Tooth and Claw
People love to watch animals in the wild. There is a kind of wonderment deep in us: a curiosity about how animals make it with just what they have and just what they are. Of course, we don’t like seeing all the behaviors of survival. We can watch a season of Animal Planet and witness species violently battling. We hear those who study this explain that instincts drive these animals to fight for dominance, shoring up the survivability of their group, of their species. Dominance behaviors in animals are frightful to witness. Giraffes, seals, mountain goats: you will cringe at these contests.
Humans are scarier still. They fight, driven not by instinct, backing off when the battle shows its result. Humans fight by choice; they will fight, and they tend to go overboard. They use their reason to feed their human free will, devising effective ways to win. They use their emotions to distort their reason, and let them do what their consciences otherwise might not have let them do. When fear, anger, revenge, and hatred factor in, the clash is accelerated and destructive. Emotions, intellect, and volition: all are involved in human actions for the good and for the will.
The Morning Prayer parable today from the Gospel of Luke featured the Good Samaritan who helps a man beaten and robbed on the road. The lesson from the Apocrypha (Ecclesiasticus 10) advised, “Do not get angry with your neighbor for every injury, and do not resort to acts of insolence…Pride was not created for human beings, or violent anger for those born of women.” In the first half of Psalm 37 at Morning Prayer, we read, “Refrain from anger, leave rage alone; do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil…The wicked draw their sword and bend their bow to strike down the poor and needy, to slaughter those who are upright in their ways.
It is true human beings are capable of good and kindness. This happens over and over again. Human beings have freedom of will for good or intentional harm. Either can meet up with us. We are capable of it and vulnerable to it. Have you ever had to stand up for a principle you deeply held, and it was gaining you no credibility and no social favors? If so, I imagine that was a very tough experience for you. For you, it might have been even worse? Many people have had to heal from serious injury, just for living their lives or representing their beliefs.
History is full of instances in which views were drastically and harshly resisted. Often those who go against the group in power are violently and abominably treated. We can open some books and come up with a thousand examples but recall for the moment, the followers of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. Look at what Rome and conspiring leaders of the Jerusalem Temple did to Jesus… in a certain sense, what we all did, universally to Jesus.
And consider for a moment the follower of Jesus, the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul. In his letter to the young church in Thessalonica. He mentions he was there with them because he and his fellow workers wanted to be. They believed in spreading the word about Jesus, and they chose to come. They did so and their visit was no failure, but rather fruitful. They came to Thessalonica despite the fact their efforts just prior in Philippi were met with abysmally cruel treatment. Those in power were afraid of the power presented in the message of Jesus. The fear led to anger, hatred, and callousness; they were beaten, imprisoned, and put in chains. Then on went Paul and his partners, on to risk the same elsewhere.
Read the passage and notice these spreaders of the Good News operate out of goodwill. Their hearts are in the right place, even with the threat of injury or death, even without any hope of enrichment or esteem for their efforts, they come and they preach. Out of their fondness for the people, even with danger likely, they ministered. Paul writes to them:
You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been mistreated shamefully at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us. — 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
I would like to think I would uphold my stand for Christ, but I just don’t know. I wish human beings were not given to harshness and overreaction, but they are. I confess it would scare me to be so tested. We never know what human beings are capable of.
It is unsettling to think wildlife with their instincts respond more predictably to situations than do humans with their emotions, thoughts, and choices. Francis in the thirteenth century did better in ministry to the wolf than Bible translators and liturgy reformers a couple of hundred years later did with the human power structures. Tyndale, Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer were some of those executed. What would I do if my passion to spread the Word of Christ was that dangerous? What if sharing something of the hope that is in us brought us a reaction of fear and hostility? Would we carry on anyway? I am questioning myself on that very point.