“19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” (1 Cor 9:19-27 ESV)

Placards of peace, placards of war: hoisting high the placard of Christ establishes Reality not always pat and conceded to us. We are not, if we might make apology, narrowly existing on two extremes, war and peace, rather on an illusory or doubted, denied placard called Him. Called Love for the Saints. Called Peace for the weary. Called War for the oppressed, the satiety of Acknowledgement: this is occasion, time for standing up and being counted.

Realizing and emblemizing Christ is a gladsome sort of tidings to bear, grinning or otherwise of comport cheerful and extending warm arms of greeting in the marketplace and church corner and school and home life. Christ has made us zealous for an enigma: we are secretive and calmly evocative, calmly sharing bits and pieces, of a zeal of grand scope and encompassing much that is hushed and borne with the zealots jealousy: we wish only to be known for this, that Christ is for us and we His people say solemn prayer and call-response with the leaders of our church service.

He is arrived. He is the warring peace that embraces no illusion of the copacetic or niceties. Christ was on gladsome swell, surfing for a Cause owned and not borrowed, not framed by talk of War and Peace but framed by His Father purring and murmuring that Son has done well. God worked: He labored for the End Times not to be evaded and feared, but manfully, with feminine prudence or chutzpah, manfully and womanfully to Beckon them here and now: first, Come Lord Jesus, now, Come O Holy Night.

Night of the Outcome, the Denouement, the Newfangled Diatribe and Conversation Borne in that stable, God for us and we… we His people Alert and Warring, Peacefully Warring because God is for us and we, we His people are more than Alert, grateful for the Invite due the Master, to choose frightful Packages and Invitations: because we will Act and Labor in tears but in composure and steadfastness, that God is for us and we, we shall Labor for a Tomorrow due to the womanly and the manly in our midst.