2023-09-13 A Meditation on Joy

“15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (Jn 15:1–11 ESV)

In varying levels we decide and plan, each according to where and how basic joy enters into our lives. Submission no longer onerous, we learn and abide near to a celebratory spirit. The soldier’s peace is the community’s peace. Each big brother to a cohort, sailing and laboring in ways that only just edge out competitive spirits, sinister concessions others make in dastardly fashion; but we worry not: the soldier is safeguarded because the soldier is unique, having prowess to labor in love rather than in strife. The soldier has the ability to laugh at man’s designs. The doctrine writ in spirit, writ large, is abundantly gracious, hospitable, verve and nourishment for the journey.

The doctrine is no comedy of manners: “No, you take the helm”; “I insist, you take the helm!”. Rather it is a courageous imprint of each spirit in each spirit’s unique way, to be writ large. It is a future discovered vis-a-vis constant correction, being handled and becoming malleable, yet never forgetting we have a birthright to celebrate and to be possessed of a Good Spirit all our own, were it not immediately shared and used to bless in an overarching fashion others; giddy in and of ourselves, we bless and we see comet’s tail alerting, wakening, no devices intended to avoid submission one to another, but fully conversational and trusting that God’s goodness is not stored up in unused bottles, but rains down on us this day to be His people and a people Good and wondrous at what-all He has gotten up to.

Therefore the hate ends. The nervous fright at a Cain and Abel, at a Jacob and Esau, at an Eve and Adam, at a Moses and Pharoah, at a Christ and Peter, all juices the spirit for a little more outlay and less avoidance mechanism. To be near one another in such Divine Fashion, as so willed and as entrusted to people who matter-of-factly are Good People, Capable of moral decision-making (which decision-making is therefore franchised and delegated out). The soldier is already blessed because she or he has life-on-the-line Joy of a copyrighted sort. Joy to know and to be known. Joy to be a bit homeless, a ship or barracks distrusted and evicted by a falsely self-righteous spirit at times, or welcomed and blessed in ways that evoke tears, the civilian rightly awe-struck and bold to applaud all that the soldier of Christ is bearing in their own spirit: a fight, a principled stand, a shared responsibility, a sacrifice. Never for a moment conceding that wrongs past cannot be redeemed in the present, turned to that same Joy that carried us, that we trademarked, that others hear as an imposition but we hear as glad tidings.