Sermon Archive
Stolen land
Sermon preached by Donald Reid at Holy Communion on 11 April 2004, Easter Day
Isaiah 65.17-25 ; Acts 10.34-43 ; Luke 24.1-12
A few years ago, around the time of NASA's first Voyager probe to Mars, the University of Glasgow conferred an honorary degree on one of its alumni who had played a distinguished part in the space programme.
In his thank you speech the man in question gave some of the inside story. For example, that they had tested the probe in the Nevada desert in an area containing various features - the sort of things the probe would be expected to detect on Mars if the mission was to succeed. Unfortunately however it failed to detect them. So, he said, when people had been asking them whether they'd found evidence for life on Mars, the truth was that so far they'd failed to find any evidence for life on earth !
And, he said, the test area was on the land that was part of a Native American reservation, so to use it they had had to get the permission of the local tribal chief. The chief agreed - but only on the condition that when the probe was eventually launched, he would be allowed to send with it a message to the chief of the Martians. NASA agreed to this. So when the due day arrived the Chief produced his message - two tablets with a picture form of writing on them, to send with the probe. The scientists were obviously curious and asked the Chief what the message was but he wouldn't tell them. So they asked around tribal elders who all looked uncomfortable but also wouldn't tell them anything. Eventually they found some youngsters in the tribe who were willing to spill the beans and it turned out that the message from the local chief to the chief of the Martians was this: 'Watch these people: they steal your land'.
Well, you're probably wondering what this has got to do with the Resurrection of Jesus.
Well I refer you to the first reading we heard, from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah is speaking to a people whose land has been stolen (literally), who are in exile and who are dreaming of resurrection - meaning in this case, to be restored to their homeland and, well more than that, of a restored society where 'infants do not die in infancy , where the old live out their years, where people live in their own houses and enjoy the fruits of their own labour'. In Isaiah's time this was the form resurrection hope took: not just individual resurrection but a communal one.
It is a beautiful vision of God's intention for humanity and one which is just as relevant today as then: there still being many places in the world where children DO die in infancy, life expectancy is low and where so many see the fruit of their labour being enjoyed by others. Imagine, for example, you are a worker in a plantation in Tanzania or Belize paid a pittance to tend cash crops so that people in rich countries can have cheap bananas or mange tout or daffodils even as you and your people struggle - you might very well feel that something is wrong and that 'your land has been stolen'.
And of course it's about much deeper things than pure economics: it's about who you are. For example, with their loss of land, Native Americans and other aboriginal peoples also lost their traditions and cultures. It has been kind of death for them. So it's entirely understandable that people long for resurrection in these ways.
And as well as dispossessed peoples we might also think about categories of people who, from time to time, have been dispossessed: black people; women; minority groups in society - maybe currently asylum seekers and immigrants. We have 'stolen' all sorts of people's 'land', their place to be. One could even talk about the stealing of the land itself - in the sense of us not having been proper stewards of the earth. We have acted more like thieves than stewards.
Our past has been one of numerous crucifixions. It is our privilege to live in a time when are beginning to realise our need for new patterns of peaceful living, for resurrection.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ can be seen as a pointer forward. To continue the 'land' analogy you can think of Jesus as being an pioneer who has discovered a new world for us. Unlike previous explorers, this one is God's own son and the new world is not just a new part of our old world, like the Americas were, but a different reality altogether - so it is not open to us simply to export our old ways to this new world. Nevertheless we are invited in, all of us, for we are all citizens of this new realm where we are valued for who and what we are, uniquely. We are invited home to a land in which we all have a stake.
Of course, we are still waiting for this to be fulfilled and the resurrection is a kind of downpayment: and meanwhile the world needs people who live with this rumour of resurrection in their hearts. It needs the church: which at its best can hear and speak for the voiceless, and bear their wounds; and can speak prophetically to the powerful.
For example: I once organised a conference on the theology of land and was moved to hear, from the church in N Argentina, the story of the tribal peoples there. These are peoples who had no concept of land ownership - they believe it is ridiculous to say that you can own anything you did not create. Consequently, when you try to map the different tribes or clans you don't end up with the kind of map we normally see, where the land is divided up between clans: rather you end up with a map more like a Venn diagram (remember those?) with all sorts of shapes overlapping one another. In other words, the different clans are mixed up and their relationship to the land is not one which seeks to exclude others. If only that understanding of relationship to the land could be transplanted to Bosnia or Rwanda or Israel/Palestine or Jerusalem.
And remembering that there are some being admitted to communion today, this is the kind of community they are joining. A community which is a higgledy piggledy mass of humanity, all mixed up but which Sunday by Sunday gathers around the table of love, to drink the Lord's cup and who seek to live out the risen life. We kneel or stand shoulder by shoulder with people of different background, age, experience etc. God knows the world needs signs like this to show what unity is possible a world of division. This is the rumour of resurrection it is our vocation and our joy to keep it alive.
God of terror and joy, you arise to shake the earth. Open our graves and give us back our futures; so that all that has been stolen from us may be restored and our lives return to you. Amen.
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