2025-03-21 A Meditation on Ecosystem

“15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” (Col 1:15-23 ESV)

The aspect known as full metal jacket meets a point emphatic and nose-to-the-ground called Grace: we do not glide on stories of strength, on resolutions always to be lightness of being, on stories of the Absence of error. Errors happen, but more than this, the Gospel is a point not easily elided, not easily glided over and through: sharp contrast, astonishing inbreaking, patterned Failure. Our jacket then, being full metal, is owned by a soul formerly limping along, and still finding itself in that Diagnosis. Our full metal jacket is a shield surrounding the Impossibility of Christ With Us. Surrounding the impossibility of Second Chances. Surrounding the impossibility of meeker estate, personally speaking. Surrounding the possibility of a traumatized or broken constitution.

All those noble ideas… they had to confront the end to the calm and logical story-telling. There had to be allowance for a Wake Up Call most regrettable: Christ’s death. There had to be allowance for Already Raised Up mentality. No time to wallow or turn things again to a calmer storyline, but rather Trauma and Shock, Compromised souls meet an Unforgiving world. And all while we’re going down that Experiential Rabbit Hole, the shield, the full metal, it is there to promise or grant a moment’s peace for the sake of the prayers of the Saints.

Speaking in tongues is some reflection on this, when the abruptness and concern ends, the futility and sense of exposure ends, the odd joke or accidental love note begins. Start just to speak what comes, and if we’re living out Grace, then that is no judgment. No judgment? Yes, and therefore try and try again. Until it is pure Peace and pure Spirit on an Elevated spiritual plane, though the speaker be low and humbled by mighty Hands from On High. Not all need make incomprehensible words; for some it is a strange vocalism and accent, pattern of heard Speech, familiar words attempting unfamiliar peace-making.

The fact of an Impossible Reality brings to the forefront a final Return once more to our home base and place of familiarity: a place secure and Urgent, where we suddenly—having a forward view—can forgive ourselves the destructive deeds past. Because after all it is so Urgent and so Acknowledging of that Need, human Need most salutary, human Need bottled up in Group Action: we act for the Security of the Christian’s home. We act for the Intelligence of the Believer’s practices. We act for the Homeland of a Way nonbelligerent, ecosystem and Progress, tamped down by that Full Metal of the Jacket, and all this because it is hard to fathom a gentler outlook, a noncombatant Hope, a shared Vision, an experimental Community. Hard for some flailing enemy out there, perhaps, but soldier on we do. Oh, so the promise of a new day… it is on hold because of a dastardly War. But come it shall, and Man will live into his and her promise of a civilization grounded in intangibles, love, patience, embryonic activity, strange duties discharged and teachings verbal and vocal. The Word was made flesh. And we, we are mum and trance-like in that Word’s overarching flight patterns On High, above our heads, above our Situation.