​ACKNOWLEDGING SIN

Our nation has made many positive contributions to human history. A sustained (though often flawed) democracy and peaceful transitions of power, reaching into the heaven to land on the moon, the establishment of a middle class and abundant opportunity for many (but never all), and countless other contributions can be cited. 

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Yet, we are also a nation with a lot of skeletons in the closet. It has been noted by many that from its founding, our nation has been built on the enslavement of one group of people (Africans) and the genocide of another (native people). It is a harsh statement, but true. It riles some people up to hear this as we claim that we personally had no part in such atrocities. It riles people up because repentance does not come naturally, it often does not come willingly. Too often, it does not come at all.

The first step in repenting of our sin is to acknowledge it, to own it, to tell the truth. One cannot change or turn in a new direction towards God’s reign of peace and reconciliation if we don’t first acknowledge the wrong. When it comes to the broken relationship between the European “settlers” and native people of this land, one of the things we must acknowledge is that our cities, states, farms, and roads are all built on land we did not own. We must acknowledge that the slaughter of millions of Bison (as evidenced by mountains of Bison skulls) was done to starve and weaken the people who depended on the Bison for existence. We must acknowledge that the culture that was imported advanced at the expense of destroying another culture.

Recently, our Congregation Council took a small step in the reconciliation promised by the reign of God by adopting a Land Acknowledgement Statement. This statement acknowledges that the location where our church building sits and the worship and service we do here takes place on land that was taken from those who once lived and thrived here. The statement reads:

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church acknowledges that it is built on the traditional, ancestral, unceded land of the Báxoǰe (Bah Kho-je) or Ioway, Sauk (Sac), and Meskwaki (Fox) peoples. Under the Treaty of 1842, they were required to move to this area from east-central Iowa, until 1845 when they were relocated to Kansas and Nebraska. This removal enabled the founding of the state of Iowa, Polk County, and the City of Ankeny in 1875. We recognize that our presence here today is the result of the past exclusions of and on-going injustice to Indigenous peoples, who were among the original stewards of this land.  We wish to recognize our obligations to this land and to the people who took care of it, as well as to the Native people who live in Iowa today.

This acknowledgement is a faithful reflection of our values, beliefs, and our mission to share God’s love. It is congruent with out Statement of Inclusion. In and of itself it is a small thing. Yet, it is a first step – a step of acknowledgment – that will point us to acting to reconcile the break between God’s people in whatever ways we can imagine. It will become part of our mission documents and will be posted in the church as an acknowledgement and a call to seek deeper repentance and reconciliation with the children of God who inhabited this place long before us.

Pax Christi,
Tim Olson – Lead Pastor