2024-05-16 A Meditation on Duty-Bound

“4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Eph 4:1-16 ESV)

Duty-bound across a spectrum, the soldier’s reality is both alert, confrontational, not accepting of weird rumors of all-things-being-kosher; and the soldier’s reality is at the same time communal, high-flying, a soaring edifice unto society. The soldier is dutiful to know how many of her or his compatriots are holed up or awaiting some thaw, some flag flown high and carried forth, some resumption of that same society: for, to be under orders and in service is to dare to confront the blase assumptions of a society. It is to be strangely at odds—we who long to be copacetic and peace—nonetheless to find oneself in the culprit’s lair, in the so-called illicit mindset, in the hated and maligned basic posture.

So to the courage, a courage facing squarely the end of weak submission or evasion; we have insane courage even if in a more peaceful time we shied away from the duty. Even if it was a momentary need writ large, writ into our times and seasons, writ into our deeds and pugnacity. We write into all these things the hair-brained scheme of plain Service. Service to a leader Jesus unpopular and to a cause beleaguered, not the king of the crowd, punchy and determined whilst not of an easy certainty. Our certainty is that “Aha!” that suddenly legalized our “illicit” march: we march, because all things have their seasons and all things their times; we see in a Christ a strange induction: too late, now, to walk the easier route; too late, now, to just “all get along”; too late, now, to live beside a stated Plan and Rationale.

Our rationale led to an immediate pugnacity, an immediate bunker-life, an immediate sly but winsome smile on the face, that Today is all-things, Today is first principles our sage but cautious, willing and subservient mindset. We serve; we labor over peculiar details, so easy by some measures but in fact where and how the war is fought. The war is over just that maddening statement that Christ is for us, that all mankind is caught up in sin, that He saw a route that solved matters by humbling even the leader and sinless leader of the pack: as a sinner, as a crucified culprit, as far as reassurance that God literally plucks up and washes clean any and all offenses as just so outlandish as were those charges against our Savior King. If He is innocent, then so too are we: yes, Christ is in a radical business.

Therefore words percolate over long hours of thought not controlled, not able to be tamed, our own peculiar brand of service unto all comers, yet is this thought “of the hour” one worth dying for? Still, the words simmer, and the people we pray for… these are indeed capable of pronouncing that Absolution, that dying reassurance God did it for us, we do it for one another. And another Day, another blissful and patient daydream met with Prayer. We pray, because God has both submitted us and simultaneously ended the lethargy or rote aspect: it is exciting to be His handmaidens and masters, His tools and foreplanned Servants. “Is this all there is?” meets a Savior Christ not boring, not rote, not fore-destined except unto Agency and Personal Decision-making. So too are we, in the driver’s seat yet also Forgiven for the wild bumper-car ride. So, to our brethren for whom we this day, in haste and perfunctorily, speak: weird the vacant platforms found; weird the strange silence heard; weird the Fact: somehow this Hour was made for our own testing, and tested we’ve been already umpteen times; yet each test has been also Forgiven and Reinstated: next time, answer the Call; next time, do the submission; next time, walk in fear yet quiet Joy, Peace in believing.