2024-10-08 A Meditation on Experience Sufficient

“6 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.” (Mark 6:1-6 ESV)

Workaday faith revolves around the chastened or taught mind, around the chastened or taught body, around the chastened or taught heart. Our calling in life, like Jesus’ as a carpenter, disciplines and evokes light in our person. We have come to know certain red-light-green-light scenarios. We have come to understand what is substance, what is signed with our name, what is practicality met with audience. We are, in short, zealous for a Spirit that saddles chastened mind, that speaks or emotes from chastened body, that luminates and glows on chastened heart. We are no longer persnickety or disciplinarians, except insofar as our regiment makes solemn Confession, that is, makes dutiful Workout Routine, that is, that makes exemplary Service to the others.

To the brethren, to the sistren, we thus serve. We are zealous for something that jibes or rubs off on our inner former disciplinarian, that is, on his or her tutelage unto a soul, body, mind constrained yet thereby cultivated, pruned so thereby flowering, trained and thereby Exemplary. It now comes as second nature, that once upon a lovely we lifted those x number of pounds, and once upon a daydream we benched those y number of weights, that once upon a morning we performed solemn ab crunches of the mentalist in us.

That mentalist is Here and Now faith by fiat: God’s fiat, our acceptance; God’s mesmer, our mesmerized status; God’s overweening and overarching Presence, our touchedness, our winsome battle with the headwind of Faith, standing tall while locks of hair flutter behind us. It is no cakewalk He has consigned us to, rather, as draftees and for many, as recruits, we meld with a Spirit rambunctious and rampant, to man the ranks and ramparts, to have it in fact come naturally, our Duty, our Heft, our Meaningful Presence.

We are meaning and presence unto little souls, in comparison to our own heft and girth. We are meaning and presence with no thought of reward. We are meaning and presence towards companionship aka company, the draftee strangely clutching to their person yet cheered by our gladsome Announcement. That God is for us; that Tomorrow will be a clean slate; that all things are hereby rebooted and reset as God’s progeny, God’s mission, God’s march. We are happy because He has counted us worthy, not to fuss and gripe about sins past, but to start Anew, for Tomorrow, for This War, where we are in fact needed and loved; hear the voice at the other end of the scrappy landline, or mobile, or in the Air Around Us: go forth, young soldier! Be prize and ingratiation to the masses unto whom you are sent! Be induction but not indoctrination, to a cohort of hearts expectant and eager to know of that Spark you show Within.

That spark being an absolutely overarching wrestling match, with muttered half-thoughts, fears, senses of unholy indoctrination or obedience or rivers coursing through unto infamy. We long both through the appearance that all is Kosher and Celebratory, with the fact, our city sojourn, our countryside hike, meets strange ghosts and ghouls and frightful exchanges (“What is my facial expression, am I smirking or grinning like a fool?”) while also taking all this as food for the emaciated body, encouragement for the brave soul, tutelage for the courageous heart. We know that His Cross was towards a self-sacrifice that legitimized and may even have caused an unrecorded “Thank you”: Thank you for the last night’s dinner together; that was no emaciated nor harried encounter, but rather was worth it all coming to a violent end come next morn; it was somehow special enough to be Eternal; it was Real, and no thought of enemies except insofar as Christ Himself placed Himself in intervening position as to that Judas: I will handle it; take your sip and your bite, I shall come back again from the dead; somehow the cipher shall persist and not be watered down with lesser feasts. That cipher: Christ with us, all impediments evaporated and then washed away in Divine Baptism of the Spirit, in Divine Winds of the Companionship, in Divine Blessings of the “Hey”. Hey, man, woman, you got this. Hey, woman, man, are you hearing what I say? Hey, all comers, let us remember this juncture where we found love.