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Epiphany 4 Lesson: Jeremiah 1:4-10
Saturday, January 31, 2010 Psalm 71:1-6
Magi Griffin Epistle: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
St. James’ Church, Marietta Holy Gospel: Luke 4:21-30
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Urgent” relief operations in Haiti are ending as aid deliveries are satisfying most immediate needs. United Nations and U.S. aid officials said. “We are out of the urgent phase,” announced the head of WHO. The flow of aid is exceeding delivery capacity and international efforts are shifting toward helping sustain Haitians, including the estimated 800,000 residents of the capital Port-au-Prince left homeless by the January 12th quake. Among the homeless are thousands of orphaned children. Looting, problems of the past, and issues of law will not disappear – a fragile situation, especially in looking to the future.
Victims of deadly religious clashes in central Nigeria have been found dead, stuffed in wells and sewage pits in Jos. Correspondents say elders hid in holes for several hours to escape the slaughter. Up to 300 mostly Muslim villagers are thought to have died in the Muslim-Christian clashes; several thousand people fled their homes.
In Marietta, you have battled extreme weather and destructive floods, have sustained the loss of jobs in staggering proportions, and in a note of more levity, have debated the reserved parking space of your mayor. Despite that and, in all seriousness, a recent Ed-op column stated, “There is no question that Cobb County is regarded as the best-run and best-governed county in our state.”
Karibuni (the Kis word for welcome), Karibuni to our world – yours and mine, our very fragile, yet hope-filled world!
I am an Episcopal Appointed Missionary from the Diocese of Atlanta, sponsored by our diocese and Bishop Neil Alexander, serving in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika (DCT), Dodoma, Tanzania – that is in East Africa, if you do not have your map! I began my African journey several years ago, first serving on Tanzania’s coast for two years, later working in the states on MDG initiatives, then returning to Tanzania in 2008 with a commitment to 2011.
What a warm welcome you have given a Rome, Georgia gal who enjoyed living here in Marietta many years ago. Thank you for your Southern hospitality, like African hospitality, is the best! I am delighted to have received Wallace’s invitation to share St. James’ pulpit today, and appreciate your mission committee’s involvement, coordinated by Del, to be with you this morning. A lot has happened since I was with you last January and you are to be congratulated! We have a growing relationship between you and DCT and Bishop Mdimi Mhogolo as the Diocese’ partner – mission together – for God’s glory and purpose.
Tanzania has been spared the internal strife that has blighted many African states. Though it remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with many of its people living below the World Bank poverty line, it has had some success in wooing donors and investors. Tanzania assumed its present form in 1964 after a merger between the mainland Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar.
Our projects and programs in the DCT are carefully and spiritually shepherded by Bishop Mhogolo. But the challenges of 200 parishes (to increase to 264 by 2011) and the impoverished land can be overwhelming at first look.
The Dodoma where I live is a region having an arid climate. Fickle rains come only four months out of the year – rains that are needed right now. We often experience drought, but early on this year, the rains have been unseasonably and abnormally heavy. Subsistent farming is crucial for existence. Those aberrant rains already destroyed first and second plantings in many of our villages, ensuring crop failure and famine, destroying houses and causing havoc with transport. Wagogo (the local tribe) homes collapse easily; they are made of mud bricks, and their low thatched roofs leak readily on dirt packed floors.
Yet in this land, this diocese, there is a feeling of hope. It is a resilient place of survival, faith and living in the present for the people understand the PRESENT is all they have – and might have. It is a place of community and joy and solid Christian belief, often said to be living on a “sea of prayers.”
During this Epiphany season, we have followed Jesus to his baptism and validation of his being by and from God. We have been told of his onslaught and overcoming temptations from the devil, and then of his return to his homeland in Galilee. There, in Cana, at a festive wedding, he performed his first recorded miracle – changing water into wine – an action that visibly transformed the course of humankind and marked the beginning of Jesus’ active ministry. It first illuminated the disciples’ belief in him – surely an Epiphany moment.
I witness this kind of belief in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika every day, where the land is fragile, but the people are not. I have held a dying baby that did not have to die, and watched a father’s grief turn into praise and a thanksgiving service. I have watched a woman give her last maize meal to me in an act of hospitality, not knowing where the next kilo of meal will come.
On behalf of loving benefactors to the Carpenter’s Kid Primary Education Program, I have distributed uniforms and supplies to children so they can go to school and perhaps be released from the noose of extreme poverty. You are now actively involved in the program at the village of Majeleko. While visiting there as your representative, I can tell you that these people responded joyously. They are working with each other for one another as they understand their future, and their village’s future, depends on education.
In the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, hearing the stories from a global community who have rallied to the devastating needs, I have to ask: why is it that it takes death and destruction of enormous proportions to wake us up? Does it always take a catastrophic event to pull us into community, into relationship with each other?
Yes, the quake would have happened, but what if the country, the people, had a better infrastructure, medical facilities, resources to begin with? We learned with Katrina that the poorest were the most affected. Their needs had not been addressed BEFORE the hurricane either – and still have not been resolved.
We have many problems in the DCT. Many of our people live on less and $170 a year. Tanzania grapples with inadequate infrastructure, health, water and food challenges. Daily funerals and calls from friends attest to the lack of medical care; malaria is rampant; HIV/AIDS drains families of mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers; malnutrition stunts and inhibits healthy growth and development – when it does not kill.
But, to the amazement and yearning of most visitors and, in spite of unbelievable hardships, the Tanzania people continue to live life fully, joyously. We can learn from them! They participate in life’s struggles relying on the Body of Christ, interdependent on one another. “If one member suffers, all suffer together…if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” (1 Corinthians 12)
The Rev. Sandra McCann, fellow missionary and priest to the DCT (some might have heard her at Annual Council talking about MTC where she works), Sandy has said, “The goal of a Tanzanian Christian’s life is to enjoy God and live in union with Him (remember your Catechism?). African worship is filled with singing and dancing, even the offerings they bring each Sunday are danced down the aisle. Every gift, from waking up in the morning to a safe road trip is raised up and acknowledged. They praise Him in the morning, they praise Him in the evening, they praise Him in the mid-day sun – and their voices are like angels.”
Three out of four of the January readings have been from the Gospel of Luke, written by a doctor named Luke, who wrote in the style of the Greek and Roman historians and biographers of his day. Many think that he was not Jewish, making him the only Gentile New Testament writer. Luke lived outside of Judea and probably wrote for a Gentile audience.
That premise is supported by a key theme in his writing: God sent Jesus to be the Savior of all people, both Jews and Gentiles. Moreover, Jesus’ concern for the poor is an important theme. In addition to the Gospel of his name, Luke (2) wrote the Book of Acts – writings that amount to a quarter of the New Testament – even more than Paul wrote. His is a universal gospel where all barriers are broken down as exhibited by Christ, for all people without distinction.
It is said that a minister sees men and women at their best; a lawyer sees them at their worst; and a doctor sees them as they are. Luke saw men and women the same and, like Jesus, loved them all without distinction regardless of where they were from or to whom they were born – including his earthly kin.
Jesus’ homeland was a fertile land, heavily populated and beautiful. It must have felt good to be welcomed – indeed, praised by everyone – and to have enjoyed his return to the smells of the market, feasts and hospitality of his family and friend. But, as Thomas Wolfe wrote, “You can’t go home again.” Jesus experienced that, too.
Jesus’ return to the town of his upbringing, Nazareth, included going to synagogue to worship. And, in keeping with custom and upbringing, his attending a worship service would have been quite normal. Also in keeping with custom, his reading from the Scriptures would not be unusual, especially for a “guest.” In fact, there were usually seven readings, along with prayer and teaching incorporated into a service. Jesus turned to and read the Messianic passage from Isaiah.
All eyes must have been on him as he sat down to each. The man brought up among them was about to address them, possibly for the first time. He began, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” I rather expect that was the last thing the listeners thought they would hear!
News of his work had undoubtedly preceded his arrival, and the passage was remarkable in its selection. Doubtless, there was also something in the appearance of our Lord, especially under these circumstances, which would have commanded unusual attention. They were astonished that Joseph’s son, without rabbinical education, could speak with such power and knowledge.
Jesus repeated the saying, “Physician, heal thyself.” This seems to have been an answer to their whispered words, and the thoughts he read in their hearts. They had heard of his fame in Capernaum, but they knew him as a poor young man from a poor family.
“If he has such power as fame reports, let him better his own, and our condition,” but not with words and actions for the poor! In fact, they wanted to see a man who could do the things they had heard about him doing, but doing them for them, and certainly not for anyone outside the club.
He replied to their proverb with another: “No prophet is acceptable in his own country.” The hometown crowd responded violently and with force, yet he slipped their grasp to go on his way.
What is it about us that does not want a person to change? Why are we threatened by someone’s “direction” that has become different than what ours is, or what we perceive that person to be, or expect from that person’s behavior? Could it mean that we, too, need to reach out beyond the barriers – the fears – of sameness, closed hearts and minds?
I live in community, in the culture and tradition of the land of my second home. My American individualism and outlook has had to undergo a lot of change.
A friend and fellow missionary to Haiti, the Rev. Lauren Stanley, has said, “…God loved us into being. We do not belong to ourselves – we belong to the one who created us in love to live in love…”
Christ himself acknowledged in John 5:30, “I can do nothing on my own.”
A person is a person through other persons is a popular African adage. African people MUST depend on one another. They have no safety net. What I have learned is that we really do not either, at least of our own making.
Over the entrance of the United Nations Hall of Nations’ building in New York is carved a quotation from the 13th century Persian Muslim poet-mystic Saadi Shiraz:
Human beings are all members of one body.
They are created by the same essence.
When one is in pain, the others cannot rest.
If you do not care about the pain of others,
You do not deserve to be called a human being.
In Acts 34:34, Peter exhorts, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ – he is Lord of all…and God was with him. And, God is with you and me.”
Earthly fear and hope are more than opposites. They are like two magnets turned to repel one another. One must be removed. Perhaps having so little makes things clearer; I do not know. I do know that having so little shows what counts. It removes layers of insulation and excuses. It strips one naked – sometimes quite literally.
Perhaps having too much – closets, drawers and chests overloaded with fear, hopelessness, and the stuff of our lives – is the hardest hardship to bear. Perhaps I should remove my fear-lined shell and bathe in light and hope with my fellow African Christians who seem to have more than me.
In a few minutes, we will hear the familiar words, “The gifts of God for the people of God.” Those words are not just for a select few, nor are the gifts just for Fortune’s 500. We ALL have been invited to the feast. And Karibuni, rafiki yangu, my friends. Welcome Jesus home! To God be the glory. Amen.
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