Stephen:

Ahab the King of Samaria covets the vineyard of Naboth, close by to his palace. He sees it every time he leaves by the front gate, and desires having it as his own.

Why do the powerful constantly want and want and want, Why do they want what is not theirs?

Speaker 2:

They want and want and want, because they are full of pride and the glory of their might.

Stephen:

But what is it that drives people to want and want and want, more than they need to live?  What is this pride, this glorying in their might?

Speaker 3:

It comes from a nagging feeling of emptiness, of scarcity.  They say men sometimes have midlife crises and go out and buy a new car.  Or women visit a plastic surgeon to restore the beauty they feel they do not have.

Stephen:

But where does this feeling of emptiness and scarcity come from?

Speaker 2:

Perhaps they were humbled too many times by stern parents, or belittled, or suffered at the hands of others, because they had no control over their circumstances?

Speaker 3:

Or perhaps they were spoiled and given whatever they wanted?

Stephen:

Did Ahab behave like someone belittled in his youth, or like someone spoiled?

Speaker 2 and 3:

Spoiled.  Spoiled.  Spoiled.

Stephen:

And Ahab’s wife Jezebel?

Speaker 2:

The need to control.  The desire to demonstrate her power over others.

Stephen:

Why were the indigenous peoples violently pushed off the places they inhabited here in the lands known as Turtle Island or Abya Yala, at the hands of the European colonists arriving here after 1492?

Speaker 3:

The European settlers may have been belittled under feudalism and warlords, and desired to have control and dominate.

Stephen:

Did they claim their rights to take the lands in the name of God?

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes.  The slaying of the indigenous peoples was justified by calling them heathen and Godless people.

Stephen:

And when they slaughtered millions of bison across the fertile lands, and gave gifts of diseased blankets, what was their motivation?

Speaker 3:

To destroy the people who lived free upon the land, so they could have the lands for themselves.

Stephen:

And did all the Europeans work the land themselves afterwards?

Speaker 2:

No, many people were stolen from Africa, put in chains and brought here to labor as beasts of burden.

Stephen:

Do we suffer from the consequences of this violence today?

Speaker 2:

Yes. We are pitted against each other and against the life of the land itself. We plunder the land for the profit of a few. We cut the forests and drain the wetlands.

Speaker 3:

We poison the soils with chemicals and drive the farmers from their homes by replacing them with machines.

Stephen:

What do the rich want with all this destruction? What is the one thing they want?

Speaker 2:

The one thing they want is EVERYTHING.  Like King Ahab.

Stephen:

Why did Naboth not want to trade his vineyard for other land, or for money?

Speaker 3:

Because farmers are like lovers of their lands, once they have planted and watered the land.

Speaker 2:

And when farmers in community have lived upon a place for decades, for generations, this love is strong. Imagine how strong the love is of a tribe of people who have all gathered and planted and watered and hunted upon the land, who have learned how to keep the land fertile from their forebears, who have thanked God for the gifts of the land in humility, in order not to anger God, imagine how strong their love is for the land!

Stephen:

Can such people be content with receiving money in exchange for such a place?

Speaker 3:

No, they cannot?

Stephen:

Can such a people preserve their culture if they are removed from their lands?

Speaker 2:

I believe they may suffer and lose hope, and even die, as so many millions have.

Stephen:

Do human beings possess the land?  Can we humans own the land?

Speaker 2

Since we humans cannot make land, cannot even make one handful of living soil, we cannot be said to own the land.

Stephen:

But why do we descendants of the Europeans and other peoples say that we own the land, that it is our private property?

Speaker 2:

We have turned the land into a possession in our minds, out of a desire to control.  We have forgotten that the land is God’s, and we are but sojourners upon the land.

Speaker 3:

People with that great love for the land say they cannot own the land. 

They say that the land owns them.

Stephen:

When people struggle to hold to their land, and are killed for it, what can we say?

Speaker 2:

A great evil has been committed.  Shame!  Shame!  Shame!

Stephen:

When people are imprisoned for struggling to remain upon the land,

to defend the land from tree cutters or poisoners, what can we say?

Speaker 2 and 3:

Shame!  Shame!  Shame!

Stephen:

When people organize themselves, in Bolivia or Mississippi, or Detroit, Michigan or Louisville, Kentucky to make the land fertile and to plant the land and rejoice and share in its abundance, what should people of God do?

Speaker 2 and 3:

Rejoice.  Rejoice. Rejoice.

Stephen:

If some people want to deprive the many of the freedom to nourish themselves from the land, what should we think?

Speaker 2:

Woe is to you who puts field and field together, you will remain alone upon the land.

Stephen:

What should we do?

Speaker 3:

Not bear false witness against them.

Speaker 2:

Break bread with them.

Stephen:

Is the land sacred?

Speaker 2:

Since we cannot make it, and since we ourselves are made from the earth, it must be sacred.  

It is sacred!

Stephen:

Is the land beyond our comprehension?

Speaker 3:

It is surely beyond our comprehension.  In just one handful of soil there are hundreds of millions of living creatures that somehow all live together and make it fertile.

Stephen:

Do we understand how those creatures make the soil fertile?

Speaker 2:

Even scientists admit to not understanding the complexity of the living soil.

Stephen: (holding up a bowl of soil)

Let us all rejoice in the miracle of living soil, and rejoice in its great powers to feed us and provide us the ability to write poetry and sing songs to God.

Speaker 2 and 3:

The soil is sacred!

Stephen:

The land is sacred.  We humans and all the other living creatures are but sojourners upon this miraculous land. Those whose hands treat the land with respect should dwell upon the land.

May we be humbled by the wonders of the Mother Earth, that provides us Life.

We invite you to say the words of your heart about lands you have loved at this time, or blessings you have received from sacred places!  Or wrongdoing you have suffered.