Lent

March 8, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Then he said to him, ‘I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.’ But he said, ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?’ He said to him, ‘Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.’ He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, –Genesis 15:7-12, 17-18

‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,

The United States Magazine, and Democratic Review on the necessity of annexing Texas and the inevitability of American expansion. O’Sullivan was protesting European meddling in American affairs, especially by France and England, which he said were acting “for the avowed object of thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.*”

And now Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, is claiming the state of Ukraine as his although he does not claim divine rights, but some eternal ownership. He seems to have plans to add other free countries in eastern Europe to his “land”.

How many wars have been fought over the ownership of land? How many people have died? Is the land game, a king-off-the-mountain game, prescribed by God? Or does evil interfere with the normal migrations of people to set groups against one another? Abram was at first welcomed in what is now the nation of Israel. I wonder what our nation would look like if the Europeans who had first arrived in the New World and the indigenous people who were already here truly worked to break bread together, learn from each other, and developed a world where swords were indeed melted to make plowshares.

We cannot rewrite the past, but we can create a future built on love and communities that work to support one another sans greed and lust for power if that is what we truly want.

Prayer: Lord, enable us to walk your path of righteousness and justice as we carve out our futures. Amen.

*Manifest Destiny explained see at https://www.britannica.com/event/Manifest-Destiny

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.