2023-03-09 A Meditation on a New Thing
“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Is 43:19 ESV)
Each generation is brave to announce: a new thing is here. All that we are familiar with, and then coming alongside, nearness, under the shade of an unidentified flying object called our lancing forth, our stepping out, our relishing the investment in Faith.
It comes about in classic tropes, like a boy meeting a girl or friend meeting friend, boy meets boy, girl meets girl. See the alertness, as we walk down a path of mutuality, but later awaken to ourselves and wonder how such an alien deed came about. How in the name of all things holy (not to swear, for Jesus told us not to swear by the temple or anything else) did we wake up today brave for the New Thing? How did we wake up today ready and willing to discover something absent in the faith of our parents and ancestors: that this faith cannot be written down sufficiently; that this faith cannot be discounted or passed off as familiar fare; that this faith hearkens to us by way of making us over, inspiring us with the gracious presence of untold Newness. Yes, there still is room in our hearts. Yes, we can say that goodbye to family and parent, not stopping to secure their well-being: they will be fine (Mt 8:22). They are loved, and such investment over the years shall have to be sufficient; no, today we treat Evangelical belief as our own intrinsic and special project.
To have faith that God is architecting a new church in the shadows and ruin of a former cathedral. That the born again is post-hardship: they had for a season arrows coming from all directions, fightings within and hardships without; they came post-sentiment of depression or personal malaise: all was to bring them to the bedrock of ground zero near the Cross, to experience pluck and fight, to Rise up again newborn. And these make over our church as the zealous contributors to a myriad number of projects and tasks, callings, roles. Not limited by gender expectations or age-wise submissions, there is still a unique magic in the woman’s role just as there is in the man’s role, or in the aged, or in the youthful and positive. We look beyond outward appearance, and dally near to that joy: this one is reborn; this one is in the evangelical stream, the current and the posture of redeeming love.
Being loved. Being redeemed. Cause sufficient to meditate on our own soldiering, and our nearness to personal sacrifice and Cause. We are woken today, to speak up when called upon, or to love with a greeting the one maligned or doubting. All this so that we can be that person for that guild and for that specter, the good specter of a cohort and crew inspired and driven to be there for one another, to find in their peer Christ Himself, to find in their fellow Jesus as Lord, Lord of their willingness even to die, where in which willingness is found a few oases, a few glad tidings, a few refuelings for the journey.