2025-01-07 A Meditation on Friendship Being a Challenge

“13 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” 7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (Heb 13:1-16 ESV)

The horizon availing itself, the personal discovery awaiting, the challenge, the sense of being held, caught in a trust fall, carried: sometimes friendship is more difficult than enmity. Sometimes it leaves us more aghast, the nerve of them, the ambition, the personal composure we can’t stand, to be loved and to be nurtured, to be invited in.

And sometimes we are wise to demure. People need to lead, if they are so announced. We may covet raw Authority: just Tell Me what to do! We scream, just make it known, just lance forth gladhappy and composed, ready and willing, way above the fray, friendly only in a passing sense of a temporary fancy, a condescension: yes, this was a godly fantasy. This was the Hope.

Only in real life, people meld, people fumble, people are made over in half part by their loving Dual: by their bestie or their maiden, gentleman, or boss. People emerge from the thicket Composed, but only so because much fumbling was glided over. Much growing pain was laughed its way through. Much innocence, friendly gesture, leaning in on each other, assuming a Playground, a Sandbox, a teamwork most embarrassing, yes, but also obtaining, producing, said Authority.

We wanted it Told Us: we wanted Authority dealt in our direction, command and order made known. We decided to produce this with our demure conditional submission: if you, O God of my fathers and mothers, if you will just Teach, just Command, just ask Obedience, we will gladly follow. We will equip and challenge you with our own sins worn innocently, boldly, on our sleeves: see? Like you said: we are sinful and rebellious! Until Christ comes through.

Only, the joke therein is that each of us contributes, each of us is Jesus in the midst of the several gathered. We are up against Tragedy called crucifixion, and Hope called Resurrection. We are up against Genuine Evil in the world, such as that ambitious and soothing, politique and smart, clever spirit who killed Christ. The one rocking the boat. The one picked on and leaned upon. And we do not conflate Authority on Earth with Authority in Heaven: Jesus is the Lord and Master, but one with earthly power is not therefore automatically a Suffering Servant from Nazareth.

The meek shall inherit the earth. The strange trust fall, the falling sensation, we are rightly challenged, tempted on every front, because we have if not Authority yet, then Agency: and we can spurt in this growth direction or that: we can spell out Blasphemy or Prudence. We can dabble in the unseemly, or in beautiful Hopes and Prayers. It really is Up To Us! No one will be our guardrails; no one will challenge or dictate to us, at least in some things. In some things we are Masters of our World. We put up a sign, and some, several, did salute. We put up a confession, and some, several, said “Aye Aye”. We tried to speak in cautious but bold tones, and some, several, did listen.

This world is ours because Satan is half-blinded, half utilizing our own words, Christ’s people’s own words, against us, but at times foolishly: Satan does not “see” the wide latitude for evangelism. Satan tries to turn our own words against us, calling us fools for having thus spoken up: but that only emphasizes the narrative of Gospel prevailing over Law. We said, “I dared not speak up except of Gospel”; the situation then instantly was one of “Submit to this or that rule of life”; and we readily pointed out that we shall not boast in our own holiness at the expense of the Gospel. It is a cookie-cutter diagram and battle map, plains ripe for the harvest. So in our quiet estate, in our loserdom, in our Effort to save souls if not glamorize sin, in this we have God’s Victory.

We have God’s compelling Patience in retaliation: first, are the children okay? Is the community hope-filled? Are murderous spirits and deaths turned into fighting Causes? Are we, after all, purveyors of a Spiritual Estate that lives on, that prevails, that upbuilds, with zero fear of the enemy’s threats, no fear of dying, no fear, because we after all were never those complicit or imprisoned, except insofar as we at one time walked in Sin. At one time we were rebellious against the Holy Spirit. At one time, though, all our sins were suddenly turned to Fruits, to immediate suggestion of a Redemptive Track. Nuance of unique traits, ours to share and to dwell in: never engaging in that fight around who has done more grovelling. If they conceded to this, it was their lot in life; and in no way “fair”, it is still “patiently undertaken” to Testify that all were at one time picked on, excluded, ostracised, pained. Not just these “Christians” or those “Unbelievers”, but all.