2024-02-13 A Meditation on Space
“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.” (Matt 13:44 ESV)
People divvy up the world not so much in view of life together as a godly calling, but as a litmus test as to whose side you’re on. Somehow the Christian’s faith is of an infinity zone called Trial and Fellowship: we are tried by our shared goals of life together, tried as to our ability to grab the gold and reach for the stars; there is some quite healthy Gift to unearth, and in spite of all curmudgeonly looking askance or feeling divided.
With wide latitude, politer church society lends space, time and circumstance, of a rather appreciated level. We falter and balk at graver aspects of the life together, but also find a strange leeway and lease on life. Sticking points not cause for a worldly dispute, but rather to each their personal Experience.
And yet it is told that the day will come when those “Saved” will do war with Unbelief. It is told that the day shall dawn when all creatures will be measured by a list of duties or even of rote obedience. We stammar and balk at what strange wondrous claims are made by our faith communities, while also basking in the sense we are individually Licensed and Set Apart to serve as we indeed feel called and do surmise a project or a task or a cause.
Our Cause, then, is rightly to see tangibles and earmarks, ornaments and talking points, rightly administered. It is rightly to see Principle meet Audience meet simpler hearts and wide-eyed minds. It is to make the solemn confession, yet not as a resented obligation but as the tipping point or weighty and felt testimony. We feel and we testify. We amount to something surmised and walked through; we speak up. It is all strangely wonderful yet also a Call to accept that this may be all there is: we may have unearthed a treasure trove, yet need be awakened that this trove is our sticking point and walking line and speaking topic. This treasure trove will not grant us immunity from the lusts of time or from the dogged fears and cringe-worthy upheavals, my way or the highway, won’t you just grant us some peace around here? The untold Property called Salvation may just be to each their own, yet can we just say that we need get by with a little help from our friends?
It may be that the space afforded to each comer, is a space not to be worldly-wise or cynical about: such is the arena God gave His disciples and prophets to walk in. So do not measure your success by how complicated something is; His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Do not measure your success with a cynic’s assumption that all people are in it for themselves. Allow for blessings—let’s call them peaceful signs—to come. Allow the space to ferment. Allow the ways and means to beckon to each of us gathered, to each a calling and an outfitted life, to each some Belonging and right to share in the communal mirth, to be joyful and lifted up, exalting the Son and exalting the Father and exalting the Spirit, Three in One.