“5 I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, 6 and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. 10 When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. 11 So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers. Final Instructions 12 Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity. 13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love. 15 Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints— 16 be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. 17 I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, 18 for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people. Greetings 19 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. 20 All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. 21 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. 22 If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. 24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.” (1 Co 16:5–24 ESV)

The handshake, the Certainty of life evolved vis-a-vis collaboration and altruism, mixed right in with the selfish gene: we are cracking up never, no longer, zero beef as in zero strife, as in take-your-pick: eternal friendship or mad peace, Able to be ourselves because of that mythical cityscape back home-side, where brushing shoulders arrive daily, hourly, on the passenger planes of the Sky.

Where colleagues zero in on a degradation largely avoided in this Dreamscape of Peaceable Neighborliness, the zen garden, the utopian community, all these so much wild grinning across that barroom table, because temperatures change drastically and suddenly.

Simply to shake out the culprit, is to Forgive: yes, you may have killed my people, whittled my Empire, ruthlessly bombed my sanctuary (we pray not the sanctuary, but the office park and the city cosmopolitan largely, if absolutely need be; bomb the military outposts, let the innocent live on).

Because please see, to the hiker and nimble-on-the-feet winter park one strolling, there is a vision of Cadence and utter Beauty as to the imaginary (rather, ghosted) best girlfriend, guyfriend, colleague, friend making the grade, making the Beautiful Beyond Words carefully placed footstep, do this in synchronicity! O Lover, do this because the Empire is real, and the world so much bigger than we imagine.

The wild dance, wild no longer, of the soldier and the ones swept up by the rhythm and Salsa-esque Invite: our people, our tomes are simple, our meeting places subtle, our truth claims outlandish. I don’t give a care what you are, around these parts you get a straightening. Around these parts we dish out fists and fisticuffs.

The soldier then appeals, radios (rather today, satellite telephones) or goes by courier to plead, “It ain’t happening around here, the evangel, the conversion mission”. We are locked up, hemmed in on all sides. Our very prayers, they are veering into the fanciful and minus the warm arms raised of a temperature-inducing Holy Spirit. Only said Holy Spirit is like the sleep-walking strange prophetic and girlish or boyish mutterings of the up-all-night junkie doing line after line after line. And we wonder, do we cope or do we lance out, sally forth, Charge! Charge the bullheaded frontline of the inimical ones, the racist ones (reverse racism also prevalent, hating the majority race because you are a minority race). Make peace, however, insofar as, sure, you’ve made clear: I foot the restaurant bill. My treat to you. But! No trafficking in poor things, do O able man, able woman, see an investment horizon! Invest in your people!

God invests in all of us way beyond our wildest dreams. He builds up even in the careful administration of a day free of work, a day to be godlike, a day… can any reasonable thought justify Sabbath? Sabbath as shared by Jew and Greek alike, by Moslem and Christian alike. And right on through the ages, through the longitudes, East meets West around here. A day to be godlike and to meditate. To simply allow waves of peace to flow over the body, soul, and mind. To be a bit half drunk from the afternoon glass of wine, at least spiritually Warm and Available to any comers: Monday will be the day to adjudicate and correct excesses. Excesses of Love for each other, for coming together to Worship, for a few linguistic turns shared: Praise God, indeed! We pray that insert-prayer-here, indeed! Who knows but the All-Knowing one, indeed! We are headed for a better place, indeed! And to the hatred, pray it not be a splinter unextracted, but that we Ably Forgive and putter about a little cheated to the cynical mind, but a little warmed by the camaraderie in mind. To the youthful, we lift up prayers that their course may be clear, that their principles be intact, that their punching bags be supple and yet firm, their pillows theirs and their doorsteps portals to a fourth dimension.