I Give You This Land, Even More I Give This Land To Your Children. Series

Sermon, I Give You This Land, Even More, I give this land to Your Children.

The story of God and Abram starts when God commands Abram to migrate to Canaan. God offers Abram magnanimous promises: he will be a great nation; he will have a great name; God will bless people who bless him and curse the ones who curse him; and through Abram, all the people of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:1–3).

When God adds a promise of land to Abram’s “seed” promise (Genesis 12:7), we think that Abram is goanna be great. After God tells Abram that his own body will produce children more numerous than the stars, Abram can feel relief.

The story doesn’t end there. God turns from the promise of descendants to the possession of land (Genesis 15:7). Abram asks how he can trust that his descendants will inherit the land (Genesis 15:8). Now that he believes he will have biological heirs, Abram wants reassurance that God will give them all that God promised even after Abram is dead and gone.

In other words, Abram asks where is the land?

In 1845, an unsigned article in a popular American journal, a long-standing Jacksonian publication, the Democratic Review, issued an unmistakable call for American expansionism. Focusing mainly on bringing the Republic of Texas into the union, it declared that expansion represented “the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” Thus, a powerful American slogan was born. “Manifest Destiny” became first and foremost a call and justification for an American form of imperialism, and neatly summarized the goals of the Mexican War. It claimed that America had a destiny, manifest, i.e., self-evident, from God to occupy the North American continent south of Canada (it also claimed the right to the Oregon territory including the Canadian portion).

But Manifest Destiny was not simply a cloak for American imperialism and a justification for America’s territorial ambitions. It also was firmly anchored in a long-standing and deep sense of a special and unique American Destiny, the belief that in the words of historian Conrad Cherry, “America is a nation called to a special destiny by God.”

Yet This was not just an American thing The Doctrine of Discovery established a spiritual, political, and legal justification for colonization and seizure of land not inhabited by Christians. Foundational elements of the Doctrine of Discovery can be found in a series of papal bulls, or decrees, beginning in the 1100s, which included sanctions, enforcements, authorizations, expulsions, admonishments, ex-communications, denunciations, and expressions of territorial sovereignty for Christian monarchs supported by the Catholic Church. While we are hating on Russia we must acknowledge that taking Land in the name of progress is nothing New.

The Church must look at how it has treated Land and Expansion. We must come face to face with what it means to be part of the system of conization.

The General Conference of The United Methodist Church affirms the sacredness of American Indian people, their languages, cultures, and gifts to the church and the world.

We call upon the world, and the people of The United Methodist Church to receive the gifts of Native Americans, including American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, as people of God. We allow for the work of the Great Spirit/God among our communities and tribes without prejudice. But what do we say about the Land we have taken?

You See, In 1452, the Papal Bull Romanus Pontifex declared war against all non-Christians throughout the world, sanctioned and promoted the conquest, colonization, and exploitation of non-Christian nations and their territories. In 1453, Spain was given rights of conquest and dominion over one half of the world and Portugal the other half.

In 1823, the Christian Doctrine of Discovery was adopted into law by the US Supreme Court (Johnson v. McIntosh). Chief Justice Marshall observed that Christian European nations had assumed dominion over the lands of America, and upon discovery, Native American Indians had lost their rights to complete sovereignty as independent nations and retained a mere right of occupancy in their lands.

And Even In 2009, President Obama pledged to Native people the United States’ support of the “Declaration of Indigenous Peoples.” The declaration seeks to right historical wrongs through the use of the papal bulls of the Roman Catholic Church that are official decrees by the pope sanctioning the seizing of indigenous lands worldwide.

With All this, we must reflect on Gen 15:18

Our lesson from the Old Testament is not the first occasion in Genesis where God speaks to Abram, but it is the first time that Abraham responds so that a back-and-forth exchange takes place.

In Genesis 12:1-3, the Lord says to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”