“4 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor 4:1-6 ESV)
To overcome the convenient thinking, Christians remind themselves theirs is a soldiering role. For, it is too convenient to deny and dismiss one another. It is too convenient to anticipate wrongheadedness. It is too convenient to succumb, when the devil tempts us to hate and to question and to accuse. We are, after all, experimental in the truth claim that God is for us, that we are fully vested members of the Body, that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
People meet whatever expectations we set for them, whether in the form of suspicions, or in the form of applause and camaraderie. More, some weasel words may have preceded us. Some blanket frustrations may have outlet themselves in our general direction: wouldn’t it be convenient… think this through with me… how did it all come to pass? Whereas to our mind we are heroic, to the minds of those to whom we were sent, we are tolerable at best.
Because not all things suit us. Not all careers past are ones we can sidle right back into. Our Callings are special, rooted in some plain cultural approximations, in some simple notion of those to whom we are sent… not, perhaps, to everyone (quoth Christ in the New Testament), but to Some. Who shaped us. Because of whom we struggled always quite to fit in, to talk the talk, to do the study, to live into the career.
No, we are called to a brand of heroism that literally coaches us some days to wonder if it was all a dream. Because in thus wondering we invite God’s Holy Spirit to be real for us. We invite God’s precious compassion to worry literally, uniquely, personably, about us. He has invested in us His people, not expecting anything in return except reverence. Except praise. Except what little offering we have to bring to the collection plate.
The ecstasy of worship, this meets the fact of a day’s labor being behind us. A week of labor in our rearview. And to some, it seems an easy thing to cajole up to the Apologetica and to the Mesmer, to the Trance, to the hands lifted in Holy Praise. But to us… it is always a battle, and immediately we can pat ourselves on the back because the battle is uniquely ours to live into and to own. It was no cakewalk, what we confessed on that day when we made the good confession. And increasingly, as we mature in the faith… rather (no bland accession to notions such as Christian slow improvement) as we get Used To the crowds of “faithful”… as we get more familiar, the stark picture resolves, clarifies: these are just as needful of Conversion as we ever were. Rather, there is so much that is un-Christian, going on in churches. And if this doesn’t depress us, it certainly encourages us: the fields are white for the harvest.
Because everyone around us has this nominal level of self-aware Christian behavior, while also having this uncontrollable internal feud and outward levels of hatred for the brother and sisterhood, outward jealousies or resentments, outward frustrations and unforgiveness. We… we have tried to speak the good word to an audience a little too timid and eager to please… please the bishop and standing vestry members. Please the powerbrokers and eloquent ones, found in pulpit and prayer chain.
Christians need a home base. Christians… it all could have gone so differently, right? Or are we still faulted for the mystery element of life in the fast lane, pre-conversion? Yes, were those somehow easier years? There is no room to dispute: those were trying years, minus Sabbath rest, minus worshipful mesmer, minus some Gift afforded His saints by the Spirit and Son and Father. So our ecstasy… it is copyrighted and trademarked as something Non-negotiable, always fruitful, capable of blossoming even amidst the most scurrilous hatred or doubt lofted our way. Because all these… to some of these were we sent. To experience not flattery and ambition, but a genuine Back-and-Forth in the Spirit, with these on whose shoulders we lean and in whose name we bless the Lord. We are capable and we are sufficient for the day’s worries. We serve a twenty-four-seven Deity Above, who instructs mankind and points the way to a cleaner and brighter Tomorrow.