“13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. 20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Rom 14:13-23 ESV)
The Christian dwells not quite “embedded” except for purposes of attempt, of would-be, of what-if, of endeavor. The mystic in us tries to engage, to belong, to join, but faces horrible spiritual war, utter need for pastoral care, for prayer, for the healing of harm done by drawing “too close”.
The Bible is quite bold to state some grand enterprise is indeed to follow: why, after all, do we this day take up the fight against sin and death? It is for no table scraps but rather that absolute Wonder is on order, absolute Ecstasy is to be owned, absolute Miracle is to arrive. Therefore to draw close, to embed, is to go to war around speechless amazement. This, too, shall be forgiven. That, as well, shall be redeemed. All of us, also, shall join hands in the grand banquet.
To “embed” then is somehow to enter a grown man’s, woman’s, war. The embedded soldier acts as a friendly, but has a distant gaze or recall or almost timid, meek hope, in a Purpose alien, imagined, hoped upon, prescribed. The embedded soldier, publicly even seen as spy, is a friendly type, after all. On our side, even as he or she dreams beyond the low bar of church life, of expectations, of licensed plans.
The checks and balances, the independent oversight, all this and the spycraft most sublime, citizen of no foreign state but rather Gifted to the present populace, as a friendly, as a member, as those risking all in order to dream big on behalf of the Corporation. Such as these we court, and cultivate, and don our plainly-showcased fatigues in order to join.
Theology is not some fanciful philosophy or “edumucated”, intellectual, fallacy or fantasy. We lean heavy on theologies: such as that all of us are member of a Body; such as that God redeems the lost years; such as that we judge ourselves strictly while also attributing innocence to others.
The greatest fear: of treason against our own locale, against our own selves, against our own “make” in the world, is a fear brought low by all humble reaction. Yes, we have a duty to be responsible and to curate what respect or influence we have; but no, we are not therein to couch ourselves in some religion of avoidance. We do not ask of our religion somehow to make all pain go away, even as we preach that all pain shall dispel at the last day. Our faith, it is not some “gotcha” to perfect and seclude and indulge abject fantasy-life. We have no silver bullet. We have nothing except a bit more gumption the horror areas to enter and engage upon. Therefore we do not say, “I have an answer to every objection”, but rather, “Show me the battle plans! Let me race to that Tomorrow Promise of untold beauty and strange recompenses that deny evil any further license, where spirituality is ample and we will only be ashamed that we had less hope than this!” Religion is sin when it becomes some proud or self-anointed perch of being such “good guys”. We are soldiers; we are embedded; we are going for the full Message, not some indulgent avoidance mechanism. Yet to let people down a bit, to see our own self humbled, this is an occasion for Pastoral Care. “He, she, after all, wasn’t quite deserving of all we attributed to them.” Only, in Christ, we were deserving. We are renewed and fortified, to make the good moves, to Resurrect from the beleaguered half-crazed puzzles and regrets and engagements a bit “too close”.