We are on the way, but remain suspended ‘between.’
Between life and death, between heaven and hell. No one is safe and secure yet, until redemption comes to all the world. This in between place is hard to bear, full of suspense because it is suspended over the abyss, unresolved yet capable of resolution, in motion but not arrived.
The Messiah is unique because he is in the deep place. He is universal because this is the sticking place for all humans, personally and communally. This is the sticking place for the world.
The Spirit is also in the deep place, conveying God’s Wrath that will not tolerate the overthrow of truth and righteousness, of justice and goodness, and thus exposing the hidden and secret chambers, crevices, and chasms of our resistance. But the Spirit is also taking us into depths, helping us in depths, reversing us so that we can die and be reborn, torn down to be raised up. And the Spirit is in our cryings to and pleadings with God. Our sighing in the depth of heart which we cannot put into any words is the working of the Spirit within us. At the very point we feel most bereft of God, most lost to God, most unable to pray and most despairing, just here the Spirit is with us, and makes up for our lack. The Spirit does not let us drop like a stone, but takes up our cause, and prays in our stead. This accepts and reveals what and where we really are.
This is in all creatures. The soundless mourning in the whole creation finds its echo in our inability to voice our grief, and yearning, and seeking for depth however impossible it seems. The darkness is intense, just before the dawn. The Spirit holds us in this place of tension, even when we can say no more and do no more. Still the Spirit utters from our heart its broken hearted passion, finished but not giving up.
People bail out too soon. They put a limit on how far they can continue, how long they can bear and endure. But the Spirit takes us beyond this point, even from within its checkmate. The Spirit upholds us in the sticking place.
The Spirit sings our death song. The Spirit sings our longed for song of rebirth.
When the Spirit indwells and helps our deep crying to deep, we do not receive the answer, but we know we are heard. This is sufficient, for now.
The silence of God, like our silence, is resonant with the Spirit’s possibility beyond any possibility.