“3 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. Qualifications for Deacons 8 Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. 9 They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. 11 Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. 13 For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. The Mystery of Godliness 14 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. 16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” (1 Ti 3:1–16 ESV)

Sometimes what we are dissipates into the ether like so much escaping steam, yet we had Focused on non-negotiables, the Resurrection of Christ, the Ministry of the Saints, the Perseverance of the saved. Sometimes what we are turns logger-headed and confused, because we Forgot: what you say, O Saint, it matters. What you profess, O learned one, it matters. What you stand tall around, O citizen of the church, it matters.

The exchange of emissaries, the city flooded with New Friends, representatives, according to the postulate, I believed, and so I spoke: we Believed, and so we spoke. Because “mad peace” (insane levels of peace; urgent or aggressively pursued) takes root over simply Safe Passage then writ larger, writ larger, and writ into the Stony Hearts of the participants: let the record show, here there is a trusting Embrace of ideals, of personages, of titular characters and lightning rod Representatives. Because God don’t make no junk and, moreover, channels coalesce around a lightning rod Persona, yet times do come when said Persona is already, truly, and surprisingly him or herself close to the Flame. Is anointed to Lead, to Negotiate, to Disputate, to Acknowledge.

Because Peace is puzzled over, it’s kind of difficult to declare war on someone you’ve shared a meal with. It’s an age-old thought exercise, if you were two and two alone, on a desert island… well some people, perhaps one would kill the other; but also you Delegate tasks, the duo sharing the construction work with the fishing work, the Duo sharing the lookout for pirates with the gathering of kindling for a fire.

And doctrines rear their ugly head anew: Purgatorial nonsense, advocated because, “If we don’t come down hard, well then people will just go right on sinning”. The blessed Cruciform outpouring of post-Edenic labors, male labors, female labors, are an Embrace and foreshadowing of Christ’s Cross.

And the Prophet suddenly Laid Bare and on death’s doorstep potentially, is a Prophet denuded and their “Hey!” (as in, hey, unfair) is the preparatory remark to their “I got this”: their sane and calm, cool and collected, staring of the New Thing in the face. They go into a hail of arrows to Target one or two gameday things “around here”: to sit and speak to an audience, to use mic and radio waves, or other ways to Get Inside the perimeter and barbed wire, high walls and checkpoints, of the Embassies of world orders, of ideologues, of Deniers. Christ Rose from death. Christ gave His people the ministry of the Saints. Christ assured that once-saved always-saved. Christ gave this License to His people, to be apostles, and some martyrs, and those Sent Forth.

The ministry of the saints is exacted and executed in Precise Faith of both a trickle-down-effect and a bubbling-up effect: both that Good Deeds and World Contributions are the well-gosh-since-we’re-so-loved-let’s-do-some-good-works response, alongside being the patient plea and reminder of our headships that they, too, are good folk and moral and principled and all that. There is always room for a little more negotiation in this regard. Always some gentle shove or push towards a higher level of Saintedness. Always some way the friendship remains untarnished though the concrete objective marks are disputed and negotiated. 

We negotiate, but we Aim for the stars, for nothing less than some modern-day Pentecost (speaking the same languages), some modern-day two-halves to the bank account or the embassy’s talk channels, assets in the field, agents in the field, peacemakers in the field: all these Work and Labor because our religion… it may Warm the toes, the soul, the hands and feet, of its bearers, its image-bearers, those no longer in boring garb but stylized and simply loved on and welcomed because Religion has made them lovable. The Christian: forbearing, servant leadership, self-sacrifice. The Muslim: forbearing, servant-minded, well-mannered and self-sacrificing. The Hindu, the Buddhist, right on down the list: these are all of them God’s people (some God’s people). And the strange Expressions of religious garb and formalisms seem out of place in a Post-Enlightenment world, but in fact they are very much precisely what a ramshackle and roughshod populace needs Today. Something to coach and discipline to perfection their Presence and Peaceful Disposition in the community.

No one planned this. And they covet any one friend or another as simply irreplaceable: we respond, if she, if he is irreplaceable he or she is such to me as well: can you not just have a little either humility or faith that you need not steal this ewe lamb but find your own ewe lambs? They even go so far as to ask for a more “feminine” (as in submissive? Stereotyped in sexist fashion?) version of ourselves, but we say, sisters I have many, brothers as well, but what does the Lord require of you, but that you speak softly and walk humbly with your God. To the end of dialogue. To the end of Coming Together, a line around the corner of those who wish to speak with the newly-minted saint. We seek to Talk, because to Talk is to embrace on some level, is to recollect and utilize the Time to remember to whom we speak.