“23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”” (Mark 10:23-31 ESV)

The backdrop, today’s personal recognisance and vantage point, it exists against a backdrop first peace then war. No matter, we march along in thought and in preparedness. Knowing that soon that rumor of war shall arrive at our doorstep, friends already having been called up and already patient but tried, waiting but oppressed, by the promised Persecutions of the Faithful.

Christ will be persecuted, whether in His own frame or as Witnessed to by we His people. Christ will be armor and strange strength for the Journey, even as He is known for His meekness, known for His pacifism, known for His turning the other cheek. Something of Christ’s religion, as taught, as received, is a stronger vantage point not weaker. Because Man is left in her or his created state, not commanded from On High so much as aided and nurtured, entrusted and gifted, from On High. God would relish a Victory, but strange to say, first and before victory, first and foremost, is the promise: we will report the truth as it occurs; we will leave this gosling or fledgling adherent to the faith in situ, responsible for their own decision-making, at that Helm called managerial efficacy. He delights when a victory we win, but He doesn’t swoop in and baby us, coddle us. All this is a mystery.

That is, man, woman: we Sue the On High. We act up in hope God will despair and finally intervene. We frustrate parents, in hope they will concede a point to us rather than see the family go down the tubes. We grandstand, in hopes God will hear our urgent need for an audience, a listening ear. But true Religion is this: to meld with the Godhead, to merge and copacetically to stand up and be counted, to Decide and be received or critiqued, to Risk All and count on His unconditional Embrace come day’s end. For this is His brand of nurture, to push from the nest, to play with live rounds, to remind us: to each their own vantage point; I don’t know what You would do in this situation nearly as well as You know what You would do; my concerns are both busy and elsewhere. He, the Godhead, after all, is a master of arms, a rumor of Authority in fact played out and realized, a Gesture and a fascinating Encounter, conversationalist but patient until we learn that it isn’t so much back-and-forth we experience, rather it is Belovedness we experience.

Tomorrow’s war begins with the fact of Besieged, Persecuted, Tried. The distant rumor… it in fact already is playing out on our doorstep. The unfair Reality, hearkening to historic stories most sublime, most submitted, most life persistent, is still unfair Today: we have not evolved beyond abusive master-subject relationship, beyond bureaucratic hardships, beyond advantage-taking by the lower ranked. The lower ranked, they invent plausible storylines, including obviating any ability to speak in our defense, perhaps. All this is sublime, a mystery, almost illegal to think through.

The soldier makes his or her bed and makes his or her contrition. Contrition despite the harkening war at large in the distant world. Contrition despite being wronged by a parent or friend or peer. Contrition despite feeling no blues but A-okay this hour. We try and rediscover the miracle of New Life, through contrition. Contrition is a dying; it results in a Life More Abundant. It results in the ability to win a War without losing our composure or principles. We are still Created; God still sees us laboring—now, fighting—in the vineyard. He hasn’t taken sides except that those being perfected in Christ are receptive to the Command to side with the victor, to know themselves Always and Forever Victorious, even if dying on the battlefield today. The victor is the dying one, is the stubborn one, is the uncompromised one, for to Deny Christ is to go lethargic and empty, to wander about seeking watering holes and relief from the Absence of His buoyancy. It is to End the ability to speak a good word, to End the sense of camaraderie and Joy in Community. No, to acknowledge Christ has created a Spirit shared across Religious lines, Jew and Christian, Muslim and Hindu, Buddhist and Spiritualist. It is to major on the basics, that some things are more certain for the fact we have learned to Get Along and Abide the bureaucracy or the insanity of group activity and interpersonal contention or laziness.