2022-10-26 A Meditation on a Common Language

“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” (2 Co 10:5 ESV)

The codemaster and author of secret language knows that betwixt a common language lies a world of difference. See as he or she draws near to this other, how so-called Christian faith is revealed to have different manifestations, and these all under a banner of what an observer would call “God-speak”, “Religious talk”, “Obviously Christian”. So that master of patient enunciation and intrigue does posit some astute way and means to indicate, hey, are you saved by the blood? Are you Christian? Are you a believer?

All these phrases have served well in times past, in recent days, even, as the faithful one’s plea: understand me, and understand that I dwell not in warm blankets of forced comfort but in a sharper appeal unto Grace, a Grace that leaves wide berth and scope for an alive mind, an active heart, a promised Salvation. See that we dilly dally around our near kin in the faith, adopting for an experimental hour their inmost plea and creed; no matter: we emerge the more confident in the hope our words, and the words of Scripture, have promised. We are shadow boxers and discomfited by strange sorts of calm, by forced blankets of assurance, by the produce of a soul no longer fighting.

We fight. We find our peace and our bedrock assurance at the other end of a duel, a duel with cozy interpretations and skipping stones that avoid the baptismal waters, that forget we are this day a minor cast, a beleaguered sort, a forgiven member, when it comes to having our bedrock faith heard.

We wish it to be heard, only insofar as each day we go a little farther out on that limb, and outrightly reject so much convenient thought and loserdom speech. We see as a losing battle the faith that is illegally secretive about things it should make manifest, and vocal about things that should be approached with a little more “Hold on”, “Are you feeling today ready?”, “Let’s calmly agree to approach a holy matter in unison now”. That is, the one tasked with speaking holy thoughts should do so with that great sense of yes and no: no to the original sin, yes to the Holy Spirit; no to the named sin, covetous desire, abuse of a peer, mental torment, and yes to dropping all things in light of a salvation spelt out. And we should be plain to confront each other rather than bless secrecy: Matthew 18:17; 2 Corinthians 2:10.

Still, the Christian (the Believer; the Saved) has moments when all that secrecy and slander does hurt a bit. It causes us to say, “Hey”. It is no willing subjugation either, for we are busy as beavers at work on the Evangel. We are actively at war with inimical spirits. We are seeing more broadly and deeply than the automatons in any manifest church service, the automatons who are not thinking so big. But if we are to be known as “Sinner”, so be it: we have come to the right place. We have agreed, like Paul, with that appellation, if only so that we might the more appreciate and minister outwardly its conclusion and better half: Jesus loves us; Jesus this hour accepts us; Jesus created beauty out of dichotomy. So let us flounder in variants on that word “Sinner”, as “Losers”, as “Deceived”, as “Presumptuous”, as “In denial”. All these may spell truth, but there is a greater truth in that same Cross that we race to, not presuming, not in denial, being used as fools for Christ by some side hustle or depiction our own inner sin has in masked fashion presented to the world. That is, we know not how we are Incarnate ministers to a host, only that God has made us as most foolish (1 Co 3:18), as least of all, that others may this day be built up in their inner person, with a clear and open horizon, loving only those where there is genuine affection and love, no forced matter but willing altruism and benevolence one towards another. For we are altruistic, and willing, when we have reached bedrock, and there found a helping hand in Christ.