Landless and Yearning to be Landed
I recently read Walter Brueggemann's book The Land: Place as Gift, Promise and Challenge in Biblical Faith. Here's an excerpt from the book that I found particularly profound:
"The sense of being lost, displaced, and homeless is pervasive in contemporary culture. The yearning to belong somewhere, to have a home, to be in a safe place, is a deep and moving pursuit. Loss of place and yearning for place are dominant images. They may be understood in terms of sociological displacement, as Americans have become a "nation of strangers", highly mobile and rootless, as our entire social fabric becomes an artifact designed for obsolescence, and the design inclues even us consumers! They may be understood in terms of psychological dislocation, as increasing numbers of person are disoriented, characterized as possessors of "the homeless mind"...Those whom we imagine to be secure and invested with "turf" in our time experience profound dislocation...The Bible itself is primarily concerned with the issue of being displaced and yearning for a place"
He goes on to develop a theology of the "Land" - connecting what God promised Israel to our deep human longings to be "landed" - secure and rooted, a place of continual blessing, free from the fear of a world that often seems set against us. Ever since humankind was kicked out of the garden, we have been longing for Land. The promise of the Bible is that in Jesus, God acted decisively to "land us" - through his renewal of heaven and earth. Thinking through the lens of being "landless" and longing to be "landed", many seemingly divergent issues come into focus - border issues in Palestine, homelessness, environmental degradation. My question is this: What images, issues, songs, movies, stories come to mind when you think about this issue of needing to be "landed"?
(I really do want responses to this - if what I'm asking isn't clear, let me know)
posted by Ryan @ 1:35 PM
2 Comments:
Ryan,
I think this is an excellent question. The movie Munich comes to mind. People in an endless cycle killing each other for a vision of "land". At one point in the movie the Israeli operative asks a PLO operative "so that's what this is all about, about having your own land? Is that really what it's all about?" and the PLO operative says suprisingly, "Yes". The viewer is left with the distinct impression that there is much more to land than land and yet land can't honestly be this dirt. The way that other operatives with land treat the unlanded (PLO) and the fighting for land (Israel)shows that they have settled in and are too deeply entrenched cultivating their own garden to give the landless any serious consideration.
(Also - note how the Israeli operative finds his mentor who believes family is bigger than land for human flourishing -another subtext of the biblical narrative.)
Have you watched Munich lately? Let me know if you agree with my assessment. And if you didn't understand what I'm talking about just answer Ryan's question afresh...
I think you have a great point, Bob, that the landed are "too deeply entrenched cultivating their own garden to give the landless any serious consideration". Being "landed" - which is what we long for - has particular temptations that being landless doesn't. It was precisely when Israel became landed (in its height under Solomon) that it was most tempted to forget God and what he had done for them.
On a different note, the movie that comes to mind for me is Garden State - The main character's trip back to his hometown, a place filled with memories and old friends, is tied up with his quest for meaning. Brueggemann says a few pages later in his book that "land is never simply physical dirt but is always physical dirt freighted with social meanings derived from historical experience". Whenever I visit where I grew up (Grass Valley), its always a little weird. I think one of the reasons that it feels weird is that my identity is tied up to that land, for the exact reason that Brueggemann has said - that the physical dirt is full of social meanings derived from my past experiences. And so when I go back there and find that the landscape has changed without me - it feels diorienting.
Post a Comment
<< Home