“27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” The Sign of Jonah 29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The Light in You 33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” Woes to the Pharisees and Lawyers 37 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. 38 The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39 And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. 42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.” 45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” 46 And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. 48 So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. 52 Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” 53 As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, 54 lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.” (Lk 11:27–54 ESV)

The hope of the supplicant shall not be taken away: to enter again the Womb and be Born Again is an invite really to the luxe aspects of life provided we simultaneously agree: in this life you will have sadness, strife, hardship, harsh judgment. Yet see us gestate, graze, vegetate on some Level Newborn, newly minted, poking this way and that against the embryonic shroud we find ourselves in. This is a miracle of Life, of womanhood, of the genders all represented as having come from Woman, from an Eve, and said Eve, Woman, in some fashion complementary even in this uniquely feminine task of Bearing Children, supported, made compatible, analog togetherness, with Man her Partner.

And to the Now factor of a Ready Disposition: the fresh-faced young soldier hears the steady thump of drumbeat and loud blare of the horns, cymbals crashing and All War summoned in a Hurrah and march or race forth, weapons at the ready. Our weapons are our sanctity of life, our solemn Holiness Factors of how we live, our Consecration of all thoughts, deeds, and companionships, to the Lord and to Jesus. We are holy and this punctures the sword of the enemy. We are Boldly Proclaiming, and this punctures the armor of the enemy. We are Hurrah and Huzzah Emboldened by prayer, and this undoes the helmet of the enemy. We give, and embrace, and Love: and this undoes the malice of the enemy.

The hope of the supplicant shall not be taken away except hush ma don’t you worry, we say to the Ladies Presented, as militant front-liners of War when each in their own prerogative feels called thus to Serve. If they do. If she does. If he thinks it copacetic and Right Action. If the team deems this one thus Called, or instead called to the manly post of Soldier Frontline. Both men, women, and all genders therein can run forth and Make, and gingerly Poke the enemy with one setback after another, with a hornet’s nest of plague fitting for their level of Evil comeuppance.

Only we rather be innocent of Evil, and Design our forward jaunt to be Love and mercifully killing of Sin, setting broad Terms of Surrender, setting generous Captive Soldier classrooms and efforts because when someone does a loving gesture our direction, it is hard to deny them Anything they might ask of us. The ones formerly curmudgeonly and greedy now Share. The ones haggard and worldly-wizened, now are playing again in mother’s womb, in Church’s Womb, in this way Christ is never to listen, His people are never to listen, to the hatred launched their direction but instead announce, the skin, the surface sometimes is ill, but the heart, the Womb of Mother Church, Mother Earth, is the bona fide scout’s honor Best Thing we have going for us, that our Faith is unapologetic and Seizes the Hour to claim Rest, to claim Creation and Adam’s Curse, Eve’s Curse, but only insofar as our gentle Societal Christianity does prescribe, each nation in its own fashion, Rest, Calm Studiousness, Careful Coming Togethers. We deplore the workers worked to the bone, but also we live straddling several worlds, including that of day laborers so grim and bleary-eyed on the commuter’s morning or evening bus route. Yet too what the beautiful ones in the land are doing, even the best art and film and stage doesn’t quite rise to the level of the Beautiful Ones in the land, the Fruit of a New Birth, a Rebirth, a second post-partum from Mother the Giver, the Suffering Servant, the Christ.

To break the peace and strive, rally, march, search, and bandy forth into the day, into the night, is a Holy Respect for what human life is sacrificed in times of War: and how is this for us Christians fighting a spiritual war Already and Now? It is the fact of people losing touch with their All Together shared Birth and Rebirth, losing sight, losing hope, tempted to sins that, while overtly forgivable, will hem up and set way back the soldier’s frontline and line drawn in the sand. All of us have nagging voices saying, “Abandon the faith”. All of us even agree in part to the verdict on “Christians” were it not that we are Heads Held High facing Heaven and no need ever to Apologize for the hope we emote and disperse and scatter in our train. If this be Christ’s work in our lives, so be it: life is stranger, the film more macabre, the violence more painful, than anything we would imagine or let in insofar as it is a status quo. We think glum thoughts, we think meagre thoughts, mediocre thoughts, until realizing: Christ has Saved me from all that, in ways too foreign and Genius to recount. We walk on clouds. We cheer to the band’s marching music. We go forth Boldly into that Tomorrow War where Many Soldiers will be sent straight to Heaven, to a Heavenly Gate and Saint there serving to welcome them home.

And for those left behind, the war is still gladly Fought and trenches dug and Enemies Loved Upon, in forsooth Fashion, in Embrace, in Together-as-Humans camaraderie.