“14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”” (2 Cor 6:14-18 ESV)
The radical adopters: society in its ill bent counts on nominal Christians and lethargy, lack of courage, unthinking masses, to draw a firm line, an owned line, a marketed line, between Christian and non-Christians.
The masses who resent the Christian their refusal to go with the flow, their non kissing up mentality, their rebel mentality rather than a goody-two-shoes era under parental authority. And this is no cause to celebrate, rather, to mourn: that God’s people, His prodigal, come home is come clean and not Recognized. Not owned by the staid delineated Masses. Always still “sinful” no matter how many good deeds are prescribed and how many masses are attended. For, it is something Radical to claim Man is “simul iustus et peccator”: simultaneously sinful and justified. No, the so-called washed masses do not believe they are still sinner, and if they are somehow in sin, then go for the triad of fellow men or fellow women, or the discipleship class, go for the meeting with pastor or the public confession.
The radical adopter therefore believes in an urgent Need across lines for the Gospel. Christianity is ruined by inept management, by complete blindness as to how the generally public storyline is heard and seen. Christianity is ruined precisely because it claims so much, and we see an ecosystem of friends, a social network, “Better” at inducting, at disciplining, at celebrating, at coping, than said cathedral of ranking Christians and priests. Indeed, it is sad to see opportunities squandered and brotherhoods, sisterhoods, abandoned. But also we underestimate the gladsome nature of life in that cathedral.
Because all is on the line. Because this is a grey area, a no-man’s land, where massive wealth is disputed and passed to the most unlikely outlets, people losing much, gaining much, all without rhyme or legalistic reason. There is no “fair market” of Christian ministry, no give-and-take of Christian experience, nothing but “winner takes all” insofar as each of us is sharing those winnings.
That is, some will lose everything including we dare say their own freedoms or freedom from Hell. Hell on earth is possible, though seemingly not in our relatively bustling and earnest, respectful present day societies. But moreso, God is there to be with us through our earthly sojourn, no hell withstanding. And that the winner takes all… this is a communal Winning, as though claiming exactly the opposite of that phrase “Winner takes all”. The point being, in a war between two sides, a third side appears and alliances are formed; but notwithstanding all logic and planning, one “side” is going to claim the bounty.
And that bounty is somehow Christianity itself Resurrected from the ash heap of how it has been presented to the world of late. Women shall not be slandered any longer, by false prophets and emblematic false figures writ large; men shall not be maligned any longer, as abusers or otherwise slandered by those who plunder social institutions such as those designed to prevent genuine abuse, not the imagined abuses or opportunistic slanders of how “sinful” and “unpresentable” a woman or a man is. These only rob the institutions designed to protect, by creating the precedent of vague or exaggerated charges.
No, we the courageous, not corralled ones, we defy delineation between so-and-so Bishop’s people and the unwashed masses. Even as the church goes to pot on all kinds of unforgiving jaunts, we still uphold the flag of Christ as something that has power to save. We are conservative around not being quick to dismiss a Religion’s claims; no matter how flawed, no matter the past abuses, no matter our youthful hells of church (to some), optimism points to the bright side and a working man or woman’s outlay as decidedly Christian and unashamed.
We work, because we are so happy to have the doctrine of free and undeserved Grace. We work, because we have received back our sanity and our composure, having made solemn confession about those things that really jibe against our being. God has healed us, and therefore in reverence to the doctrine of Free Grace, we labor and with a smile on our face we Beautify and Build up, Gel and Coalesce around a Doctrine Preserved, handled and passing muster for this generation, because of these souls whom it has healed.
The fanciful things have become True and Owned: somehow we were all along, childhood up, born for this. To be members of this secret society called Christian, or guild, or discipling cohort, is to be agent and actor of a Divine Symphony previewed in our youth: it all works together so beautifully. It “makes sense”. We fall down in worship at the Miracles on display, the Parables most hearty, the Resurrection Life all unhampered. But also we rise, because God has this good news: Christian perfection: leave that to the pundits and philosophers; what we proclaim is all good things working in synchronicity and in ways that seem accidental towards the agent performing them. We have our delight in things we can see or measure; God takes His pleasure in simple Encouragements and Schadenfreude. We are secret agency for Him, secret unnamed, with nothing to point to except a potentially imaginary induction rite, agency Divine. For the people, for the nation, for the Future shared of Humanity. A benevolence society as a front for genuine soup-to-nuts Planning and Hawkish at times, laissez faire but hawkish, Reality and Policy reared and put into action. God died “At the right time”, “while we were yet sinners”. That was His hawkish display, writ in Human Blood, in Divine Circulatory rhythms. And at that season of Man’s evolved journey, it was the Right Sacrifice, the Right Word, the Right Encouragement. Today, if it seems pat or obvious, we go back to our fellowship of the agents and attorneys of the Cross, of its Secret Agency or Society, and hold unbelievable truths—He Rose!—close to our heart. As things too wonderful to ritualize, except that said ritual reminds us and takes us Home to that special place, that induction where we fell in love, that life-affirming time when we saw All Things as His special purview, who is God of the spirits diverse, Christian and secular, and more.