Human beings are designed for covenant. Unique among the creatures of God we are capable of voluntary, reciprocal, and developmental relationships. Dogs are either pack or solitary – they don’t choose social or solitary each morning. If your dog bites my dog, mine will likely bite back, but if your dog bites me I will likely call a lawyer. And when a dog reaches maturity he is all the dog he can be. When I reach adulthood I will continue to change and – hopefully – grow the rest of my life. This maturity occurs in relationships in which I live and move.
Covenant
– as opposed to a contract with fixed terms, conditions and boundaries – is a
shaped relationship remaining open at the front end. When God tells people (Micah 6:8) they know
what He requires – to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Him – He
shapes the relationship without limiting its growth. Ditto when Jesus calls the heart of covenant
with God that we love God with all our might and neighbor as ourselves. We are not just designed for covenant living;
we attain the fullness of humanity only within that context, whether in the
most intimate setting of the marriage covenant or in the social covenants of
friendship and constitutional community.
In
California we’ve done a poor job – at best – of keeping covenant with God and
with one another.
We
lead the nation in divorce and co-habitation without marriage, and these are
covenant breaking and refusal to covenant at all, respectively. Yet most of us remain blissfully unaware of –
and in denial of – the degree to which covenant breaking is a lifestyle in our
culture and history. When our ancestors
arrived in California they discovered more varieties of Native American tribes
than in any other state. They entered
into covenants – treaties – with more frequency than in any other state – and
we have broken virtually all of them.
That breaking has often been accompanied by violence of a unique
ferocity.
The Natural Bridges Massacre is one of the
worst examples. The gold miners of
Weaverville lived in peace with the Nor-el Muk band of the Wintu nation until a
famine came and six Indians begged food from a hate-filled Weaverville grocer. He suggested they eat grass instead. When his body was found with grass stuffed in
his mouth a posse formed and reacted.
They never found the suspects, but they murdered more than one hundred
fifty women, children and elderly Wintu at Natural Bridges for revenge. To this day tourists and locals alike think
the area a playground instead of the shrine it ought to be; graffiti covers the
rocks where the dead are still not permitted to rest in peace.
Even
worse was the Etna area massacre of Shasta people. Whites entered into a peace treaty with the
tribe and – to celebrate – invited the tribe to a barbecue. They laced the beef with strychnine and three
thousand Shastans died. Those who did
not succumb to the poison were gunned down as they fled. To this day the federal government denies the
event took place, but I saw xeroxed copies of contemporary newspaper accounts
of the slaughter. It happened; denial
only worsens the atrocity.
Covenant
breaking is unique among the master sins of California in that it does not stop
with polluting the physical environment as much as the hearts of we who live in
it. It degrades our very nature as
beings designed for one way of living and one only. What does repentance resemble?
The
first thing is simple enough – fess up where we have messed up. The second is just as simple – choose to
recognize the God Who makes us as the God Who understands our best interests
far better than we; re-focus our attention on Him and His ways and forget our
excuses that too much time has passed or we are not our ancestors. We accept the Gold Rush benefits they
bequeath cheerfully enough; we can accept responsibility for righting their
Gold Rush wrongs with the same cheerfulness.
Of
course such recognition would change our decision-making – one decision at a
time – from whatever seems necessary to me to whatever seems important to my
Maker. It would embody Jesus’ words that
when we sacrifice life claims for others we come into His abundant life, but
when we hang on to self-serving survival we only postpone death for awhile.
Prayer
is the most important third dimension. When
we pray before and after doing we are reminded – should we forget – that the
Good Samaritan remains the model of ultimate covenant keeping and Micah 6:8
still defines the covenant lifestyle.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
