On losing and finding balance

 

In Covid Times: If a pin should drop and no one to hear it, would it still make a sound?

I serendipitously hit upon a sermon by the pastor (Tim Conway. No, not the one who did all those hilarious sketches on Carol Burnett) of a fellowship church in Manchester, England, and although I am seldom attracted to such YouTube videos, I decided to hear what he had to say. And although he made constant reference to “the devil” as the generator of whatever is foul among us and his repeated references to “knowing the truth” seemed a contradiction to his main point, he did make a point that rang true for me.

                It had to do with balance. He began with passages that seem to contradict each other and suggested that we tend to pick one and ignore the other, resulting in a “this and not that” preoccupation. He used baptism—child, youth or adult—as a relevant example. Believer’s baptism, child baptism, baptism at the age of accountability or baptism after strenuous instruction in church doctrine are all supportable in the New Testament. Balance accepts all the references as having authority so that the purpose of baptism supersedes age and method questions.

                The sermon was titled The Devil of Extremes. Many words were expended to make a point that the devil tricks us into the extreme positions on theological issues, and that once there, balance is lost and we are bound to fall. In our history, women tied to Paul’s admonitions on their behaviour in the church and at home, appropriate dress for Christians, admission of LGBTQ+ persons to church membership could all be evaluated on this preacher’s balance beam.

               In his view, we must wrap ourselves in the truth, put on the armour of Christ as Paul and Peter suggest, and that that will make us impervious to the wiles of the devil of extremes. Jesus’ response to the devil’s temptations in the wilderness is a model applicable to this argument. He was tempted to go down the rabbit hole of extremes, but could not be enticed out of balance.

                But the urging to adopt a balanced view will always end up in charges of being “too liberal,” wishy-washy, or being without convictions. When only one form of baptism is acceptable, it’s been known time and again to morph into what the preacher called “an extreme position” and a barrier to the entry of those who were baptized under another understanding as a consequence, I might add. If balance means considering the open church door more important than the form of baptism, there will undoubtedly be objections from those who hold an extreme position on the subject.

                While with MCC in Europe, we were asked to commit to the avoidance of alcohol, only to find that wine and beer were served openly in Mennonite households. One extreme position on alcohol is total abstinence, another extreme position is the habitual overuse of alcoholic beverages. The balanced view accepts that refusing an offered glass of wine with a meal, or asking for multiple refills are both problematic choices, but that there are plenty of signposts in our faith and in the situation to guide us; the interaction is surely of more consequence than the beverage … or the chicken, the peas, the salad or the apple pie for that matter.

                Jesus ate with sinners, picked wheat and healed people on the Sabbath. Such balance was heretical in the sea of extreme positions that characterized the religious leadership of his time. So extreme was the rulebook on Sabbath observance that a gentile boy would be hired to come into the house to light the fire, because that act was determined to be work, and the doing of it would compromise the Sabbath observance of the household.

                I watched much of the trial by indictment of Donald Trump over the last few days. I found it to be much like an unwinnable contest between extreme positions. The prosecution admitted to no good aspect whatever in the person and presidency of Trump; the defense admitted to no evil. The event, I fear, encouraged more of what had already plagued the American psyche for years: the growing fact of extreme and opposing positions, the inability to find a balanced way. Civil war in the making.

                Christianity—any religion for that matter—needs to take stock of its balance. Religion of many kinds have historically shown themselves to be vulnerable to the adoption and defending of extreme positions.

Nothing good has ever come from the refusal to seek balance.