By James Wilson
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
