2023-05-27 A Meditation on Getting Along

“28 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29 but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” 33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread” (Lk 24:28–35 ESV)

A cut above the rest, the agent, the field officer is that paradoxical compromise: better negotiations, better self-awareness, better sacrificial purpose, yet dime a dozen, not sheltered, on the front lines, engaged. We each of us reserve our higher thoughts for the soldier’s true mettle: his or her ability to see broader and higher, the engagements with colleague and ally, irregardless of the colleague’s differing style.

Style throws us off; we simply don’t “vibe” with this one or that one, yet the Christian Cause has brought us here: we need build ourselves up, drawing nigh unto the youthful and easier situated, who seem to have a largesse that we, in our war, have forgotten. We forget the grand outlook. We forget the manna from heaven. We forget the certainty of position. We forget to draw some prowess out of the day’s hardships. Those are hardships we earned, yet we can go too easy with our outlay, forgetful that we are God’s children, called, consecrated, pan-visual, capable of mending discord and fixing the social function of our army. Our army, socially cosmic, microcosm and life-pool, stands in need of heroes self-confident, not just contrite (as all of us in some season have been) but rediscovering that glow of a childhood Purpose, of a game with forts and outfits, of a treehouse remove or a dashing chase through the neighborhood.

Therefore we mend the ways we are hemmed up in buried pain or regret or humiliation. We stretch eager and fresh limbs, unto that discovered sort of peace: peace of the easier get-along, the friendly invite, the non-obsessed-over Christian-like rest. Jesus’ disciples rested. They got up a gig together around a hillside or warming fire. They were so A-game that it became clear: we aren’t dismissing or cutting off anyone, only in the great rush of waters, not all shall hear the message of salvation. So we endeavor not to judge, certain that our cautious and sinful measuring rod will not be needed: success, bravado, progress, takes care of dividing the populace. Some are on this side, and some on that side. We close ranks simply in the light of what our people need, and we cannot juggle too much at once. We desire to reach all people; we love and long for the stranger in our midst; we do all this in great moments of inertia, momentum and pace. We have dissolved our own flagrant errors, and then been miraculously brought unto a level called Inspired. We are on a level called Sent. We are on a level called Peace. That is our peace, sending, and inspiration, to envision patience for all people present (just for the sake that they got here in one piece), patience for the laggard, patience for the judgmental and the one frustrated by the alleged sins of others. All this is a strange day, when the manifestly sinful come alongside the manifestly noble and pure. For in it each discovers their own wide vision of personal sin, and the deeper climate wherein two people can get along, for the sake of the Name of God.