“12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. 13 For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand— 14 just as you did partially understand us—that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you. 15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. 17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. 23 But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.” (2 Cor 1:12-24 ESV)

Some of the most clandestine Acts ratchet up that nomenclature despite New Testament owning the copyright. Acts of the people, of the Christ followers, of the disciples and people sent out: these in past due season were recorded in mellifluous tones of a practitioner of medicine, for us to be Reminded of a simpler playing field, a more basic Evangel, a quite happening Holy List and Accomplishments. We are made over in the great shadow of such an “Acts”, that we might be salt and light in Today’s climate: a Bible, holy Writ, Scripture so Inspired as to outlast all prophesies as to its length of useful service.

Strange, pitiably perhaps, therefore is the Human condition vis-a-vis modern day books of Acts. Acts as recorded by the plethoric witnesses to Christ in our land, at our pulpit, beneath our steeples and above our reliquaries. Christ, the stranger satiety to Man’s hubris, wandering, boredom-turned-sinful, spot abusive language expelled. God satisfies our Need and we go Big: go Huge on the Acts and on the plain Day’s Labors. Indeed, sin—to discover sin, to discover faultlines of the soul, to discover endless illness—sin is strange dance partner to Mercy. We are sickly, to the point of Untold Kosher Healings and Benign loftiness upheld. We are held aloft and whisper to the magistrate, to the justice, to the peacekeeper, that Christ has Died, in order that we might Thrive, post-sin, post-frustration, post-seeking of perfection.

Never boring, the Christian’s walk takes her or him through the abyss and the valley of shadow and death. Today we awaken to the Good News, that Christ—bless His soul—is no more, but that in His parting of ways He woke up the authorities, woke the Romans, woke the outdone priests, woke the sleepyheaded masses. That we learn: we will only honor someone after they have humbled themselves by dying on a Cross: conceded. That we will only honor someone after they have removed the pressure point: granted. That we will only honor someone when they bear the punishment rightly due us ourselves: met. We have met this teaching, sadder for the wear, sadder for the plain Fact of what it is asserting, that a Death had to occur.

Do you, then, believe in the Resurrection from the dead? If Christ be not raised, we are most to be pitied for we are still in our sins… But in fact, Christ is raised, the firstfruits from the dead… Nevermind deep logicism around this Fact, instead focus on the soldier’s plain dealings and Intention Directed Forward of living into Christ’s shoes him or herself. Of Blessing in the Name of a Lord who we insist—we concede nothing—lives on. It is copacetic and kosher that we thus believe and thus assert, because He asserted only endless love for us; we are to reciprocate, lightly joyous though Christ is dead, lightly Receiving of His words from the beyond. To us, He is indeed Alive, indeed Resurrected, indeed Victorious. In a sadder way, because of what had to transpire. But our sadness revolts and vibes, ebbs and flows and then Announces itself Convicted, Witnessing, Observant that truth be told Christ is Alive! What we wrestled with, our “gone flat” worries, these have Met a Lord—nevermind if He is heard of in the church’s literal pulpit or in some zany Spiritual Heist or Emblem of our own minds—a Lord who is Risen. And no time to quibble, to fuss, to mutter a prayer of gratitude: Christ is now inaugurating the Church Militant, the phase before the Church Triumphant. He is giving us fighting spirit and cause, giving us Joy to thrive and persist in living out our own acknowledged strange borrowed time, living on because One has died for all, and therefore all have Died.