2025-01-18 A Meditation on Calm and Composed
“16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.” (Acts 17:16-21 ESV)
Calm beckons even as silence empowers some, no go zones grant space for interlopers: the calm is flailed against, as irrational, as unknowing, as ignorant. To be calm when a dance is called for. To be calm when a hell-on-earth is prescribed. To be calm when “my way or the highway” has reached our borders.
And it is a fair warning label, that any weakness, perceived or otherwise, will be mocked, held up, preserved, continued as long as possible: the slander says, “Because of sin, you have to go through this… this… judgment”. We are inclined to concede, until realizing, until emboldened: sin is pervasive to Mankind. I, you, we have a sacred Duty to be of good cheer, to continue in the Gospel, to make hay while the sun shines. Even as second-class citizens.
If once upon a lonesome, once upon a chance, once upon a time, we operated more… gladsomely, peacefully, searchingly… it is a Cause for redemption and celebration, the life lessons, the mannerisms, the “intel” about say opposite gender romances or about a borderline same-gender “romance”. But in any case: rejoice, O sinner, for your Savior has need of you This Day. We learned our ropes, because we were no less blessed than an Adversary, only it took a different form. And we never concede to the slander of a luxuriant upbringing or an incorrigible, unforgivable, mean streak. Slander is real. But again: calm.
The calm is our inheritance against a fright easily worked up to. We easily work up to the suggestion, “you should be afraid”. We easily work up to the lack of copacetic Peace, of Calm, of Blessed Assurance: we grant too much, when in fact an enemy, this enemy, is running on Empty. Is all bluff and no punch. Is ignorant—let us be of a forgiving spirit—of a certain Composure and Cohabitation, of a certain Getting Along.
Therefore the warrior of Spirit yearns and eagerly approaches in gladsome hope something will rub off. But wait, do see! My treasure… if I lack in 401k plans and official sanction by church governing bodies… do see! I am the less inclined to covet these! I am the less inclined to mope about all those ambitious or jealous! I am possessed of a Gospel Truth that flatters all men, all women; that beckons to all comers, today to “Hear His Voice!”.
Therefore again, to be calm is no concession but rather a rebuke to the spirit of the times. It is a rebuke to a crumbling edifice that nonetheless for the time being threatens with its imposing frame. Lawmen, judges, moral authors, these try and quantify the crime, the crumbling edifice, only to admit one clever adversary. And we, too, know that our Attorney is in Heaven, a Righteous Judge, a utilizer—so no time here to panic and mope—of All we’ve undergone. Our confession doesn’t do justice to the music of the spheres, which music has been our guiding Light. Which has heard our eager confession, concession to nothing except to the Resurrection. We Rise; we gladly occupy a terrain that the war-planners of another lilt, that these never actually saw or quantified.
Never fought over. Never enjoyed. So today, we do serve. We serve the enemy. We serve the friend. We serve all those who might let something rub off on them, regarding Christ’s gambit and prayer. To Heal, in the name of the Holy Ghost. To Warm up in the name of the Trinity. In all this to surrender no calm but rather an excited Repose. We repose, we alight, we rest here and at the ready.