PREACHING ON “HEALING THE LAND”
The ideas for sermons are based around the background theological notes on “Healing the Land”
(B.1), and it is assumed the preacher will read those. The purpose is:
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to step back from “gut reactions” to the crises facing the land
to reflect biblically on the relationship between land and people
to encourage reflection on how our lifestyles affect the land
to urge practical and prayerful response both as individuals and as a church community
All-Age Talk on Healing the Land
If practical, get younger children to sit together at the front of church - on carpet or floor is ideal. Most
children have a natural curiosity and fascination with the natural world, which can be drawn out and
built upon. The headings and illustrations for this talk should be displayed, either on an overhead
projector (data projector if available), or else drawn onto large strips of thick paper that children hold
up. There are three points to the talk, and adults as well as children need to hear each of them!
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Whose World?
Whose Fault?
Who can help?
[1] Whose World?
God’s World!
Our fault!
Jesus … and us!
God’s World!
Place a picture of the world on the overhead projector. If you use the example in this pack, it will be
most effective coloured in. Alternatively, it is simple to download pictures of the earth taken from
space from the internet (try putting NASA into a search engine). Best of all, show a large inflatable
globe to the children – available from most educational suppliers – or you may be able to borrow one
from a local school.
Then reveal the question, “Whose world?” and ask them (easy-peasy question!) “Who made the
world?” Ask the youngest child who wants to respond … and make sure you congratulate them if they
are right! Now reveal the answer: “God’s World”.
Talk a little about how amazing and wonderful the world is. You could ask a few questions:
- How fast can a Cheetah run? (60-70 mph)
- How many eyes has a fly? (hundreds!)
- How many species of insect can an Oak tree support? (over 300)
- How heavy is a Chiffchaff that flies to African and back for the winter? (6 - 8 grammes)
With younger children, you could get some of them to tell you their favourite animal or bird … include
as many as you can, and add in a few adults for fun!
Then ask the more searching question: “Who owns the world?” The answer is obviously God (or
Jesus), and, even if they say this first, get them to think a bit further with extra questions: “Who acts
as if they own the world?” “Who owns England?”, “Who does the Lake District / Ben Nevis / Beachy
Head / your town or village belong to?”. Read out Psalm 24.1 or Leviticus 25.23 (the latter needs
some explaining).
Try and draw out the biblical truth that although God allows us to treat the earth as if it were ours, it is
actually his. He is the owner; the boss and we are responsible to him for how we treat it. You can
convey this idea by talking about lending favourite toys to another child.
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[2] Whose Fault?
Our fault!
If you used the inflatable globe (above), show it again, and start talking about all the things that have
gone wrong with the world. Have a knitting needle or skewer handy too! If you used the OHP, then
show the second picture, of the sick world, and reveal the words “Whose Fault?”
Get the children to start thinking of, and calling out environmental problems – you may be surprised at
how much they already know. Every time a new problem is suggested – pollution, extinction, forests
disappearing, ozone holes, songbirds disappearing – threaten to puncture the globe with the skewer.
Talk about some of the big problems suffered by the farming community (see C.1 - 3) making sure
you stress that these are not only or all the fault of farmers – but that we have all played out part.
Ask who is responsible for all these problems. Obviously the children aren’t directly, so try and explain
how the food we eat, the way we (and our food) travel, mean that all these problems are caused by
human beings. We are the most powerful, and the most destructive creature God has made! Reveal
the words “our fault!”
Refer back to the dramatised reading and talk about how Adam and Eve’s sin has infected the whole
human race, and the whole of creation. Talk about how a “catchy bug” such as chickenpox or flu can
spread around a class of children – sin has spread through the whole of God’s wonderful and
beautiful creation. It’s as if somebody borrows your favourite toys and then smashes them up, throws
them around and breaks them completely. You could produce a broken toy or two! Explain that just as
it is nobody’s fault that they catch flu, so it is not the farmers’ fault that the land has suffered so badly
– it is the fault of all of us that the “nasty bugs” of sin are in the world.
[3] Who can help?
Jesus … and us!
Produce the globe again, and a box of sticking plaster. If using the OHP, put up the question: “Who
can help?”. Ask the children who can put all the things that are wrong with the world right again.
Again, they will probably guess Jesus or God very quickly … so try and get them to be more specific.
Produce the acetate / poster of 2 Chronicles 7.14 and read it through – get the congregation to read it
aloud with you. Talk about how Jesus has made it possible for all the things that have wrong with the
world, and with people, to be put right again. If suitable for the group of children who are present, you
could explain the Romans 5 passage (also referred to in the dramatised reading), and talk about
Jesus as the “second Adam” – the perfect human being who lived in harmony with God, people and
creation. Talk about how on the cross Jesus bore the weight of sadness and badness (evil) that was
in the whole world … and proved he had defeated it by rising again.
Don’t dwell on the theology above longer than the attention span of your children! Rather, move on to
the fact that it is “Jesus … and us!” who can make a difference. Jesus wants us to help heal his world.
He wants us to treat it as his, not as ours. Ask the children for ideas as to how we can look after the
world as if it belongs to Jesus. “Not dropping litter” and “Caring for animals” will probably come up
soon, and with some prompting they will probably think of “recycling”, “walking not driving”, “not
chopping down trees”, and hopefully “caring for wildlife”. You may need to qualify some of their
radicalism with a pinch of reality at times!!! You could ask how the church could help – do draw in the
adults if children run low on ideas! Try and emphasise that this is not a long list of “dos and don’ts” but
that if we love God, we will want to look after his world. Explain God has given us a lot of freedom and
wants us to farm the land, to search for and use the riches he has put in creation – but that all the time
we must do this carefully, with respect for all life, and with awareness that it’s God’s, not ours.
Finish by reading out God’s picture of what he wants a healed world to look like: Isaiah 65.17 & 22-25.
Explain this is a long way off, but if we pray and follow God’s ways, we will see signs of the healing of
creation here and now.
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Adult Sermon Notes on Healing the Land
More experienced preachers may want to construct their own sermon, based on the
background theological notes and farming examples, illustrated by examples that are local or
topical. These are deliberately notes, rather than an “off the shelf” sermon, as it is important
for preachers to make it their own. The most important point to convey is that the caring for
the land is not just for eco-Christians or farmers, but is part of every Christian’s discipleship.
Beginning
If you are in an area directly affected by recent farming crises, begin with your local story. Otherwise,
paint word pictures, perhaps of the pyres of animals, of silent fields, of bankrupt businesses. Remind
people that Foot and Mouth (FMD) was simply the latest in a litany of rural crises in the UK in recent
years – Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) & Human form CJD (Creutzfeld Jakob Disease),
Swine Fever … as well as huge debates over changes in European subsidies, organic farming,
pesticide residues, GM crops, the disappearance of farmland birds and so on. Using some of the facts
& figures in section C.3, illustrate the current economic, social and moral crisis that this has led to.
What is going on in our land? Many people in the farming industry, and in rural areas are asking,
“Where is God in all this?”
Read out 2 Chronicles 7.13 & 14 again (display it on OHP if possible – see F3).
Ask some rhetorical questions:
- What is God saying here?
- Does this passage imply that we can see farming crises as God’s judgment on our land?
- Does this passage mean that we will see the “healing of the land” if we turn back to God?
To understand this passage - the only biblical reference to “Healing the Land” - we need to look at the
bigger picture in the Bible. As we do, we’ll discover that all of us – not just farmers, conservationists
and those who work on the land – are responsible to God for what happens on the land. We will also
discover that the Bible has radical ideas on how we should see the land, and how we should treat it!
The Bible and Land
(Ideally put these points on an OHP slide, or on your church notice sheet, and illustrate with some of
Tiphanie Goldspink’s line-drawings included with this pack.)
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Land Belongs to God
Psalm 24.1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it”. This familiar verse doesn’t just
mean God made the world. It means that the world is God’s. Do you own a house? Have you got
any land – maybe a small garden? Actually, they are God’s! The Anglican Communion Service
puts it “All things come from you, and of your own do we give you.”
When the people of Israel were “given” the Promised Land, they could have been forgiven for
thinking it was theirs. After all, hadn’t God promised it to them? Hadn’t they waited forty years for
it? And hadn’t they then had to fight hard to occupy it? So, it was theirs by promise and by work,
wasn’t it? Actually, no! Leviticus 25.23 puts it very clearly, when God says: “The land is not to be
sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.”
So, land belongs to God. This obviously has huge implications for how we see it, and for how we
treat it. Talk about some examples – gardening, farming, road construction, waste disposal …
Keep repeating, “the land is God’s” or if you prefer “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.”
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The Land Suffers when We Sin
The Bible shows a close connection between people, land and God. In today’s world we can
easily forget our connections with the earth. We step from carpeted houses into comfortable cars
or buses. We walk on solid pavements, and we shop in supermarkets where all soil is carefully
washed off the fruit or vegetables we buy. In the western world, so many of us have become
distanced from the land. Sometimes as Christians, we have also been guilty of so emphasising
our difference from the rest of creation that we have forgotten we are also made from the dust of
the earth. Yet, the biblical message is clear. “We are made of dust, and to dust we shall return.”
We share with all other creatures the limitations of being a carbon-based life form!
“Hang on!” you might say, “what about being made in God’s image?” Yes, we are made in the
image of God – but even this we’ve misunderstood. In Genesis 1.27-28, it is very clear that being
made in God’s image is linked to how we look after the rest of creation. God makes us, male and
female, in his image, and then immediately tells us to “be fruitful and increase”, to “fill the earth
and subdue it”. We are to be like God in how we treat the creatures of the earth. In Genesis 2.15,
Adam and Eve are told to “work and take care of” the garden – words that could be translated as
to “serve and preserve” God’s creation. It’s a huge privilege, and also a huge responsibility.
Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, there is an intimate link between God’s people and the
land. When Adam and Eve allow sin into the world and are thrown out of the Garden, their
relationship with the land is affected. Adam is told: “Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.” And the curse still holds today. Land
suffers when we sin against God.
This happens in two ways. Firstly and obviously, if we fail in our responsibility to serve and
preserve the earth and its creatures, there is a direct ecological result. If we pour ever-increasing
amounts of pesticides onto the soil, we will not only kill pests but all the useful insects, and the
food for farmland birds, and we will damage bio-diversity.
Use some of the statistics included in C.3, and perhaps another example or two.
Does God care? Yes He does! Why else did He tell us to care for the earth and its creatures?
Every creature God created on this amazing planet reflects something unique about God. It’s
interesting that when God told Noah to take two of each species, and seven of some, onto the
Ark, it wasn’t for food or to create a floating zoo! No, it was because each of those species had
intrinsic value to God. In Genesis 7.3 we are told it was “to keep their various kinds alive
throughout the earth”. When we live in an unsustainable way on God’s earth, damaging ecosystems and using up resources faster than they can be replaced, we are not just ruining our
own future; we are also sinning against God.
Secondly, and less obviously, the Bible teaches quite clearly that it is not only our failure to care
for the land that damages it. It is also all the other ways we (and other people) sin against God’s
moral law.
Read Hosea 4.1-3. Leave it on the screen if using an OHP whilst you say the next bit!
Hosea 4 is not unique. Throughout the Old Testament it’s clear that the land suffers when people
commit adultery, cheat one another or follow other Gods. Our moral and spiritual failure affects
the earth directly. If we look at the farming crises of recent years, and at the way society is
moving further away from God, we can see why many Christians are drawing a link. God
appears to be judging our nation, and urging us to return to him, by the way the land is suffering.
However, we must be careful here! We are not saying “it’s all the farmers’ fault” – they have
sinned! It is clear that the suffering of the land is due to all of us. Nor are we saying, “It’s all God’s
fault”! Clearly, at a human level, there are people and policies that bear much of the
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responsibility. However, we can still hear the voice of God in this situation. Bishop James Jones,
of Liverpool, has said, “The Bible sees judgment not just as an event in the future, a far-off-intime Day of Judgment but as a present experience. ‘Do not be under any illusion’ wrote St Paul
‘You cannot make a fool of God. Because, whatever you sow is exactly what you will reap.’”
And that brings us to 2 Chronicles 7.14 …
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Healing the Land
Read out 2 Chronicles 7.14, and if possible put the words on the screen.
We live in an age where ecological problems are increasing all around the world. Many people
are very pessimistic. Some environmentalists are racing around trying to get us all to change the
way we live. Others are near to giving up, as they have seen how reluctant politicians and
ordinary people are to make changes. Things are getting worse not better. Many Christians have
either ignored all the problems, or seen them as a reason for getting people into the Kingdom
before the end comes!
2 Chronicles 7.14 suggests another way. If we return to God, if we repent and humble ourselves,
then God can and will “heal the land”. There is hope for the farms and rural areas of Britain.
There is hope for the planet. The same God who brings healing to people’s hearts, who heals the
sick, longs to bring healing into His whole creation.
2 Chronicles 7.14 may be the only time the phrase “healing the land” appears in the Bible, but
the underlying principles are written throughout the Bible.
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God made the world – it is his land!
Humans are made from “the dust of the earth”, but also in the image of God to look after the
earth and its creatures
The land suffers when humans sin
God’s plans for salvation and healing include not just people, but the whole of creation
Today people are beginning to rediscover God’s heart for His world – for the land and its
creatures, as well as people and nations. God made everything in love. When things go wrong in
any part of His creation, God is grieved, and longs to bring about reconciliation. St. Paul tells us
that creation itself is “groaning” in pains like a woman in labour – the pains of separation from
God, and of the entry of sin into the whole created order.
When Jesus died on the cross, it provided the means of healing. Healing of our broken
relationship with God, healing of our bodies and minds, healing between people. But also healing
within the created order – the healing of the land.
Finish by telling one or two stories about the healing of creation. Maybe the example of
Almolonga in Guatemala (referred to in B.1 page 5) where barren land now produces crops of
beautiful fruit and vegetables, after the community repented and returned to God. You could also
share examples of Christians involved practically in working to heal the land from A Rocha,
mentioned in the copies of A Rocha International News and A Rocha UK News. The “A Rocha
Living Waterways” project in London is an example of polluted wasteland that is beginning to be
“redeemed”, both through the prayers of team members and supporters, some of whom “prayer
walk” the site, and also through the hard work of clearing rubbish and negotiating with officials.
Conclude by challenging people to [a] pray for the farming and rural communities in a time of
massive change, [b] to take small practical steps towards living as better stewards of God’s earth
(e.g. by joining A Rocha, recycling more), [c] to see the problems facing the land as a challenge
to seek God in humility and repentance.
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