2024-12-01 A Meditation on Cold Steel
“12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:12-18 ESV)
Probably the most salient doctrine of the Christian faith is lying in the shadows of cold steel, mighty Genuine Article, the fact on some measurable level Christ was all-powerful and His Name was causing demons to flee and vacate. To think then on our own share in this stock and accumulation of potency, is somehow however not to Bite the Apple of our own might-makes-right, but rather properly to live in the benign blessed passed-over shade.
We can live in this shade because it ends any adopted or suggested notion, come on now man, don’t you know all life is striving and failure? That all life is competition and that you, my friend, simply don’t “have it”? That your temptation this morning to indulge to cold steel of mighty workings of the Spirit, is licensed only insofar as you attribute this to Someone Else, to our God and Father, the Son and Spirit, who are willing to be All Things in the interest of making of you a playful pundit or blessed Child or spaciously-situated endearing Heir.
The furtive glances here and there, the seeking mindset, the hunter-gatherer nature of our ancestors, these things accumulate either to create their own oblong impediment to Gospel Truth, or they reward the Seeker with blessed outlay. We seek and we munch, we are not so far off from where that “perfect Christian” is, vis-a-vis their assumed successes in Not looking at the screen for the wrong things, in Not distracting oneself with shopping or finance, in paying attention to the sermon without checking the time; we have ceased to let ourselves thus be judged, and accept that any furtive glances are meant to serve the Kingdom. That what we do outwardly, they do inwardly.
Really? So our friend the pewsitter is a bundle of misbegotten tacks and unconstrained lunges? We simply don’t know, all we know is that the Gospel that won our hearts, the Gospel we’d write home about, allowed our tired spells to interrupt our wakeful spells, and to do the cardio of wearying ourselves with works no longer, but rather to find the bliss in the welcomed exchange of such weary deeds seen anew, that is, provided those deeds are not in themselves what Save.
That is, we reject outright any final judgment that makes us over as halfway. Halfway successful. Halfway home. Halfway “there”. Yes, these simple totems and nodding-towards ideologies, sound so sensible and “of course”, but they turn out to be the demon! That says, if you are striving, then meet Christ’s cold steel. Decide this day if you have what it takes. Dare to be built-up front-to-back with shields and armors and helmets, if you are the rightful One, the Heir, the person who succeeds. Yet we reject Any and All notions of not succeeding. We do not compete any longer, except insofar as we compete with submission and humility. It is our Divine Right to know this King, and to live in His shade.