“13 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” 7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. 17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. 18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. 19 I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.” (Heb 13:1–19 ESV)

Good tidings we have had, and good voyages we have embarked upon. Squalor is there, peering in and rather selfishly Claiming the unction for itself, that mystical Quality of Majesty, that Royal Aura of the King’s parish, of the King’s or Queen’s congregation, of the Heart of the sinner now rebirthed. Unction being flippantly tossed the wayside as something just to attach oneself to, using reversed thinking. All of us need Christ for us, and when we latch on to something in this life, well that is our Godhead and Christ.

Anything will do: we latch on and we Discover indeed Christ within ourselves, provided the patient hand of an idol, worldly or spiritual, seems—if not truly is—present. God is in the business of Elevating our thoughts and actions to a New Level, a level forged in some visit to the heavenly, some visit to the majesty, some visit to the bleak but perfunctory, attention-demanding, leadership-requiring, decision-asking, frontline of War. We are almost of such sane courage as to claim to be all-sufficient in ourselves, only that once we’ve deleted Christ from the picture, we stand to topple like a tower.

Yet His unction is ours really to thrive on in full imagination’s power. We latch onto, and never let go: please attest to this relationship, we scream. Please place it gingerly in a glass bottle, never to go the way of a former acquaintance now forgotten. No, the unction and glue as witnessed in the field, these experiences we needs never forget. We needs never forget that Christ buoyed us and coddled us, cured us and spoke mellifluous words with us.

Very sage theologians of wit do stay in character around the holiness of what-all Christ purchased in our name, never undoing their own careful and persistent Labors, as if we need to smirk or degrade each other. God places in His people very real theological Value and Import. God Rewards the patient and sincere ones. God is Our Unction to claim, because wouldn’t it be nice to go full-hog All The Way to tipperary all on our own recognisance, leaning on Him but Yes! Not quite needing His staying hand, because we are after all created in and containing fully His Image! Just knowing He will pick up the phone if we call, again, everyone is in this helter-skelter Hell called Life, dying quicker than we wish, fearing to reach out because of the Bleary-Eyed Fact of Career Calling and of Nervousness.

He will not turn us away. Promises gently visited, these are wild-eyed Ways we maintain the Togetherness, strange unions as war does make. And to the bleary-eyed Sojourner, Soldier, Submissive, Leader, we witness their Unction as propagating and passed down the line, down the Chain of Command: fathers we have had many, yet this is Special, the formalities and decorum of Life Together if only we be allowed to Submit to the established Order.

But instead, we are pushed from the nest, and instead we are coaxed and cajoled unto dearly-bought Action: I will be okay, you go worry about your own people. All of us wish to create for our brothers and sisters that Hope spelt out in the Scriptures, that we will “Be okay, you go help the others”. All of us, unction Seen, dearly-bought Dialog engaged, are Ready somehow to Know, God is there and we His creation are working as diligence does work, carefully, painstakingly, yet All-Sufficient in and of ourselves plus one, plus Jesus. And the sage words about this theological point or that one, are like water to the soul, wounds bound up, strange Appropriateness spelt out.

If we tire, it is but for a season because we will Rise Up to be there for our brother or sister in Christ: we will Plan to Thrive, plan to do Solemn War, plan to do Gracious Able Activity. To be in lockstep with said Chain of Command, please we plead, treat me like this elder or that one in time past treated me: let me curl up beside you and dialog… only no, we are too talked-down-to for that, for that Drawing Near: you Intuit and show holy Fear, and some morsels will fall from the master’s table. Right? Or do we strike out on our own, fearing to offend, cautiously Hopeful that Today’s Sovereign is walking in the unction and heaven-sent submission of Christ Himself the Enabler? This truth we believe on and hold fast to, that Christ is still Present in the world today, for us to gleefully and in bliss Discover in the trenches and barracks. Because the Law we had from Moses, but grace and truth comes from Jesus Christ.