between

From Martha Beck's Expecting Adam... Martha has been reading philosophers and is talking to a friend on the phone:

Martha: "None of those philosophers get the point."
Judy: "Oh?"
Martha: "No, Because they were always focusing on what happens to people. The meaning of life is not what happens to people."
Judy: "It's not?"
Martha: "No, it's not. The meaning of life is what happens between people."

My comment: I think Martha's statement has profundity. One of my mentor's used to say, The truth is not in you or me; it's between us.
It seems to me that life's meaning is found in relationships.
Life is for communion.
My relationship to God and to other people--and even to non-human parts of the creation--is where meaning is found.
Isn't that why Jesus said the Big 2 are: Love God and love others.
It's love that brings meaning to us.
That love was incarnate in Jesus.
But it's not confined to Jesus.
It's in the 'between-ness' where the Spirit works.
One of the functions of the Spirit in the New Testament is to
create new relationships.
The whole Book of Acts is a history of the Spirit breaking through
barriers to real relationships.
It's no accident that Paul calls the church the Body of Christ.
A body will not work or live unless the many parts/members are
rightly related.
The organic nature of the church--and life itself--is part of the truth
of abundant life.
This is another reason I think dialogue is so important.
Dialogue enables the 'between-ness' to come about.
The idea that I have the truth or you have the truth
is more of a philosophical idea than a Biblical principle.
Jesus said, "I am the truth," because in him right relationship with God
and others was manifest.
As the mediator between God and humanity, Jesus is the
authentic 'between-ness' that brings life.

I suppose you could say that Jesus is the Dialogue between God and humans.
Christians call Jesus the Communication of God (well, we say he is the Word of God
made flesh).
As the Mediator--or Between-ness--Jesus connects God and humans.
He sneaks in between us and sets up a connection--a communion--that gives life.

Even non-Christians seem to experience this divine Betweenness.
You don't have to know how electricity works in order to flip the switch and get light.
Nor do you have to know who Jesus is in order to be connected with God.

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