The return to the land of our ancestors.
So much of human history is bound up in disputes over land.
Your land, my land, his land, (rarely) her land.
The territorial imperative indeed runs deep in mammals, especially primates; sometimes we seem no better than gangs of monkeys fighting each other over dwindling patches of forest.
So much of human inequality is bound up in ownership of land.
My land, not yours, doesn’t matter if you need its shelter, water, food – I paid the royal estate for it, so its shelter, water, food, lumber, minerals, oil are mine… You’ll pay me to use them, and I’ll use that money to always have the advantage.
And no small part of human suffering is bound up in exploitation of land.
It’s my land, I’ll do to it what I wilt – control the shelter, poison the water, leach the soil, cut down the trees, pollute the ground and air. Those who did not pay the royal estate be damned. Those who need shelter, water, food, and air be damned. Those who depend on the socio-economic sectors I’ve monopolized through the exclusive exploitation of my land be damned.
It’s my land.
I didn’t create it or design it or raise the hills or flatten the plains or fill the rivers or plant the forests.
But it’s my land.
I can’t pick it up, stuff it in the back of my truck, and drive off with it.
But it’s my land.
I control access to it only by dint of claim, paper, and force of arms.
But it’s my land.
(You’re beginning to see how this works?)
Then along comes the Creator of the land, and says,
“It’s MY land. Forever. You are strangers here.”
And,
“If you want to live on this land – you must follow my rules.”
And,
“Build me a sanctuary, a holy city, a just society, that I may dwell within you.”
Meaning: The land is not ours.
Meaning: The land comes with a promise.
Meaning: The land has a meaning and a purpose.
We take the land for granted, we ignore our covenant, we deny its purpose – we’re out.
Our ancestors sinned and are no more.
But if we treasure and share the land, stay loyal and true to our promise to our Creator and to each other, and build a just, peaceful, and holy society on the land, together in harmony – we can stay.
The return to the land of our ancestors is a return to a right relationship; with our Creator, with each other – with the land.
May we indeed merit to return.