Already, Not Yet

At the Hammond-Johnson house, we are getting some landscaping done.  Right now, it’s the backyard, which always was a bit of a jungle – an empty and not well maintained rectangle that was not real usable space for us.  But, since we finally sold our old home last year, we’ve begun making needed upgrades to our present home.  In the backyard, we’ve redone a parking space and a gate off the alley, added a storage shed, a patio area of pavers, and had the whole thing leveled and are now just awaiting sod.

Well, that’s not the only thing we’re awaiting.  Erin has, for many years now, longed for the day when she might have a pool in the backyard again, after spending many of her childhood years with one right off the back deck.  As we both work, generally speaking, for the Church, we are of limited means, but a small pool is actually not out of the question.  But, it may yet be some time – we would probably wait for the end of the season sales to start to try to get the best deal we can, which would mean another Summer without a pool in the backyard.

So, while our backyard, in a few days, will look finished up, it really won’t be, until some unknown time in the future.  Life in the Church is like that as well – not really finished yet, and not until some unknown time down the road.

We just celebrated Jesus’ ascension, and will soon celebrate the coming of the Spirit at pentecost.  Jesus’ death and resurrection earned for us a new life and a “New Jerusalem” but we’re not there yet.  Jesus’ ascension and the arrival of the Spirit show us that same thing – where he has gone, we one day hope to follow – but not yet.  “Already, and not yet” is one of the overlooked paradoxes of our Christian faith, I think.  This odd in-between time is hard to wrap our heads around.  To wit: most of us view heaven as the ultimate and final destination of our souls, but I think that’s only because that’s what it’s been for 2,000 years. Your grandparents (or even parents) might have had to memorize this answer from the Baltimore Catechism once upon a time: “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.”  But wait – isn’t that ultimate goal, as recited in the Creed every Sunday, the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come?

It feels, sometimes, as if our Church has lost that sense of expectation after all this time.  Do we, like the early apostles might have, glance up at each passing cloud and wonder, is this the one which is bringing Jesus back to us?  When will Christ come again?  Is it today?  Am I ready?  These are the sorts of things we pray over at the end of each Church year and into advent as well but this is also a perfect time to reexamine our lives and our faith.  Are you ready?  How can you be more ready?