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| Nelson Mandela Memorial by Marco Cianfanelli, unveiled by Jacob Zuma in 2012 |
A sermon preached on Sunday 18th July 2021 at St George’s Bloomsbury. The Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Proper 11, Year B) responding to the thematic readings: Jeremiah 23.1-6, Psalm 23, Ephesians 2.11-end, Mark 6.30-34, 53-end and referencing Nelson Mandela Day, celebrated across the world each year on 18th July; the day of his birth.
You can hear an audio recording of this sermon at this link.
Well it’s a great blessing that we have these printed sheets to guide us through our gospel reading this morning. The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that there‘s a big comma - a pause - slap bang in the middle of it! If we were following along in our bibles we would have to skip quite a few verses in order to keep up. The clever-clogs in the room will know that Jesus does quite a lot of things in the space of that comma!
First, there’s the matter of feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, and then another - not exactly small - act of stilling one of the Sea of Galilee’s famous - and potentially devastating - storms.
But today, all that activity gets paused by the comma. That’s not to say there’s no action left in our passage - quite the reverse. But it seems to be happening all around Jesus; the comma focusses our attention on who Jesus is, rather than what he does.
First, we are drawn in to the frenetic excitement of the apostles as they return after being sent out two-by-two to teach and heal for the first time; keen to report back to Jesus all they have learnt, to ask questions, to share experiences. Jesus puts the brakes on all the coming and going; he inserts a big comma or pause into the proceedings; setting off in a boat to a deserted place so that they can recharge; to “do” nothing but “be” together.
But - best laid plans n’all - the people cotton on and pursue them on foot, gathering to form a great crowd on the shore. We are told first not what Jesus does on seeing the crowd, but what he feels for these lost sheep - of his “compassion” for them.
When Jesus and the disciples return from the other side of the lake, they are mobbed again. The people rush about “the whole region” bringing the sick to Jesus from far and wide, it is the sick who do the begging, the reaching out to touch the cloak of Jesus. Everyone around Him is “doing”. His “being” compassionate is drawing people to him and to each other, healing them, bringing peace.
I’ve had a bit of a ‘life pause’ of late. One of the reasons for my absence here at St George’s is that I’ve been in Africa for four months, with family in South Africa for most of that time. “Trapped” or “stuck” are probably the wrong words for it - we spent several wonderful weeks on rather glorious beaches and spectacular safari parks as various local lockdowns forced us to pause our journey back home. The summer weather there certainly made things more bearable than the lockdown here. I’ll refrain from any further description before you are tempted to throw something at me to shut me up! Another reason these service sheets are a great blessing - they are much lighter than hymn books.
It has been shocking to see the mob violence and looting across South Africa over the past few weeks, in which over 200 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage caused to shopping centres, farms and infrastructure.
The unrest began after the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma, the first Zulu President who, it is alleged, presided over “State capture” - systematic corruption at the highest level, in which the interests of a few individuals direct the machinery of state to work for themselves. At the same time these privileged few sought to shore up their political support with promises of radical wealth redistribution to the impoverished masses. Zuma’s failure to appear before a corruption inquiry earned him a fifteen month prison sentence for contempt of court.
The captured state has been held to ransom by lower ranking criminal elements in the country, feeding on Zuma’s arrest to fuel the unfulfilled hopes of the poor, while those who can live behind security gates have spent much of the past week doing so, locked in fear. Despite the protests having been condemned by traditional and political Zulu leaders, the current President, Cyril Ramaphosa described the violence this week as “ethnic mobilization.”
South Africa is not the only country in which we might find cause to lament the quality of its national leadership; situations in which the words of the prophet Jeremiah require no sophisticated similes or clever metaphors from a trainee priest in order to find resonance today;
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! ….you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord.”
But what makes the situation in South Africa today not only a reason for our prayers but also a basis for our reflection is that here is a country which is living in the shadow of the death of a man almost universally hailed as a great leader. What on earth went wrong?
Today, as it happens, is Nelson Mandela Day - or Madiba Day to use his clan name. Established by the United Nations to celebrate the day of his birth with what they describe as “a renewed call to honor his life’s work and to change the world for the better.”
What Mandela did is undoubtedly worthy of our awe; even if we can’t say that he united the whole people (perhaps no earthly ruler could ever do that ?) under his leadership, South Africa was prevented from fracturing beyond repair. There are critics of his methods; an over reliance on foreign investment, under-delivery of infrastructure improvement projects; new housing, sanitation. There will always be debate and disagreement about what our leaders do. But perhaps even more than what he did, Mandela is best remembered and respected for who he was. A man who, reflecting on the day of his release after twenty seven years in captivity said “I knew that if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison!” A man who embodied peace, reconciliation, compassion and forgiveness; who wrote “to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
For us in this country, the clock is ticking towards what some have branded our very own “Freedom Day” tomorrow; when most lockdown restrictions are being eased.
Businesses, charities and churches have been thinking about how to respond; whether to restart activities that had been suspended completely or taken online during the lockdown; or whether indeed to do something more Monty Python – “now for something completely different” - to meet the needs of the “new normal”.
Perhaps a good place to start is to insert a great big comma - to pause - and begin not by thinking about we can and can’t do but by recalling who and what we are; a question to which our reading from the Letter to the Ephesians provides an answer in the form of an eternal and mind-blowing checklist.
We are reminded that through Christ’s death and resurrection we are no longer strangers and aliens but are one with God in the world; we are one people - Christ having broken down the dividing wall - the hostility - between us; one new humanity, at peace; citizens, with the saints, of the one household of God.
A unity which may well have been the inspiration for Mandela’s speech at his trial in 1964, in which he set out his vision for a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. A society he later sought to forge by personifying the values of love, respect and compassion for all.
The Letter to the Ephesians reminds us that God’s faithful are not lost sheep - we have been found. We are not divided amongst ourselves but are one in the world. We are people of love, respect and compassion. To be true to ourselves our “doing” needs to embody our “being”. It’s worth putting a comma into the story of our lives to reflect on whether that’s the case.
Just as South Africa will have to continue to learn how to model its leadership on the values which Mandela embodied; we must continue to learn how to live after the coming of the Great Shepherd that Jeremiah prophesied; one who was compassionate, hospitable, striving for peace, healing and reconciliation through all the frenetic and changing activity around Him; one who is the corner-stone on whom this holy temple is built and in whose image we are made.
Whatever we “do” with our freedom tomorrow and in the days ahead, let us remember to “be” the church on that checklist – not forgetting the final and perhaps most mind-blowing item on it; that whether we recognize it or feel we deserve it or not; together, in Christ, we are a spiritual dwelling place for God.
That is who we are and why each and every one of us is here.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Image : Nelson Mandela Memorial by Marco Cianfanelli, unveiled by Jacob Zuma in 2012
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