2023-12-01 A Meditation on Emblematic of Christ

“11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Co 5:11–15 ESV)

Like an emblem meeting the heat of day, bearing the scorching sun and found at cross-purposes with errant, yes, divisive, yes, pedantic, yes, but empowered spirits. Yet it is no shameful thing to be a Christian, to be prophetic about the joy that is to come. We are joyful today, because even our highest leaders need that inspiration or cause to doff the hat and stare up in wonder.

We are that emblem called Faithful. We are that emblem called Progeny of the King. We are that emblem called Meek. We are that emblem called Hope. For, we hope for what we do not see; and it even does convict the would-be power structure as found in place, in the wild, in our living rooms and corporate board rooms. To be at cross-purposes, is to be at Cross purposes, sometimes. It is never to be on that hypnotized alternate, lesser track, which track is fussy and takes umbrage at the bald and “obscene” claim to be Children of God. To be called unto Situation Now celebrations. To be called unto Meek reflection. We reflect, not because our leaders’ minds are less spacious, but because any one of us operates on the basis of an externality entering in as an internalized idea, reflection, experience, posture. So to the drawing boards, those in power, those who lead: and let your children, the son and daughter, do their part in hope that when one day it is peered in upon, that we shall be found Faithful and True.

Because to be at cross-purposes is not to be in any rebellion, rather, to say “as far as marching orders, those come from above, from the jefe, captain, and boss; but as to my Religion, this is a matter for the family dinner table, the parent’s study room, the classroom, and the civil institutions. This is my friendship with so-and-so who lives down the street. This is my Coping, that has given Universal Knowledge of things salvific: we know what it is to be saved because this machine has been rattling into full operation for some time now. It has experienced the deadening cul-de-sacs, or the hopeless effort at self-management; it has come at the price too great to bear, at times, yet we are “illegally” happy and joyous nonetheless. The sage community member who tries to convey this to us, in a word or tale, is to be honored, as are the fresh faces just of age and signing up to serve. Who know a mother’s love, a father’s love, a Hurt and a Gumption, a Principle and a Painful Memory.