2025-02-12 A Meditation on Simple Greetings

“26 Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. 32 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. 34 When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 36 And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8:26-39 ESV)

“20 All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.” (1 Cor 16:20 ESV)

Flexing, airing out, rebounding. The natural course of things still appeals to original sin: we cubby-hole, self-circumscribe, write others out of the equation. And we try to hold our ground even when momentum would take us a bit far afield from the Christian Gospel.

So to go with that momentum, is to endear to a low anthropology, to sign up for a “Him, not me” enabling Spirit. We must simply stop trying to hold our own ground, if there is potential to rebound, to go for broke, go lossy, and therein be found amenable, hearing, sensing, and welcoming to Conversion Writ Large. We welcome Christ’s “Hello”: like in a crowded common area of our homestead, the “Hi”s and “How are ya?”s, these interrupt and humble any and all scheming plans of personal grandeur. We are to rebound, to bounce off of each other, to live gladsome and happy around being Found in this sudden new locale or that encampment.

That is, have Faith, O Soldier, that ceasing to try and be all things and above all ceasing to try and make our own Might, earn our own Compassion, deliver our own Non-negotiables: these things are now owned by Christ, by the Trinity, by Father and Holy Spirit. And to submit to that home encampment’s prodigal at times progeny, citizens, who-done-what’s People, this does Bare the soul, insofar even as we have things, deeds past, that we struggle to forgive. Yes, O citizen of the church, see your exasperated side, and learn to be gentle, generous, to Listen and Forgive because the agent of our miserable experience past, is an agent Gentle and flawed in so many forgivable and lovable ways. So, we however must be honest that there are cracks and wounds in our Holiness. We must be honest there are deeply sublimated, ringing ears of the subterranean expository Blast that makes of our flaws a front-and-center amazed Coming to Jesus modality. We had deep wounds. We had deep insecurities. We had frustrated and exasperated, “This shan’t come to Jesus” hegemonies internal, subdued, entrenched, buttressed.

The Christian copes around the vomitous Fact of no such thing: no such thing as a downpat and straightforward Exchange, Christ for us, we now flawless and above reproach. No, we are in a pinball machine of Coping, Renewing appeals to Christ to be Head and Larger than we ourselves are. We saw the existential questions around dissatisfaction with our own “put together” state: we had to Indulge, had to crack the seams, had to shock factor the populace, the audience, the friends who see in us something hidden, worth aggrandizing and honoring. Worth thanking for the friendship, worth the glistening sheer face of God: High, we: Low; Go with the Flow, lose a bit in order that you might Gain a bit. Stop denying folks in your scheming meticulous Plans that “Hello, soldier, friend, comrade”. That Hello that keeps us in group mentalism, spiritual reading, soothsaying and fortune telling around Mysteries of God For Us. We are mystical, and we are feng shui sheen and somehow begin to dislodge those deeply rooted schisms and pains and unforgivenesses. After all, if life were reasonable, we would forgive ourselves so much, and by the same token would be concerned that much more, for the “Right things”. But instead we fuss around a sandwich or a simple accident, and lose track of the properly-valued set of Affairs on our Table. On our mind. On our heart. Things we contribute a solution to only insofar as our own pinball machine goes Silent and Evocative, speaking Calmly now around a High Ideal that we are indeed marching to the Good Troop’s outlay. Our outlay is efficient and productive, and still it is submitted and reactive to that bounce effect and the ways we vibe off of each other.