Bible Study On Gender Justice And Inclusive Communities

Theme : Earth: The Sanctuary of God (Tribal Perspective)
Scripture Reference: I saiah 6:1-3; Exo. 3:1-5
Content: God reveals to Isaiah and Moses

The Land and Tribals
“The land is the Supreme Being's land

“One cannot become rich by selling land”

“Do not be greedy for the land, if you want to live long”

“Land is life”

“The one who does not have land always cheats others or cannot become a good citizen”

“The land cries in the hands of greedy people”

“The land never lies, do not lie to the land”

“Anyone who takes another's land by giving false witness will not live long”.

“The land is like a bird, it flies away soon in the hands of greedy people”.

“You can sell other things, but not land;

“You are a stranger without land”.

The land and forest occupies a very central place in the tribal worldview. The tribal people perceive the land as a sacred and co-creator with God. For the tribal it is the land that owns people and gives them identity. The tribal myths and rhetoric speak of the land as belonging to the Supreme Being. Like the Hebrews (“the Earth is the Lord's and fullness thereof” Ps.24:1). Forests, rivers, jungles are the places from where the tribals get their livelihood. 

The sacred land is fragmented:

In the year 1999 November I took a group of young women on an exposure study trip to Orissa in Koraput district. We visited many villages and saw how tribal people are cheated by the elite business people. We also visited some displacement areas where tribal people's land was taken away by government to construct a dam and about 52 villages and their land was submerged in the river due to the construction of the dam. Now these tribal people are displaced in a dry land where there is no means of earning their livelihood, because they cannot cultivate anything in this dry red soil.

The prophet Isaiah claims to have had a religious experience in which he sees God in the temple of Jerusalem . In the vision Isaiah hears God's messages announcing that the whole earth is full of God's glory. It is indeed an extraordinary announcement! Does this message have any significance in a world where lands have been fragmented or destroyed?

Read the Text Again

If we read Isaiah 6:3 and Exo. 3:5 what do we discover?

The preacher often focuses his/her attention on the call of Moses and the call of Isaiah. But this morning in our Bible Study I would like to focus our attention to Holy Earth.

The Lord of the heavenly hosts may be holy but where is God's glory revealed? The glory of God was seen on the earth, such as tabernacle or the temple. But according to this cry of Isaiah, God's glory was said to fill the tabernacle and the temple, ancient sanctuaries of God. In our text (Isaiah 6:3), God's glory fills the whole earth. And, according to Exo. 3:5 God told Moses to take off his sandals because the land is holy Therefore the whole earth is the sanctuary of God.

What do we learn from the texts?

The text from Isaiah 6:1-2 announces that God's glory has come to fill the earth. And Exo. 3:5 the earth is holy. Yet how many of us look for God's presence on the earth? Do we see beyond the clouds, forests, the rocks, the mountains, the oceans – seas – rivers, to discern the presence of God on the whole earth – even the desert.

Conclusion

Today our thoughts are overwhelmed by the impact of globalization. It has perpetuated a value system of unlimited wants, unmindful use of natural resources and one-sided development activities.

The process of economic globalization led to increasing fragmentation of societies, growing inequality and increasing numbers of people living in abject poverty, new levels of ecological destruction, new forms of violence and conflict, and the weakening of the nation state, development that went hand in hand with economic policies of so called liberalization and privatization imposed on people and nations through Structural Adjustment Programmes and other instruments by World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The deregulation of financial markets with ever growing flow of speculative capital and new trade rules introduced by the World Trade Organization further accelerated this process and deepened its impact on people.

We can see the present ecological and human survival crisis, particularly the poor and the marginalized. The tribals who live and work close to the soil are the worst affected community. They have become not only poor and powerless, but also become uprooted from the traditional identity and spiritual crisis. The earth is indeed God's sanctuary, God's holy place in the cosmos. Can you hear the earth, the sanctuary of God, crying out for protection from destruction?

Group Activity

•  Reflect on the displacement story in Orissa. Share your experiences of any similar story.

•  Re-read the text of Isaiah 6:1-3 and Exo. 3:5. If the earth is indeed full of God's glorious presence, where do you think can it be seen today?

•  Are there places where you can hear lands and forest crying because they have been fragmented due to new economic and development policies?

•  What are some of the ways we can help save the earth and once again revere it as God's sanctuary?