2023-04-11 A Meditation on Near and Far
“[B]ecause, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Ro 10:9 ESV)
Random eruptions, distant chaos, the first signs of a spirit antagonistic to this: that our Lord rose from the dead. Today we walk into the light, glad happy for the sake of this Spirit that lives once again. Today we bandy about a pure doctrine, Christ Risen for the sake of our healing. For the sake of a premise proven. For the sake of an egalitarian society, love for each other, wide latitude to do good by way of our neighbor or to turn outward the inner decrepitude, the madness, the angst, the sin. All this, and the far off contention.
Far off because it is no war-like doctrine, but spells peace far and wide. It spells a conviction to be carried around on our backs, light for the journey, former baggage now gone. Indeed, it is a Word with the power to heal. It has the power to educate the ignorant and to make principled those who have studied it. It has power to inspire, to coach, to encourage, and to carry through the day’s ups and downs.
Resurrection spells a common mind with our peers, even those outside the officially-sanctioned walls of the church. I find nothing offensive in this doctrine, they may say. For it is the power to live for all who believe. It is pure milk for the body, and honey for the taste. It teaches us to carry our burdens with joy and with intentionality. We have intentions one to another, to bring peace and camaraderie to the era, to the gathering, to the times. Notwithstanding our former life of sin, our burdens distantly grappled with, our self-immolating angst or frustrations. No, a moment of prayer and the temptation passes.
The temptation is ridiculed by a Lord who was nailed to a Tree. The temptation brings us to mind of Real Issues, not this fake wanderlust and angst, but a called-for fidelity to something that holds our attention mightily: a Man died for this. A Man went the way of damnation for this. A Man cared not for our proud boasts, only for our unselfish, non-meaningless, non-empty, bedrock: here, we can live. Here, He has legitimized our struggle, with the Word that encourages us to carry on. Here, life and death has become For Real. For real, to strive all of a sudden with meaning in the striving. For real, to prove ourselves, all of a sudden frightened, but no matter: we have a good coach and One carrying us. For real, to stare down the inimical defeatist voices. For real, to have our love affair around that camp fire, with the One who spoke prophetically of what would come, and with forgiveness for where we have failed.
Permitted to flourish, distant eruptions remind us that some are already on the front line. Some are already awakened to a day with nothing but soldiering on their foreseeable future. Some are transitioned, making do with what peaceful times they had to internalize and learn a Gospel position, now only caught up in hurried prayer, wishing upon a dream, no matter: strong for the fight. For each of us has in us a type of heroism, and we can be inspired by that subtle yet potent and visible peace-time war of God going to His Cross. All of a sudden, and we’ve reached the end of our days. All of a sudden, and no matter any former sins, we are in this together and in love for each other, and impatient around hangups and around narcissistic self-gazing.