“12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” (1 Peter 4:12-19 ESV)

We were primed for this hour, it is said. It is said, that the shuffling and the frontline Placement, Positioning, Perseverance: this is going above and beyond the Call of Duty, to a thankless post, a gruelling post, an arid land. Friends we have had, good friends we salute and accept some cheer in response: the sidekick and the magistrate friends both, is collateral damage according to a cynic’s prognosis. The cynic sees arid lands and childless romances, and Protests: where is the Promise of His Coming? Where are the angels in fine accord and costume singing praises to the King? Where is the gamed-up Right, Deserved accord of one insistent voice and her or his Peace?

Because it is rich, svelte suggestion erroneous, to claim some weird Top-Down abuse or hegemony. Subtle tendrils of power and group-mind, counteract the negative sense of that phrase: group-mind. True, there is the banality and reign of the middling, reign of the sleepwalking majority; but also, we say this as survivors of trauma: sometimes the group-mind, sometimes the Society, just works.

And the persnickety, aggravated, consternation around her or his somehow Pride for having “persecuted the Christ”, “persecuted the Christians”… there is this strange confusion, that Christ did not inaugurate cultic cannibalism or sacrifices, He tried to end them and humanize them. He is not “ours” to persecute or layer with sin to our heart’s delight. Is He? Rather, social structures, they all are imperfect, and someone always stands in Christ’s stead: a post none of us ever asked for ourselves, it being a joke only known to the Faithful, that every Christian’s secret ambition should be to be like Him.

The latter years shall be richer than the former years: this we Believe. More, we see in e.g. Jeremiah 22 (ESV):

“1 Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, 2 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3 Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. 5 But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.”

God’s mandate for us, it is not some extra dosage of “good works” but rather a solemn reminder of how Man elevates himself over and against his fellow man. Good works… this slippery slope is also a well-educated slope: we run helter-skelter in the opposite direction, towards Grace, not conceding even for a minute the boasting in sober-minded Goodness as anything Innate to our Person. That we live among the poor: moot. That we are peace with our network and family: obviously. That we are praying for our enemies: clearly.

Because the Father in Heaven gestures and the soldier Hears, Responds, Serves. It is an unfamiliar kind of power, to the unwashed middling classes; the fact you can punch someone in the face does not automatically make you their head. Christ’s own mission was intended to demonstrate Incarnation, that the highest ranking in our land do walk and serve amongst real People, not in a cave or solemn remove. And our, Jesus’ Own, vulnerability and donation to the public, is not a sign inviting us to Abuse Him, but a plaintive insistence that we have it no other way. Christ with us, the Father amongst us, the Spirit eeked out and transferred mano a mano, person to person.

But we need this, because it gives us Hope around so many things we need not worry about, about the possibility of becoming trapped or found behind enemy’s lines. He will give us the words to speak in that hour. Our aim is that our good deeds, that these precede us, that always our war—for we shall be honest and call our evangelism that—was reluctantly and compassionately fought. Indeed, we almost wish to off-load our personal responsibility onto a Strong Man, so we can fuss over less severe and judgmental matters. Would that we didn’t need to make hard decisions. Would that we could emerge from a family or upbringing largely intact, loving, non-abusive, untraumatic. And thus some do, but the pristine churchgoer is no less vindicated simply because they were coddled in their youth. The pristine churchgoer is not to look down their noses at the ones with rifle and armaments, sadly at times, but severely, measuredly, intentionally Serving. A job not easy nor light on the moral weightlifting. We do a thought exercise, as to liking—simply liking—people different from us. Not shoving our backside in their face, not screaming “persecute” in some special or shrill language. And marvelling no longer: our existential questions of life, of things “Above our pay grade”, these we unceremoniously see others go down that road, because they Hate or abuse or cannot stomach the simple Right to Live of some in their midst. And we have to be the first to Love, the first to Stomach the boring cleric’s vulnerable Soul, and ours likewise Vulnerable. Sin is not simply the purview of the unconverted: theirs is a more innocent brand of sins but sins shared by pewsitter, cleric, and outsider together.