This land is your land, this land is our land; this land was made for you and me.
When Woodie Guthry wrote this iconic song in 1944 it had a different slant. There were two verses that don’t appear in this version.
In one, Guthrie challenges private property ;
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing;
This land was made for you and me
And in the other, he asks how there can be poverty if this land really belongs to you and me:
In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I’d seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?
Once this was a song which both celebrates this country and challenges the social structure that creates inequality and poverty, but now it has been co-opted into something like a “Make America Great” jingle.
This seems to me to be the challenge of land.
We see it throughout the Old Testament. The people of Israel are given the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey. Only trouble is, there are people living there already. So, according to the book of Joshua, they mount a military campaign to claim the land. Remember Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and the walls came a tumbling down? The account in the book of Judges is a little more gentle but there’s no doubt that the Promised Land was not just real estate sitting there waiting for its new owners.
And that land has been contested ever since. It has been fought over by Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks , Romans, Muslims and Christians, Israelis and Palestinians.
Most wars start over access to resources of some kind and most resources are based in land whether that’s minerals such as diamonds or oil, land use where the cowboys and the farmers can’t be friends, strategic advantage due to location, or increasingly, water supply.
But let’s back up a step farther. In the stories of Creation, land was not created for you and me. It was created before humanity. And that’s true in the scientific stories of creation. There was land here a long long time before there were humans. The land is after all, the surface of the planet. There was a planet long before there was soil and long before humanity came along.
And there were people living in this valley long before the Spanish arrived.
I have to suggest that this land was not made for you and me. I wonder whether perhaps we were made for the land? The second creation story hints at that when it says,
In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground… Gen 2:4,5
And there was no-one to till the land, makes it seem as though there’s an important job which is a necessary part of the whole system. After God made the man, God created a beautiful garden and then we are told, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.” (Gen 2:15)
Moving away from the idea of a universe centered around humanity to a universe in which we are a part of a larger evolving story is almost as difficult as making the shift from believing that the sun moves around the earth to thinking that actually earth is moving around the sun. It is so obvious to us that the sun moves. It is just as obvious that the land was made for us – for our use for food and manufacture and for enjoyment and pleasure.
We have behaved like that for many generations. And how’s that working for us?
Not so well, it would seem. The severe weather events that are flattening the south east right now are the result of climate change. Yes we’ve always had hurricanes, but these are unprecedented in ferocity and in number. Our lack of care for the planet seems to be coming back to bite us.
But it’s awfully hard to change. No-one wants to have a less comfortable life. We aren’t set up to live without cars. We’re used to having every imaginable food easily available to us. We are used to having the highest standard of living that this planet has ever seen.
There are no short-term answers.
These are difficult times. And so we have to ask ourselves, how then shall we live? How shall we live in the middle of uncertainty and constant reminders of the difficulties of our country and of others?
We are to live in the abundance of God’s grace. God’s grace is not the same thing as being comfortable. We have tended to conflate these things and so we think that when things are going well God is blessing us and when things aren’t going so well God has turned away or has just run out of blessings. Or maybe we did something wrong. Why is this happening? we ask.
It may not be that personal. Harvey, Irma, Jose are not punishments hurled at Texas and Florida and all those tiny islands because God is angry. They are part of living on this planet at this time in history. God’s grace is with each person whether or not they are aware of it. In some situations it will seem very clear, in others not at all.
But God’s grace embraces each one of us. It is up to us to open our eyes to see it. God’s grace is not winning the lottery, it is knowing that whatever happens, the spirit of God is working in us and through us to bring about the best possible outcomes for the good of the whole cosmos. God’s grace encourages us to go on living the fruits of the Spirit in whatever place we find ourselves. And to share those fruits with all comers, including the non-human critters and the land itself.
As St Paul said,
Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:35-39)
Amen
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