This Land is... Promised?
Scriptures Deuteronomy 9:1,5
Joshua 5:13-15
Matthew 5:1-13
...
...
This morning I want to invite you to think about the land you are on right now.
Think about this land. Its sights, sounds, and smells. Its history and its people. Who has lived here? Who was displaced? How has settlement and migration shaped this place?
Now finish this sentence:
"This Land is..."
In preparing for this series I came up with a few of my own responses to that question.
This Land is...
...not empty.
…stolen.
…not our own.
… sacred.
…in need of repair.
… resilient.
…home.
The one that came to mind that I continue to wrestle with the most is...
This Land is… Promised.
This Land is Promised?
In the story of Exodus, the ancient Israelites were searching for a land they could call home. A land of milk and honey. A land where they could enjoy freedom from oppression. A land where they could prosper. A land that God had promised to them and their ancestors before them.
I cannot tell you how disappointed I was some years ago, when I realized that Exodus’ story of liberation… the story that has inspired so many struggles for liberation, ends in the story of war and genocide.
Today’s readings from the Hebrew Bible give us a glimpse into this part of the story.
In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses speaks to the people about their upcoming conquest of Canaan, the land which God has brought them to after their 40 years long journey in the dessert.
Moses warns the people that God will make them successful in battle against the Canaanites, not as a reward for their own goodness, but as an act of divine judgement on an evil people and as an act of covenant faithfulness to the Israelites.
Reading this story today, I appreciate the idea of God providing a home for a people escaping slavery. It reminds me of the history of freedmen's towns in the United States, communities which were established by African Americans, frequently formerly enslaved people, to build economic independence, education, and safety away from systemic racism and Jim Crow laws.
But the idea of God destroying a wicked people to provide that home… I struggle with that theology.
It reminds me of all the ways people in the dominant culture have demonized Indigenous people throughout history... as heathens... as idol worshippers... as evil.
What does this story mean then to our Native neighbors?
How might they read this story, as bible scholars often describe, through "Canaanite eyes?"
Over the next four weeks of this series, "This Land is... " we will listen to and learn from our Native neighbors, guided in part by the book, The Land Is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery by Sarah Augustine (Tewa Pueblo).
A group of eight of us have been studying this book since October, deepening our understanding of the injustices Indigenous peoples face and the harm done in Christianity's name.
This journey isn't new for Highlands. You can see evidence of our ongoing commitment in our land acknowledgment, our partnerships with the Wind River Food Sovereignty Project and Sweetgrass Food Lodge, and the $500 we pay each month to our Reparations Fund as a “land tax.”
But there still remains much work to do. The Doctrine of Discovery developed over centuries, and it won't be undone overnight.
In her book, Sarah Augustine, a Tewa Pueblo woman and Christian, weaves together her experiences living on the Yakama Reservation and working alongside Indigenous communities in Suriname with the history and ongoing consequences of the Doctrine of Discovery.
Now, by a show of hands, how many of you have heard of the Doctrine of Discovery?
Augustine defines the Doctrine of Discovery as a 15th-century theological and legal framework that gave Christian European nations the moral and legal "right" to invade and service Indigenous People’s lands and dominate Indigenous peoples.”
The doctrine was developed first through decrees by the Catholic Church. Over time these theological teachings became the basis of international law and most Western countries incorporated them into their national laws.
For example, in 1823, the U.S. Supreme Court invoked this doctrine in Johnson v. McIntosh, ruling that European nations had acquired ultimate dominion over Indigenous lands, leaving Native peoples with only a right of occupancy.
More recently, in 2005, the Supreme Court ruled against the Oneida of New York, which had purchased land previously stolen from them and sought to reassert its sovereignty.
It was Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who wrote that the tribe could not "rekindle the embers of sovereignty that long ago grew cold."
In her mind, the Oneida has only just become interested in asserting their sovereignty, after they, and I quote, “slumbered on their rights.”
This last argument is particularly a considering that state and federal governments had explicitly prevented New York tribes from bringing any land claims to court until 1974.
The flames of sovereignty are difficult to fan when someone's running a fire hose directed right at you.
Historical and archeological research has shown the Israelites conquest of Canaan has been largely exaggerated. Even within the Bible itself there is evidence that suggests it was exaggerated.
This has lead me to think of this story more as a tall-tale than an accurate depiction of events. Have you ever told a story that makes you sound more cool or smart or powerful than you are? Perhaps you even told that story because you were feeling pretty low about yourself?
That’s how I think about this story. A tall tale to ease the mental anguish of a wounded and weary people.
But at the very same time, we also know that the story of the Promise Land have been reinterpreted throughout history to justify the violent theft of land from indigenous populations.
God’s mandate to Israel to conquer the Promised Land became a standard tool of Christian imperialism here on Turtle Island. It is also a tool within modern-day Christian Zionism.
This is why as Christians it is so important that we read the Bible's stories carefully, critically, and faithfully in light of the Gospel.
One insightful commentator found a new reading of this story in the book of Joshua, chapter 5.
The book of Joshua reflects a similar theology as the book of Deuteronomy, in which Israel’s faithfulness to God is tied to conquering the Promised Land and destroying its Indigenous inhabitants.
In Joshua 5, the Israelites demonstrate their devotion through a second circumcision and the celebration of Passover. The next generation is put “right with God.’ In the honor-shame dynamic of the Ancient Near East. They are not free to live in the Promised Land as the “un-disgraced.”
All this sets up Chapter 5 to conclude with this surprising, and ironic encounter.
When Joshua, the army commander of the Israelites, asks the commander of God’s army, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” the commander replies, “Neither.”
After everything we've read about God promising this land to Israel, we expect God to take their side. Instead, we're reminded that God's allegiance cannot be claimed by any one people or nation.
Sarah Augustine wonders whether these biblical stories might help us recognize the destructive cycles of violence, greed, and power that have shaped human history.
And perhaps, in recognizing these cycles, we can choose another way.
The way of justice the prophets call us to.
The way of peace our rabbi Jesus points us to.
You could say that Jesus also used irony to teach us about God’s kingdom. His most famous sermon is full of it.
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Certainly meekness was not what we saw in the stories chronicling the conquest of the Promised Land. Nor did we see them in the real history of this Land so scarred by colonization and settlement.
This past week, the Northern Arapaho Tribe made headlines when they excavated a tribal road leading to the Foundation for Nations church on the Wind River Reservation.
If you haven't been following this story, let me give you a little background.
Foundation for Nations is a Christian ministry that came to the reservation to evangelize Native people. This summer, tensions between the church and the community reached a breaking point when the pastor made derogatory comments about the Arapaho Sundance ceremony, describing it as idol worship.
Both the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Business Councils called for the church to leave the reservation.
But because the church sits on privately owned land, the tribes have limited jurisdiction over the property.
What the church apparently doesn't have, however, is an easement for the tribal road leading to its driveway.
And so, this past week, after consulting with the relevant authorities, the Northern Arapaho exercised their sovereignty by digging a trench across that road and raising their tribal flags.
Some might see this as an extreme or counterproductive response.
But I think it's important that we consider this story in its larger historical context. For centuries, Indigenous peoples have been expected to accommodate Christian missionaries, surrender their traditions, and accept the authority of outsiders. And when they resist, they are too often portrayed as unreasonable or hostile.
Which causes me to reflect on Jesus' words: "Blessed are the meek."
Dorothy Day, the Catholic activist, once wrote:
"One must only be humble from a divine motive, otherwise humility is a debasing and repulsive attitude. To be humble and meek for love of God–that is beautiful. But to be humble and meek because your bread and butter depends on it is awful. It is to lose one's sense of human dignity.”
Day helps us to see that there is a difference between choosing humility and having humiliation forced upon you. There is a difference between practicing meekness and being told this is how a "good Indian" acts.
The irony of Jesus blessing is that is the meek who shall inherits the earth. Those whose dignity has been denied. Those whose land has been taken. Those whom the world has taught to remain silent.
Here Jesus announces that God's kingdom belongs to them.
And so, as we begin this series, let us reflect on how our calling is not to tell them how they ought to respond to injustice.
Our calling as Christians is to listen.
To practice the humility that our faith asks of us, rather than demanding it of others.
To acknowledge the harm that has been done in our name and in the name of our God.
And to humbly join in the work of repair.
Sermon preached by Rev. Delaney Piper on November 1, 2026.
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