“12 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5 On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— 6 though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12:1-10 ESV)

Targeted messages and “okay” readiness: the hues of a New Consciousness are set against the backdrop of History untold, unfolding, New Day intelligent design; the mindset of Calculated Peace, Maintainable Borders, no acceptance of a New Normal of War: to be thus Ready and Receptive, is to see strange ways entire generations of work are saved or tossed on that looming Day when the powers that be are Not copacetic, Not thoughtful, Not peace-adhering; when someone’s inner dog is Aped, when someone’s top-down Rule is challenged, or so it would seem by the giddy Delight of those pursuing Rampant Peace and Prosperity.

Everyone gets to be Jesus for a day, it might seem: the Beguiling Affair with rumor and hearsay, tempts the listener to spurt and gestate, to grin wickedly and pontificate rudely, as to What We Need Right Now: more morality, more church discipline, more Messages of whipsmart submission, subjugation. And the eternal nature of our Purport, it dissipates into a historical forgotten or footnoted Reality: were such compromises of Justice, Law, and Order so briefly indulged, yet to the historian the playing field must be at least plausible if not logical. It is implausible, how Evil and Contrary to Good Order some moves, legalese, heady attacks, are. How Groupthink and Slanderous. How purely satanic and Destructive, yet in hindsight ho-hum a little spurt of insignificance, easily and readily wiped away.

Mental trip, then, ponders our Choices in life, and casts them against a high flavor, high octane, Claim: that we are of unusual Quality. Unusually protective of the Clan. Unusually secret-keeping of the Orders. Unusually Ripe for the Obedience and Submission to Authority, such Authority as we are—no ambition here, society however sometimes “working”—blessed to have Attained unto. We are Privileged to have clandestine Orders, and like Christ Himself our Exemplar, we are not putting secondary Decisions—whom to marry, how to plan ahead beyond each one day at a time—ahead of the Gospel: Indeed, it is our Joy this morn to attempt always to speak out of a sense of Dying, and Last Will and Testament if not macabre or cynical, then Urgent and Line of Duty-strong.

The ideas foment, and always there are ten more we forget to include, but the Routine, the Fact of some weird head trip Discovery that there is another, Christ-affirming, way to look at the Scene, at the Lay of the Land: this is our Hope, as all of us nonetheless get muddled up on My Way or the Highway. Christ’s own final Purpose meant no time or capacity to indulge the other Callings: to reform Carpentry; to Honor marriage by His own participation (and perhaps also by not talking to women who aren’t His wife); to honor father and mother on Earth; to submit to the temple authorities. We Discover, as we solemnly kneel before a corner altar although making a quick exit, that Christ’s own purpose includes Stepping Up and making the Claim to be a prophet and a prince, to be of Quality Import and Fabric. Not just playing “hard to get” with the bishop, but envisioning that we look beyond the marriage details…

And to that marriage, to the question of having our wedding garment when we approach the Ceremonial and Sacramental Union’s celebration: this means God hides Himself from us partly in order to protect us from immediate Judgment: aren’t you a bit ashamed Not to have your garment ready? And Christ Approaches us in our absence of prior Experiential makings: our virginity of the Spirit, our innocence of the Accolades, our Fascination with the really in all total quite simple Promises and Demonstrations of power.

The jurist in the land, then, is called upon to accept New History, untold Stories yet really stories from all time and all places, of Second Chances and Redemption: Christ redeemed me! From the rainstorm and leaks in my house. From the bitter cold and soaking-to-the-skin fright. From the need yes for some altar before which to come clean and Repent. We have these promises within our hearts, of a God who does not spoil and falsely promise His children a warm lap to climb into, but scares them and yet rewards them in spades for simple trust fall and the saintly Parents’ own examples of sanity and God-fearing tithe. Tithe of the bounty, of the progeny, of the finances, of the homestead and holdings. To Rome? To Canterbury? To Istanbul? To the gods, to the powers that be, to the lauded Directors and Guides.

The jurist is called to form lines of linked arms of Refusal to allow sin to pass, and to have the Vision of a New Peace, not always simply “show us the power and we’ll submit” but rather, God’s people in all times and places are an odd lot, a special Cast, a few Moral Individuals readily betrayed and hated, needful of a little of the Confidence Christ had in Himself: I am the Messenger, I am the Sacrifice, I am the Son or Daughter. A man, in pained Reflection, therefore of few words perhaps. Meaningful words, however. The art and the Image of Sanity and Reflection, Meditative and constantly failing but constantly getting back up again.