“11 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” 9 And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10  let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.” Gentiles Grafted In 11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! 13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.” (Ro 11:1–24 ESV)

Amidst a world run rampant on Overlaid Realities, Experiences, Strategies, Coexisting Maneuvers, one Echelon of Experience stands tall: that we did Encounter Christ, His Patience, His Sober Calm, within a whirlwind of Counter-Position, Attack, Spiritual Impossibility. The Impossibility therein Asserted: to this, His patient lines drawn in the sand (as those who would stone the sinner foamed at the mouth) are lines Asserting Peace to the Soldier, Feng Shui to the Militant: we, who bear Spiritual Arms, are the most peace-loving and Approachable in the room.

Our Presence “in the Room” means not that we love on tough guy or gal imagery so much as that we have obtained a hard-fought and hard-sought Education that consisted, not just of a few Talking Points, but of some Radical Intervening Wisdom imparted, imparted with that parental, tutorial Prayer because the son or daughter must Learn it themselves. Capricious Existence, Brinksmanship, Edge-of-Tomorrow Realities: these do educate and—though some claim its fair to hold us down and “sue” for that same education—it gives us Something to Share most broadly. Have faith, O ye of little faith, that God will in His timing pass on an Education and a Teaching!

The armed Spirit of His high court has somehow Enlarged amidst patient Retreat, a Proper Gestalt, Chip on the Shoulder, calmly purred-over Fighting Posture. And look at a map: Education, Accounting, Math, these help us see what Zooming does show, that beyond little points of light, there are degrees of ten, magnified Life Abundant, so much more than just the arrows and lines between the cities and towns. Life on this planet is Effusive. And every internal little coexisting Community, may be treasured but more: enlightened, sought out as those with Patent-worthy good Ideas, with Special, hope-infused Progeny, youth, young adults, toddlers, and children.

The spirit, then, says to the Churches: Dare! Dare to contribute to the Event, an event decades and centuries in the making. Not to go lazy and assume all is Salvation just because, rather to Help: the Spirit of the Churches needs every hand on deck. Judgment is Real, and some simply haven’t quite gone the Humble route (to arm-wave in attempts to illustrate) sufficiently; some sort of Education has taught a modest Few, how to Contribute of their Lifeblood minus Pride or Possessions or Favoritism. So, the daydream… it Begins, thanks to experiential Learning, to be Modest in Ambition, to be Sharing in Community, to be Responsible in tutelage and parenting.

Models, economies, designs, structural undertakings: all these are evidence of Man’s breadth of expression, reach, sphere of influence, and that right grandly. But the Bedrock, is an Echelon of some simpler Experience, just a few soldiers warming around a campfire, just some Off-the-Cuff Instinct or Bellicose Rejoinder: stop, the cursing and frustrated complaints; Start, the contributory, Personal Recognisance, Individual Uniqueness: we, all of us, are Part of Christ in His Church, His World, His Community. The Spirit Educates in some school rather cliche to call Hard Knocks, but a school nonetheless where some form of Loving Elders simply watched and waited, and this is a Mystery to any who have taken the Christ intervention too lightly. Christ and His ilk are both Severe and Merciful, both Hardline and Copacetic.