Homily – Sunday, the 7th July 2024
Vinod kindly offered me the opportunity to speak at today’s Service, as a mark of my retirement as a school Head, and before Debbie and I head back to South Africa for 5 months. At best it is a homily, really it is an account of an aspect of my own story.
Today’s Confession was a perfect, sober preface to my story: We asked forgiveness for being quick to see the sins of others, and slow (to see) and repent of our own. Then we asked forgiveness for clinging to remembered hurts, and brushing off of gestures of kindness. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive me, Lord.
“Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house… He called the twelve, and began to send them out, two by two, and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits…If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake of the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”
(From today’s Gospel, Mark 6:1-13)
It would seem to me that a prophet is a person who does and who speaks the will of God, sometimes causing a degree of discomfort or even outrage in their community or society. Jesus exemplified this through his life and teaching.
I will start my story with a name of a Christian I guess that no-one here (apart from Debbie) will recognize, Peter Moll. Peter, just a few years older than me, died of cancer a week ago. We were both members of the evangelical Students’ Christian Association at the University of Cape Town in the late 1970s and were part of a home-based Bible Study group. Peter was a member of the Baptist church. As he was reaching the conclusion of his university studies, he reached the conclusion that as a Christian he could not allow himself to be conscripted into the Apartheid army on his graduation. He had come to an understanding that Apartheid was an evil ideology and that the Apartheid government an abomination, rather than a Christian holdout against communism which was the view of most of the white population in South Africa and many white people beyond South Africa. Peter chose not to leave the ‘house’ of Apartheid South Africa, he chose not to shake off the dust on his feet. Instead, he was imprisoned, placed in solitary confinement for extended periods, for the ‘crime’ of not willing to serve the military of the Apartheid State because of Apartheid, the first white Christian to do so.
Evil in national society is easier to recognize in retrospect than in the present. But, scripture does provide some guidance:
Our Psalm (48) this morning included the verse (7): “Your praise, like your Name, O God, reaches to the world’s end; your right hand is full of justice.”
It would seem to me that the Old Testament Prophets felt called also to point the Israelites to what might be summarized as God’s demands for social justice. For instance (and I could have quoted many, many passages from the Prophets): Isaiah 1: 17 – “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
I regard Peter Moll as a modern-day Christian prophet. He recognized the evil, even the blasphemy, of the Apartheid state which claimed itself ‘Christian’, and he acted on his convictions. Looking back, we more easily recognize the validity of Peter’s critique.
Some 90 years ago in Germany, especially parts of the Protestant Church were supportive of the Nazi regime, but it is Diedrich Bonhoeffer that now is regarded as a modern-day prophet, rather than the pastors and theologians who supported the Nazis and their brand of ‘positive Christianity’.
What might make for popular or even pragmatic politics in a modern state is not always in keeping with the justice demands of the scriptures, especially as these relate to refugees, the dispossessed, the ‘other’ in society. In my view, we Christians should be especially careful of endorsing political parties that claim to be ‘Christian’ but whose message is one of exclusion, dehumanization and even cruelty to others. (And, I might add, in my view Angela Merkel lived up to her Christian understandings in 2015.)
Back to my story: there had been a handful or so of Christian/political conscientious since Peter Moll, legislation had been updated to increase the prison sentence from one to two years, and then a couple of months before my conscription, to six years. Six years was a stretch too far, I thought. I crossed over the border from South Africa to Lesotho on the day of my conscription, together with a friend, having handed in a letter at the Cape Town Castle the day before explaining my decision. In the months leading up to this, I had faced strong criticism. For instance, a Methodist Minister (I was raised and confirmed a Methodist) told me that my decision was equivalent to being a terrorist. I was quoted Romans 13 repeatedly: “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” Such was the nature of the rebukes I received.
By then, I had become a habitual member of the Anglican Church, where there were some sympathetic priests and an Anglican Bishop by the name of Desmond Tutu who let it be known that he was praying for me.
The day after entering Lesotho, my friend and I were travelling on a rather bumpy dirt road to the school at which he would be teaching. At a point, my friend lost control of the car, and we crashed to a halt in a stream, damaging the suspension. Some children nearby came and helped us push the car back onto the road, but the suspension was too damaged for us to drive on. What to do? We sat and waited, hoping help would come. Not too long afterwards, we saw a VW Kombi coming towards us, support was at hand! The Kombi slowed down, the side door slid open. But instead of coming to a halt, a passenger inside threw a handful of tracts at us, closed the door, and the Kombi accelerated away leaving a cloud of dust. The tracts were instructive: they suggested that we should repent and be saved. We had to wait longer until a ‘good Samaritan’ came across us and came to our aid.
I am reminded that the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37) was Jesus’ answer when an expert in the law questioned Jesus about inheriting eternal life. The expert in Law had correctly suggested that the Law taught that one should “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’”. The expert in Law then had tried to justify himself by asking Jesus “And who is my neighbour?” Jesus then altered, radically, our understanding of what it means to be a neighbour.
…
The school that I taught at and then became Head of in Lesotho was in a tough set of circumstances. Roughly half the students were baSotho, half refugees out of South African townships. I witnessed poverty, desperation and violence, as well as extraordinary determination and courage.
I also must mention that several families, Christian and non-Christian, gave me a warm welcome, showed kindness and great support. (My Mother died many years ago; one of those who took me in I now regard as my adoptive Mother, and I look forward to being reunited with her in the coming months.)
You will imagine that these early adult experiences influenced me deeply, including in the nature of my faith. Increasingly, I struggled with an evangelical approach to understanding the Bible, and especially with parts in the Epistles. I struggled with an approach that had become symbolized in my thinking by Christians who also defended Apartheid, and people throwing out tracts from a passing vehicle. Increasingly, I felt that as a Christian seeking practical guidance to living, the only thing I could hold onto were the moral teachings of Jesus, to have these guide my conscience. The Beatitudes became my reference point.
Jesus said: (Matthew 5: 3-10)
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
It seemed to me that of these, the things that I could exercise more internal influence over were: to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to show mercy, to attempt to be pure in heart, and to be a peacemaker. The Lord knows how I have failed, but these teachings are to what I hold on and aspire.
After my time in Lesotho, for 13 years I worked in Anglican Church schools that were established to serve mainly black South Africans but in a non-racial ethos. In 1991 the school Debbie and I were living and working at hosted for a weekend Nelson Mandela and some his fellow former political prisoners. What a privilege, what a humbling affirmation. As importantly, Archbishop Desmond Tutu now was the Head of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa. Many Christians, especially white Christians, thought of Archbishop Tutu as a political activist with purple robes and a ‘dog collar’. But, I came to understand from Bishop Michael Nuttall (who years later delivered the sermon at Archbishop Tutu’s funeral), that he was first and foremost a contemplative. Early every morning, he would rise and spend hours in prayer. It was through listening to and reading Archbishop Tutu that I came to an understanding that all people – not only Christians – are created in the image of God, that each person is a God-carrier. God loves us not because we are loveable, but because he loved us first.
It is this understanding – of every child reflecting something of the nature of God – coupled with Christ’s invitation for us to be peacemakers – in my instance through education – that has been my foundation in my work in the United World Colleges, secular schools that include students from a deliberate diversity of religious and faith backgrounds.
Extrapolating from today’s Gospel, Jesus sends us out. I believe we should call on the Holy Spirit to guide our consciences as to the nature of the authority Jesus gives us, which may be different to the “authority over the unclean spirits” that Jesus gave his disciples.
Thank you, Jesus, for being our teacher. Holy Spirit, please be our guide.
…
Laurence Nodder
7th July 2024
Freiburg Anglican Church 
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