Now, But Not Yet

There’s a way that being with, being together, being present is good.

As opposed to doing without, going it alone, not being there;

Because being there can be a reminder, an experience in-and-of-itself of the Risen Lord, the Servant Body, the Living Christ.

Call it Incarnation, embodied theology, sacramental living, being the Church…

Where two or more gather together in Jesus’ name
Where the “least of these” and Jesus, their brother, wait in need
Where friendship, hospitality, the spirit of adoption and eternal homecoming meet

And, I think it’s why we are called out, gathered in and sent forth: to be and to bear the experience and the expression of Emmanuel, God with us.

That said,

What are we to make of God-at-a-distance? Those experiences of exile and separation and the wilderness in-between? The waiting times and the watching times, when no one’s there, when no one answers?

How do we relate these seasons of the human spirit to the activity of God’s Holy Spirit…

When humble prayer is bold accompaniment
When a cloud we neither touch nor see bears witness
When we are called to remember what we are not sure we know