Unlikely Sources for Sunday School Lessons:An Absolutist Finds Truth in the Music of a Universalist

John Flynn’s Two Wolves begins with the title track—a haunting, rhythmic, campfire, folk dance march with the depth of a Chris Rea song, the voice of Bruce Cockburn, and the Native American tale of a Jon Anderson (Yes) project.

The story-song explains the Native American mythology of two wolves which fight in our hearts, “There are two wolves/And within each heart these two wolves fight/One is hatred, rage, and darkness/And the other wolf is love and light.” While this isn’t an image that Jesus used to explain the tension, the Bible certainly explores that battle within us between God’s ways and Satan’s lies (see especially Romans 7).

When the grandfather in Flynn’s song says, “When you try to hurt the one who is hurting you,/That’s the moment you become like them,” it’s a truth that goes back to Jesus and the Golden Rule (7:12) and also Paul in Romans, “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all” (12:17, ESV).

However, while this song’s imagery provides a great tie-in for a Sunday School lesson, the song’s conclusion runs counter to the Christian doctrine of total depravity (we are wholly sinful and cannot hope to save or change ourselves). Flynn’s song says, “It is in your power to choose the victor/The wolf that wins will be the one you feed.” Yet, in Scripture, I don’t see us having power over the evil wolf. We only are able to choose good through the power of the Holy Spirit; it takes Christ to defeat that evil wolf.

Elsewhere, Flynn’s songs encourage a universalistic spirituality which again flies in the face of my absolutistic understanding of Christ. However, in Flynn’s spiritual speculations, I can still find truth. Yes, in other words, I am an absolutists who sees common ground with Flynn’s universalism.

In “There’s No More Them There (Nomoreu’s Anthem),” a John Gorka-like tune, Flynn sings, “I want to go where/There’s no them there/There’s no us there/Somewhere we share/What we’re given.” It brings to mind Scripture which points us to see the promises of Jesus are for all people, “ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28, ESV). It’s also a good chorus for reminding a congregation that if we are cliquey, we will make others feel excluded from our “us”.

However, it’s like a train that you have to jump off before it ends up in a station you never meant to visit, because Flynn also sings, “Race, creeds, and nations/Are false separations.” Race and nations, yes, those are false separations, and definitely are not reasons to exclude someone. However, I will not lay down my creed—Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian—in order to erase religious differences. Creeds shouldn’t exclude someone from the benefits of government, health, commerce, freedom, education, and liberty, but creeds inevitably must separate us as we come to speak about one truth versus another about God. As Christians, we hold the absolutist claim of Christ as the one Savior, and that cannot be eased and softened. To ask us to blur that line is perhaps asking us to honor another religion (an apparently gracious way of living) but it is also dishonoring our own religion (an ungracious approach).

Like I said, though, in Flynn’s folk songs that border on Country balladry, I find truth that I can celebrate. It also takes an open-minded folk singer to urge us a Christians to think more with an eye towards peace, compassion, and inclusiveness. Flynn may have different motivation than I do, but it does this absolutist Christian good to realize again that Christ seeks peace, shows compassion to all (in and out of the fold), and seeks to include all people in His salvation. [That’s the plan; the fact that some reject Him is the product of sin not God’s will].

So I listen to the Peter Mayer sounding tune “Dover,” and I also wish they weren’t bringing dead bodies of soldiers back to Dover. I hear “Put Your Freedom Where Your Mouth Is” with its stanza about a detainee, and I have compassion for the man who has no freedom granted by the land of liberty.

“Azizullah” comes close to the pitfall of a folk song of being too pedantic, but it causes you to second guess our commonly held notions of war, excuses, and patriotic slogans. Flynn actually leads you to see the innocence of this Iraqi child as being similar to the humbleness of Christ as He was nailed to the cross. “No More War” sounds a bit like the indie American Band Rock of Echelon, a Christian band who can also deliver a heartfelt folk-influenced ballad chorus like Flynn’s. Flynn’s song makes a fine prayer.

Thanks to John Flynn for the review CD.