10 September 2023 Season of Creation 2

Ownership of land is an emotive subject these days.  Many wars have been fought over the issue of land.  The war between Russia and Ukraine is over ‘ownership’ of land.  Because it is perceived that if I ‘own’ the land then I have power over it and over the people on it.  And sometimes when people perceive they ‘own’ the land, then the people on the land become a tradable commodity as well.  The African slaves who were taken by force to America are evidence of this ‘misuse’ of both land and those ‘of’ the land.  Not only were their families left without fathers, but the land was left without people who would care for it.  My sister-in-law’s son-in-law (put another way, my niece’s husband) has the last name September.  When I first heard it, I just thought it was one of those ‘novel’ surnames, and then I learned of its significance.  You see Leonie’s husband is South African, and his ancestor was taken by force from his homeland to America.  And the month he was captured was September – and that was the name given him by his captors.  And a couple of years ago, when he was working for a retail store, he came across a customer whose last name was October, for exactly the same reason.  When we fail to care about people, we usually also fail to care about land.  Everything becomes ‘mine’ to do with how ‘I’ choose, and never mind the consequences.

If we look at the practices of our indigenous peoples who are still living a ‘tribal’ existence, they are deeply connected to their land, they know how to respect and care for the land.  Cold burning, to keep the ground plants from becoming too thick.  They used to be referred to as a ‘nomadic’ people who did not reside in a permanent place, but that is not true.  Yes, they move around, but they do so at a planned pace and move within a restricted zone belonging to ‘their people’, and because they move frequently, no one area of land is overused, and all areas of land are routinely and systematically cared for as they travel around their tribal lands.  Each group has ‘tribal lands’, but they do not claim ‘ownership’ of the land, they believe the land owns them.  They recognise that the Earth is their mother, and they belong to the land, not the other way around.

In one of those ‘interesting’ ironies where mythology and science intersect, earth scientists have determined that the evolution of simple life forms from bacteria and blue-green algae to more complex life forms, including us, occurred 1.9 billion years ago when carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere decreased, oxygen levels increased and shallow- water, river and red soil beds formed.  Plant life use the carbon dioxide we exhale for photosynthesis and, in turn, put oxygen into the atmosphere, which we then breathe.  But over the last couple of decades, our industries have pumped out tonnes more carbon dioxide than the trees can utilise, and with the expansion of housing and industry requiring the removal of trees, this situation is only going to get worse.  The excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is shrouding the land and keeping the heat of the sun trapped in the lower atmosphere, so our land is becoming hot, dry and barren.

We do not own the land, it is God’s free gift to us and we, in turn, are asked to tend it.  Not poison it, not denude it, not ‘control’ or ‘suffocate’ or ‘misuse’ it, but tend it and care for it.  We are ‘red earth’ people, we came from the red earth of creation, and we shall return to the red earth when we die.  Jonah was spat out of the fish’s belly to go and complete the task God asked him to do.  Jesus spent three days in the earth, to rise again and give us new life.  Jesus calls to us – wake up, heal the land from which you came, and to which you will return.