2023-03-08 A Meditation on Persecutions

“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Th 1:11–12 ESV)

Those blissfully untroubled by hatred for their faith, do venture forth a bit wondrous, a bit awed, and a bit self-studying: what is this Resurrection life I have been called unto? Is it okay, that my home society and neighbor does not hate me for my faith “per se”, but finds common points and recognition there in that faith? For we begin to see the soldier’s bible study or prayer time, as innocuous, though to some offensive, but here on the home front patiently appreciated, accepted, and in fact held up as perhaps laudable.

Internally, a war is underway. You think your faith is “acceptable”? Just wait until you see the denigration, laughter, and repulsion when a true Cross is at work. In our deeds. In our love for the downtrodden. In our self-study of our faith as an interesting Resurrection example: we, ourselves, are on the operating table and found along the adventurer’s road map. For we study ourselves, and see that indeed with Christ we “have died”, and with Him we are raised up (Ro 6:8). This is miracle stuff. This is beyond the reach of logic or passive gravitation towards. We do not passively resolve to give our lives over unto Christ. That is a venture for the stalwart, the brave, the courageous. That is a walk some feel is too far out of reach, their sins going before them.

Take heart, Christian soldier! Weighing down is an economy of salvation frightfully seen: how hard it is on our own initiative to forgive even one sin. If it were up to us, though we bandy about church talk about “Come to Jesus and be forgiven!” in truth, forgiveness can fail to land home even if spoken with good intention to us by the one we’ve offended, or by the friend acting in pastoral, priestly, role to our repentant self. Sins haunt. Sins demolish our cohesive “whole being”.

But, likewise if the church is weighed down, it is by their own sins not ours! If the church perhaps rightly despairs, it is because “Jesus” is a concept frighteningly kept away from front and center stage. Jesus is the peace for the troubled soul. Jesus is the perfunctory, present, aware touch point and homebase of the soldier. Who is filled with a faith all sufficient, grateful for the home front and fields white (ready) for the harvest (Jn 4:35) of peer and kin grateful, listening, and commiserating. Yet: persecutions will come.

We soldier through obtuse, irreverent, astonishing examples of things… “Are you sure you want this immaturity on the record!?” we say to some naysayers, things drawn out by one worldview-busting personal testimony. The Christian, whether recalling this or not, in her or his testimony, is proposing a radically different worldview. They posit a true nature called “Sin” (already, we protest, this is irresponsible: won’t it bless the sinner rather than curb their sinful appetite?), and then a negative-thinking, negating sense of this awkward premise suddenly turned gold: forgiven, resurrected, made over, and New Creation! You see why all common decency and manners suddenly seem up for grab. Yet the soldier is patient just to have faith they are of “good people” by some unknown gift from On High. That they can say “No” when appropriate to some things hateful or dastardly, but “Yes” to others: in salvation terms, we see no evil and all is “Yes!” (2 Co 1:20; 1 Co 2:10).

They can see that they are whirlwind-tour-like brought to the stage of life, to proclaim something to wandering and itching ears “out there”. This is the good stuff! This is the newfound home base, even as all the world seems suddenly a joyous puzzle: our puzzle is the personal phenomenon of a heart transformed, raised up amidst a nominally Christian society, a society that takes offense in baldly immature ways at some things, but that has cultivated too the Christian’s faith walk and testimony. So we draw near to our friends who are struggling through mental gymnastics with other religions, with other political ideologies worldwide, with call to get that first premise under the hood of a listening audience of personae: faith in Christ, repentance of sin, self-discovery as creatures Raised and Remade and Loved. But first of all, struggling with the landscape, wide and broad, deep and meaningful, of the human soul, observed with skepticism towards oneself, and generosity towards one’s neighbor and peer: who is like Christ to us (Ga 4:14).

The atheist longs for some spirit familiar, to some a spirit at times capricious or scheming, petty or grabbing, because this atheist we put on the examination table, has a sense of goodness. A sense of honesty. People being people, rather than sanctimonious holy-rollers. Such was Jesus’ atheism towards the robes and titles of the Jewish religion. Such was our own frustration when logical and well-received faith, conversion faith, was distrusted and hated, marking us for a frustrating bind: first, we agree that we are sinners, but second we wish some personal bravery to uphold our creed. We wish not to be self-aggrandizing when we speak boldly against a persecuting and atheistic “out there” kind of spirit. Wishing we had time for other matters, nonetheless we soldier forth in what binds and doubts are sent our way.