2024-05-18 A Meditation on the Pressurized Heart

“14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. 19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.””(2 Tim 2:14-19 ESV)

All quiet on some fronts, the Christian bears in her or his heart a veritable pressure-chamber surrounding actual Testimonies. The testimony, for example, of matter-of-fact Faith, draws broad and wide its reach, remembering times when an atheistic Final Sum was operational. The testimony battens down hatches and circumscribes Situations, with all manner of distraction, fears of worldly concerns, of come-what-may, of aging and innate reluctance unto that Faith Step, that Walk Divine and Holy. We can feel as though Christian faith, in sum and substance, isn’t quite “lively” enough or “exciting” enough a proposition.

Yet, welcome O Soldier, to the plain Testimony! Welcome to the situational Embarkation, near and reflective around more atheistic friends while never backing down from the actual Pressure Chamber out of which springs forth Christian Faith. Our own walk This Day operational and in situ found, mesmerized and collegiate not with a “tone down” sense of quiet but rather, “Go broad!”: discover the talked-over abundance and situation, where Sin goes ahead of us and we, we are nurtured, birthed, reformed, in Consequence of a testimony. That God is for us. That Christ His Agent is no laggard, no slouch, no loserdom, but Exciting and Brave, to walk us through the now-smiling reaches and horizons. That we can, just for once, have day’s-end reflection or repose, calm and appeased manner, to be grateful with company or without company, to cease striving after a one-upmanship or ownership: we no longer need to “prove ourselves”, no longer need “hold down the fort” quite, insofar as our deepest fears and wants and hopes are met in Christ Jesus tonight.

And to the paradox, that in “Christian” circles comes the most fervent encounter with hypocrisy, with empty words, with promises not quite in fact believed. In “Christian” circles comes an undaring no-go zone: don’t dare question the Creed’s account, don’t dare question the appearance of all things Kosher and Peace, don’t dare question the false front of people who feel obligated to “testify”: “I am all good now, please back off!” For, we are not all good until Christ is preached; we are not all good until it is for once “Okay” to be wandering or lost, tempted by that Atheistic Perch, of a friend perhaps who has made their (we still say “Christian”) peace with a different mindset or Creed.

For, we call it Christian, too, in full-on catholic sense, the questioner or the boldly self-sufficient, all-systems go and no need to lean on anyone else, right? No need for a Christ to nurse us to health at day’s end, back off man! And indeed, to preach is no longer to Lie, no longer to tell folks “just give in!”: we are asked to surrender, but never to forget Life itself punishes laziness and steals from the meeker set. So surrender, but only vis-a-vis Christian situations, only in principle of a Maker Sublime, only in that realm, that sanctuary, where our own testimony is in fact heard; then go back to the louder set, the boastful crowd, for whom all life is measurement and ambition. For, they know a thing or two about spiritual Wealth, about the gladsome but easy lifestyles of the “rich and famous” in church circles. Some, nay, all, are called upon to dwell closer to that Divide, closer to that Circumspect hatred and malignant belief of just who and what a Christ is.