2023-09-17 A Meditation on Fools For Christ
“10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.” (1 Co 4:9–13 ESV)
We labor together; to be apprised of the situation, to be up-to-date on the knowledge, to be more than “fashionable” but rather “urgent” and “aware”: this is situational awareness. This is benefiting from each others’ labors. This is skimming la creme de la crop. Together, informed of a distinctly theological puzzle; for our puzzle is this, it is not one of social theory, preternatural dynamics, or elementary psychology, but a personal quest to arise Formed, Faithful, Composed.
We are composed because we are in the mix, the general outlay, the currents of thought rocking gently yet manifestly capable of saving the soul. In this we rejoice, though others took it upon themselves to see through our reformation; though others took us back to the stone age; though things holy and displayed were frozen in time, an eternal curse, a slander, a weakness too nefarious even to speak of minus blushing.
Then the happenstance theology, the lunging forth Healed and Formed, Reformed and excited. We are excited because Today holds so much genuine Meaning for us. Today leaves us in our cocoon, only this minor space has become large and largesse towards others. Towards others speaking from a vast domain, situationally aware that God is for us, that all evil memories are hemmed up just like the devil tries to hem us up: do you know, Christian soldier, the trials that accompany any walk of holiness? Any effort to purge oneself? Any modest fast or brave wilderness jaunt?
Know the all-in vote for this sensible but tried warrior. Know the vote of victory and headship towards the would-be sufferer. Know it is our vote no longer to be ironic or complicit in the Christian’s hardships, but to have better confidence in ourselves and in our judgment: these are holy servants, holy soldiers, holy kin, who today emerge tried, tempted, but Victorious.
So the soldier dares to vote with the heart, for a Christian nation and inheritance. For a Religious state and estate. For a Puzzled-Over bedrock and origin story of all the day’s thoughts: we originate in our theological cap and gown, in our invite to turn simple observations, collected and learned over a lifetime, into basic appeals and unclever, yet witty, purchases. Forward purchases. Situational awareness of a plight that nonetheless may be healed. Of a forward lunge that can be made holy. Of ambition and vote for the fearless warrior to head into his or her battle equipped and prepped: the temptations will only increase with the chastities; the hardships will only match the gentle yoke; the foolishness will buzz about and inflict casualties of the soul for all to laugh at, or for us to hate in ourselves, until we accept in ourselves the role of fools for Christ.
Our faith is no dead end, though it seems at times to go nowhere; our faith is no liability, though it seems at time to draw hateful thoughts directed our way; our faith is no thing of shame, though people lump upon the Name of Christian so much that in their own frame needs healing. As if: as if each of us were victim of a suit against the Christian Cause, against the Christ who healed, dying in our place. As though there were some reason to persecute those who speak a True Word or make a Sincere Confession. As though we were entitled to a sense of inheritance nowhere promised us; we plead not “fairness” either; life, let us start with this, is unfair and winnowing and estate-less; life is a true bundle of mystery and puzzle. We have this faith in us, that our own harrowing days of lunges and emails and explanations and criticisms concomitantly received, are days of peace nonetheless, of survival, of a precious cocoon, so much denied to us, so much stolen, but our own precious hour of thought and learning expansive and wondrous: all things, in our time of worship and prayer. All things, our gift and then obligation to repay, only this: that our repayment is already made plain in His sacrifice, His unidirectional and determined Love for us, His carrying the cross and the mantle. Proud of Him, we are. Thankful of Him, we are. Foolish for Him, we certainly are. And today, militant and warrior, aware and embedded, for His estate we fight on.