Who said that the Old Testament is irrelevant today? Well, actually, many people sometimes myself included.

. For, with its complex stories of strange customs, religious laws and palace intrigues, it seems at best dated a bit in the mould of Austin, Dickens or Trollope. Yet todays lesson (1 Kings 21.1-22) is bang up to date. For, there is no greater generic global problem than with disputed land ownership. We see it big-style in Zimbabwe and Burma, we cannot forget Israel-Palestine and it is even here in minor ways in Bonnie Scotland. Yet, the Holy land is a good place to start. Since there is huge irony in this story of the illegal taking of land, as Elijahs ancestors did exactly that to the original Canaanite population! And whilst I do not think, claiming divinely ordained ownership is at all helpful in resolving the conflicts in the Middle East, we do at least see certain issues of justice being played out in these readings played out in a way that speaks volumes for our own times.

Because certainly Naboth owned his land ground that he indeed considered to have been given him by God himself. And although King Ahabs initial offer was fair even generous, it was well within the vineyards owners rights to refuse. It is the next episode that is the problem. For, Ahab reigns over his people through the divine covenant the rule of law if you like. In modern parlance then, there is a legal framework in place to prevent arbitrary acts of injustice. However, now enters Jezebel who by being foreign was always likely to be cast as a nasty piece of work. She comes from a race where despotic rulers are the norm. And so she would dearly like to do as she likes without legal restraint. She cant so she uses the law to her own ends. She stirs up some impression of a national crisis thus the need for a day of fasting. Then she trumps up charges against the unfortunately Naboth which carries the death penalty under the law of Moses. As a result, he is executed and she gets the vineyard. Game, set and match we might say.

Proof then that using, bending or abusing the law to unjustly gain land is a wheeze that is as old as the hills.

But our bibles make also clear that such acts of chicanery are seen by God. Moreover, they are judged by Gods own sense of innate justice. For Elijah pronounces that it is not only land that is gifted by the divine but so is power and wealth, inheritance and even life itself. In fact, he makes all too clear that we forget this to our peril. Not unpredictably then - in due course Ahab comes literally to a stick end at the battle of Ramoth Gilead. Afterwards his chariot was turned into his hearse with dogs licking up the spare blood! Elijahs milk curdling foresight indeed had gruesomely come to pass.

Nevertheless, we do say quietly to ourselves I couldnt possibly stand in Brook Street blaring our fiery damnation! A stiff letter to the Courier in Elijah speak would raise too many eyebrows. Worse still, what happens when I denounce the powerful thieves of this world and they remain unscathed!

But with thought, we realise that Elijahs prophecy is less crystal ball gazing than telling how it tends to be. Bad people dont always have their come up pence but they often do. And their seeds of their destruction are usually in through their own hands. Their arrogance goes a step

beyond the law. Their overturning of the law leaves them as vulnerable as their victims. The sword they live and profit by finds an even more lawless wielder. Or, as Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolts Man for all seasons counsels an ardent supporter keen to overthrow the law this time for a good purpose: And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned around on you--where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast--man's laws, not God's--and if you cut them down...d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake. Put more directly, we just need to keep any eye out from injustice and then say in the Lords name I warn you I warn you that he who lights the fire must surely burn.

And this takes us strangely to the Amazonian rain forest. For the Kayapo tribe are an indigent people living in the depths of the jungle. However, their homeland is about to be flooded for a hydro electric dam. They fought the land grab by their government through the courts and in the public media. They cited the law that native peoples cannot be moved. But their rulers have stated that this is trumped by national security and so an area three times as bio-diverse as Europe is to be lost. Also over 40, 000 humans lose their homes and their unique way of life.

Elijah I suspect would have something to say about the misuse of the law. He would have spoken out for Gods justice not least for those unable to resist the powerful and greedy. Yet he probably would not have given the warnings we can. For knowing civilisations way of progress, we need to proclaim that any governments survival is directly proportional to how it treats all its peoples. With historys witness, we can point out that prosperity based on unjust if technically lawful actions is no lasting wealth at all. And right up to date, we could ask, backed by science, with the loss of so many rare species of plants, how many cures for diseases that you might one day need are you destroying? A man asked this week in a newspaper - should he leave his well paid but morally bankrupt job behind? Elijah has for him an answer. And so to rulers, who are similarly tempted to be devoid of humanity, honesty and integrity have Elijahs answer. And it is be warned by Naboth vineyard. It is to fear Gods judgement and always to think of a just harvest. Indeed it is to plot less for the dregs of greed and cultivate more the finest vintage of a more lawful kingdom.

Amen