“38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Love Your Enemies 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt 5:38-48 ESV)

The goal of the Christian walk is a levity (buoyancy, humored aspect, sense of fun) that does onerous battle with all that is manipulative, heavy-handed, clutched in rabid fear. It literally behooves us to say, Christ is Risen!

Some of the best encouragements to Facing Tomorrow start by acknowledging Tomorrow is a new concept, entirely new ways of engaging, of encountering life. We list in patience what things we can lean on, the Rock, the Hope of Nations, the Experiential concord of sympathetic spirits. Yes, we hear the warnings to the rich and to the proud, but isn’t it likely, isn’t it scriptural, that even we who are in the wealthy third of the world, deserve a King and a Priest? A Prophet and a Son?

Tomorrow’s war does at the last strike home a certain understandable Fear: we thought it all fun and games for a time. But lives, careers, estates are On the Line. A little levity from us, and entire edifices immediately strike back in fear and self-preservation. We literally are present in that little church with harried and clutching Pastor trying to read the liturgy, while we… we brought to the Occasion something humored and post-Repentance.

Tomorrow is likely war, we begin to cogitate around. And that War… it is a dive into a cloaked barrel of possibility. Of ways we are giving our all, of ways we are in the murky dives, not even Certain of victory. Yet Christ… His brand of victory is first of all Patient, second of all Imbued with Loss, third of all Self-Giving. He literally is the first to the carpet around submission, around taking one for the team, around spiritual unclutching, spiritual release. And this is offensive to us. This is frightening to us, to each of us in our respective tiers of ownership, our tiers of what Purchase we have in Christ’s Mission.

We have some Purchase, because He loves on and cares for people of all walks of life. All income levels. All successes or failures in career and family life. The listlessness, this is not just a prerogative of the Poor, but rather any psychologist will tell, the rich have it as well. The rich are to be pitied, perhaps, because they knew not: what you unclutch your grasp of, this will be repaid to you in spades.

Tomorrow’s War invites each of us to embrace not just acknowledged, nodded over, sacrifices as understood at large, but personal quests and missions for which there is no newspaper headline nor shared burden. Christ’s last months, weren’t they solo and without much warmth? For, it is all well and good to discuss Missional Thinking, on call Work and Militant Service, but half of this is our own special prerogative, not fit for advertising or earning our respectable Keep around here. We even go so far as to say our actions are Automatic, that we operate now in some Trance as perhaps illustrated, educated, formed in us in childhood experiences and years of tutelage. We marvel at this, that Consecration to Holy Service is so inimitable, non-fraudulent, impossible to fake. Because we have Learned at mother’s knee, father’s knee, to self-give in ways we aren’t we pray even aware of. Or we see this in others and say, “Lord be merciful to me a sinner”.

Christ is a reward in and of Himself. Our Levity… this is illegal to some scoundrels, some arbiters of the times, some pundits. We are of good cheer, and this is startling, cause for jealous rivalries, but it is a Joy capable of meeting the hell of Tomorrow’s War. The uncertainty. The demand for answers. The rumor-mongering and countless lives wasted, ill-used and sacrificed wrongly. If we of all people wish to “give up”, well there ain’t even a place to sign on the dotted line. We have to Work, to find our own Get Up, to encounter as if we had no faith at all, the hell of compromised scenarios. We indeed, we are not without Faith, only it is a faith impossible quite to communicate in the final issue: the Faith that takes us to our personal Golgotha. We just feel it is right. We just go instinctual, in hope our inner drives are somehow by now Hallowed. God uses broken vessels. God uses errant drives, manic outlays and subdued cautionary retreats. God mocks the proud and lifts up those of a lower tier in life.