“53 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2  For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5  But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8  By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9  And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10  Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11  Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12  Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” (Is 53 ESV)

We are trying on all cylinders to Make the Day’s Labors Forthright, Becoming of an officer of the Cross, Cognisant but not overly calm and familiar, Stark, Dueling and Dynamically Counterpoised. Because only in Christ’s Metaphysical gamble with the deadly Cross and the Infamy (unlike us, His generation did not have a forebearer or Exemplar) is Something Stark and nearly Impossible the Dueling Notions to hold in mind, made Available and made our Newsreel.

We study our Newsreel and see: plain as day contrast lives in the Encounter and Void between two sides, peaceful or hard at war, and this Contrast… it is easily made customary, familiar, non-starter, untalked over. Each denizen of the Times must therefore not be coerced and shouted down from the Stark Contrast Awareness. These dueling sides, they cannot readily simultaneously be held in mind!

One side lives Post-Breakage: This is my Body, broken for you. This side lives in a stylized (nearly) aggressive or punctual Timeliness of plaintive Appeal: be Baptized! Be Saved! Be Aware, something New is Here! The other side, plainly “normal” and come-as-come-may, nonetheless of a sudden is made Sinister and Salacious and Evil. How is this fair? How, indeed, when there is no longer the plea, “I was just going with acceptable wisdom, going with the flow”? All of us are facing a Reckoning that urgently Appeals unto the call to Be Made New.

Madly attacking, wondrously Dueling in the spirit and holding Dueling Notions in mind, we Honor those Servants of Christ, of Christ’s Legions (we are Many!) and Armies of soldiers spilling across the gates and Invoking, Impregnating, Instilling the Reward of a gladsome Testimony made Relevant to the new faces, made Real and Courteous, Polite to a point because we have Healthy Self-Confidence that Ours is a True and Firm handshake, a True and Firm checkpoint, a True and Firm distantly-seen and lauded Presence. Indeed, call it religious: the soldier standing tall at a Distance, is a soldier dreamily wondered about and to him or her is attributed a Tomorrow Hope.

Yes, we are social animals and butterflies around our Prospects for making Friendships, we are liquid and widespread around Fascination with the Other, with New Acquaintances most casual and most widespread. Because of the troops who put aside the warring and sat down with their Others to celebrate the Holy Nativity of Christ, Christmas. Our Patent Lifestyle calls for strange mutual submission to the Spirit in Coming Together: “But I hate evangelicals!” “But these heathens are in sin!” Somehow, something Unspoken is transmitted as two submissives to social custom do Meet and Read each others’ Minds and Study the facial expressions and get a little nervous around themselves being Presentable, and Submit to their premonition and worries as to how the Other does see them, does see us.

Such is the madness of our War, that the Stark Experience of a newcomer should Trump the aged and patient studious gestalt. To a newcomer, “Hey, the gospel literally says Adam blamed the woman Eve, and isn’t that interesting, a little sexist maybe?” But to those long familiar and accustomed to it all, the talking points are elsewhere, are Pauline (should women be ordained?), are fights over infant baptism, and so on and so forth. But to a newcomer, there is a fresh Outpouring of some facets, all facets indeed, of God’s Spirit.

At the same time, the newcomer soon overlooks and forgets: these others, they are Clearly much more Holy and Chaste than me! However, no, the newcomer has that weight loss inspiration, that drive to Fast and Pray, unknown to the lethargic and familiar pew-dweller. And if one is Inspired to Fast, to change Lifestyles, to sin and Repent, then who are we to Question? Only see, the fact is we can still hear the Gospel from someone long having given up on the ten pounds overweight. “But shouldn’t a preacher of the Gospel be Perfect?” Yes, in theory, but weight takes spiritual forms as well, pride and posturing, laziness and grandstanding.