“15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. Paul’s Ministry to the Church 24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (1 Cor 1:15-29 ESV)

Near echo and far echo, pan-vision and circumspection: to visualize and hear “out there” is to visualize and hear “here and now”, accuracy, fidelity to “what is” and to the scope. We are accurate and have fidelity to the scope of just with what pan-vision Together we approach the same world but in different Understandings and Modalities.

Called fools, called too docile or too unboisterous, too dullened or querulous, searching: look at a map and see, the sociological aspect of the game, that zoom in, zoom out, each dot is a microcosm of urban sprawl and potential hearts won. Each city block: on it reality overlays and a dozen worlds coexist. Each rugged rural expanse and on it prayers lift to Heaven, for the work undertaken and the corporate, nationalistic expanse therein Prayed Over, Loved Upon, Zealously Safeguarded.

Because each have it to differing degrees, the Vision or ability to “Hear” and “See” the would-be “Enemy” in her or his homestead and as a reality both Existing and diametrically opposed, but still one we can Visualize though it curbs and threatens our own more lazy Peace and Cozy Comfort zones. This is, too, the Invite to see and to hear that shrill call wherein rhyme and reason cease to be: the Haste and Unwillingness simply to try and team up a bit ‘round here. The haste and unwillingness simply to put shoulder together with shoulder to the plow. So it is partly a parting shot, to say our Goodbye’s and our Well, Hello Again’s, to an enemy needful of a reinvented Cause or Mission. 

Our Mission, it isn’t so much that half the world is trapped in downward atheistic thought, but that half the Christian world is itself teetering, constrained by longstanding tradition and received habit or “wisdom” to a half-way Expenditure and Foray. Yes, hemmed up, hampered, and curtailed, we are Today to hear of a Gospel highlighted here and there of Radical Discipleship and Pugnacious Interpretation and Engagement. Towards the cause of Grace, even as embarrassingly some of its earliest pundits proved they equated “Grace” with some deeds of the flesh.

No, “Grace” is dogged around that chastity that heightens the alert levels, that calms and informs, puts into place and instills, the National Cause and the Safeguarded Scope of its grown participants. Each is dastardly and belligerent around the Ability—day’s end Ability—to embrace and to shuck off the Law and the Demand. With an embrace. With a hearth story. With a prideful Advocacy for God the Father and the Son, with the Spirit, to be our merry hymn sung and our restful gaze alit upon each other.

“Grace” is the opportunity for the atheistic Christian—and Christ was close to an atheistic Christian—still to know they have “won” and are diametrically opposed, better informed, well positioned, against those “believers” whom they nominally question and hate. Indeed, see the simpler sins of frustration, of resentment, of just wanting the merry-making to cease: see these as emblems of how a war begins. And see also the Fact of strange alliances and Submitted Spirit that Discovers lofty climes of Peace. So we fight our first war always with ourselves, not laboring to make so much muscle-work of it all, but laboring still in patience for what a week’s work can bring, a month’s work, a year’s. We are readier than when we first began, and readier than we believe ourselves to be: all-told, there is much we are Capitalized upon and Laden with regarding Goodness and good deeds accidentally accumulated. The enemy… it will be a dastardly shove or placement of the back side in our direction, it will be some catchy tune or “logic” that deserves no response and deserves immediate Cease and Desist.

The “thought police” can dispute as to whether some dastardly rhetoric should be banned, should see the poor Christian attempting to incorporate and evangelize even this, should see that some notions cannot readily be dignified with a response… but our secret society upholds the Wisdom Edifice we labor upon, our civil society upholds the due rewards and honorariums we attain unto, our family hearth upholds the eternal Forgiveness and glad tidings we thrive on.