“22 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” ’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”” (Mt 22:1–14 ESV)

To grow up in the Faith, this is a tactic all of us are Engaged in, to learn hey this front office, this support staff, this team agency, is of Highly Sophisticated and calm Prayerful Parable-Telling outlay. If and when we Meditate on the Outlay, the Proceedings, the Emails and the so-called “Spam” which is actually anything but, meditate on the “trash” coming down the streaming tubes, meditate on the “ephemeral” in darkened cinema houses: God uses even the plebeian and secular to Tell One Storyline. To lift up and checker with massaged firming up Gestures, to Create and Elevate and Proclaim “Friend” to all who will listen… these are the Gestures of a Living Spirit. But as for that Minefield…

Every other step we take and terror, oops the minefield there. Minefields hither and minefields thither, yet what Holds True is Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of all. Indeed, to ameliorate others, to ameliorate the religious claims of alternates, some go lazy or wistful or cautious, the broad church as its called, wishy-washy in some regards, broadly embracing in others, but in any case we Learn: that so-called Antithetical One, the friend from another tradition, they actually prefer the chutzpah of the Boldly Saved to the presumption of the “we’re all just friends aren’t we?” church.

That is, we have a certain Professional Respect for those who are flamboyantly Saved. For those who are treading the minefield with Zero Negotiations around just by Whom and Why they are Saved. We see nerdy, cross-eyed Focus from the secretaries and backroom, behind the scenes pundits and actors: we see Love for the Brethren through-and-through, a Love on screen and in the inbox but scarcely Earning what it should. The love of a father for a son or daughter, of a child for their parent, of a One we met so briefly in a buzzing East Side bar or West Side cafe. While the world teeters of Annihilation, somehow the Embedded, the Limbs-Extending Secretariat, the Producers of Ephemera, to be Consumed, to be Meditated upon, to be… we use stuff fifteen years old today, ahora, because we learn to generalize or interpret Certain Things as meaningful while others… too subtle!

That is, the Christian is in the business of coaxing and patiently pleading their People into a single track, into a frame of Mind Spiritual, Parable-Telling, and Miracle Showing: if they were silent, even these stones would cry out! Messiah! And our Messiah, somehow they ephemera we design individually, again to the fifteen-year-old goldmine, is Better, more Heartfelt, because we behold and love on those Personally, Physically, present with us, and on their Ideations and Outlay.

The Messiah factor, then, is just an Invite to choose this day whom we will follow: the world is full of would-be Saviors, and full of beheld Suffering and Death. To take arm in arm, hand in hand, to Speak Truth and Speak Aggression against the status quo, to put up a Firm Wall of Resistance against the come-what-may irreligious and broad church slip-and-slide, this is to be Woke as to the Evangelical Moment of Decision. The evangelical… he or she is Defined by a Cut Made (knife put in), by a Train Jumped onto (go straight to the station), by a Moment of Decision (choose this day whom ye will serve). Not because we got the coiffe or Cut just right, but because our limbs, our limber features and libidos and longings and lethargies, were sliding against the grain of God’s Created Design. We were Lost and we were slip-and-slide Ghosted and Written Off as “as good as dead”. Indeed we scarcely knew our own actions, and the images, the pornographies and teasing night clubs, the casual drugging and drinking, these things were a mask for deeper ennui and Rebellion. No, we were not sinister, perhaps, except that to waltz each night into the same rut, unhealing rut, unredemptive rut, is to be in Need of a Personal Decision, save the urgent friendships therein formed, save the memories minus the sins, but Become Conscientious and Aware of the need to Reform the Manners, Reform the Hungers, Reform, until scarcely even in our dreams do we fall away. Perhaps. Not that we aren’t in any case Forgiven.

And to the child in our midst, the ones Just Getting Started: language, education, gesture and gestalt, these things wash over truly Innocent flesh and truly Spared souls and truly Reformed minds. To punch at the punching bag, this is not only Encouraged but Protected, lest we get Discouraged or hurt ourselves with our good and well-originating Push. We are soldiers and we Push. We hold each other to a High Standard. We learn our capabilities, and hence that there is also the Capacity for Sin, because anything we excel at, minus Reform, is cause to repent. Is cause to Reform the Manners. Is cause to Fly High and into the broad strokes and winds of a Spiritual Gestalt, a Father Above, a Son by our side.