“5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. The Ministry of Reconciliation 11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Co 5:1–21 ESV)

To earn a ticket to Heaven, the resounding weight of Glory rebounds and sounds off the cavernous walls of this Cave called Battle. We are those familiarized with so many nefarious negative thoughts and unastute Judgments levied our way, yet the Righteousness, the Pie to divvy up of Earned Accolades, of Payment and Dividends, is so ably entered into the Fray as a New non-negotiable mode and purpose. It is a Pie to divvy up because a mantle called Glory rests on the shoulders of the Soldier, willing Soldiers, able Soldiers, Christ-imaging Soldiers.

The nefarious judgments, then, overlook that some brand of Genius is ably carving out Space for each Christ-Like soldier to work within, to waltz to a new tune within, to Carry the mantle called Glory within. And an enemy points out the imbecilic nature of Love: that Patient Love does dictate a measured and cautious jaunt, a tip-toe across the mountain pass and overlooking certain doom, a cliff, a High-Minded principle we hold fast to, while that same Enemy whispers, “Unworthy”.

Because we aren’t bonking people over the head the moment we meet them, “Hey, proof is innate, that I am a soldier and therefore your superior…”. We are able to make these claims as Good Soldiers of Christ, but refrain so as not to raise eyebrows at the wrong time. Timing is everything; and the Enemy faults us at times for not being more aggressive or commanding: the Enemy shoves us as if to say, hurry up, lead, dictate, pontificate, speak as if out of the cathedral herself.

Our measured gait, then, touches no Sacred Ground without a firm Plan and Intention Sublime. We Intend… and the ground reacts and reforms to Receive. At the right time, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us: we, too, save first the polar opposites of those who rejected and judged us. And this is a mystery, the Soldiers’ bedrock Go-To and Homebase, invisible to the would-be judge, invisible to the would-be bishop, invisible, except, helter-skelter and eyes on the prize it is no Joke that souls are ripe and rife to be Saved. And to kiss up to, to flatter and assure the patrons of our Cathedral, our pew-sitting judges and friends, is to Reassure: you already Have Salvation; let me just go a little jaunt towards those Minus a Christ, Minus an Advocate, Minus the Spirit.

Because it seems plain we should be all-submitted to all who demand submission: “Ready-O, captain!”. And it seems a weaselly way out, to faux-submit, to hold out a prior allegiance, to mathematize and frame the Decision as in a theory of games, of victors and losers, of alliances and trusts. Trust me, I am your headship, your bishop, your agency, they say and we… we try and submit but at times already we are too Busy with war on another front, quite to remember to Assure, to Flatter, to Kiss-Up to… rather, never would we blindly concede to one who needed kissing-up-to; we submit to manly and womanly Men, Women, who need no coaxing nor flattery.

And the fantasy writ Large, that every Dream of the artists’ guild, every violent recompense seen on celluloid, all this is License (they fantasize here) to go rogue, and they fail to call a spade a spade: you speak of kings and queens, not of legitimate Today brands of authority, and we all know: kings and queens can Oppress, are Flawed.  So enough with this Fantasy of an “all-powerful entity”: confirm and declare your Terms! What authority has a film star or a favorite son or daughter? Can they solve world hunger, cure cancer, alleve the wickedness of wealth and slavery on a global scale? Will Anyone, all things told, listen to them? So we heed not blind claims of Authority, rather we team up and appoint, elect, vote in, Representatives and Bishops, Pastors and Friends. Because nothing is worse than an insecure Authority figure, who feels the need to rule with an iron fist because of fright zones that others are Competing with them.

In any event, the Christian’s war calls for some Acknowledgment even to the Enemy, “I hear your complaint. I am revising my stance just a bit, but towards the end of you knowing I am repping the authority here, not you; we, the victor, not you”. We learn to be a bit more top-down and militaristic in our loyalties. We learn to Advocate and Preach as if a bit more Hungry than we were in our former, pre born-again lives. We remember the Hunger of the ambitious ones, of the poorer classes, and we try and live in fidelity, with an innate Duty, to these hungers. To assuage and to Cleanse, to be stoic in our rest, in our upper-crust Right and Duty to go easy on ourselves day-by-day. But too, we learn to harbor a righteous Hate of sin, of duties flailed against in failed dispensation, of innate Wickedness.

The Weight of Glory is borne on the shoulders of a peacefully Subdued to War soldier, subdued and duty-bound, heavily still standing despite the weight, and his, her righteous path immediately spelt out and Crystal clear. But a heavy path, a denouement unexpected and dutifully discharged, as at times leading to sacrifice and more, but still the eyes wide and the composure cheerful, the visage Peace, because God has trodden this turf before us. And to that God, we gladly remind the gossipping crowds, that God gets killed; being God does not automatically mean all-strength insofar as He ministers to Human Beings. He can be killed. His jaunt this decade can come to naught, if bandied about without fore-planning or strategy.

Our strategy, then, is that we play a bit of a musical chairs or pass the baton, to afford each Present One some ability to hold the role of Ex Cathedra, of Speaking Officially, of Christ-hood, while we burrow into the hive of war. Let the third person of the Trinity hide out while Person Two goes into the hive. Let the First Person of the Trinity live on a cloud, in the bunker, while Persons Two and Three go into the hive. The hive of war, the fact war is Unfortunate and ugly and really all things told quite Sad. But we have these truths as self-evident, that Man was made to do war, and in peacetime to prep for war.