“36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.” (Acts 15:36-41 ESV)

In a perfect world, every dispute would immediately be talked through, shouted through, even. Because of the slippery wheels of time. Because of the innocuous silencing order: this one, it will take a decade to overcome. No desires to see others punished, forgiveness all around; yet… the shouting match that didn’t occur; the personality introductions that went imaginative rather than experiential, concrete; the fact only one move remains: carry on, burdens and all, ultimately to undo the slander, the mocking dismissals, the disrespect for each others’ persons. Ultimately to undo: because each of us shoots ourselves in the foot when once we deny the outlet called simple affection, simple neighborliness, simple obtuse-at-times Presence.

In a perfect world mock horror would meet sincerity of horror: the foreign wars, the homestead unease, the fact each and every comer in some manner is serving their country. Whether intentionally, heart-on-the-sleeve, or unintentionally, participant in the economics, in the social exchange, in the bright lights and luminescence of a struggler, of a striver, of a frustrated one meets a calmer one, a pastoral one. 

Jesus was the strange Copacetic sort of such a soldier, in His strange brand of unwearied, unharried, un-weak-kneed peace. His Peace is strangely liberal insofar as not aping one another with scandal or with diatribes about Good Works and Behavioral Reform. Yet all that reform, all that behavioral stuff, it is in there if for once we acknowledge His modesty of purpose, His meekness, His disinterest in aping a fellow or gal by the wayside. It is life on wings and a prayer, that dares surrender the self-righteousness and asks Faith to step in, to slip in, to the Economics of Exchange, of coming and going, of healing and forgiving, of Getting Along.

It is not that we have all the answers, nor that we have made the perfect exemplar and scapegoat. What it is, is that as soldiers of Christ’s Cross, we refuse to Obsess and Ponder all night the sins of others; we take it on faith, others will take up the slack as we rest from Hatred. Others will serve as we seek out a second opinion. Others will shout down or dispute over coffee, the scandalous political stance. The sexist portrayal, artistry even, that if anything is ironical or poetic, the liberal made out conservative, the straight gay, the gay straight. All these “wheels of time” carry on, even as right proper Churchfolk we fast and abstain from the lunacy, interpreting the public farce in spiritual tones. We see the love for humanity, and this we Adopt; we see the murderous ambition and Original Sin, and this we say “Bless” to, and shrug off.

Life catches us and tests us, and the right love for the enabling—in the best sense—parent, is a right love for the Encouragement to go farther than our peers, to dare rather than to be persnickety about avoidance and observance. All the by-and-by sins that accumulate, these are nothing in regards to Christ’s desire we Advance and Soldier On. We scarcely know the right words, but in elated hours of prayer we Imagine and we Lean In on the Spirit who makes the right notional gesture or applies for the job or wakes up to the familial Service. Wheels are turning, though we feel alone at times. Tomorrow’s parties all shall be dreamt out and lived up and imagined thoroughly, before the gladsome telephone is lifted from its cradle.