DeanRobin :: Taming the untameable. Friday after Lent 4

This is Robin Walker's blog. I am the Dean of the Diocese of Brandon & Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Cathedral, in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. I have been in this ministry since January of 2003. My big interest is "preaching among exiles," to borrow a term from Walter Brueggemann. This blog is mainly devoted to my sermons, and the sometimes circuitous process by which I get to them, as well as current issues in church life as I experience them. I welcome constructive comment on the content of my personal posts. Comments on linked articles should be directed to the appropriate authors. Note that this is a moderated blog. I will not accept comments dealing with local and/or personal issues. The main page normally contains only material from the current week. Past articles are found in other categories.

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Taming the untameable. Friday after Lent 4

by Robin Walker on Fri 23 Mar 2007 05:46 AM CDT | Permanent Link | Cosmos

Today's readings (Psalm 73:1-16, Job 39:1-12) continue yesterday's theme. God keeps questioning Job about whether he can do all the things God can. In particular, can you tame untameable wild animals like the mountain goat, the wild ass, and the wild ox? The rhetoric is moving us toward an answer of "No." There are some things that can't be done, except by God, and God does not do them that way. Wild beasts are wild for a reason.

Over ten years ago, I attended a two-day course led by Roy Oswald of the Alban Institute, entitled something like "Unavoidable but Unresolvable Issues in Church Life." It turned out to be one of the most useful continuing education events I have ever attended, giving me a tool for insight into church life and theology that I now use continually.

What Roy Oswald showed us was that many issues are polarities. A polarity occurs when two positive values operate in tension with each other. Holding on to one at the expense of the other drives us into a negative situation, which is only corrected by affirming the other positive. The tension can never be resolved or collapsed—there is no one "right answer," but rather a continual dynamic (moving) balance between two.

Here's an example, taken from management studies:
Clarity in management is a good thing, but practiced exclusively becomes rigidity. Rigidity is "solved" by flexibility—another good thing. Flexibility on its own degenerates into ambiguity, which is "solved" by clarity. And so the dance goes on...

There are some classical polarities in theology. For example:
The Trinity
The Incarnation
Grace and Works

There are many practical issues in church life which admit to this kind of analysis, including the current one in the Anglican Communion over same-gender relationships. Identifying an issue as a polarity allows us to see that it is irresolvable, which may be a problem for some, but actually allows us to find reconciliation in agreeing to live within the tension.

A polarity is like Job's wild ox—you can't tame it, but you can learn to live with it.

The attached PowerPoint Show illustrates how one polarity works.

Attachments:

Welcome.pps (31KB)

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Lent 2007