In The Meantime

In the Meantime…

Revelation 15

Written: Friday, August 8, 2025

The following is a hypothetical story. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. A retired couple were walking together through the Mall. He thought they were out for a leisurely stroll. She stopped in front of the first ladies clothing store and said: George, I think I’ll go in to see if they have anything that fits. George said, And what am I supposed to do in the meantime…

What am I supposed to do in the meantime… Most of life is lived in the meantime. Between what we thought was going to happen and what really happens. From birth to death, we are being constantly being pressed into the meantime. Routines change, plans put on hold, dreams die. Even before we were born for nine months from conception to birth our mothers lived in the meantime. Just about everything was put on hold to bring us into the world.

And it is the same at the other end. After a lifetime of hard work, we retire. The next unspoken thing on the agenda is death. So, what are we supposed to do in the meantime? Most of us here this morning are living in the meantime.

Even the Church lives in the meantime. The Christian Church has exists between the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The last thing we were told was to wait. We’ve been waiting for 2,000 years in the meantime.

Back in Revelation 6 when the fifth seal is broken those who had been slain for the word of God and for their witness cried with a loud voice. O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long, how long, before you will judge and avenge our blood?

And the disconcerting answer comes back. Wait a little longer. Wait a little longer. There is no biblically, straight answer to the question: How long? We live in the meantime. Surrounded by Corruption, injustice, evil. Why doesn’t God do something? People are getting away with murder.

We live in the meantime. We are caught between arthritis and adoration, between sin and sanctity, between time and eternity. What are we supposed to do in the meantime?

I am happy to report that the book of Revelation gives us a couple of suggestions on how to spend our meantime. Remember this is a book for the 21st Century.

Here is what we are supposed to be doing in the meantime.

1. Sing by the Sea

2. Do good Works

I. Sing by the Sea

Revelation 15: I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and, also those who had conquered the beast, standing beside the sea of glass with harps in their hands.

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!

Singing by the Sea. I need to shatter the picture you have in your head. It is the picture of you getting a group of your Christian friends together and heading off to English Bay on a glorious summer night and singing kumbaya. Forget that!

I want you to think of Spot’s Pool. We were in the city of Mazatlán when our kids were young. We were on a holiday. Walking from our hotel to the Supermarket to buy a few things to eat. Along the way to the Supermarket was this huge sink hole filled with all manner of debris: stagnant water, dead animals, algae, garbage, and the smell. The kids loved it just to see their parents run by the place with disgust. After several times running by this horrible place one of our lovely children christened the place Spot’s pool. So forever after when we saw something that was very disgusting. We called it Spot’s pool. So, let me assure you that the sea we are looking at in Revelation 15 is Spot’s pool.

Almost always in the Revelation the sea is a symbol of violence, evil, pain, and chaos. It is no accident that Tel Aviv is a 20th century creation. Historically the Jews were very fearful of the Mediterranean Sea. They built their towns and cities in the Highlands of the Judean mountains. Jerusalem is about the only major Capital city in the world without a natural body of water. Jews thought of the sea as a place of evil and death. They remembered crossing the Red Sea. They saw heaven as a place where there was no more sea.

Yet we are told that these Christians stand beside the stinking sea, singing. They stand in the face of injustice, evil, and chaos. They stand with the stench of corruption all around them. They stand boldly, without fear, without arrogance and sing. They are in the world but not of the world.