Introduction

Work or Holiday?

Pain or Pleasure?

It's pretty easy to choose between clear opposites. But how about...

Love or Peace?

Health or Family?

This is not so easy. It's great when our options are easy to choose between, yet it's when we struggle between options that we enter the realm of the divine. 

A Crazy Command

For thousands of years the Jewish nation lived in a simple world of clear cut laws defined by a long list of "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not". There was not much need to struggle with these laws as most grey areas were removed by more laws. 

Yet along came Jesus saying "I have come not to destroy the law but fulfill the law" (Matt 5:17) leaving us not in the clear cut realm of the law, but somewhere beyond and between. 

In fact when Jesus was challenged to summarize all the Bible teachings he said the following: 

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it:‘ Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

The ultimate divine commandment sits between us loving God (unseen) and loving our neighbor (seen), between loving ourselves (natural) and loving our neighbor (unnatural). 

How is it possible to do both, to exist in the zone of love, that does not simply love God but exclude our neighbor, or love our neighbor but exclude ourselves? In this BETWEEN lies the greatest calling for all Christians. 

A Surprising Between

Yet we are not happy with the seemingly vague and fuzzy "between". Knowing this answer a lawyer challenged Jesus hoping to get him to make this easier to do. 

"But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29)

So the lawyer wants to focus in on the details of "who is this neighbor I must love? Give me a clear definition so I can do it."

Jesus then tells the well known story of what we now call the "Parable of the Good Samaritan". In the story a traveller gets mugged and is left dying on the roadside. A priest and a Levite both see him but walk past ignoring him. Finally a Samaritan - considered an outcast to the Jews - helps him and cares for him. 

And so we might finish the story thinking the lesson is that our neighbor is whoever we meet in need. And this is true, but this is not the main lesson Jesus seeks to teach. 

Jesus is addressing something far more important. This is not about the object (the injured man) or the subject (the Samaritan) but about the action (the verb) that happens between them (love).   

The lawyer wanted a clear definition of the object he should love. Yet in the story Jesus not only confounds his notion of who the subject is - not him but a despised Samaritan - but he concludes with an unexpected question. 

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” (Luke 10:36)

The lawyer had asked "Who is my neighbor?" and Jesus answers with, "Who was neighborly?"

There is no subject and object, there are two neighbors. The very concept of a neighbor only exists in relation to another neighbor. This is about becoming a lover not finding the object to love. All too often we can be fixated on the needy we love rather than on the love we should be developing.

Love is enacted, experienced, created in the relationship between neighbors. Love is not about the subject or the object it is the verb that connects them. It is here, between neighbors, between God and us, that we are called experience and live the greatest command. 

There I will Meet You

So where will we find God? Where can we meet God? He tells us plainly where he would meet his people thousands of years ago. 

"I will meet with you there and talk to you from above the atonement cover BETWEEN the gold cherubim that hover over the Ark of the Covenant." (Exodus 25:22)

He would meet them BETWEEN the cherubim on the Ark. God's meeting place has always been between. 

It's like a rainbow, that beautiful symbol of God's covenant with us, a covenant between heaven and earth. 

"And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant BETWEEN God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." (Genesis 9:16)

We can't see where it starts or where it ends, yet we can see its beauty and know what it means. 

Conclusion

Jesus tells us we must be born of water and Spirit if we are to enter his Kingdom (John 3:5).

Yet just like Nicodemus we are confused by this? What is this Spirit? How does it work? How is it defined? And so Jesus answers;

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)

This is where our meeting with God takes place. This is where we will experience him. We may not know where the wind starts or where it ends - but we can certainly feel it between. 

There is something else really important about the state of between, and that is it is not a state of stasis but of motion. Whether your are between jobs or between points in a hike, this is not a place where we stand still but rather a place where we are on the move. It is no coincidence that the first century church, a church on the move, powered by the Spirit, was called the Way. 

And so even though we love our certainties, we must in faith follow our Lord to the place where he is found, between our certainties. For here our greatest clarities will be experienced. Whether it be our struggle between Faith and Works or Law and Grace or Mercy and Truth or the Seen and Unseen or God and our Neighbor. For here he meets us. For here is our journey. For here is love. For here is His between, here is our Way.

Amazing Escapes From Death

There's a TV show called "I shouldn't be alive" that tells amazing stories of people who somehow survive. Whether it is the guy left near the top of Everest for dead or two ladies stuck in the snow on the side of a cliff for over a week. All are amazing stories, and often their rescue is a miracle.

Yet when you think about it there are some amazing stories just like this in the Bible. 

The one is about this teenager who gets caught and taken as a slave. As a slave his life is worthless but then he is accused of attempted rape and thrown into prison where he awaits his death. Yet amazingly he is freed by the king and promoted to second in command of the country. Now that's not only an amazing escape, it's an incredible end. Of course this is the story of Joseph found in Genesis. 

Then there is this old guy who has some pretty powerful enemies. With some clever manipulation they organise to get him tossed into a pit - but not just any pit, one full of lions that haven't eaten for days. Then to make sure, he is left there overnight - because that's when lions like to eat. Yet amazingly the next day the lions have not touched him. Of course this is the story of Daniel. 

Then there's the story if this guy who is on a boat and there is a huge storm. In the storm he ends up overboard and sinks all the way to the bottom of the sea where the seaweed wraps around his head. He then gets swallowed by a huge fish and somehow survives inside there for three days. Amazingly the fish, obviously suffering indigestion, vomits the guy out and he washes ashore. This is the amazing story of Jonah. 

He Shouldn't Be Alive

The Bible is full of these amazing escape stories. Incredible, beyond belief stories. But there is one in particular I want to share with you. It takes place in Acts 12. 

In this story Peter ends in serious trouble. The king had been doing a purge of Christians and has already managed to catch and kill James, one of the big three apostles. And so he is looking to catch more top leaders. 

Just before the festival of unleavened bread King Herod manages to catch Peter. What a scoop. He's caught another of the big three apostles - Peter, James and John. It's Passover so he will keep him secure to have his trail and execution after Passover. That way Peter and all the other Christians can suffer longer knowing the inevitable is coming. And what a fitting mockery of their sect as a top

Jesus follower is killed at the same time as the leader was executed. 

But Herod does not want any mess ups like happened with the leader and his body vanishing. Peter is not going to vanish. To make sure of this he puts him in prison and assigns 16 soldiers to guard just him! Yeah but maybe he'll somehow beat all 16 guards. So Herod decides he must also have both hands shackled with chains. That should do it. Unless he picks the locks, surprises the 16 guards and breaks out the prison gates. Hmm...Ok, Herod assigns two guards to sit next to him 24x7. The other 14 guards are then split into two additional guard groups, an inner and outer guard.

He is on death row with no hope of escape. Chained. Two guards watching him. Locked in a cell. 7 other guards outside the cell. Another 7 guards outside those. And of course the city also has a gate that is guarded and locked at night. He's as good as dead!

Imagine how the other Christian believers felt. Fear. Sadness. Loss. Despair...BUT...

That's a big BUT. Sure they are afraid and despairing, but that is when we pray. Pray for the impossible. Yet nothing happens. Day after day during the week long festival of unleavened bread they pray. Yet God is silent. In fact it's the final night. Tomorrow he will be executed. Over a week they've prayed and it seems that if God was going to do something he would of done it already. Peter's fate is sealed! Verse 6 makes this clear...he's dead, or certainly will be!

It's quiet...dark, the chilling silence before the inevitable. Yet did you notice something incredible? Peter is asleep. How he has become like his Master.

Peter has found the peace that can only be given by God, the spirit gift of peace even in the midst of life's worst storms.

And so on the eve of his death he sleeps knowing God rules his life. 

The Miracle

And then at the last second when death seems inevitable the impossible happens. 

Wow! The chains drop off. The personal guards next to him don't see it. The prison doors open. The next two layers of guards don't see him. The city gate opens by itself. No wonder he thought it was a vision and not reality. If anyone could say it, it was Peter - "I shouldn't be alive!"

In fact it's such a shocking story even his friends can't believe it. 

You can't blame them for being shocked. This was a hopeless situation. Rhoda can't believe it. The disciples can't believe it. Peter himself can't believe it. Isn't it amazing that we pray to God for a miracle but in our minds limit what he can do. This reminds me of the verse -

The bottom line is that Peter should not be alive.

It's NOT Peter

The amazing thing about this story is it's not about Peter as much as it is about us. This is our story of escape from death. 

You see we are in the deepest and darkest prison, bound and tied to sin and facing a certain death. It's hopeless. 

We are shackled to sin and the outcome is certain - death! And so we are in a hopeless situation. Yet when all seems lost, the greatest messenger of God is sent to free us...

Jesus is sent into our dark, hopeless prison to unshackle us from sin, to lead us out of death into eternal life. Yet like Rhoda and the others we will not believe it. We will not believe that we now live in God's life of eternity, that we now are a living miracle - set free from death. So John writes;

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:13)

And so we shouldn't be alive. Yet by a miracle we are living a life of eternity through Jesus. Yet sadly many of us still, like Peter, stumble along in this life, following Jesus still believing it's all a dream and the reality is our bondage to sin and not the freedom in Christ. 

Yet our prayer should be like Peter when we come to ourselves and say;

I shouldn't be alive - WOW, what an awesome miracle!