“4 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. 7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Suffering as a Christian 12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” (1 Peter 4 ESV)

When courage is replaced by caprice, cavalier behavior, incorrigible hatred, there is no final moment for dialog. We never actually get our chance to be heard rationally and fairly; there is a “war between the states” blooming from seemingly nothing, from a once-upon-a-time open borders and calm, from the hope One Day to be heard.

Because we of all people were most to be pitied, believing as we did in being “Right” at day’s end. No enemy will brook this. No enemy, finding themselves on a losing platform, will neglect to do the sophistry and the caprice, to do the accusatory “plausibilities”, to lie outright and say, “Scout’s Honor!”.

Such is the compromised but still Owned world of our God and Father Jesus Christ. Still, we have our Joy throughout the day, though church life increasingly seem to be going the way of horror. Church life, it is such a sacred Trust that endless compromises, knife through butter, are made.

The soldier’s job is never to repent of the Joy in their heart. It is never to back down from the lofty claim that Society has its pockets of grace, its places where somehow we “grew up together”, we were “minus the legalese and weird thoughts”: what weird thoughts? That somehow a name or a single gesture, comment, is Legalistic and Formal Notice of a fact. No, we may get the names and get the gestures, but parry right back: “I thought it was more a joke than anything sincere; I didn’t know it wasn’t your worst enemy pretending to be you!”.

All told, we get our heads out of the dumpster, out of the quagmire, and cease to play by Enemy’s Rules. The joyous sincerity—we “get it”, even though opaque is our outfit to an outsider—is one we share liberally, treating all comers as already beloved and friendly members of the commune. That opacity is simply the neurotic nightmares and self-incriminating suspicions of the Others. They are the ones dream up “well how could it have gone any other way?” rationale. They mockingly ask for answers, how did the dance go, all things told?

More, however, we sympathize with the pastor’s embedded nature. When sweetness is spelt in written form, emails and such, we may for a moment witness Catholicity and the Embeddedness of being in a Church Together, and see immediately the wearying bleary-eyed Fact of it all: spiritual warfare, depressive or confused spirits, wrongheaded outlays, that “knife through butter” both real, detested, but wisely not forgotten: church life is the butter, and the knife is all things we have no defenses against, all things that Ruin and Destroy… because we Know of Resurrection Glory. The fabric will miraculously come back together again, day’s end.

And the pundits, and the analyses, this newfound Respect we share with our fellow or gal, this is the Respect Due to God’s Agents in the world. See how quickly people fall into joyous line, when granted a little respect, a response to their email, the “imputation” that they are already Whole and already Cleansed and already Baptized. Again, we now are burdened by a church gone Rogue, gone Conveniently-Thinking, literally gone All Law. And we nonetheless sign up to Serve. At the pew. In the social gatherings. Because they can think of nothing amidst this time of war than their own guiltiness, now imputed to others. 

The soldier is in a gladsome Company, knowing full well the awfulness of that “other half”, the “neighboring states in this civil war”, the ways heightened Alert has caught up with the normal and peaceable back-and-forth, economies dependent on each other and sealed with a handshake and a smile at times, even. So we fight on, puckered up and spitting out something we can’t quite Name: they call it Law as opposed to Gospel what we experience in the negative. It is a heavy church, a panicky compromise, a corrupt clericalism. But amidst all this God’s servants are not slow as some count slowness. What we Observed in community… this is redeemable, we can redeem it. With the new church plant, perhaps, but in some way we are eternally patient with that beloved Institution called Church. Heresy before schism, they say. Put up with a bad pulpit rather than break the catholicity, the unity, the fellowship shared around the altar. Our dream, it is still Valid, even if we ourselves feel on the losing end of a lengthy Judgment. Repent… that we have done, and repeatedly, but the enemy knows not what it wants, so drunk on power, and asks us to submit eternally to them mistaking that for repentance. More, the mistake is that no submission will end their exasperated summary of our creed.

To end today’s cynicism, however, it behooves us yet again to go where the angels murmur and eternity Beckons, the war front, the broader Church, the camaraderie and ministries shared. To this we warm and that readily, because it is God for us, nonchalance instead of the worrying times around approaching God’s holiest. That holiness is our life of service, nevermind those who would cut it short. Nevermind the Enemy we are trying to Liberate. Nevermind the hostage situation around affections or around boots on the ground. We are held hostage by the caprice, the “Caught in the act” of a former friend turned Enemy. We forget that after Victory comes a long period of Denial on the part of said Enemy. We must be patient and wise. Because we can lose the peace after winning the war.