“12 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5 On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— 6 though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12:1-10 ESV)
Niner, niner: to engage and disengage with Authority and with Guidance, is a lightly-held discovery, attachment, setting. We engage, we disengage, no lugubrious nor earthly modicum of weight. Weightless, innocently forgetful, like the Apostle Peter who says “oughtn’t we to build tents for the Ancestors, for Moses, Elijah and Christ?” (Matt 17”4). Like the scurrying Zacheeus, who Immediately simply climbed a tree: to see Christ.
Our engagement and disengagement happens on an exalted dimensional novel level. We are unbearably under the lightness of being, to (mis-)quote Milan Kundera; Excitement meets for real I got ya man, woman! Theme park levels of excitement. Playing by the rules wherein the point of discussion is unbearably light. Unbearably floating and gliding and engaging on random occasion, then commissioned and sent forth, disengaging for a season.
Christ for us, the Heavenly Being still Alive and Kicking, for us to engage with through the wondrous world of our beautiful Dreams and day-light mental wandering. What dreams may come… these somehow, like strange patterns or coincidences in our lives, are Evidential towards the Claims made by Christ, by Moses, by Elijah: that God is Involved in our day-to-day routines. That God is prompting us and telling things on a liminal level too wondrous, saintly, astonishing, to pin down or try and fortify or solidify: arrival, departure, all lovingly and lightly held.
He will always be there for us. This is why with an Aye-Aye and a Yes, Sir we disengage at times, because there is no Need to worry nor to clutch or hoard. His provision will always be there for us. His Doctoring and Examination, His healing and expulsion of the demonic, His lonesome sought out One Friend (us?), His plain fact of making God maddeningly Human: these things behoove us to reflect upon, while also lightly, laughingly, joyously Reminding us to enter playfully.
Because there is no sin for those who are in Christ Jesus. Not just that we cease to sin, but that sin ceases to Be: we knew all along, suspected all along, that the litanies and the confessionals, these were but a foretaste of the Divine: in Christ, there is no longer Sin.
In Christ we have after all learned to falter not, to allow for instance the foot-washing as all that was actually needed, or to call that apocryphal, even, that is, not to doubt Scripture, but to say that it isn’t our feet but our souls that need a brief Washing.
And the elation of Life without Borders, no longer affrightened by the prospect of erring, no longer trying just to earn the accolades of the “good Christian”, but rather decisively and urgently to Engage, to say No to the fears of falling away: Christ will reward us for our determination to Act minus Fear. Because after all we never were sinners, right? Only in Christ is this true. And as it can be hurtful to erase a Confession, hurtful to those we’ve hurt perhaps, it is also Understood that Christ is Healer in Chief, who humbles the proud and mocks the errant ones. God will do a final deed greater than His initial Deed. We will all be changed but not all will Die. At the last trumpet. With the sensual and ecstatic Fact from a simple or chaste dream that Excites and that hums along. Lightness of Being, urgent engagement and disengagement, Encounter and Kimosabe; we End the fear of falling away with determined Action and Acceptance: nothing more, O Lord, do I want other than to be Your Child. And see with what zeal we Engage. See us, niner, niner, executing the Mission, the Operation, to a “T”.