“11 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2  And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3  And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4  but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5  Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. 6  The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7  The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8  The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. 9  They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.” (Is 11:1–11 ESV)

Pastoral advanced Wisdom melded with plain inability to see oneself as part of any societal Equation: we are both too early Equipped with strength-inducing Logic, and too late educated as to the dastardly nature of institutional logic, inefficiencies, endless layers of committees, and go-betweens. Because it is Theological, to count on One Man, One Woman, and to do so rather than to prod about and probe the murky waters, expecting that, “Well there must be someone above, watching over it all! Appeal to him/her!”.

It’s not that a Father Figure, Mother Figure, isn’t a nice thought, it’s that we are vessels Designed By Christ and thrust into the limelight and system, the Matrix and the gestalt. Sometimes, for each of us in our own special ways, the buck stops with us. No one is going to Intervene just yet, not that “They” don’t love the lives potentially saved, the souls brought to the Altar of Christ, it’s that to Intervene just isn’t part of the design. It really does stop with us, some things, at some times. 

The pastoral Deep Secrets, they include the notion that any distant or past confession made into the ears of the priest, well this in fact is always a Present Issue and Sin as well. Everything spoken in the confessional is a euphemism, they teach. Now, the systems-thinking that should spell some relief from this doctrine, is that everyone in Holy Orders is maligned, the confessing laypeople will maul and attack and hate their Priest who Absolves. Yet they want the cake and not the broccoli, not the vegetables. 

That being said, we mock or wonder in curious out loud deductive steps: why, O saints in the land, if you are in touch with the Almighty, why don’t you swoop in and fix up said museum or academy, said hedge fund or cinema chain, said financier or politician? You are “God”, after all, right? So we Mock, and this goes back to point number two above: we Mock seeking explanations and education about Institutional Logic and Behavior. Forgetting to see ourselves as part of the equation: dear Ones, God is not allowed in your courtyard, so why is He somehow a magician to appear in the courtyards of others? 

The hopeful resolution to these conundrums, is that Christians have finally Accepted theirs is a furtive and societally rejected, secret society and rebellious, revolutionary and subversive accord. Between peoples who have Trust, the “marriage proposal” was in Good Faith, the “Arranged Friendship” was innocently supposed and imagined. Having thus accepted, our Joy is the Joy of a dying breed, rather a catacombs-dwelling Person who has lost just so much that they have insane and zany Goodness washing over them: they even forget to Complain about their allotment in life.

The tall passerby, the Would Be head and custodian of Rich Experiences: he or she is alone sufficient to Inspire and Retrieve from the Catacombs a people Submitted, rather Fortunate and Blessed. We guard our everything in the presence of a Rich Man, Rich Woman. But it is in fact Us who are rich in the land.