Polarity

It is freaking cold outside! Like someone moved the polar cap to my front door.
This posting is not about this phenomenon, but it is about extremes. This nation, if not the world at large, seems to have shifted. Battle line have been drawn, the camps are entrenched behind their dogma and self-righteous doctrine. It is either this cause or that cause, period. Classic dualism.

In a recent article at Edge.org, Professor Steven Pinker explains the principle of the second law of thermodynamics as follows:

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that in an isolated system (one that is not taking in energy), entropy never decreases. (The First Law is that energy is conserved; the Third, that a temperature of absolute zero is unreachable.) Closed systems inexorably become less structured, less organized, less able to accomplish interesting and useful outcomes, until they slide into an equilibrium of gray, tepid, homogeneous monotony and stay there.

I think that Professor Pinker’s explanation is a proper declaration for what occurs when we divide ourselves into camps of interest whether they are camps devoted to politics, religion, sports, food, cars, clothes or any other camp whose identity is established on a standard that opposes another camp. Camps are closed systems. Republicans do not think like Democrats; Catholics don’t believe like Protestants; Ford truck people don’t know anything like Dodge truck people do. It is everywhere.

Yet, according to the good professor’s claim, these closed systems are less able to accomplish interesting and useful outcomes. Point at Washington D.C. and any other political center across this globe and you can see this as the daily grind from the clash of camps. Look at our spiritual centers around the world and you’ll witness the proclamation of exclusion rather than the gospel of inclusion as communities of believers fracture more and more around doctrinal issues rather than face the mandate of going into the world to make disciples.

Disciples. Not converts. But disciples of what? Dualistic thinkers are always stuck right here. They can never see any choice that doesn’t align with their meta-narrative on either side of the issue.

Paraphrasing author Cynthia Bourgeault from her book The Law of Three, when there are two forces, one opposing and one agreeing, each committed to their ideology, progress never happens. Only when a third force is introduced, will any change or movement occur. This third, or reconciling force, will pull from the other two and develop a new direction that neither had the ability to construct on their own. The new direction will create the next agreeing and opposing forces over time which, as in our example of above, achieve entropy until the third force is introduced again. No advancement or sustained movement will occur without the involvement of the third, reconciling force.

Did that help you see what type of disciple? No, then how about this little beauty:

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2Co 5:20)

God does not care what camp you belong too because He reconciled you. You are a new creation. Neither camp could create you, only God could. Now you are to be the reconciling force that causes things to move forward. Believers are not members of a political party; they reconcile parties into a new direction that neither party could advance on their own. Believers aren’t members of a denomination; they are the force that changes the world by advancing the reconciling fact of God’s love for them. Nations/states are not God nation/states; they are regions of reconciliation between nation/states who are unable to move into their destiny because of polarization of ideologies.

Hunger, homelessness, child abuse, abortion, sex trafficking, pollution, terrorism, military intervention, economic upheaval, just to name a few things; the world has issues, real-life matters that are not being addressed by anyone, simply because battle lines have been drawn. It’s time to take the role we’ve been placed in and use our God-given talents to make things happen rather than choosing a side we think God wants us to be on.

Don’t for one moment think that these matters can’t be changed by the likes of you. Small things make a big impact on global issues. Quit waiting for someone to do something when you’re the reconciling force. Start somewhere, look for an impasse and make it passable. If you can’t envision yourself doing this then it is quite possible that you have succumbed to the second law of thermodynamics, an equilibrium of gray, tepid, homogeneous monotony content to stay there. Sounds like church to me.
You have been called to always be the separation between the entropic institutions of church and state.