2024-11-10 A Meditation on Socialized

“10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.” (Luke 10:1-12 ESV)

The aspect of welcome, involvement, belonging: this has little to do with traditional measures of one’s socialization or relevance. We welcome and involve each other not for the best jokes told nor for the plucky skills at headship, but because of some softening around—in Christian terms—one’s sins, one’s selfishness somehow mitigated, one’s aggression somehow appeased, one’s solipsism somehow broken open.

More than that, genuine Christianity reflects upon, observes the catcalls and name-calling, the individual’s sense of futility, of devastating acquiescence unto lower rungs; just for whom and why are we “good enough” in our garments faded and repetitive, our mugshot bleary-eyed and droll, our climb on that totem pole somehow neither “all things” nor “all losses”. Genuine Christianity indeed—call it by another name if you wish—has spelt a respite from the catcalls and the name calling, has coached and afforded us the pet names of Relevance, of Belonging, of Abilities… to contribute, to rise up, to be a pillar even in our silent, non-jocular, non-winsome, not so much taking the helm as being calmly composed and calmly not self-centered but utterly attentive to the group’s spirit and to the Watch, the Lookout: see us not to be meddled with, but see us friendlier the more Strength we manage to parade. We are friends, now, because God saw fit to bless the one’s name-called and abused, verbally mocked and shut out. God saw fit to make strange bedfellows of radically, diametrically, opposed Realities, the football quarterback and the art student, the track star and the drama club star, the jock and the svelte.

We welcome in a new sense of a void, a wind sweeping in, a beginning of our war to end all wars, that of Sincere and Genuine Encounter, Experience, Testimony over and against the purely theoretical, the studied but not believed upon witness: we do not “study” the faith as though to keep it at a pleasant arm’s length, but we study to make over ourselves as living Witnesses. It is a sincere Encounter that cannot be abstracted or held at a distance. See the nerve, the pluck and boisterous Calm of those coached by Scripture and Fellowship: love on the outcast and see the fruits in one’s own sense of Belonging to the Father. Dare to try the Kool-Aid and see that as one blesses others, they themselves become Blessed.

The war ends all wars insofar as it Elevates and Acclimates us to a newfound wakefulness, awareness. Suddenly the goalposts could not be more easily seen, and in this Inspired Reality we recruit, or testify, or induct with a word. Those to whom we are sent. Those skittish or on the fence about the militarization called Christian armor and shield and helmet and sword: that is a “Church Militant” that we are proud to call Home. It is awaiting the “Church Triumphant”, but again, not with daggers drawn but rather with an over-the-top level of Temperance and Gentleness, precisely because our Sword is multitudinously better and stronger and more militant than those weaker digs we knew before we knew Christ. We are weak so that these others to whom we are sent, may be strong. We are submitted, so that these others to whom—we fault ourselves past mistakes no longer—will know a Master in Heaven with whom to sign up. Past mistakes, they used to haunt us, but Today we are spunk and verve, nerve and tact, simply to say “No matter, I shall soldier on!”.