“12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Cor 15:12-28 ESV)

Questionable actors, a big happy family but with holdouts: Christians ask for some assurance theirs is the side of right, though when walking our own track to Golgotha any number of fears and insecurities might make us compromise. Might make us totally reassemble the playing field in our minds, and go the route of less pain. The route of frustrated compromise. The route of plain losses. But too, the Christian, as his or her calling of Soldier, goes to a happier space where a simple vote, a most basic Message, a tried and rare but true Claim carries the day.

The big happy family is no license to go lazy: a bit of musical chairs, even, going on, is no excuse to go lazy. It isn’t nearly so fair and equal as it seems; the tides they are evil, evil is wrapped up in their benevolent ebb and flow. We are, after all, going after a rare earth or rare spirit, one that holds forth the music of the spheres, the Divine dialog with Someone on High, even as all outside our little sphere life carries on, disputations and theses and contributions are being made. To a society that scarcely knows itself. To a society that is killing its prophets. To a society calling on the Hero in each of us to face Today’s War.

Briefly to summarize, briefly to reflect: today’s Christian combatant against Satan does well to puzzle over what should last for posterity. What are the key takeaways, the essential Components of how this generation was raised, and therein, how “they” and “the remainder” shall be raised. And this is no easy calling. We are all of us under an illusion of life for life’s sake, of plain dealings, of a surface logic and togetherness. But all of us, too, can humble ourselves in order to point just to basic truths, things that might have been forgotten had not a zillion graduates of such a school of hard knocks, been formed.

It is therefore almost a case of denying ourselves, just as Christ said He could not deny Himself: we go insecure or apologetic that we are not more “run of the mill”; that we are not leading with the right rhetorical device and the sublime Message, on point Message. We get scared of our own weird way of “hearing” what the Spirit says and Doing what He lays forth. We can sin, though post-saved, by not humbling ourselves really to see what a listener needs from us, by way of the more basic reassurances, provided we not deny our Maker and not deny ourselves. What we are. What we believe. How we see contributions made, to the cipher, to the “mad” (mucho) style. Those lost in the wash, they were never ours to begin with and yet: we have this experience locked in, that none were passed by, no leper or beaten or ruined person, at this age of innocence, was overlooked. True evil, the spirit that cannot even pass on the street without daggers drawn, was for a season absent? Or was he? Always we had no go zones. Ours was never an easy jaunt. But in our sphere, in our radicalized Message, we are plain as day: what we are is made over as First Fruits of a rejectamenta called Christ. He was the first so that we might be the last.