Repentance and Healing the Land
One of the Spirit’s movements of the past few
years has been the linkage of ministry aimed at addressing the renunciation of
the doctrine of discovery with
ministry aimed at addressing climate change. In the Presbytery of Yukon we have
held three special events making that linkage,[1]and many
others are also engaged in that effort including the Presbyterians for Earth
Care in their upcoming national conference, Blessing the Waters of Life: Justice
and Healing for Our Watershed, to be held at Menucha
Retreat Center in September.
Given all this coordinated action, it is
important to show why repentance from the doctrine
of discovery fits hand-in-hand with climate
change ministry. For some, I
believe, the connection will not be obvious.
Yet, the two efforts are really the right and left hand of one,
integrated focus for ministry. To begin
making that point, let me lean on biblical scholar, Matthew Richard Schlimm.
Schlimm points out that the Hebrew Bible
connects repentance from moral sin[2] with
caring for the land.
(In the Hebrew Bible) Severe
moral impurities contaminated both the sinner and the land itself. Leviticus 18 says that the land itself is
sickened by such pollutions:
‘Do not defile yourselves
in any of these ways, for by all these practices the nations I am casting out
before you have defiled themselves. Thus the land became defiled; and I
punished it for its iniquity, and the land vomited
out its inhabitants. But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and
commit none of these abominations, … otherwise the land will vomit you out for defiling it, as it
vomited out the nation that was before you. For whoever commits any of these
abominations shall be cut off from their people. So keep my charge not to commit any of these
abominations that were done before you, and not to defile yourselves by them: I
am the Lord your God.’ (18:24-26, 28 NRSV, italics added)
In the Bible, the land is
not a passive object that humans can simply manipulate. It is one of God’s
agents in the world.[3]
It follows that in the
same way polluting oneself through moral sin brings sickness on the land, the
healing of the land can come through repenting from the moral sin. For instance, in accepting Solomon’s Temple
as a place for bringing the people’s prayers, God assures Solomon that this
will be the place to bring sacrifices and prayers of repentance when the land
is defiled.
…if my people
who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from
their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and
heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
For 21st
century, western Christians, this may seem to be a strange teaching. In this passage, as always in the Bible, it
is important to look for the Word that God would have us discover within the
words of scripture.
Reading Leviticus too
literally can become problematic. For
instance, most Christians are not willing to accept every ruling listed in the
Levitical code as applicable for today.[4] Yet, Leviticus remains a part of our canon
and does hold important wisdom for us.
It is, therefore, no great leap to believe that the same corruption of
the heart that makes us willing to exploit people would also cause us to become
blind to our own culpability in whatever is making the land ill. We have seen the environmental impact human
action has brought upon our planet in the past two centuries. Should we really be surprised by the biblical
message informing us that our moral sin can cause the land to become ill? Indeed, climate scientists have been
cautioning us for decades that we must repent—we must change how we live and
begin to walk a different path—or the land may become too sick to sustain human
life as we know it. We may well find
ourselves vomited out from the land.
Strangely, as much as this
reasoning is guided by modern science, and even common sense, we humans seem
incapable of accepting its wisdom, or of working together to deal with it. Our distrust of one another, and our greed
for power and for material wealth, blind us to the opportunity for good that
God has set before us.
In this, I believe the doctrine of discovery is
instructive. This morally flawed
doctrine provided western culture with a false and dangerous Euro-Christian
ethic for taking land from indigenous people.
It also authorized any actions needed to subdue them. In practice this included enslaving them, or shaming
them for not being European in language and culture. It is important for us to see that this
western worldview rationalizes the creation of colonies, with all the damage
that colonization causes, for the purpose of enriching the people from the old world. That being the case, this same exploitative worldview
is also quick to rationalize practices that damage God’s creation. Both the exploiting of people and the exploiting
of the land are things colonizers do for their own benefit. It is the opposite of “love your neighbor as yourselves.”
In essence, it is a refusal to acknowledge the other, whether other
people or other parts of creation, as a valid neighbor.
Similarly, Americans would
love for the climate change problem to be dealt with, but “not in my back
yard.” None of our coal, oil or natural
gas producing regions want to let go of the profits and jobs fossil fuels bring
to their region. The fact that their grandchildren
will certainly suffer if they do not seems impossible to grasp.
·
Some are like the citizens
at the time of Noah; they simply deny calamity is coming.
·
Others are more like the
people of Israel and Judah as the armies of Babylon and Assyria
threatened. They pray to God to save them
but refuse the prophets’ message that God is calling each of us, and all of us,
to take responsibility for our own actions.
These biblical stories,
like the passages we have already looked at, are also clearly connected to the
land. They tell us that the people of
Noah’s day perished from this earth; and that the people of Israel and Judah
were conquered and taken away from the land they loved.
Repentance is inconvenient.
More than that, it is usually quite hard. Destructive though it is, denial is
usually easier. Indeed, as we look at
the doctrine of discovery, and see
how the Supreme Court of the United States passed it into law in years past,[5]
we must recognize how our own ancestors have passed on their ethno-centrism and
greed up to our generation.
But what if there were other
passages we should be listening to besides those that caution us against sin
and its consequences? Can’t our
spiritual health be guided as much by passages of hope as they are by passages
of warning? Lately, I have been turning
to Genesis 11:1-9 for hope.
This is the famous Tower
of Babel passage. This passage tells us about
humans who were so united by language and culture that they came to believe they
could harness the earth’s power to make themselves like God. As they developed their technology and built
their tower, God saw their arrogance and sin and decided to take action. God then confused their languages and
scattered them across the earth, so that they could no longer build a city of
such technology and power.
Christians, like Jews, have
always claimed that God loves us and is always at work for our salvation. Should we not consider it a gift that God
divided the people according to languages and cultures? How, then, might we understand this the
confusion of languages and worldviews as a gift from our loving and saving God? Let me suggest the following.
·
First, God has divided us
into many peoples. Therefore, no one
people has all the wisdom. In humility
therefore, we need to look for the gifts other peoples have to share with
us. Sharing, after all, is a biblical
value: in sharing together the early church demonstrated a new way of being
God’s people; further, it is in our shared unity that we share in the fullness
of Christ’s body.
·
Second, our Lord tells us,
§ You know that the rulers
of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.
It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be
your servant” (Matthew 20:25-26).
This should change the
ethics that guide how we build our societies and our economies. Slave labor, or subjugated labor in any form,
is unethical.
·
Third, the Bible reveals
God to us as the Trinity, a relational way of being. We should not be surprised if the modern
challenges of the planet also challenge us to learn how to collaborate and
cooperate better. In so doing we surely
learn more about being created as the
image of God.
·
Finally, if the
land/sea/air is getting sicker, we should be asking how to respond. How should we repent? It is the repentance of
the people that leads to the healing of the land.
For Christians, the
concerns and ministries related to earth
care truly are part and parcel of the concerns and ministries related to
the doctrine of discovery. The current crises in each of these areas are
consequences of the dominant worldview—a worldview that, unfortunately, shapes its
adherents to participate in the exploitation of people and land.
As Christians, we put our
trust in God who created and loves all things.
As we put our trust in God, we let go of any trust in happiness that is based
on lording it over others. Instead, we embrace the biblical vision that
calls us to love God, and to love neighbor as self.
In this generation, loving
God and neighbor includes repentance from the doctrine of discovery and the worldview that generated it. It includes being purposeful in seeking out
allies, who are interested in new experiments for living into a just future. We expect those allies will come from a
variety of cultural backgrounds, because we recognize the variety of gifts God
has placed in different peoples. Indeed,
our efforts with our allies will be to learn from the past in order to live
better into the future, as God guides us. Our goals must be to advocate for
needed changes in the dominant culture, to advocate for a stronger response
from the faith community, to advance experiments in sustainable human
lifestyles, and to build just societies where all creation, including people,
thrive together.
[1] Three major events in the Presbyter
of Yukon
· The New Beginnings Reconciliation Event in 2012, between the Presbytery
of Yukon and the St. Lawrence Island Yupik people in Gambell, Alaska;
· The Presbyterians for Earth Care Regional Conference held in Alaska in
2012, and
· The Renewal and Healing Event in 2017 between the PC(USA) and the
Iñupiaq people, held in conjunction with Kivgiq
in Utqiaġvik, Alaska.
[2] The Hebrew Bible differentiates between ritual
uncleanness and moral uncleanness.
Ritual uncleanness is not about sin, but about something that happens
that requires purification. A good
example is the handling of dead bodies. Death is just something that happens;
there is no sin attached. Someone has to
deal with the dead bodies, risky though it might be, and purification is
prescribed. Moral uncleanness is different, however, bringing spiritual
dis-ease both to the person and to the whole of creation.
[3] Schlimm, Matthew Richard (2015). This strange and sacred scripture: wrestling
with the old testament and its oddities. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, p.
118).
[4] There are clearly cultural
prejudices involved that we should reject today. For instance, Lev. 27:1-4 clearly indicates
that women are only worth 3/5 that of men.
Other passages bar those with
disabilities from bringing sacrifices (21:16-23), show ignorance of sexual
orientation (20:13), bar tattoos (19:28), etc.
[5] Johnson
v. McIntosh, 1823, followed by many other cases up to modern times (e.g., City of Sherrill, New York v. Oneida Indian
Nation of New York, 2005).
Comments
Post a Comment