Land Rights
Sermon
For centuries, an Englishman's home has been regarded as his castle. In other words, an Englishman has the right to defend his own property against any who would abuse it in any way. But in recent years this concept has been challenged and it seems that legally, the concept is nothing like as clear-cut now as it always appeared to be.
A well-publicized courtroom drama played out over this very point, was that of Norfolk farmer Tony Martin. His remote farmhouse where he lived alone had been burgled on many occasions and Tony Martin thought he knew the identity of the culprits. One fateful night he sat on the stairs in the dark with a shotgun across his knees, waiting for burglars. When they came, he shot at them. They ran away, but Tony Martin continued to fire and killed one of the intruders. That intruder turned out to be a sixteen-year old boy, out for a night's burglary with his uncle.
Tony Martin was tried and convicted of manslaughter and spent several years in jail. But opinion in the country was divided between those who thought he had the right to take whatever steps were necessary to protect his home, and those who thought that he deliberately used unnecessary violence and got all that he deserved.
Human beings have always had a need to have somewhere to call "home". One of the first promises God made to his people was to give them land and offspring Genesis 15:18, 17:2), so that they would always survive. People cannot survive without the means to harvest food and once they become settlers, they need plenty of manpower to farm the land. So this promise God made to Abram back in the earliest days of God's relationship with human beings, was an amazingly important promise and covered all the basic needs of the people.
But in common with all the tribes of the Ancient Near East, the people were always aware that the land belonged to God. Whatever the different religion of the tribes, they all knew that gods owned the land and the people possessed the land by permission of the local gods. In return, the people cared for the land and worshipped the god, who dwelt somewhere in the land with them.
So for the Hebrews, part of this deal was that God dwelt in the land with them. In the early days, God dwelt in the Ark of the Covenant, which was carried from place to place during the wanderings in the wilderness. Later, God dwelt in the temple, a house built especially for God by Solomon. But there was always the possibility that if the people failed to please God, he might abandon his dwelling place. And that would be a terrible catastrophe for the people because it would leave the land bereft of blessings, which would mean failed harvests and sick cattle.
Ezekiel was born into the priesthood and became both a prophet and a priest. His ministry began around 1500 years after the time of Abraham, just before the conquest of Judah in 587 BC. But Ezekiel was shortly carried off into exile in Babylon and so continued his ministry there. His message to the exiles is one of hope, for he assures them of God's abiding presence among them, even here away from God's temple and away from the land.
Ezekiel's message is relayed to the people by dramatic and strange means. On one occasion Ezekiel ate a scroll (Ezekiel 3:1-3), and in today's reading he has a powerful vision of the valley filled with lifeless bones. After asking Ezekiel rhetorically whether he thinks the bones can live again, God breathes his life into the dead bones. Immediately they begin to live again, first being covered with sinews and flesh and then joining together until they are again living, breathing human beings.
God then explains to Ezekiel what this means. God quotes the exiles: "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely" (37:11). The exiles think that as they are cut off from their land, they are therefore cut off from all blessings and from God's covenants with them. But God then corrects their erroneous assumption. God says, "I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel" (37:12).
The vision of the Valley of Dry Bones is not about the individual resurrection of individual human beings, but is about the restoration of Israel and the return to the land which God owns but which they possess. But it's also saying that God has not abandoned his people even though they are in exile away from the land and implies that if this is so, then God will never abandon his people.
The same holds true for us today. There may be many occasions when human beings feel deserted by God, times of stress or disaster or personal tragedy. The Welsh priest and poet R. S. Thomas has written a number of very moving poems about the absence of God. But however much we may feel that God has abandoned us and cannot be found, God is always there if only we look in the right places. Sometimes we may need to change our perspective and our assumptions, just as the Hebrews needed to change their perspective and their assumptions. If we open our eyes to the unexpected and dare to believe the unbelievable, then like the Hebrews of old we too will discover that God can restore us.
And that, after all, is what the Christian message says over and over again and what Jesus showed when he raised Lazarus from death. After death and crucifixion comes new life and resurrection, no matter what form that death or crucifixion might take. Like the Hebrews of old, God is always there for us, holding us and supporting us and God will never let us go.
A well-publicized courtroom drama played out over this very point, was that of Norfolk farmer Tony Martin. His remote farmhouse where he lived alone had been burgled on many occasions and Tony Martin thought he knew the identity of the culprits. One fateful night he sat on the stairs in the dark with a shotgun across his knees, waiting for burglars. When they came, he shot at them. They ran away, but Tony Martin continued to fire and killed one of the intruders. That intruder turned out to be a sixteen-year old boy, out for a night's burglary with his uncle.
Tony Martin was tried and convicted of manslaughter and spent several years in jail. But opinion in the country was divided between those who thought he had the right to take whatever steps were necessary to protect his home, and those who thought that he deliberately used unnecessary violence and got all that he deserved.
Human beings have always had a need to have somewhere to call "home". One of the first promises God made to his people was to give them land and offspring Genesis 15:18, 17:2), so that they would always survive. People cannot survive without the means to harvest food and once they become settlers, they need plenty of manpower to farm the land. So this promise God made to Abram back in the earliest days of God's relationship with human beings, was an amazingly important promise and covered all the basic needs of the people.
But in common with all the tribes of the Ancient Near East, the people were always aware that the land belonged to God. Whatever the different religion of the tribes, they all knew that gods owned the land and the people possessed the land by permission of the local gods. In return, the people cared for the land and worshipped the god, who dwelt somewhere in the land with them.
So for the Hebrews, part of this deal was that God dwelt in the land with them. In the early days, God dwelt in the Ark of the Covenant, which was carried from place to place during the wanderings in the wilderness. Later, God dwelt in the temple, a house built especially for God by Solomon. But there was always the possibility that if the people failed to please God, he might abandon his dwelling place. And that would be a terrible catastrophe for the people because it would leave the land bereft of blessings, which would mean failed harvests and sick cattle.
Ezekiel was born into the priesthood and became both a prophet and a priest. His ministry began around 1500 years after the time of Abraham, just before the conquest of Judah in 587 BC. But Ezekiel was shortly carried off into exile in Babylon and so continued his ministry there. His message to the exiles is one of hope, for he assures them of God's abiding presence among them, even here away from God's temple and away from the land.
Ezekiel's message is relayed to the people by dramatic and strange means. On one occasion Ezekiel ate a scroll (Ezekiel 3:1-3), and in today's reading he has a powerful vision of the valley filled with lifeless bones. After asking Ezekiel rhetorically whether he thinks the bones can live again, God breathes his life into the dead bones. Immediately they begin to live again, first being covered with sinews and flesh and then joining together until they are again living, breathing human beings.
God then explains to Ezekiel what this means. God quotes the exiles: "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely" (37:11). The exiles think that as they are cut off from their land, they are therefore cut off from all blessings and from God's covenants with them. But God then corrects their erroneous assumption. God says, "I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel" (37:12).
The vision of the Valley of Dry Bones is not about the individual resurrection of individual human beings, but is about the restoration of Israel and the return to the land which God owns but which they possess. But it's also saying that God has not abandoned his people even though they are in exile away from the land and implies that if this is so, then God will never abandon his people.
The same holds true for us today. There may be many occasions when human beings feel deserted by God, times of stress or disaster or personal tragedy. The Welsh priest and poet R. S. Thomas has written a number of very moving poems about the absence of God. But however much we may feel that God has abandoned us and cannot be found, God is always there if only we look in the right places. Sometimes we may need to change our perspective and our assumptions, just as the Hebrews needed to change their perspective and their assumptions. If we open our eyes to the unexpected and dare to believe the unbelievable, then like the Hebrews of old we too will discover that God can restore us.
And that, after all, is what the Christian message says over and over again and what Jesus showed when he raised Lazarus from death. After death and crucifixion comes new life and resurrection, no matter what form that death or crucifixion might take. Like the Hebrews of old, God is always there for us, holding us and supporting us and God will never let us go.
