AS this is the Sunday before Orange Shirt Day (September 30th) we encourage everyone to wear an Orange Shirt to worship.
The Scripture Readings this week are:
- Psalm 24:1-2
- Jeremiah 32:6-15
The Sermon title is This Land is...Whose?
Early Thoughts: Who owns the land? Who benefits from the land? Who is denied benefits from the land?
This passage from Jeremiah comes just before Jerusalem is about to fall. As an act of faith and trust in the future Jeremiah is told to buy a piece of land. Realistically the timing makes no sense -- why buy land just before everything gets destroyed, what use is a title deed when the whole land is now in the hands of an invader? But the land is bought to remind the people that in the end the land will be theirs again. Some might see it as a claim that when push comes to shove the land will always belong to the people of Israel/Judah.
Several centuries later we can see that this claim of perpetual ownership can lead to a very difficult reality....
For most of human history land has been the basis of wealth and well-being. Only when we have control over the land can we have control over the economy, control over the people, control over our lives. The people who control the land can control how it is used, who gets to live where, and (especially in the last century in Alberta) who profits from the resources that lie under the surface.
But there is another claim in Scripture. Even in the same tradition that talks about a Promised Land and a Chosen People there is another perspective. There is a perspective that says the earth is God's. If the earth (and all that is in it) is God's then maybe we should change how we talk about ownership and rights to use and rights to make decisions. Maybe.
This Sunday is 2 days before Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. There are lots of thins we could talk about when it comes to seeking truth about our history. There are lots of things that might go into finding reconciliation. (Personally I think we have much to learn from the Jewish teaching on repentance as laid out in this book by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg as we do that work.) The question of the land, and the treaties that were made to help us share (or help colonizers steal depending on one's point of view) the land is a big one.
Each week in worship we have a Land/Treaty Acknowledgement, Such things are becoming increasingly common (or perhaps even an expectation) at many/most public events in Canada by now. Which is a bit surprising because it really wasn't that long ago that they were a "do we really need to do that?" thing in many minds. Why do we do that? How does it help us along the road to truth and reconciliation, to building right-relations? Or does it even do that, is it more performative, a meaningless gesture when not backed up by action?
Whose land is this anyway? Does it belong to us, to our ancestors, to our descendants (7 generations on perhaps?) or does it properly belong to God/Creator/Great Spirit?
I have sat with people who are deeply troubled by issues of land and treaty. Sometimes they have been troubled because of a feeling that the colonial negotiators negotiated in bad faith, that it really was a land grab. Sometimes they are troubled because they feel that the Indigenous folk are asking too much or are given too much (one I can remember clearly was about the issue of mineral rights).
I, like many of you reading, have read many stories about land claims and treaty discussions. Sometimes about lands they were not actually released through treaties. Sometimes about reservation lands that were later found to be valuable and so acquired (not always fairly) from the First Nation that had them. Sometimes about who gets to profit/benefit from the minerals (thinking most recently of mining in Northern Ontario) the land holds. Sometimes about pipelines crossing those lands. So many stories, so much heated discussion. Some of them are big stories like the Oka crisis almost 35 years ago or the long saga of the Lubicon Cree here in Alberta. Some of them hardly make the news.
Whose land is this anyway? Who has the 'best' claim on it and its riches?. Jeremiah makes us think it can be bought and that gives the best claim. Some stories of the treaty making process name that the Indigenous negotiator knew the land was not theirs to give away. Psalm 24 says that whatever rules or agreements we might make in the end all of it belongs to God. Whose is it? Who gets to control it?
As we live seeking reconciliation, as we seek a renewal of the relationships between those who were here, those who came after and those who will come in the future we need to look hard at how we share the land. Control of the land is power and wealth. I am not at all convinced the current model is working. What might be a new one?
--Gord
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