How
many of us have sinned in the past week?
Don’t worry--I’m not asking for a show of hands.
In
St. Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome, he writes about a war going on
within himself. What he perceives as God's law and the law of sin are both
found within him. He identifies the law
of his mind with God and the law of sin in his body with evil. He says, "For I do not do the good I
want, but the evil I do not want is what I do." Does Paul truly see himself as being unable
to escape his own evil desires? Or does he use this image of a war between good
and evil within himself as a rhetorical device to show the power of God through
Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection. Whichever it is, Paul said that he
is powerless over his desires that led him to sin.
In
the Hebrew scriptures the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic Covenant as well as
over 600 other laws tried to define what a righteous or a sin-filled life would
involve. From the Middle Ages comes a
list of seven sins, which I've always thought includes just about everything
that gets us into trouble: wrath, avarice or greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy,
and gluttony. And if at any time we
think we're doing a pretty good job being righteous, we're probably being
prideful in our perfectionist tendencies. Yes, perhaps Paul was right when he
called himself a "wretched man."
What
Jesus offered Paul and what Jesus offers us to combat our sinful inclinations,
the heavy burdens that make us weary, is a yoke. Jesus' yoke presents a
paradox--one of Jesus' favorite ways of teaching. Normally a yoke represents enslavement or
being forced into burdensome work (Think of yoked oxen.) But Jesus calls his yoke easy and his burden
light. This can only be, because Jesus'
yoke ties us to God's mercy and grace.
We can only take up the burden of our cross, as Jesus told us we must,
if we have faith that God will be with us--yoked to us and we to God.
There
is another view of human nature from the Native American tradition that I want
to offer us to compare with that of St. Paul.
It, too, talks about a war within us. Here is the story of a Cherokee
grandfather teaching his grandson about how to live*:
“A
fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two
wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance,
self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and
ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope,
serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth,
compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every
other person, too.”
The
grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which
wolf will win?”
You
might [have] heard the story ends like this: The old Cherokee simply replied,
“The one you feed.”
In
the Cherokee world, however, the story ends this way:
The
old Cherokee simply replied, “If you feed them right, they both win.” and the
story goes on:
“You
see, if I only choose to feed the [‘good’] wolf, the [‘evil’] one will be
hiding around every corner waiting for me to become distracted or weak and jump
to get the attention he craves. He will always be angry and always fighting the
[‘good’] wolf. But if I acknowledge him, he is happy and the [‘good’] wolf is
happy and we all win. For the [‘evil’] wolf has many qualities – tenacity,
courage, fearlessness, strong-willed and great strategic thinking – that I have
need of at times and that the [‘good’] wolf lacks. But the [‘good’] wolf has
compassion, caring, strength and the ability to recognize what is in the best
interest of all.
"You
see, son, the [“good’] wolf needs the [‘evil’] wolf at his side. To feed only
one would starve the other and they will become uncontrollable. To feed and
care for both means they will serve you well and do nothing that is not a part
of something greater, something good, something of life. Feed them both and
there will be no more internal struggle for your attention. And when there is
no battle inside, you can listen to the voices of deeper knowing that will
guide you in choosing what is right in every circumstance. Peace, my son, is
the Cherokee mission in life. A man or a woman who has peace inside has
everything. A man or a woman who is pulled apart by the war inside him or her
has nothing."
What
this story offers us is a view of human nature that includes the original
goodness that God saw when God made human beings in God’s image and pronounced
them "good." It also
acknowledges the free will that God gave us, so we are able to choose God's way
or not. Might Jesus’ easy yoke be a symbol of the way that leads to peace
within? Yoked to God by our own choice,
we will be led to the way of "deeper knowing" and of peace. We will
be led to choices that are "part of something greater, something good,
something of life." We will not see ourselves as "wretched"
ones, but as God's beloved--gifted with everything we need to live in
peace.
*”Beyond
the Conflict of Inner Forces” by Cherokee Story (Feb 04, 2013) on www.awakin.org
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