2022-10-04
Martin Geddes is in effect sharing his journey of awakening with us, and I am grateful to him for opening his heart and mind to us, for that makes it easier for us to understand our own progress and the progress of those near and dear to us.
It's not always simple. Here he is talking of the difference between contracts (so beloved of our legal beagles that they seek to entangle us in acres of notorious fine print hidden behind a tick-box before we can so much as order a bar of soap on-line) and covenants.
Various dictionaries seem to consider that a covenant is a contract, but nuances are important here.
The original Covenant (as far back as written records reveal) is probably the Biblical covenant between God and his biblical families and peoples, although for all I know there may have been (and probably were) others appropriate to other ancient traditions.
Call me old-fashioned, but both contracts and covenants involve making promises that should not be broken.
In legal terms a 'covenant' may be simply a clause covering specific circumstances within a contract, and is therefore merely a part of a contract.
In my thinking the difference is one of mentality, of attitude.
In a contract, the legal-speak (to which we are forced to sign up if we want any corporate product or service) will cover the basics (eg: I give you money and you deliver and install a washing machine) and will then festoon this basic agreement with a multitude of terms and conditions describing how whatever goes wrong with that agreement will be my fault and even if it isn't, the corporation will have no liability whatsoever.
In a covenant, we just express the basic agreement in its most simple terms and we leave the management of the inevitable complexities of non-performance to be resolved with goodwill by both parties should that become necessary.
Think about it - the covenant is in practice how business is normally conducted - we don't even read the ancillary legalese in the contract (life being too short), which is only invoked in the event that non-performance of the covenant occurs and the subsequent conversation fails to settle the matter amicably (not necessarily in compliance with contract clauses! Your plumber wants to retain your custom, and if he doesn't, he won't).
In some religions, those who break covenants are said to invoke appropriate karma upon themselves - i,e.: we create our own karma through our actions. You don't necessarily have to believe in reincarnation to understand this concept.
I would illustrate the difference with a Biblical quote:
Matthew 22:35: "and one of them, a scholar in the law, questioned him, putting him to the test, saying 'Teacher, what kind of commandment is the most important in the law?' "
37: And Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God in all your heart, and in all your inner being, and in all your mind. This is the first and most important commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets" (Keys of the Kingdom Holy Bible).
In four sentences Jesus enunciates our obligations under God's Covenant, and effectively dismisses the acres of contract law which the religious lawyers had invented over generations to cover all possible circumstances.
So there you have it. You don't have to be a Christian to appreciate what is going on here.
If the world were to revert to covenants rather than contract legalese, covenants which we already in effect use every day, think how much simpler life would become. The Englishman's word would once more become his bond, and judgements of non-performance would be based upon the notion of 'reasonable in the circumstances'.
What's not to like (if you are not a lawyer!)?
