2023-11-04 A Meditation on Reverence

Tread lightly, we remind ourselves: holiness surrounds this house. We surmise greater holiness in the innate character of others, even as we know all are equal in sin. We imagine how holiness is dealt out, and the person that a faulty soul will call presumptuous, demonstrative, flamboyant, all show, is instead an invite to see life through their lens.

The soldier as part of her or his faith-walk, discipleship, journey, is in possession of a Promise: that tomorrow’s wars are already seen and attacked, by our Lord and by our Friend, by our Peace and by our Courage. Therefore we rightly can put aside the garments of the older and responsible Brother, Sister, and be swept up in something that others, who knows, may have a more firm handle on than we ourselves.

This is certainly no cause for dismay, no critique, no reminder to push a little harder in the good works department. No, this is a blessed in-between time and place for the manifestly Saved Soul. The soul saved and courageous dons their fighting garb and dares to dream even bigger on behalf of this their neighbor in the faith, than what he or she themselves is capable of individually.

More than that, the soldier is unapologetic to propose that he or she fights an inner war Real, Cogent, Difficult, Bracing. Because she or he is on the front lines of decision-making. Because the situational awareness must have no tree leaves obscure the distant vision, no leaves of lust or personal pride or restless retributions of a personal variety. We do believe that on the other side of a confessional—just between us and God, us and the Holy One—is a societal or militaristic fruit called Peace and Vision. And at times it is us, innocently enough, at the helm spirit-wise. We are that vision and inspiration to another soul. They recall our sublime and some would say weak vision of carrying a worshipful tune whilst waiting in the communion line. They recall our unapologetic adherence to these ancient texts called Old and New, Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament; Gospel and Epistles, Prophecies and Histories and Law.

All this by way of saying, dream big: latch on to your peer in the trenches of life, in full hope that something Emerges out of a duo or a trio of souls. That Christ is present in ways scarcely legislated but rather emergent. With utter refusal even to mention “those things they do in secret”: the peace soul, the Christ soul, is strangely, inexplicably, vouchsafed unto Salvation and unto Holiness until that Day, through customs and routine, habit and passions, unwritten except in the exuberant language of Grace, which Grace tries to capture and revise the Law: the Apostle being persnickety about lustful temptation, wanting us to know a spiritual walk.

So be it: we roll with the punches and don our military invite to be recruits. It was no cake-walk before came the Law: depressions, angst, ennui. It is no cake-walk now that we have the Law: increased temptations, inner rebellion, frustration, angst, ennui. But for that minimalistic, sublime, envisioned glimpse, of Grace, of the Eternal, of the Hereafter; for this we labor on, fight on, pray on, and extend to others in our greeting. A haphazard greeting. A decision made to be the head, not the mortal frame: someone has to be brave and bold, and why not us? Yet too man is trapped in cisterns and pools of waste. So we strive to live near to that subtle and simple quest, that place blessed and untempted, fasted on some spiritual plane, and banqueting on another plane. The latter being what we share with each others, because life is short; because all our many words can only do so much, until blessed by a visitation from the Holy Spirit; there are souls “out there” trapped and eager to be set free, by the right and certain Word, by good prayer lifted up in their name; by we—like the Apostle Paul—being willing to take on ourselves a fast or a paucity, because for them it has become part of their religion, it has become the way they pinch themselves and say, “Am I saved?” Therefore let us dream with the dreamers, and endear ourselves to one another as those who believe.