“10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Called to Be Holy 13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25  but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1 Pe 1:10–25 ESV)

Rather machined by a big lover of souls, by a life forged in the trenches; by our Second Nature, spirit-led Expediency, inspired Flow-of-Thought, calm and collected Brutish-to-Sin pluck. Pluck and circumstance: we hear and we Speak, the words Testament to this Reality most muscular in all the right ways and Humane, Human, Sensitive, in all its tendons that connect. We are Forged and machined, we are Inspired and Spirit-Led, we are Calm and we are Collecting for the Saints, someone give an “Amen” around here.

And the magisterial Encounter with another… religion? Communion? Long wished upon like a well or Envisioned across the pond, in another Headship called you-name-it Community, Church, Pontificate, and Sacrament: we really can only say, wow. Hmmph. I feel like I want to be a better person. Yet absent to Protestant fighting minds, the talk of sin, the talk of the Cross, of Forgiveness… it all comes out in the wash, in a strange and twin-like dual Track.

Because some things are Eternal, are Holy, are Sacrosanct, and we brave the Scorching Sun of the worship, because we have this Faith that God sees, that God knows, that God absolves and Incorporates.

Magisterial and hopeful for the paupers in our midst, the Church she goes into the spirit of said muscle-man, fighting Cadet, head honcho Sublime, and Speaks… and Sings… and goes Into the Spirit… We are of all people most Kept, kept in the nave, in the cuddling Blankets of the Cradle, we hear such Exhortation to be Good Folk, and this muscular Oomph, it does Inspire in the ways that Exhortations inspire. 

The protesting counter-argument, is that we also meet—pastor just said it! Pastor of foreign deities? No, I don’t think so—in the place of Dependency on a Father and God Above. We are blessed to know ourselves to be His Children, and this we pass on to all whom we meet. For, not everyone feels quite up to it, to the whitewashing and Pristine life of service to one church outlet or facet or another. Meantime we… we love on the Brethren, on the Sistren, because Church she is magnificent in Worship, magisterial in Formation, sublime in Activity.

And our home Communion, led by ma and pa, perhaps and first known around the table gathered as a Family, this is something subtle or rather not subtle, for its Bold Witness to a God who hears, who ordains, who calls into holy Service, who upbrings and at times upbraids, but at all times Celebrates that we are Home Again, in the Holy Revered church walls, beneath the holy steeply and high-hung lights and fans and ceiling. We no longer live in fear but rather, motoring according to Said Inspirational Spirit’s gentle but muscular Arms and hands Held, we write, we speak, we Coach and we instruct.

We know we’re in the Spirit because of a death-defying modicum, bedrock, sublime and bedline ping against all things worrisome and Holy: we cease fearing to draw near in the Spirit to the Body shed for our sakes, the death-defying Walk and hypnotic trance-like Dance according to the Spirit who said, some will prophesy, some serve at table, some minister and heal, some any number of a variety of gifts. We have these truths within us as self-evident, that God humbles the Proud yet sees past the facade of the Servant and sees a meeker brand of what is outwardly projected. Sees a curious and cautious brand beyond what is on the surface. Sees a beauteous and gladsome Brand rather than what dresses the windowpanes and outward visibility.

We are trying to recruit for this pan-Communion notion called Men, called Women, the middling ages Perfect for the recruitment drive. We want Everyone to pause and Wonder at the service we just witnessed, as an Encounter with Jesus, as a bolstering First-Base step towards the Fight of our Lives. We strain and subdue, there being a time for killing (killing sin) and a time for giving life. We subdue and make Purchase most Holy in the life that springs up Eternal. The Resurrection Life. We are soldiers for Christ because notwithstanding the anathema, “What is this person Doing here?” The cross-racial boundaries breached, the natural Distaste for what isn’t part of the same beautiful tapestry Perhaps. Perhaps to some few. But rather the contrary: the beauty of the Peace passed and solemn holy Welcome of those different from us in so many surface ways, but these Stories, these life Testaments, these we can Share.