I think that there is great value and comfort in this detail of the story that we often forget. We are like Easter is awesome resurrection of Jesus wow so cool. And then we celebrate the power of Pentecost (which is next week) when the Holy Spirit came and the disciples are given incredible power to perform miraculous acts. But right here in this little space, Jesus is gone and the Holy Spirit hasn’t come. The disciples aren’t where they were - Jesus is gone - But they also aren’t where they are going.

And how true is this of most of our lives most of the time. I’m kind of operating in like 4 simultaneous liminal spaces right now. The most obvious one being that we have a baby on the way and theres pretty much nothing I can do but wait and buy my wife snacks. I’m in between training for races, I’m about to be in between semesters, I’m in between interviews with committees on ordained ministry. Half of the time I’m just like… I feel like I’m supposed to be doing something but what can I do. What am I supposed to do with these (hands). I’m stuck in New Jersey, Stuck in Jerusalem.

Our lives are so future and goal oriented that when there is nothing that we can do to force things along, to get where we are going or where we think we should be any faster we lose our minds. We’ve been led to believe that times like that are a waste. That the space between is where we lose momentum, we get passed by, we fail.

But what if, what if liminal spaces like that are actually God’s prescription for our hurried lives. For our one sided, winner takes all, self made, goal oriented, if you ain’t first you’re last way of viewing life. What if those spaces are where real, meaningful work gets done?

Blackberry Pie Psychology

My grandma, the one who lived up in upstate New York loved to bake. I’m a weird person and I’m not really into desserts, but she made really good blackberry pie. Every summer I’d go on one of those long road trips up to her house. And a few days out of the 2 weeks I spent there we would get into the car and we would drive up into the Adirondak Mountains and she would pull the car off the road. And we would get out, and she would lead me into the woods, passing several “No Trespassing” signs on our way in. And for hours we would just find a pick wild blackberries. And we would talk. About tennis. About my dad when he was a kid. About Harry Potter, and horse track racing, and the crazy stuff Uncle Earl did when they were kids.

The funny thing is that most of the time, I didn’t want to go trespassing for blackberries when we got in the car, but I knew that it meant there was pie coming. But the other funny thing is, I also don’t have a single memory of actually eating that pie. But I remember hiking through those woods. Vividly. I remember her laugh. Her deep excitement when we found a good spot.

Picking berries was just the space between playing video games and eating pie. But it’s the only space I remember.

I think the disciples remembered these 10 days between when Jesus left and when they embarked on the world changing mission of the Church that formally began on Pentecost. They used their hands to hold on to one another, they used their hands to hold on to God in prayer.

And I think if we are honest, we are in this space now. As a global community, we’ve been asking is it time? are we there yet? and as we live each day for the day that the CDC says go live maskless and free we forget to live in this moment where we are right now.

As individuals we are in our own space between. I don’t know what that looks like for you right now. But I do know that time spent obsessing about where you want to be is time that you miss out on doing what it is you are meant to do right now.

How have you been neglecting your family? your friends? your God? Have you been so busy trying to manufacture something to do with your hands that you’ve forgotten to hold on to those around you? To hold onto your church?

The reality is that, New Jersey - Jerusalem - Trespassing in the blackberry fields - these are the places where God does some of his best work. Where he binds us together through the shared experience of just being and waiting and longing for the Kingdom to be Restored. And the blessing is that we know deep down that the Kingdom has a King, and that the king is coming.

So, How much longer? I don’t know. Are we there yet? No, but imagine what can we do together while we wait.