2024-10-05 A Meditation on Boldness

“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 Cor 16:12-24 ESV)

The emblem of the soldier is a quality of severity as in having an edge, but with it the absolving grace that is all Yes and Amen. What this means is, people are a wreck. Lives are a mess. Instincts teach us, even and especially under conviction, to shoulder the weight, out of frustration simply to give up, to remain in our decrepitude. And this is the soldier’s Experience “out there”, that he or she may be in fact—spare us the thought, O you who would make us haughty—more contrite, better confessed, judiciously extra spared. And so like lambs to the wolves, we are called upon having finally given up our bravado and our personal claims to fame, suddenly to be angular and severe, that is, Firm. We are called to have an Edge that is unrelenting. We are called to have a Personal Conviction that stays intact. We are called to dilly-dally no longer in any faux give-and-take: once the bedrock is in place, we are all giving. We no longer fuss at the taxes assessed on our bodies, on our patience, on our souls. We gladly surprise the tax-master and the assessor, because our Confidence and Boldness is on a different level.

Our Boldness is on the level that holds firm, fast to the Anchor, which Anchor is our own surety, our testimony and the response it met with, such that we count on angels on high somehow to make words to be heard as though through a cloud dimly, to assess communicative skills, to drop educated lyrics, to whisper because of that Bedrock, which Bedrock comes out and comes through our speech, hinted at, brushed up against, firm and stoic, stolid and brandished like a metallurgist’s anvil. And more, we sacrifice even our best words to that effect, all may be rebooted again and again with ever repeated Here I Stand’s and the mesmerizing feeling, the hand reached out to touch, and the affirmation that this is sure footed and perfect, perfect in Composure and Confidence, perfect in Bravery and Basic footholds.

So that when we feel back against the wall, when we feel unable to rise up any longer, only then they will see souls trained on the Good Word, souls that testify with some simpler Fact internalized once upon a time, some Sabbath observance or friendly self-giving, some distant gaze in the world-weary and soldiering eyes, some holy notion of this that shall not be named, or if named, then in quiet reverence; and in all this, the Hope that as an army of uncompromised Otherness, some special Juice and Elixir shall bless the entire audience, both sides of the war, with a feeling: today I met Grace. Today I met Love and Patience. Today I met Christ.

Hard words, and simply therefore a call that we be no longer offensive to any and all who have a junior brand of religion, who are observing days and seasons, fasts and careful censored speech; who go quiet at the ribaldry ‘round the campfire, who are always it seems pent up or tired with adjudicating right and good Christian Behavior in their lives; to these we concede nothing except to salute and honor what they Honor. In the name of showing that inability to budge and that refusal to go mealy-mouthed. We refuse, because by being Strong we are become Weak, that all may be blessed in untold ways, by the Spirit who gives strength to the weary and composure to the neglected, untold Prizes and Fruit of jesting turned reverent. We jest, and Jesus is warmed. His strong house in our hearts is filled with singing and spirit. His cavalcade of witnesses gather together, because life is short, but our Savior has a best place at the feast, and we delight thus to honor Him.