"We live in the time of 'in between', in the second Act of a three Act drama. We know the way the story will end--with the coming of a new heaven and a new earth...This knowledge is given to us in the Cross and the Resurrection. We know the way the drama will end because we know the First Act, the demolition of 'Nothing' and the dark powers of Jesus' atoning , the sealing of the promise of salvation and redemption.

But we live now in the between. We live, in a sense, between the abandonment of Jesus on Friday and the unmitigated glory of Sunday morning; we live in the Saturday of the between.

As Karl Barth says, 'We live amidst transition--a transition from.death to life, from the unrighteousness of men to the righteousness of God, from the old to the new creation...we are surrounded by the holy, but not completely surrounded; pressed by the profane, but not completely pressed back. The real seriousness of our situation is not to be minimized; the tragic incompleteness in which we find ourselves is not be glossed over. But it is certain that the last word upon the subject has been spoken. The last word is the Kingdom of God--creation, redemption and perfection of the world through God and in God.'"

Charles Marsh (1958- )
photo of solar eclipse by Fred Epsenak