“29 And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Luke 21:29-33 ESV)

Dissecting a public argument, plausible and gullible general public meet utter denial that life is about taste and principles. We have good taste because Anything can be sued over: one can argue, since Christianity is a part of our society, well then we can sue for theological truth claims. For a “King”. For a “Queen”. And the gullibility aspect is that then we forget: kings and queens, these are easily confused as being hereditary notions. As opposed to elected notions.

The Christian’s witness is of a dire set of circumstances, a pained lifestyle, a wooden Cross borne, and no end to the ridiculousness and the mocking nature of a Satan. It calls for us to wear our heart on our sleeve a bit, that each generation has their own Call and “lawsuit” filed in a court of public—or church—opinion. That each generation is different, society ebbs and flows and adapts and forms around even one individual testimony, and what formerly was kosher is today persecutioral.

For sanity to prevail, there is almost a temptation to renege, to backtrack: how about starting with a societal “religion” called “Laborers in the Vineyard”. Forget all that sophisticated, cultured, textiled, talk of a Cross, of a Suffering Servant, of a Sin-Bearer. Cope with just that notion of putting in a day’s work! Of all classes of society bearing some of the lagging, sagging, lackluster Produce of the powers that be. The Church… it is not bearing its weight ‘round here, we might argue. Nor is the union of teachers, or society of engineers, or league of politicians, camaraderie of handypersons. So, to basic life lessons, aping that “might-makes-right”—or, “might-makes-interesting”—claims of so many excited and endearing sermons.

We discover meaning and purpose as—diametrically opposed to laziness—laborers in the vineyard. But we are not so far gone down the rabbit hole as to forget the teachings, reformation-era teachings, of Law and Gospel: that “good works” simply cannot be what saves us. That God loves the lackluster prophet or do-gooder who fails. God takes the burden, yet we are so intimately acquainted with that burden’s pain, that we never for a second take the mocking route of “Worshipping” Him only then to persecute Him according to legal precedent and established trope. We mourn, that as Christians, we can only do so much as to taking that old wooden Cross on our own shoulders. That lawsuits, that to argue—where’s your legal team?—are a matter of good taste, ‘round here. A matter for some teaching hour, for some schadenfreude moment, for some enlightened insight.

To argue too much on legal precedent, is to get addicted to a sort of Apple in the garden. It is to forget Christ labored and His prayer was a brand of Labor. It is to see all the world suddenly revolving, diametrically-opposing, around notions of “Saved” and “Unsaved”, yet the latter in all astonished wonder: God is using things to a brighter, amazing coming-together.

The Christian witness bears urgent repeating, that in Psychically-Curious wonder we Discover strangely beautiful Reality. We discover that the same royalty we disdain, well in fact exactly the opposite is true: our “royals” are immediately plunged into the public ocean, are mined and shared and passed around for a-many a people to identify with and rise to the occasion of. More, there is no corrupted notion of a hereditary royal… but also no need to argue against a person solely on the claim that they are in some brand of authority: authority might be legitimate, even elected a bit. And we concede as much to our fellow-traveler in the pew across the wide aisle. Show us! Let us worship and come together! All these things are today’s Invitation to a dance, today’s Responsibility to try and do the noble deed even as we are in a world teetering on utter annihilation, or of utter compromised principles, which compromises are made in the name of “Look how bad it’s gotten!” And then, “We need toughness. We need strength, bravado, leadership!” And it is anyone’s guess: Christ Led by His Cross, arrived-at in Prayer, but lived out in a meaningful and concrete Decision. Notwithstanding that soon all the world would teeter over religious wars, inspired wars, two-generations-hence wars nonetheless seeded in our grandparents’ era and their peacetime utilization of a functioning market system, banking system, opportunities-for-the-poor system. Christ needed all this, and more: society needs rubrics of religion even prior to arriving at the Inspired fruits called “Christian”, called “Law and Gospel”. Yet, too, He was in a wilderness unkempt, wild temptations, strange apparitions, holy exemplars of divine lancing battles between the heavenly bodies. He was not crazy, even though He said that His followers would be put out of synagogues and beaten. Because of a preliminary War. Because of being Soldiers. Because of having Principled “Taste” around those societal expressions of faith, of lawsuits, of public testimonies. Knowing “anything” can be argued if done in a ruinous or mocking fashion. Anything can license anything, if gaped and gawked over. Yes, we live in strange times. Yes, signs and wonders are seen from heavens and earths most broad and Divine. But these are but the beginnings of the birth pains. These are but the first signs of Massive Undertakings somehow, peaceably, Shared across the national borders. Armageddon: in any old generation. Progress: ours to embrace and never let go.