2024-05-22 A Meditation on Vision

“22 This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. 23 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, 24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. 25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. 27 For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. 28 When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. 29 I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. 30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, 31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. 33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. (Rom 15:22-33 ESV)

Vision is the gift of the forward-thinking, of the extravagant deeds which meet lethargy or “common sense”: the Fate meets Courage in the blink of an eye, nevermind Christ’s own Fate who sent Him grave-ward; our Fate judges and sets in motion a final judgment already and Now. We literally are shaped for life because of a forward-thinking deed, the love for the unlovable, the compassion for the ostracized member of the platoon, the gesture Heavenward when and upon the alighting of all eyes on us.

That is, to Act is to be utterly overwhelmed in the madness of the chase; it is to Serve rightly as stewards and imitators of Christ’s own love for the loveless shown; it is to Persist, though actuality shows deadening No More, the plea of the culprit who feels they have been found out, found in sin, unloved; it is to hazard a militant Decisive Approach, to act Lovingly and Sympathetically is to put up Christ’s own Armor: Resurrection; God’s patient demonstratives, His workings in Eternal Matters, His working in lowly Courage and Formation.

That is, we might pinch ourselves a bit at the outlandish qualities of Life on display: that God has nurtured and succored each and all who use the Name. And in that moment, in the blink of an eye, judgment set in motion; in that instant, we are Somewhere theoretical and logistic, of a mind variously in tune or in opposition to the Peace being broadcast. We might “get it”; we might “struggle to see the light”; we might “violently be opposed” ourselves, with a strange Pattern and Habitat of the righteous deed: it somehow, rightly done, is Kosher and Peace, not raising hackles beyond what God’s own provision can sustain and bloom amidst, no longer wilting, no longer winnowing to a meager portion, but Extravagant, Forward-Thinking, a battle cry Resounding and Resolute, owed to the visionary Soldier.

For what were we hoping to obtain in wearing these digs called Love? Called Christ? Called Servant? Called Soldier? We may have known only that a mother’s love came from that backdrop, that a father’s compassion originated in that get-up, that a friend’s resolve or patience came with that name on the signatory line. And we may have had a few “things” to get “out of our system” before coming to know Faith; yet, like Job’s sons—partying it up, employing the family’s good name to questionable fruits—the intervention of a Christ means Today is the day; Today is a call not to boring prayers for the companions, but to exciting Love writ large. It is a war to join, a Commander-in-Chief to adore and fearsomely to submit unto. It is His patient insistence on showing us a bit of who He is, that seals the deal: no fear-mongering, but a yoke easy—if you see it—and light—if you dare. God is neither a boring backdrop to couch our lives in “Can’t do x,y,z”; “Must stay boring and sober”; “Who thunk up this loserdom?”. God is the Alive electricity of swallowing up the tempter’s power, straight edge unto the dying day perhaps, or ministering in full awareness of the power of a down-hour or drink mildly indulged, to be there for others. We are found no longer frightened, no longer alit with angst and the itch to go wilder. We are wild in proactive outlays. We are active in eating that good fruit called Christ’s Body and Blood. We are just made to be aware of what Inspired neighborliness is found in the community, genius tutelage or smart signs, educators at work, philanthropically-minded at work, investors and legalists, hearing that Christ delighted to call even and especially them.

What once was a swear-word is now that End Times forward-thoughtful Act: knowing it will spell immediate judgment and careening onto a strange new course; knowing that Course may be a Cross, yet our inheritance is with the Eternal. God watches as His people are judged here and now, in the immediacy, in the daring unappreciated stamp on the community, coming first from the Christ-follower, but then even and especially, originating in the vision of the Interloper and the Curious. All must cope with the question: in some ways, are you willing to share your wealth? Are you willing to see others reach the Kingdom before you? In spite of your long years of service to the saints? Are you willing to be on their par regarding your own sinful mindset? That the churched are no more Holy than the unchurched, and indeed, those who mind the Law are subject to greater Temptations. To be tempted to self-righteousness. To be tempted to judging. To be tempted to hypocrisy. Yet also corralled in that Vision is a time-tested wisdom: the churched folk have a Gift untold, namely, those habits of mind and thought that somehow wean them from the fleshy miasma. Somehow the milder patience and discipleship, does indeed teach a Peace: peace from the harrowing self-destructive thoughts; peace from the bound leg or arm, the self-willed Betterment not attainable until we find our Rest in Christ’s own repose.