"Who Owns The Earth?"
Dr. George Sinclair, Pastor
Isa. 25:6-9; Ps. 24; Rev. 21:1-6a; John 11:32-44
November 1, 2009
On a recent bike ride through Baldwin County, I saw some land for sale—78 acres, plus or minus. I’ve seen that sign for some time now, maybe three or more years. I’m not looking to buy land, but I was thinking about this sermon and I became curious. I didn’t call a real estate agent but I did Google: “Who owns Alabama?” and discovered that 95% of the privately held land is owned by 3% of the people, which is kind of like saying that 95% of the state is owned by the combined populations of Auburn and Dothan. 133,000 people own 31 of the State’s 33 million acres, which is the rule of thumb for the entire United States. The US government owns roughly a third of the land, the rest is owned by 3% of the population.
The biggest landowner in the world is the Queen of England. The Queen owns over 6 billion acres. Russia is next with 4.2 billion acres owned, followed by China with 2.3 billion, after that comes the US with 760 million, then the King of Saudi Arabia with 553 million and after that the King of Thailand at 126 million. You get the point. Even allowing for state ownership, legal title is held by a very few—three percent or less.
Land ownership is certainly one measure of “Who owns the earth?” but not the only measure. 70 percent of the earth is covered by water, so who owns the ocean? Five-hundred years ago that wasn’t even a question—nobody owned the ocean—but then in 1522, we circumnavigated the globe and things got complicated. Eventually we established a three mile limit. Inside the three-mile perimeter, nations were sovereign, outside, the ocean belonged to everyone.
But then things got more complicated. Commercial fishing developed powerful fleets that could cover long distances. Refrigeration preserved the catch and in some cases the catch was canned on the spot. Following WWII, things got more complicated still. Energy demands rose while offshore oil extraction grew common. The race for ocean ownership was on.
In 1945, the United States extended its claim to 200 miles. Other nations followed suit. In 1984, the UN stepped in. Territorial waters were set at 12 miles. Inside the 12 mile marker, nations have a right to self-defense. Commercial waters, meanwhile, were confined to 200 miles, unless a nation could prove the extent of its continental shelf. If so, mineral and fishing rights were extended up to 350 miles, which happens to be a big, big debate today. And debate is hardly the word.
The floor beneath the Arctic Ocean holds up to 25% of the world’s remaining energy resources. With sea ice melting, those reserves are increasingly available. Who’s going to capture the energy prize? The Russians? Canada? The United States? Norway? Denmark, perhaps? You can bet the race is not about snow cones and polar bears.
So, who owns the earth? Land and oceans certainly define the “earth.” But what about water—fresh water? You know, who owns the rain?
Do the folks in Georgia own the rain that falls there? What about the people who live downstream here in Alabama or in Florida? Do we have a right to the rain that falls in Georgia? Do the people in Georgia own the rain that falls there?
There’s a woman near Denver who collects rainwater from her roof. Kris Holstrom has 55-gallon barrels to collect runoff from her gutters, which she uses to irrigate a vegetable garden. According to a Colorado Water Congress official, Kris is breaking the law. Colorado law regulates rainwater collection. Rain, according to Colorado law, is the property of farmers, ranchers, developers, and water agencies that have paid for it.
The question of who owns the rain is not as silly as it first sounds. Likewise, the air we breathe. Who owns the air?
We’ve passed laws about cigarette smoking. We regulate auto emissions, industrial emissions. I don’t know, maybe God has a great sense of humor or a divine sense of planning. The two things that none of the 6.6 billion people on the planet can live without are air and water. I suppose you could add land, but land ownership is of a different kind. I don’t have to own land in order to exist, but I must have air and water. Can anyone ever really own the air we breathe or the water we drink?
I think God has played a very funny joke. The two essentials for human life--air and water—refuse ownership. Like it or not, they can’t be bought. They must be shared.
The Bible says “the earth is the LORD’s.” Now I know 3% hold legal title to most of it, but even they can’t take it with them. Ask the Romans. Or just take a walk through Pine Crest Cemetery. I’ve been in a lot of cemeteries and I’ve yet to see a title company or a real estate office or a bank. I know they call graves perpetual, but that hole in the ground we call our final resting place is cold comfort if that’s all we take with us.
“The earth is the LORD’s.” What does it mean to say “God owns the earth?” Ownership is a perplexing concept. As I mentioned two weeks ago, I bought a new HD TV. I own it. It’s mine, which means I paid for it. I suppose it could have been a gift, but it wasn’t. I went out and bought it with my own money. Money I earned. The TV, which somebody else made, is now mine. It belongs to me, which means, I not only paid for it, but I can use it whenever and however I want. It’s mine. I don’t have to go to a neighbor’s house; I can watch my own TV. I can do with it as I please. I can watch it or not. I could just leave it there in the living room—you know, as a piece of furniture or maybe a decoration. I’ve got lamps that are mostly for decoration. Some I use or use only occasionally. I suppose lamps fall under the category of dual use—they are both decorative and practical—they give light and are nice to look at. I guess my TV could fall into that category—it’s mostly useful, but it’s also a piece of furniture. You wouldn’t want to sit on it or use it for a dining table, but it does fill up space.
Ownership implies that we can do what we want with the things we own. If I want to watch my TV, I can. If I want to leave it turned off and admire it, I can. If I want to take it out and smash it with a hammer, I can. Or, if I want to give it away, I can. Alternately, I could sell it, maybe put it on EBay and ship it to the highest bidder. It’s mine.
“The earth is the LORD’s.” Does that mean God can do whatever he wants with the earth? (And by earth I don’t mean just the land or water or air but that too. By earth, I mean everything we see, all the living.) Can God do with the earth whatever he pleases? Is that what we mean by saying “the earth is the LORD’s?”
I suppose at some level we mean that. The Bible says that one day God will create a new heaven and a new earth, which suggests that God can do with the earth what God pleases. If he doesn’t like what he sees, he can start over. If he wants to make a new earth, he can.
“The earth is the LORD’s.” Might that also mean God can give the earth as a gift? I don’t want to give my new TV away, but I could. I could give it away. Alternately I could loan it. I could let someone borrow it and use it. I’d still be the owner, but they could keep it and use it as their own. And then one day I could get it back. Is that what we mean when we say the earth is the LORD’s? That the Lord will collect what he has loaned?
The Bible says we shall all give an account of what we’ve done. One day you and I will stand before God and God will ask, “Show me your life. What have you done? I want to see it all. Everything. I’m here to collect.”
The Bible also says we were “bought with a price.” The image is taken from the Roman slave market. The price paid was the life of God’s Son. God paid for us. God bought us. The price God paid is the death of God’s Son. Loving us is costly. It cost God his Son. “You were bought with a price.” Does that make us God’s slaves? Well, actually, the Bible does go that far, but all analogies break down, this one included. Yes, we were bought at a price, but we come freely to the Lord or not at all. God is not interested in slave-like obedience. God is interested in thinking, feeling, real people, not robots. But still, we were bought at a price and one day we will give an account: “What have you done? What have you done with what I have given you?” It is an immutable law: “The Lord giveth. And the Lord taketh away.”
We are not our own. Of course that’s the illusion, that we’re our own. We pop out of the womb and one day we wake up and think we own the world. And we have all manner of people telling us this is true, “Get out there and work really hard. Be smart, take charge. Be your own boss. Nobody’s going to fend for you unless you fend for yourself.” And we believe it. Pretty soon we’re buying stuff. Pretty soon we’re into ownership. It wasn’t always that way. Did your parents make you buy your food? Did your mother make you buy your milk? Did your parents make you pay rent? (Well, I know some parents who do that or expect that—but we’re not talking 35 year-olds here!)
We have a dilemma. God wants us to be self-supporting and self-sufficient. God gives us agency, responsibility. God expects us to pull our own weight. The Bible teaches that. Here’s the thing, pulling our own weight can easy slip into, “I’m my own person. I’m self-made. I don’t owe anybody anything. Nobody helped me. I pull my own weight. I own my own stuff. What’s mine is mine. I don’t owe anybody anything least of all God.”
“The earth is the LORD’s.” If that’s true, then your life and mine are never truly and completely our own, no more than the air we breathe. Can you give yourself your own breath? Where did your life come from? Were you really self-made? And when you die, what will you say to the LORD? Will you show God your TV, your bank book, your stock portfolio, your IRA, your hunting camp, your SEC membership card? Will you say to the LORD, “Hey, look at all of my neat stuff. I’ve got two cars, a boat, a really great house and one at the beach. Lord, you should see all this stuff. I’ve got a lot of stuff, let me go back and get it. I really want you to see it. I piled up lots of stuff.” Is that what you will say?
“Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?”
That’s a big question. How is your living answering it? If you had to face the Lord tomorrow, what would God see?
“Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
The Bible says that those with “clean hands and pure hearts” will ascend. The Bible says that those “who do not lift their souls to what is false” will “receive blessing from the LORD.”
Are your hands clean? What about your heart? Where is your heart? Are you lifting it to anything false? To what or to whom are you lifting your soul?
“Who will ascend the hill of the LORD?” To whom does your soul belong? Amen.