2024-07-31 A Meditation on Shaking Off a Stigma
“20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph 4:20-32 ESV)
Trying to shake off a stigma, our composure means everything unto that purpose not lost sight of, to bless such-and-such folk, to put up the Sign of the Cross, to ask forgiveness where facts simply can’t be talked down, to heal where the offense of that sign has caused manic self-injury.
The stigma may be Everything that is separating us from right fellowship, embrace, and hearth. The stigma to the soldier’s creed and to her or his trajectory, composure, discharged Duty, is stigmata both Ruinous and Enabling: we are Enabled to call everything Christ’s service, the strange rumors and outposts ruinous yet also Calling Upon a forever faith or tomorrow vision or branded outlay.
The soldier therefore can walk back any omission of facts or half-way duties or stigmata as Ended by the Service, where he and she meet he and she, no longer trying vainly just to fly under the radar a bit, but queried and answerable, we are repping something More, not Less, than what our vision entails: something of putting up a flag, of handwaving no longer but pointing precisely to the Cross of our God and King as a Cross that will spell Question and Trial, because of the foolish ways in which we Test the Doctrine, or parry forth Prophetically, or Alienate or Offend.
The soldier is an awoken soul so precisely gladhappy, of gladsome exchange, of happy pursuit, willing of course this day to be narrow in focus, if it means blessing the Brotherhood, Sisterhood. Rumors have preceded us: rather than address the dynamic, we are instead Principled and Hopeful to worry no longer about the lesser flourishes and fuss of rumor-mongers.
Christian faith is us on display, horrified at all the mistakes we make but also Certain of a certain Signpost held up, to be the Cross, to be the Hearth, to be the Answer amidst so much deliberation. We deliberate but are no strangers to distaste and the plain judgments of our world, no longer. In theory, these two are friends. In theory, these others are sympathetic fellow-travelers. In the grand scheme of things, we could talk all day: about that je ne sais quois of how Faith does things in this world, surprising things, faith-positive things, in the sense one needs make a conscious decision for the Lord. One cannot say it all is conversational, quite. One needs a bit of that ironic or humbled or servant-minded mentality. Which is then on display and hated, taken-advantage-of, factory of persecutions and of hardships and blight, weariness, discord, disassembly, all coming from no perfect “Jesus-type” but from a Luther or a Calvin, from a Jeremiah or an Ezekiel, from a Jonah or a disciple of our Lord and King: with such tools as these shall the Gospel be brought forth. With such tools as these shall the meek in spirit be blessed. With such facets as these shall the suffering servant become each of us, hated on the homefront though magnanimous and forgiving; hated abroad, though precise and vocal as to what the stance of defense right now indeed is.