2025-02-08 A Meditation on Salvation From a Distance

“36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

51 “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” 52 And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”” (Matt 13:36-52 ESV)

Stages of salvation, slow and steady: we were, after all, destined for phase two, and on. Some claim dispensations: the notion that the Gospel Witness varies in its exemplifications, miracles in some generations, absent miracles in others. What we know and observe, is that strange simultaneity of Freedom to Act coupled with a Divine Shepherding. We are Shepherded, and in this fact, we are Free.

To act, to enact, to exact, a Plain dutiful outpouring of Witness: the Love… the Passion… the strapped-in Service. If we made it to a “phase two”, it is not denying a ministry to all phases, nor a subservience to the general church folk in their respective phases. We are dutiful; we are passionate; we are mystified though mystical; we are Front and Center the emblem of Christ’s people. Of Christ’s Passion lived out. Of Christ’s amazing Words so sublime, known yet rarely grappled with: love your neighbor; be of usefulness to your partner; endear your labors unto your enemy’s building up. And then, too, the Mystical nature of it all, that Christ Himself passed by many-an opportunity for service, only to make a fuss about those whom He did heal. Indeed, He Knew, and Served, and subtly Gifted. From a notion of “this self, this individual, is a Saved One”. And we, too, eyes on the prize, see that we are Saved and Individuals Blessed no matter.

No matter the passionate misguidance. No matter the curmudgeonly-at-times end-of-day laziness or selfishness. No matter the exasperated response to a war on the church front, that instead should call for deep Patience and Understanding. See? That we are already in motion around any and all submissive Apologies, Repentances, Hear-Me-Outs: we set out to continue in our existing trajectory, when those apologetica should coach us to pause and to reboot and to Listen. Yes, O soldier in the neighboring pews: today is the Day! Today is the day for Patience! Today is the day for Coming Together! Today is a mystical “Church Thing” underway! So no more do you laugh off the penitence, only to remind the “sinner” of their judgment at God’s and the congregation’s hand! Dare! Dare to see the least and the lost as First in the Kingdom!

The soldier is therefore Weary. The soldier is therefore Sublime. The soldier is therefore Busy: you may live on a lark, and wisp and wasp according to the breeze of the day, but the soldier knows many-a folk underserved, blasphemed against, hurt, caught up in strongholds of sin. Today: hear His voice, and hear of the distant War. Indeed, be bold to see that same War on your own welcome mat. That God is coaching, as though through an impossible bind: Today… if you hear His voice… He’s praying for you, that something like Christ’s own Resurrection would somehow take hold, find root, build up foundation, and that Fervent Prayer may somehow, on a lark, be answered.

For the nations ebb and flow, the humanity goes up against Dire Predictions… Evolution, as a god, laments a thousand years of evolution lost at a time, whereas Christianity is an Already-Ascertained, Grasped, Owned stage of the matter: that God is for us; that He is patron saint of the Already-Evolved fact: Christ Himself is our equal, even after two thousand years of the stuff. And we… we do not judge by “Evolved Metrics” but by inmost Character.