2024-10-23 A Meditation on Grace in Community

“7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. 9 And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. 10 But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” 11 And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. 12 And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.” (Acts 20:7-12 ESV)

Some special elixir we seek in a community: to be upbuilding; to overflow with positivity; to be those who hear. On some level at stake is our direct line of communication to God the Father, unto the Lord in Heaven, insofar as we are Ambassadors for Christ. At stake is our silly proclivity to forget the yardage already gained, to forget the mystery already enacted, to forget the exclusivity of our Post.

We stand at the ready at Post because God’s message is not just for us, but rather we invite and plead to be used just as Christ was used: in the interest of forgetting what lies before, forgetting our very lives, and meandering in love and simple urgency amongst the people for whom we and He were sent.

We and He, a reminder of that strange spell that descends on the room when Love is in the heart of a speaker or meditating monastic type. More than plain “love”: Grace is a nitrogen white heat of urgent Propulsion around the simple faith that no one is awkward or in error; all are welcome and no missteps were accumulated as in a debtful column. We are not in that column of the ledger, the balance sheet, called Wrong. All is right… again, plain speech that then gets the neutrino boost of a more scientific notion: Grace. That there is Mercy in the air, that there is gladsome exchanges of a smile or a weeping plea. We plead amongst the Excellent Ones, for whom sentient sentimental prayer is a Major Knack. They have a knack, we have a Response: unto the Grace in the air; unto the end of all fears or forgetfulness as to just whom our Heavenly Father—a Father shared by many—is.

That is; to summarize: a special unction finally sobers us up to the Reality: stick to the basics; stick to the assertion that most are in need of some Gospel inspiration; stick to hearing a voice non-condemning, non-belittling, not measuring by Human Standards but by God’s Standards. That is, our measuring is instead a house party, a strange and deep Engagement with the crowd of fellows and gals around us, no longer afraid of anything by way of sins or excess. To the wallflower: let it be said, ‘round here these strange excluded ones are the beauteous ones. ‘Round here these strange excluded ones are the Cause for Celebration, are the intellect and joking or filled with Holy Spirit fire jubilant ones. The newcomer… insofar as we bless one, we bless All. To see someone blessed, to hear a Pauline injunction as in Philippians 2: “Honor such ones as these”… “They have their own interests not those of Jesus Christ”… “He nearly died for the service”… to hear such an injunction is to have an “Oh yeah!” moment. We suddenly remember the ministry of sticking up for someone, and letting that boost percolate and make for gladsome social Exchange: today, hear a Timothy, hear an Epaphroditus, hear a Paul make judicious cuts and assertions and folds and creases. Such are the saints’ needs, and as such are these needs met. To give the toast as to someone’s proven worth. To stick up for the meek and little ones in the community. To point out that contrary and negating Ministry called “those of Jesus Christ” (Phil 2:21).