So, which is it? We cannot very well escape and should not necessarily want to OR is it one of those patterns of this age that the Apostle Paul urges believers to resist? Can we be satisfied with mere, measured, nuanced resistance (up to but not including the metaphorical “shedding of blood?”) or will resistance increasingly incline us toward a desire to escape it? And, why does this historical juncture preclude us from a desire to escape “clock time?”

“ structure native to the way things are and must be. . . sounds much like a “creation structure,” the return to which is a gift of shalom. The Amish have done very much to escape the tyranny of the clock and the electric light.