2022-11-25 A Meditation on the Ambiguous Gathering

“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” (1 Co 9:19–23 ESV)

We can catalog our experiences as far as an earnest desire to speak legit, to honor our Father in heaven and our parents here on earth, to do justice to stories, to purr along in any circumstance, with space in the air, in our hearts, in our testimonies, for a degree of conversion. Conversion to a Lord sometimes spoken of in foreign language, so as not to raise the hackles of those who cannot bide the language, the churchy language. Conversion to a personal narrative that leaves room from that motoring along to witness what others are experiencing, to dare to be effective, to dare to lead, to recognize that frightening fact that what we say and do, does help form and mold the circumstances.

What we say and do does not brook well the “status quo”; though nominally a loving and Christian gathering, our gospel is alien and uncouth. It causes offense, and people will say it leaves them feeling either accused or spiteful, either oppressed or judgmental themselves; we come across as weak, or pleasant but not meaningful in any large sense.

We do not try to upset the boat, when the bridge is in other hands; we have too much to say, and not enough to say; we plead, we gesture, we long to keep available that place for Jesus to enter in, that telling that entails Meaning and Reassurance: we reassure, having perhaps had a moment of inspiration or of humor or of verite, go before us. Fear not, young one, to take up that mantle, do not hide in the shadows and corners, be not ashamed of this your platform.

For it is a platform imbued with a rebellious level of self-giving, of service, of truly having other things on our mind than to laze about in the community. We have a “family” to go back to. We have a “mindset” that patiently endures, patiently in attendance, patiently endeavoring to start Now, even if it seems ungainly how long and pathetically it did take for us to find a melody to sing. Now, even if our words suddenly seek empty, an echo chamber, inchoate, hollow. Yesterday they meant the world to this, in our own special way of communicating, in writ, in measured but all-courageous speech, none of this half-way service but full on, all in, communication. So we finally have that word that reassures, we have the little victories, we have the promises that bear fruit, that bear promises fulfilled, of strange and alien ways we too are efficacious despite being the dregs of humanity, despite it coming at the price of our own holy humility, holy servanthood.