“17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Paul and Silas in Berea 10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. Paul in Athens 16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.” (Ac 17:1–21 ESV)

Always the runt, left out of the mix, likeability so often grates against measures of right-mindedness: we “Like” people on the basis of their cool cat demeanor, male or female or you-name-it, regardless of their Embrace of inimical ideas. Of moral ambiguities trodden under the capricious and selfish Foot of a social order, a political party, a Licensure to sin as Received unassumingly, fake modesty, us seduced by the plain Self-Satisfied glib smile.

The runt, bleary-eyed to the morning’s sunrise, is the brewer’s cauldron of plain Goodness, at times. The runt, they aren’t asking for stature or beauty or devilish good looks, but simply to Attest to their Experience of a Risen Lord. They are Healed by the invasion of Christ Principles of love for the loveless shown. They bleat and perk up and speak into a Void of Acceptable, Wicked behaviors.

We are fighting against plausible story-lines and the Received Wisdom of these likeable sinners. Some room for repentance, this is evaded in the courtroom saga, because one trademarked Accusation overshadows and clouds the entire proceedings. People aped and frustrated, speak up. Marches form. A blow to the face, illegal violence ensues. Some notion all will be agreeable and copacetic… this meets the cool truth of Life catch-as-catch-may, helter-skelter, rambunctious and looming Violence.

Because the thermostat has just gone Off-Chart. The moral ambiguity of the officer’s decision-making front office, backrooms, chain of command and Duty to his and her agents “in the field”, is only reflected upon in a greater context: go bold, rogue, decide and kill sin and decide again, mistakes upon mistakes made, but no matter, better to fall short than not to have tried. Better to err than to go glib and smiley-faced in some Jacobean smooth cleverness.

Only that Cool Cat cleverness and patient removed reflection, personal reflection, is also our Call to Arms this day. Can you look a man or woman in the eyes, and discern, plausible or not, look, ten, twenty years of living in a certain pall of sin, do not go Easy on their today’s judgment. Do not fluster and eek towards their Plausible, Seductive, Smooth argumentation: it came at the cost of Lives on the frontline of a yesteryear war or a Tomorrow War. Because few sins cannot be hidden by a fashionable attire and hairstyle, by the liposuction and beautifying movements. People doing well, are harried and Plagued, ten years, twenty years, minus touch, minus beloved status… minus the peace of a childless existence (“Be fruitful and multiply”). Or the converse, refusal to be dedicated to the Cause, not to vain self-reflection, a mirror of idolatry, but Dedicated to labor on because of One Experience germane, personally felt, that Entitles and Obliges a life-long career “in the service”.

Therefore to the soldier’s humble and patent claim, I truly know not how to judge these sinners. I have to go with the reflexive action, certain God will sort them out but more Certain, a word in time can save nine. A rebuke of sin, a church life together in the shadow of a Rebuke, this is beautiful and pattern-matched to other sins subconsciously, unbeknownst to the sinner, the Grand Plan simply choose “One Sin” to repent of publicly, if it is a sincere kind of repentance. That Rebuke, it is Casus Belli because its witnesses have now an Experience that jades them and fashions them Fit for Service. Others do not have this. They sin in their sleep and in their waking hours. They go glib and beautify themselves, make themselves chiseled and rugged, pretty and flighty, because they seek the things of This Life. We seek an Eternal Home, a Heavenly City, a Guile-less greeting on the street corners. God has as much Prepared for us, humbled each of us by just how many Supplicants stand way ahead of us in the Line for Justice. The poor, the widowed, the maimed and casualties of war, the orphan, the divorcee, the abused, the politically-persecuted.

Momentum originates in the fact, our Design, our Apparatus, our Secretive Work, bides a stormtrooper mass and cloud so Huge as utterly to surprise even those walking not by sight but by faith. All channels Go, all systems On, all ranks Synchronized, because the first step is Experiential Faith, the next is immediately wise as serpents. And the enemy, is too pigheaded to self-assess, “why trust a turncoat from the other ‘side’?”. They Trust, and the victor, our victory, is nothing to boast in: it cost us so darn much as well. And we only befriended, via an acquaintance, the “enemy” in order to spy them out, perhaps. But also befriended them in sincerity, students and scholars of the New World Order and its denizens. True, a better game plan might have arisen had we the right intonal coming together, a “Circle of trust” in a family or set of friends; but in lieu of this we learned on our feet. We did, after all, trust and Represent some Principles… of a Family, of a Friend set. We were far more married to each other than anyone might imagine, we know each other here ten, twenty years, thirty years out. Because we are sacrificed in order to appease a vicious enemy, and this sacrifice will always be a blemish on our own victory parade, a toll exacted, a painful price paid.