2024-07-28 A Meditation on One for the Team

“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” (1 Pet 1:3-12 ESV)

“Put that one in the win column”: the courage that racks up points for the team is the same courage that accomplishes a Theological function. An aspect. A fruit. A contemplative. A point. Just the point that theology shall not be too precious for us, not too high-falutin, not too distant a Dream: each possessed of a Manner Elite around notions Theological, Theosophical, Theoretical. Today, that being the Dream of Abiding Composure surrounding Day of Rest. Abiding Witness surrounding Receipt from the Hand of the Almighty. We have these treasures as Ours, as Remembrance, as Owned strange Composure: the composure saying our inner Dynamo is witnessed and Forgiven; our inner Proclivity is seen and absolved; our inner Tantrum of a subtler form than that of youth, our inner Fright of a more elusive brand than that of youth, our inner Guilt and Shame of a more hidden form than that of youth: these things are ours to be burdened by no longer, God has taken up the slack.

The Christian Soldier, then, is sharp to Anticipate and Dream Up a reality where we are in fact capable of blessing one another such that the blessing “sticks”, “heals”, “inspires”: we need to do this because the alternative is broken fellowship, hate, attack of the individual Person, recrimination and accusation, mesmerized sheep-like followings after a strange New Notion to some of us: a prior Testimony evil and corrupt, slanderous and clever, jocular in the worst sense of being irreverent or unashamed of what mayhem it adjoins.

“We have every intention of restoring the sinner, provided they grovel a bit.” Cynical words. The fact is, forgiveness will never seem apropos or germane. But at the same time, not to commandeer anything, we can always “go there” on our own tip, our own prerogative, our own recognisance. And this—who knows—may not seal the deal for that witness… we believe that Audience is in fact asking after their own existential nightmare or dread, asking simple questions such as were asked of our Lord and Christ, Jesus: why, am I unable to vocalize the hidden fright at what I consist of? Why, am I unable to feel “good vibes”, “Warm tidings”, around that Good Name and Experience, Christ with us? Why, am I prescribing a misery to others out of frustration my own misery is the gold Standard? Somehow as though to be Christian, is to accept a group-think mesmerizingly evil and of low standards.

No matter, we shall persist precisely because God has persisted in pursuing we ourselves. God has licensed the fresh-faced recruit already to bear Arms of a Holy Nature: the Arms of the Spirit, the no-time-to-delay Fructifying Battalions of Holiness being more than match for the legions of ill spiritual deadening. The legions of doom, the legions of mercy, the legions of Together-Across-a-Metaphorical-Divide, as one martyr tied to the burning stake takes on Faith that their fellowship—of a season sparse and elusive—is for real, the real deal, matter of fact to take on its own Factuality. And this is no self-approbation or approval: it tempts the frustrated ones to think we speak of ourselves, when we speak in fact of Every Soldier at the Armory of Faith. We speak of what Scriptures plainly state. We speak of what Reassurances that those sins that persecute us, that tie us to the pyre, that hinder us from entering upon our full ministerial calling, these sins are no more to be cause for guilt than our the false pretenses that do raise persecuting standards from outside our own selves. Sin is a dreadful persecutor of Christians. Sin is in fact and already Real, too much so for the one conceding to a level of miserable obedience. Too much for the one not Entrepreneurial and Franchising Today an excitement and participation in holy things. We are to be those Priests of the Crown who know a thing or two about Absolution. Who know the nefarious deeds of Satan shall not tear down this one or malign that one, shall not afflict yet this other one nor discredit our friend right here.