Several years ago, Lyle Schaller made the observation that ministry, once a "high status, low stress" vocation was now just the opposite: "high stress and low status." Why? Clergy have a double calling, both to secure and to shake people up. They need to be prophetic and pastoral at the same time. Most people want ministers to stabilize their lives, to keep them from being shaken. The goal many parishioners come to church to achieve is stability. They don't want to be shaken. They want to be secured. Unfortunately, ministers also shake people up.

Saint Paul enters this remarkably interesting double bind to tell us that we are not to be easily or quickly shaken. In other words, we are to have a wild equilibrium in the middle of great disequilibria. We are to be peaceful in the midst of con…