LIBERATION LECTIONARY ~ NATIVE HERITAGE MONTH

“Genesis is an origin story: a prosaic telling of how things came to be the way they are.” Dr. Wil Gafney

In the Beginning

Introduction: 

Traditionally, Advent is the first season of the church calendar, a time when we celebrate the prophecies announcing the birth of Jesus, our Savior. Through the lens of Liberation Theology, and by reading the story of scripture, we believe that Celebrating God the Creator is the place to begin. Creation is where the Bible begins, so that is where we will start.

This season means learning our part in the creation story and caring for our world through climate, food and land justice, and greening every space we are able. This season often happens during Native Heritage Month. Expect a focus on spiritual practice and recommended resources connected to honoring and celebrating Indigenous peoples.

LESSON

While we might not all align on the factual origins of the earth and the cosmos, the book of Genesis - especially the creation story - presents a moral imperative for earth justice. The beginning of the Bible invites us to love this planet that even God calls home. The story of creation reminds us that human origins are tied to this earth, to the very ground. To believe that we are created from this place is to read Genesis as an invitation to come home to ourselves. 

Africa holds the original mysteries of modern human life. If the earth is God’s nursery, the continent is the cradle. The migration of homosapiens from Africa led to what multiple scientists say was most likely mass networks of homosapiens building families with neanderthals, who were the humanoid species in the northern Atlantic continent. In a few dozen generations, homosapiens born from African soil would mate and innovate to become the only surviving primary hominid species on earth. In the forthcoming eras of exploration, europeans showed up  to the rich continent to exploit natural resources and claim spaces which were already inhabited. 

They used military power to push into the continent from the coasts, manipulating and killing African people as they encountered resistance. In all their retellings of history,  Europeans blamed indigenous tribes for the very costly warfare that they caused. 
These so called explorers, farmers and dignitaries could not have sustained their “settlements” without the support of European missionaries and reformed theologians. For centuries, Europeans and their descendants justified their conquests through a biblical misinterpretation that God’s call to “subdue the earth” meant that some groups had the right to be supreme over others. They forgot their ancient origins, and did not honor the people who were faithful, native stewards of all mankind’s native land. 

Our origins are divine; in the soil; all of humanity’s ancestor’s bones are in the soil.
The history of human domination ironically manipulates God’s word/imagination;
God’s word imagines and creates, God’s word does not colonize or dominate, and yet the word was twisted to be used in that way. 

Historical Example: Dutch Christians’ and “New Eden”

In the 1600s, Dutch Reformed people who survived the resistance of indigenous African families viewed themselves as chosen by God to take hold of and colonize South Africa as a New Eden. This view, born from the doctrine of Pietism, was crucial to the formation of Apartheid, a culture that lasted until 1994. “the cultural vision of Afrikaner nationalist “sphere sovereignty”, rooted in divine orders of creation shaping re-creation, determined that the lives of most Afrikaans Reformed Christians precluded mixing with people of colour.”

Hundreds of years later, countries colonized by the VOC (South Africa, Indonesia and more) are still inextricably bound up with the European economy and have not had full repair for the violent legacy of the VOC. VOC stands for Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie which translates to Dutch East-India Company.

The hegemony of the VOC has been celebrated and commemorated variously in The Netherlands as the golden age of Dutch commerce. Then again many are the critical voices, both in The Netherlands and in countries which fell prey to the activities of the VOC, that point to the oppression and destruction that resulted from the VOC project.

Hegemony is the position of being the strongest and most powerful and therefore able to control others. It means singular predominance, influence, and authority - real or applied - referring especially to governments, countries, states.

Regardless of the type of control, hegemons impart their own values, ideas, and norms on whatever society they influence, whether global or regional.

Some examples in the history of the west:

Nazi Germany is a clear example of military hegemony.

Great Britain is a political hegemony.

The United States is an economic hegemony.

Consider the example of ancient Greece in the arts, beauty and fashion and philosophy. And ancient Rome in terms of military, seats of government and judicial power, and social status.

Hegemony has devastating human consequences. People groups who do not have proximity to the primary influencers are either moved to constant resistance and protest for their own dignity, or manipulated to seek satisfaction only through assimilation - which can never be truly achieved.

People groups who resemble or inherit the standard of perceived power status perpetuate the hegemony. Either by force - despite their realization that human-on-human dominance is evil or at least unsustainable; or by fear - because they are convinced that only hegemony can protect them and ensure posterity.

All power, factual or fictional, has an origin story. Hegemony is the genesis of colonialism, of singular cultural dominance and of systems rooted in subjugation of some and supremacy of others. The alternative to hegemony is called “balance of power”. And in the Bible, interpreted through an Indigenous cultural lens, God Themself is the author of this power. For in the earliest act of God’s own creativity, three divine beings - distinct in personhood yet equal in power - made this vast wonderful world, and gave the responsibility of stewarding care - for the entire planet - in to humans; who are also created beings.

This is the antithesis of hegemony. It is the paradox that confounds and suspends its reliability. It defies and dismantles any testimony to claim that human predominance is the greatest way, or the trustworthy truth. We were created by the same God who created the things which are under our care. We are commanded to care for the ground, the waters, the skies, all that inhabits them and all that they produce. And all of us, the “great” and “small” are still under the care of the God who made us.

The command of stewardship is not a power play, it is a covenant of collaboration.

We care for God’s creation because God cares. We care for what God has made, because God called all of creation good (and that means us, too!).

The earth is our home. The earth is the Lord’s. Revelation reminds us what Genesis foretells: when God made earth, God spoke into being the once and future home of heaven.

Scripture Reading This Week

Creation account from the Prologue of the First Nations Version, New Testament

“LONG AGO, IN THE TIME BEFORE ALL DAYS, before the beginning of all things, the Great Spirit created the spirit-world above and the earth below. At that time our mother earth was an empty wasteland with no form or beauty, and great darkness was over the face of the ancient deep waters. The Breath of the Great Spirit moved over the surface of the waters like an eagle brooding over her nest. Creator sounded his voice. “Let light be!” he said. And light was! The Great Spirit could see that light was good, so he separated the light from the darkness. Creator gifted the light with the name day, and to the darkness he gave the name night. Then night faded and morning came. The first day.”

“In six days the Great Spirit made all things seen and unseen. He made the spirit-world above and the earth below. He created spirits to be his messengers and helpers. He also made the sun, moon, and stars, and all plants and animals. He made the great waters and all who swim in them. The winged ones who fly in the sky, the four-legged ones who walk on the ground, every creeping thing that crawls—all were shaped and molded by his hands.

On the sixth day Creator made the first man and woman and placed them in the Garden of Beauty and Harmony to be caretakers of the earth.On the seventh day the Great Spirit rested from his work of creation, not because he was tired but because he was finished. 

The Great Spirit blessed the seventh day and made it a holy day. So humankind was created to enter into his day of rest and remain in harmony with Creator and care for all of creation.But the evil snake, sometimes called Accuser (Satan), a spirit being who opposes the Great Spirit, twisted the words of Creator. He planted a seed of doubt into the minds of the first humans, so they ate the fruit of the only tree that Creator had told them not to eat from, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By listening to the evil snake and disobeying the Maker of Life, they brought death with all its bloodshed, violence, and destruction to all the generations of humankind that would follow.
The life of beauty and harmony was lost and the circle of life was broken. A powerful curse came upon the ground that affected all living things. Spiritual and physical death came to all. The hearts of human beings became broken, twisted together with good and evil. They could no longer live in harmony on the land and began to follow evil ways and hurt and kill one another.Creator revealed what would come from the curse brought about by the ancient snake, then he made a promise to all humankind. He promised to one day send another human being, born of a woman, who would crush the head of the ancient snake and restore human beings and all of creation back to the life of beauty and harmony again.After many generations, Creator found a man he would choose to make a peace treaty with, named Father of Many Nations (Abraham). Through this man and his descendants, Creator would bring to pass his promise.”

Excerpt From First Nations Version - Terry M. Wildman.