2024-05-26 A Meditation on Participation
“6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” (1 Cor 2:6-13 ESV)
Bible is particular to state that preaching is required; bold to believe, nonetheless no belief is quite all-knowing enough; we are hermetically sealed as though all believing the same thing in this cohort, yet core doctrines are lost to some and only rarely heard by others.
One such doctrine: that we are the hands and feet of Christ. Nevermind bland provision, all-knowing boredom; we need be those mini gods and goddesses who imitate that Man-God Christ. We are excited never more to be affrightened by the consuming years, no more afraid of life events down the line, no more lazily depressed because of some deep need that caused us to omit certain tutelage or life lessons. Yes, we avoided some brand new Promises, because we were cagily trying to do it all ourselves. Yes, we avoided plain-spoken religiosity, because we found it glib and glum, leaving all burdens on a Man whom we are perfectly happy to love… if only He would give us a bit of slack on the leash. If only He would Call upon us to Thrive Boldly, to Live Into situ, realm, domain. If only He would prescribe our own Prayers as remedy for the hours that the locust seem to have devoured; Yes: we could call all of it Prayer, call all of it Progress, but No, we are grumpy and disheveled.
To the ramparts, to the eager sobriety that is only matched by a yesteryear’s longing to go Public and Bold whilst under some reassuring addiction. Under some indulgence, no matter the substance rather the ways it licenses us psychologically to the bravado or to the outlandish dictums. We are crazy around things “need be said ‘round here”. And then to the patient Lesson: all such outlays are even better in the second round, in the sober round, in the more choate round. More together, capable in this peekaboo or that spyhole to learn and live into and love, whilst not losing our Calling: to preach, a word in silence or a word in active gesticulation. A word Heard and Beloved; somehow we are called to Contribute just sufficient that we not grow bored or uptight around all He has given to us.
The crime, then, is no moral priggish calling out, but rather a Religious Problem called Law. Moreover, all who go by that holy name of Christian, are under the influence of differing doctrines. It takes Revelation to Dare, to Indulge and Inform, to Live Into a new world order so benign yet so exciting. See us, not equational around dying or absence or diffidence, indifference, but Cost-Assessed, Measured Up, Earning via Salvation Code and Promise, a Tomorrow Guild, a Tomorrow Vestry, a Tomorrow Cohort. We are eeking out a subsistence living suddenly Gone Large: it has become a Wealth, even in the midst of a congregation that first asks, “Have you ever met the wealthy before? No? Then you are lost to the wiles of time…”. No, wealth is an embarrassing obligation to some friends, and meaningless vis-a-vis friendly overtures to others. We are friendly on all sides. We are ministering via friendship evangelism, friendly preaching, Discovery of Tantric Possibilities of the Mind, the Heart writ large, the Soul enticed by its own possibilities, nevermind God’s repose and place of rest for each comer.