A Taste of Wisdom

by The Reverend Wayne Kinyon, Chaplain to the Retired, EDUSC

Daily I read my Bible in search of God's truth and ethics, and so I should. Also I read my Bible standing in awe of the great drama of God in history as spread out from Genesis to Revelation. But lately I have been reading my Bible with a fascination for the Bible as dialogue.

Of course the Bible is a place where I am drawn into dialogue with the Holy Spirit, as has been true for Christians down through the centuries. But my current fascination is the dialogues, sometimes the debates, that exist within the pages themselves.

Right off the bat, we have the two creation stories. In one, humankind is the concluding and crowning piece of creation, while in the other a human being is created before the animals, and is created as a servant, a laborer. Each version has its truth to tell and needs to be there, but in details contradicts the other. Later, we have the Book of Job. Of course Job the man is in dialogue, debate, and conflict with the others in the story, even God; but more, Job the book is in loud debate with parts of the Psalms and Prophets which say that if we trust the Lord and follow in his ways, all will be well. And within the Book of Job, are the prose and poetry sections in conflict about the nature of God and his gift of material prosperity? Sometimes in Scripture we see a God who is tough and demanding and sometimes a God who is gentle and easily forgiving. Is He in total control, or is everything the product of free will? Does He love everyone or just those who do his will? The temptation is to believe one strand and ignore the other.

Years ago, a family friend in Oak Ridge, The Rev. Dr. William G. Pollard, a nuclear physicist who later also became a priest, wrote a book: Chance and Providence. From the book and his talks on the topic, I picked up the word antinomy. It means paradox but avoids the idea that somehow the obvious contradiction is to be solved. Using examples from physics, Bill shows that sometimes the nature of a thing (light, for example) is such that one must carefully embrace contradictions (wave versus matter). He sees Genesis 50:20 as an expression of antinomy when Joseph says that what his brothers did to him was evil but God had caused the same event intending it for good. Sometimes seeming contradictions actually hold the greater truth.

I am picturing an elderly woman on the back pew of St. Pius Church saying her beads and a young man in a pentecostal church with hands upraised and praising God in tongues. Which one is the true Christian? Or is Christian worship better understood by knowing both of them? My grandfather did not approve of our Episcopal congregation having Holy Communion available so frequently; when he was a boy, his Congregational Church had the sacrament rarely, but work stopped for days to allow people to prepare themselves spirituality for this important event. Is one right and the other wrong, or does each catch a part of the truth?

And what about two opposite positions on a serious ethical issue, both held by devout Christians? Is it possible that God's truth is not in just one side or the other, but dwells in the tension of the debate?   When should the rule of antinomy apply? 

This piece republished courtesy of the EDUSC Retired Clergy News from Wayne's column, Chaplain's Chat.