“8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11  let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12  For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.” (1 Peter 3:8-22 ESV)

Daily the self-image, reflections, catching up with our own deeds however they have been brandished: we are weary-eyed come Easter morn, not because of our great diligence to watch and wait, but because we cannot quite Reckon sensibly with the total comprehensive sum of actions. Our actions startle and give us pause. Our self-image is tainted by something long labelled as falsely imputed Accusation but to us, here and now at least, labelled rightly as sin.

To engage our own deeds from a place of remove, to laugh a bit but also to self-absolve: this was just a sincere friend request, why am I shunned? Why are my attempts to keep one’s own house in order, why is this met with gossip that has Preceded us? Because you can see as the eyes drop upon greeting a new face, that something has Preceded us. Do we get to advocate for our reasonableness?

To that Easter morn that isn’t so much a momentum towards Goodness as it is a stark refusal to dwell long in the Sin. We are more broken today perhaps than when we first began, the temptation to coast along, to glide in and out of church services… today we plead for second chances, today we ask for an Advocate in our corner: hey, this deed or that one actually Made Sense, to the sinless observer, to the actionable agent, to the one buried knee deep in War and therein finding a Call to be Bold, Radical, Provocative, Daring, Cooperative, and seeing things through to Conclusion.

Therefore the soldier is wearied and tried from all quarters, perhaps, but the Germ is there: the limitless Grace of God in Christ Jesus. Others preach automatically using such rote words and familiar verbiages as these, but we are those who put boots to the Person, boots on the ground and Meaningful, Loving, chances to share in the coffee sacrament, or the closure sacrament, or the Daring that does draw near to things illegitimate and sinful, but in so daring does begin to Titillate and Coax the spirit of peaceful Progress.

To the pastor all things are approached with a Warning Sign: do not put your name to this. Yet Christ put His name to our reputation as Beloveds, as Members of the community, as those formerly denied a hearing on account of their fishermen status, but now Friends with the Most High, nevermind most high, but Friends with the fashionable crew of twelve, friends with the wingmen and wingwomen who are just Getting By in the light of their friends’ implied letters of recommendations.

When the soldier is wearied and bleary-eyed, his or her Special Unction reminds, that this too shall pass. His or her motoring along, trying with limited success to preach Peace to the ones who dare to Love on and Establish peaceful rapport, is towards a Goal Post that we can approach entirely alone, entirely shunned, entirely misbegotten or denied by family and kin.

Gameday lionheartedness reckons with that curious—we can’t relate to it, almost—urge to have our pot of gold, to have our Final Judgment on a peer, our no-contact order itself some sort of line item on our balance sheet: “Here! Use me! I have the toolkit to humble the proud, to slander the opportune, to elevate the average stockbroker’s or hedge fund manager’s cause!”. No, these represent far more than the economists: they represent some sincere Desire that Christ’s story will continue to bless those already in the pews. More, just because there is strife doesn’t mean that Holy Evolution or Progress is taking place: unnecessary wars are always fought within our communities. We are also stockbrokers and hedge fund managers! Pinch yourself, and see your false distinctions…! Strife should preach to us a lesson for our latter, wiser, aged years: you learned in the trenches, live ammo and all that. So the pastor’s blockheaded refusal to negotiate, well this helps—we study and mine for intel about their personality type, to better approach the “pastor at large”, in other communities, in the world out there.

If that sounds too clever, perhaps it is. Nevertheless some lawsuits are a bit of a hostage situation: I hold you hostage until you educate me as to Why… Why were such miscreants as these Chosen to lead our neighborhoods and world into its wartime and peacetime Tomorrow? Why are things done in this fashion, and not just with plain bush league stuff, “murder” and lawsuit, hatred and contention? Why does the status quo finally hear out of two storylines, one that is risk-averse, and one risk-taking that people have the Capacity to Choose. And to end the meaningless Shunning by a word in season (“If your brother sins, go to him in private and confront him…”). Gossip is evil. Gossip holds the public reputation—itself held in trust, mutually Owned—up for target practice. It is every eager recipient of the gossip who is amped up beyond belief to have This Person to discuss, to plunder, to malign. We get so amped, we make kings and queens of our blessed offspring. One passion stored up in a bottle to have always Available to smile into the light of.

To the soldier who knows her or his own Contrition: Easter is a bit of a stammering, “you mean… for real…?” Let the better analysts and thinkers Delineate the community’s storyline: who is in what sin, who needs a public penance, and so on. But the groupthink, the shunning without explanation, this is all rooted in the thought there is only one (and that an “Obvious” one) story line. “Of course” they know what they did wrong… or do they? Today we are doing battle, not hopefully with each other, but with the great amassing Judgment Day. When all secrets will be brought to the light of day.