2023-01-01 A Meditation on Empty Pockets

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints— be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.” (1 Co 16:13–18 ESV)

There is no shame in the empty pockets of a day’s labors in the Lord. We haven’t met our quota. Recruitment to the cause is at an all time low. People sense we are eager on their behalf, and are coy. So the militant woman or man in service treads lightly, boasting first of all in the professionalism and courtesy of their quest. They learn to say, “No matter; God is glorified!”. They excuse themselves and retreat to a peace that passes understanding. They recruit unknowingly with the simple calmness of their personal walk with the Lord.

For it is a mystery, the professional and the soldier. Their cause is too good to be true, though we, like those we meet, initially overlooked the garage-sale level of find, and we were coy. We sensed something good in the air, and rattled this way or that, wisdom perhaps but also abruptness when the alternative is also very real: closeness, mutual celebration of some kind of Presence, a rare find.

For it behooves any would-be witness, to vibe off of the character traits and beauty of those whom he or she meets. Sacrament cannot be celebrated alone. The desire to be rid of life’s—friendship’s—messiness can lead us to abrupt choices that mock the affections and the leaning on each other, and the simple forgiveness towards the one shunned or who has their faith blasphemed against. We believe in forgiveness now. We believe in loving the unkempt and unlovable. We are a bundle of neuroses and anxieties ourselves. We coexist in a tangle and mad dash.

Together enough is said by now that we can whirl into the night with a new chapter in our lives: a church whose denizens, the better of them, warm to the Gospel and are not discomfited by the tears or nervous sense of personal presence, of their peers in the faith. We can rest in the warmth of the community, that hears, that tries to make “projects” of the weak or the lame, that is not ashamed to love. For the accidental living into God’s Truth is just as potent as any works-righteous boast of our prodigal and fruitful ministries. Those can be proud, whereas the distracted lover of people does their good deed in plain view and in radical departure from the established wisdom of the matter.