We often make a distinction between who we are and the place where we live and relate to each other, as if the territory we inhabit does not influence us directly. This distinction is made even from within our Christian faith, where we tend to recognize ourselves as stewards of creation. While a valuable affirmation, this has at times led us to make assumptions that place us in superiority to the other beings that God has created.
That is to say, because we are stewards of creation, we sometimes believe that the future state of creation depends solely on us. However, as humanity, we must be held to account for many aspects of the deterioration of the Earth. Seeing ourselves as the saviors of God’s creation in a vertical relationship is a perspective that is distant from biblical truths.
Recently, during a visit to a mountainous region inhabited by the Wiwa people (Colombia), and in conversing with Christian brothers and sisters from different native peoples, we tried to put on the table some affirmations that also exist from our cultures about the territory and the people who inhabit certain geographical spaces. It was beautiful to recognize that in many of our cultures the Divine presence is affirmed since the beginning of time, in some cultures this presence is known as the Creator and Shaper of the universe, who created us in interdependence with the territory, created the human being as part of the geographical space.
What does it mean for native peoples to recognize themselves as a territory? Although my reflections fall short in expressing the depth of this statement, some thoughts that I can share are: we are territory, because we feed on what is produced in this portion of land, we are biologically constituted by elements, nutrients, vitamins, in common with other living beings in our environment; we are territory because our sensitivity to certain sounds, such as the song of certain species of birds, the sound of the streams running through the paths, the rustling of certain animals, are part of the familiar, the everyday, the normal, this defines much of the way we think and feel; we are territory because we visualize ourselves as a small being in the immense creation of God, building houses that try not to alter and affect the rest of the great shared home; we are territory, because we inherited from the rays of the sun and from our grandparents the color of our skin; because our arms, our lungs, our legs and heart, are the way they are and work the way they work, because we are at a certain height with a certain diet and with activities that in that geographical space we can do and therefore, be.
Are these statements far removed from the Scriptures? I have thought a lot about some biblical texts, such as Isaiah, when God speaks about the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, linked in a direct way to a happy people, full of joy (Is. 65:17-25). And I am also captivated in calling to mind the many stories in which Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God, using natural examples from his own territory, that is, the way of feeling, thinking and living, reflected in the teachings of Jesus, which was completely linked to his familiar environment, the everyday, his normality.
In drawing these thoughts together, I would like to invite us to question ourselves, today with so much concrete, in the face of so much modernity: how is our relationship with the environment that forms us physically, biologically, and in our feeling and thinking? What challenges does the church face today to fully recognize itself as part of the territory it inhabits?
We pray. Dear God, Creator and Shaper of the universe, thank you for making us part of the ecosystems you created, we recognize that we are interdependent with all your creation. Please give us the humility to be sensitive to what surrounds us, to dream and rebuild that harmonious relationship with the territory that also forms us.
Benita Simón Mendoza
Lausanne Catalyst for Creation Care
Benita Simón Mendoza is a Mayan Kaqchikel woman from Guatemala. She works locally on environmental restoration issues and has recently joined the Lausanne team of creation care catalysts.
