2024-07-04 A Meditation on Plain Situations
“12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” (1 Pet 4:12-19 ESV)
Very plainly situated, it is compelling or rather astonishing that people do what they do: sometimes showing love, sometimes disdain, sometimes patience, sometimes selfish interest. People are plainly situated, and we merge our theology that says “All is born in sin” to a theology a bit fascinated with that brave sense of all of us being like holy innocents, like children, if sinful, then sinful despite also being hopeful and even angelic.
Rightly understood, the full weight of our situation is simply too great for any of us quite to fathom, too great for Jesus on the Cross (“Good man, you are experiencing a hard reality that your good works are hated by mankind”), too great for the regular worker who feels overwhelmed, too great for any theology of “Getting things done”: the parent unable to steer their child, and punished even for trying by the plea “Don’t you love me as I am?” inventing new sins rather than cautiously approaching the mantlepiece or high mark previously set up.
It is therefore on any good day we might find ourselves thus situated: Hey, I’m already accepted and loved, so let me warmly do some works of righteousness, of appreciation, of endemic Freedoms afforded in my direction. That is, to do well by our deeds is to meet the same hate that killed Christ, for people fear the actual fact of New Expectations, aka War, as we can on any good day find a chip on our shoulder. Yet let it be ignored, and let us go broad, deep and meaningful, to find the contretemps, the war, is an accident, not sought but still available on any given day when once we dare to thrive.
When once we dare to be Exalted by Christ’s love for us. It is astonishing the patience our Father in Heaven shows for us, when in fact we see the multitude of errors in our ways. We are all rather unlovable even when and especially when it is us doing the assessment: we wanted to boast in something, only to discover ourselves traumatized or in ugly habits; all these our God and Helper the Spirit does invest with tomorrow Hope. We do not deserve the mantle of Righteousness; we are too much a mess even to contemplate some orchestrated Mission, Expedition, Togetherness; we were beginning—just beginning—to build up a Coherent Act, when life’s astonishing humility brought us down to the basic prayers of the Hopeful Servant, like those of Christ during His earthly ministry: help us, simple help us to Be.
And then the back and forth, meekness a license for all the more suitability and Encouragement, Commissioning, Hope: the echelons of Meaning, of Attainment, these are not easily seen by the average comer, but are real and inspiring, that Someone does dare to Ordain with meaning and Exalt with Sonship, Daughterhood, each and every one who has been found searching, simply aching, simply wondering, simply humble. And this Attainment is blasphemy to the newfound, newly-revealed, enemy. It brings on a righteous war, one we did not choose but that any pundit or distant observer chimes in to point out how obvious it is. Obvious, as is the Love of God for the sinner, obvious as is the angelic bouts, fits of compassion, daring Movement-despite-ill-formation and despite wretchedness. We begin to have the attention span, the coherence, the missional thinking, the teamwork, the gratitude-induced Time and Space literally to be found Fighting the Good Fight.