2024-05-25 A Meditation on What We Carry

“33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”” (Matt 21:33-44 ESV)

The repertoire of personal effects, sure and steadfast Causes, reconnoitered Memories, a few Things, let us say, that revolve around the soldier’s core, their heart, their center of being: these are few in number yet large in influence. The soldier in the King’s court, herself or himself the product of many hands, has in salvation history Redeemed these things: they have become Sure and Certain, go-to Aspects of the soldiering outlay. The soldier has seen ill experience turned to God’s favor, bad memory resuscitated as Lesson, troubled relationship remade as Calling. We are called to heal and to do, just a few things ‘round here, to do them up right and solid, with earnest Deployed Status.

We are called therefore to endear ourselves to that Mind in the Sky, that Ghost Above, that Sure and Steadfast Captain in the Clouds, who has used personal revision, revisiting, reassessment, rehearsed experience in Positive Light. Yes, to some the Christian sermon is lacking if it doesn’t arrive at a stance Totally Abhorrent because of Total Depravity, the fact each of us is barely eeking out a semblance of Goodness, if any Goodness at all, because of Original Sin. The alternate preacher is refusing even to speak of such evil, and is with gladsome vibe and pleasantry preaching of the group’s charismatic together influence, of the love for the brethren and the sistren, of the corporate Call and Battlements manned.

So we have not lost sight, that strange influences unholy do tempt and do mess with the plain wish or Calling or determination to Thrive. We thrive, yet as though prepped and primed by the Preaching, to do so even when—historically speaking—the authority structures are merely human, flawed, insanely making requests impossible, and largely revolving around dutifully bowing and making—as in the King James Version of the bible—paeons to the ruling autocrat.

No, we can do better, no innocents around “Do no evil” as a corporate mantra: it is good, but we believe it is our theology that makes it capable of coming to pass. We believe that God was capable of holding two loud contradictions in mind in parallel: that Man aims for the stars, yet is holed up in sad retreats. Somehow Man should be cheered by that Good Morning vocalized in earnest, while also equipped to cope right on through the physical temptations and the irrational habits or worries. We should be able to look back on deeds done out of habit not out of cold plan, and see the war we properly waged, see that indeed we were after all about the Master’s Business, see that we had a verve inhuman, a sagacity unheard of, a brandishment Total, a Surprising Outlay. How did it come to pass? Except that we were led by a rare airy Spirit called Faith, evoked by Faith, called forth by Faith. That, if anything, is the head-shaking explanation of how we Won, how we Thrived, how we Ministered to the downcast, how we Met the suicidal or panicky ones head on and with an inhuman Love.