"The Season of the In-Between" - Deacon Cindy Miller

Summer's over but autumn hasn't shown up yet. Deacon Cindy Miller notices that we're living in that same gap spiritually: the Kingdom of God is here, and it also isn't here yet.

She'll tell you she doesn't usually bother titling her sermons. This one she did, because the week leading up to it was one of the hardest she's had, and the in-between is where she found herself sitting with some genuinely difficult scriptures. Ezekiel gets called as a watchman. Matthew hands the church an uncomfortable process for what to do when someone sins against you. Paul, in Romans 12, says your love has to be sincere, then keeps going: bless the people who persecute you, mourn with those who mourn, live in harmony.

The question Cindy keeps returning to is why. Why does God ask us to do the hard thing and go to the person who hurt us? Her answer is that he's teaching us how to love the way he loves, and that's a lifetime of formation rather than a switch that flips. Keep short accounts. Go to people in a way that's loving and respectful, because you have no idea what kind of week they've had. And when someone won't hear it, you don't write them off forever, you just move them out of your close circle and keep leaving the door open.

She lands on three things from Romans 12:12 to carry into the week. Be joyful in hope. Be patient in affliction. Stay faithful in prayer.

One line worth the whole sermon: love is an action, not an adjective. Anyone who's been married a long time already knows that.

Holy Trinity is an Anglican church (ACNA / C4SO) in Palo Alto. Sermons are posted weekly.