As the Dean of The New Theology School, I get the pleasure of working with a wide variety of theological students from all over the world. Our first graduate from Zimbabwe was The Rev. Dr. Munorwei Chirovamavi. I’ve learned so much from him. When he asked me to publish his doctoral project for him on my blog, I didn’t hesitate. You will be glad that I didn’t. Below is the foreword that I wrote for his book (and below that is the book in its’ entirety)…
Foreword:
On a strange road in a strange land, a stranger appeared to me. I couldn’t comprehend what was happening. I only knew that I was changing. I only knew that I was changed. While the Apostle Paul might be able to claim a similar story, he can’t claim this one. Only I can. For only I met The Rev. Dr. Munorwei Chirovamavi on the Road to Harare. In those precious hours of traveling, we discussed the nature of disability and theology. Much of what we discussed is contained in this sacred text. I was forever changed by Rev. Dr. Chirovamavi’s words. I have no doubt you will be too. So, don’t skim this book. Let every word soak in. Your world and mine will be better for it.
The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
Dean, The New Theology School
August 8, 2021
Systematic Theology of Disability
Approaches from Zimbabwe
The Rev. Dr. Munorwei Chirovamavi
Foreword, The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
On a strange road in a strange land, a stranger appeared to me. I couldn’t comprehend what was happening. I only knew that I was changing. I only knew that I was changed. While the Apostle Paul might be able to claim a similar story, he can’t claim this one. Only I can. For only I met The Rev. Dr. Munorwei Chirovamavi on the Road to Harare. In those precious hours of traveling, we discussed the nature of disability and theology. Much of what we discussed is contained in this sacred text. I was forever changed by Rev. Dr. Chirovamavi’s words. I have no doubt you will be too. So, don’t skim this book. Let every word soak in. Your world and mine will be better for it.
The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
Dean, The New Theology School
August 8, 2021
I dedicate this book to our beloved daughter Tawana Nyasha Chirovamavi whose health has been a cause of concern for us as your parents ever since you were born. You deserve extra attention not becasue you are the last born but becasue you need it.
Acknowledgements
This work could not have been done without the expert guidance, editorial skills and encouragement from Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, the Dean of The New Theology School. At a time when I was down with excruciating back pain, he encouaged me to turn my pain into healthy spiritual reflections. I owe a great debt of gratitude to The New Theology School for the time and space to navigate the spititual journey without hindrances.
Special thanks goes to my family for giving me the opportunity to be a Dad. To my dear wife Felistas, we have laughed and cried together. Mostly importantly, we have cared together beyond our own necleus family. Nyasha our first born son, remember God had only one begotten Son, we love you with parental love. Our beloved three dauthers, Tatenda, Mandipa, and Tawana, you are priceless. And to all the daughters and sons God has blessed us with through family of orgin and the faith community, we love you so much.
I am indebted to many people departed and living who kept ecouraging me through the trials and tribulations of doing God’s work. My friends with disabilities, and all of us who have lived in the COVID 19 generation, this work is intended to be a resource for the spiritual journey. Be encouraged.
Introduction
This other day I went to one of the leading hardware shops in the city with the intention of buying a two tonne hydraulic jack. I really wanted to get this one becasue it had a long handle that would make it easier for someone with chronic back pain to use in the event of a car breakdown. I wheeled a trolley and sought the assistance of the man who was in the shelves to put it in. My trouble started when I got to the cash point. The cashier asked me be to pick the hydraulic jack from the trolley so that she could scan the barcode. I tried to lift it up but I could hardly bend. Instead of coming to my aid, the cashier was visibly angry with me.
“How can you say you cannot lift the jack when you brought it all the way from the counters. You do not appear to be sick, can the next person come please!”.
The customer behind me hesitated for a moment as he felt I needed to be given a chance. “Next customer plaease!” The call was so loud as the cashier scanned me with her eyes from heard to toe. It was as if I was just feigning helplessness and intentionally delaying the process. Surely it was my trun to be served. I had the money to pay. I patiently waited for my turn after she had cleared the counter.
A security person from the door, some metres away from where I was standing walked close to come and check if there was a problem. I told him I could not lift up the jack for scanning as I had a back problem. He helped me pick it up for scanning and I was served. This is the tragedy of those of us who live with invisible disabilities. The pain is loud and real inside the body and the mind but people cannot see it. The society thinks we are making it up. If I was using a wheelchair, it would have been easier to attract pity of bystanders. People would give me way as a matter of evading distractions. What we need is love not pity or mere services. What we need is our humanity. The humanity we share in common under God.
As I walked out of the hardware complex, I started pondering on the story of the man who had an infirminty for thirty eight years recorded in the Gospel of Saint John. The man says Sir, I have been here for this long becasue there is no one to help me when then the waters are agitated. Each time I feel it is my turn, someone more powerful goes ahead of me. This man sounds like someone who really just needed to be loved enough to be saved. It just needed the eye of someone like Jesus who sees and feels for the marginalised. I thank the man who stood at a distance who could sense that there was something amiss at the cash point. He drew nearer to understand my situation, helped and went back to do his duties at the entrance of the shop. My problem was his problem. What I needed was just someone who loved enough to help. Not judgementalism.
My chronic back pain is due to an injury I suffered as we were doing some work at the Church premises. We were servicing a heavy plastic container back to the tank stand so everyone could drink some clean water. We were with a team of about fifteen guys who were visibly drunk and I exerted to much force becasue I did not want the container to fall down and break. Little did I know that I was breaking my back and the problem has over the years compressed my back nerve. Three dics in my spine need attention. I am not sure how the man at the pool finally found himself there. All we know is that he had an infirmity that neeeded attention. The reason why we find him at the pool of Salvation is a sign that he has not lost hope.
As I write, the news media is awash with the cries of many who are protesting the death of a fourteen year old girl. She died while giving birth at a Church shrine in one of our provinces. This is at a huge church gathering at a time when churches are not allowed to gather due to COVID 19 restrictions. The story goes on to mention that she goes through labour pains and hits her head on the ground. The “ midwives” pour parrafin in her nose as a way to deal with the demon. We are told she bled to death and gave birth to a baby that was left to the care of others.
Well , this is a story that attracts disdain, contempt and outrage. But this girl represents the face of many young girls like her who are raped and given in marriage under the guise of religion. If she had survived, it could have been business as usual. Her mother could have just been married the same way she was. At fuorteen or twelve even. After the girl’s death, the family, in that state of devastation and loss are in the process of arranging to provide the man who has lost his wife with a repalcement in the form of a nine year old through a cultural practice called Chimutsamapfihwa(Restoring the fireplace). There is no room for mourning here. There is no sense of loss. It is business as usual.
It is during this same period in another province where it is reported that a woman with her two small children has been divorced and thrown out of her home for testing positive to COVID 19. Both her in laws and family of origin cannot take her in. Some well wishers find her in the streets and take her to a safe house.
We are dealing with structural problems. We are confronted with a society that is good at creating barriers for thsoe that need simply to be loved. Some are born with disabilities. At other times disabilities are a later development in life. Seka urema wafa(The only time when you can laugh at disability is when you are dead). This idiomatic Shona expression is an attempt to remind us that in this life we have no room for laughing at disabiltity. We never know when it is our turn. No none, virtually no one, must be left to their own means when they need the other. In these sermons, we are challenged to trust God in naming injustice and challenging the same. It does not matter the voices are faint or our actions are invisible. What matters is that they make a difference in other people’s lives and ours.
Learning to Ask the Right Questions
John 9:2-4 Rabbi, ‘his disciples asked him, ‘Why was this man born blind?Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?’ It was not because of his own sins or his parents’ sins. ‘ Jesus answered. ‘This happened so the power of God could be seen in him’.We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned to us . The night is coming , and then no one can work.
The African proverb somewhat captures this scenario, ‘A leopard is chasing us, and you are asking me ‘is it male or female’. The proverb speaks to life threatening situations where irrelevant questions are not welcome. Male or female is not the issue here but we are faced with a situation that calls for appropritate action. Whether there is opposition or consensus, something must be done. The why interrogative is better repalaced by the action question. What can we do to/with the man born blind? How can we be part of his/our common journey?
It was not the first time for the disciples to see a blind person let alone this one on their usual pathway/ community. They probably knew him by name, how long he had been blind, that is, his age, his parents and probably his clan/totem.
Is it not surprising that in the comfort or should I say discomfort of having been with Jesus, they blame it all on the man or his parents’s sins. The scenario is very much common in Zimbabwe or shall i say African societies. We are very familiar with witch hunts. Witch hunts help us to shift blame on everyone else except ourselves.
If Jesus had said, ‘ The man’s sin’. Then he must have been a very bad person who is receiving the due penalty for his sin. If he had said his parents, the answer could have been pretty much the same. He must have been conceived or rather been ill-conceived in a very bad family. What a generational curse running through the family.
The disciples’s ill-conceptions are a microcosm of the society they represent. Just like us in many traditional African societies and indeed a global human peneomena, we tend attribute disability to some wrong doing by the person or associacte it the family of origin. Suppose it was so, so what? What difference would it make in a person’s life and in the well being of the society in general? How does the description regarding the cause, the nature of the disability help to solve the issue at hand.
Jesus says No. It was not because of this man’s sins or his parents’s sins. Jesus is in no way saying the man has not sinned and or his parent have not commited any sin. Jesus is simply refusing to associate disability with sin. Disabiliity in African societies is so mystified and associated with the spiritual world that it is so difficult to know who is who in the disability matrix. The one with the disability is given the added burden of deserving the disability. By attributing the family to the cause of the disability, one is literally saying , if it is not him, it is all of them. The whole community becaomes disabled to an extent of confusion. All, I mean, the whole person, the whole family, the whole community and indeed the whole society is entangled and there is not even one who can be committed to the arduous task of disentangling. We are all left peowerless.
In this era of Covid 19, the pandemic has equally assumed same characteristics. Those of us who should be asking what can we do to better social distance, to mask up and to sanitize and now to get vaccinated? We get so bogged down with conspiracy narratives. In whose lab was it conceived? Is it the anti- Christ? We have often relaxed when it was affecting those from the Diaspora and nicknamed where they lived Corona Street. Now Covid is in our communities, in our families and indeed in our bodies. We used to read it in the papers and when some well meaning preachers spoke about it from their pulpits and lecturns, we would be bored by saying ‘ Why not preach the gospel’.
Saints, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Covid 19 is with us. We need to say what can we do to make the situation better. The other day on our pastoral platform, there was a caption,’We isolate now, so when we gather again, no one is missing’. I wish we had internalised these words when the Covid 19 was still an epidermic before it turned into a global pandemic. Now we are already missing millions of people in our midst and we continue to do so. We ask, why are Covid 19 cases rising everyday? We are all wearing masks . Yes but our masks are on our chins.
In Shona language of Zimbabwe, Kufarira n’anga inobata mai(Literally that means You become excited about a diviner who in turn implicates your own mother). By thinking they were externalising the problem of disability, the discaiples were literally implicating themseves and the community they were a part of. The man born blind mirrors their own blindness. The parents of the man mirrors their own parents. It is the whole family, the community that needs liberation.
Jesus says none of the above. He is literally saying, the disciples need to be liberated from that kind of thinking. The disciples liberation is the society’s salvation. Brothers and sisters, we need to ask the right questions that lead us to a solution. What can we do to the man born blind? How can we be agents of change not to the blind man alone , otherwise we reduce him to some kind of social welfarism project. But how can we be agents of change to our own blindness?.
Our societies have socialised us to see problems as emanating from elsewhere and therefore we think soliutions must come via Delta or British Airways. In Zimbabwe, we have invented a look East Policy because the look West Policy is not working. Incidentally, both directions turned to have not yielded substantial benefits. We find ourselves caught between the philosopical hard palce and a rock. Julie Frederikse’s book title says it all, ‘None but Ourselves’. We are our own liberatators. Even the Scramble and Partition of Africa, and indeed its conquest was facilitated by indegenous people. The idea of conquest was conceived in foreign lands but there was no way it could have found traction without local people. They knew the sacred places to avoid. They had the knowledge of the forests and jungles with rapacious predators.
In fighting disability stigma and opening up societies and churches that are inclusive of all, change of attitude starts with us. Similarly so in arresting the effects of the devastating Covid 19 pandemic. We have to be convinced that we are part of the problem and part of the solution. Disablity is here to stay. Corona is still with us and mutating rapidly. Today disability is with the man born blind. But today again, not even tomorrow it is with you and I. It can come through Cyclone Idai when a huge storm attacks all of us while we are asleep and leave some dead and dismembered. It can come through an accident on a public commutter bus when even blaming the driver would not change the situation much. Disability can come while driving your own state- of- the -art vehicle and you are not at fault. There is need to look in the front, in the rear and sideways. All fronts. Jesus is inviting the disciples to look at all fronts for their safety, for their liberation and indeed for their salvation.
More than that, listen to what Jesus goes on to say. Jesus bids us to the need to look at God. ‘This happened so the power of God could be seen through him’. Do we see the work of God, or rather the image of God in people with disabilities, those with visible or invisible disabilities. Traditionally, we would talk about people with disabilities as having special needs. Now we need to realise that we all do have special needs. Special needs vary from time to time and from one person to the other but we all do have them. Dementia can come later in life but those blessed with long life, it catches up. Memory is lost even though our friend John Swinton is apt to say that is the stage of ‘Living in the memories of God’.
God created us with special needs and the earlier we are aware of our own special needs and those of our brothers and sisters, the better we are able to be of service to one another. Martin Luther King Jr, reminds us that if ‘we do not learn to live together as brothers and sisters , we will die together as fools’. If the urge to live is God given, why not nurture and cherish it than the propensity to die.
The ‘power of God’is seen through the ‘work of God’. When we partner with God in furthering God’s work, we see the power of God at work. This is why we must ‘quickly carry out the tasks assigned to us by the one who sent us.’ We can only do so by asking the right questions. Instead of why was this man born blind? Our sense of Ubuntu says ‘ A human being is a being through other beings’. Ubuntu must propel us to say How can we be involved? What can I do? How can we make a difference together? Let us hasten to carry out our assignments in the midst of disability and deaths arising out of Covid 19, when it is day, for night is coming when no one can work.
Amen
References
Julie Frederikse,1984. None but Ourselves: Masses vs Media in the Making of Zimbabwe. U.K.Penguin.
John Swinton, 2012. Dementia: Living in the Memories of God. U.K.W.B. Eerdmans
‘Paying Attention to Unwanted Distractions’
“A man named Lazarus , who lived in Bethany, became sick. Bethany was the town where Mary and her sister Martha lived. (This was the same Mary who poured the perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.). The sisters sent Jesus a message : “ Lord, your dear friend is sick”.(Good News Bible).
While teaching at a tertiary college in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, my students knew that when there was a funeral in my Church, I would miss classes without notice. As a pastor, my congregants expected accompaniment especially on the day of burial. More than just a pastoral duty, I know the practice has a mutual healing effect on myself as a pastor- friend to the departed and the bereaved relatives. A funeral does not have a ‘re-run’ as we would have in contested elections or a make-up as in my students’ missed classes. There is no replay as we would have in friendly games.
Just as I would not be dissappointed when a student misses a class or even an exam in the case of attending the funeral someone dear to them, the situation would be reciprocal in the teacher missing a class over an unavoidable event. Even the college administrators would be happy to arrange a ‘make- up’ session on the time “lost” knowing that the loss is a “gain” in some respects. These are necessary ‘unwanted and uninvited distractions’ and our Lord Jesus had time for such. It is easy to reserve food items or some other material substances but difficult to reserve time because no-one owns time. It just passes whether we like it or not and the onus is on us to fit our schedules around the clock. Or we will be behind time, on time but never ahead of time.
Missing an appointment means adjusting your diary, or changing your itinerary. It can happen when something more important, more urgent crops up that gives you the reason to adjust. It can be the death of a loved one, a sickness, or some other important ritual. Such eventualities do not afford us an opportunity for a reapeat, re-run or re-schedule. Here, it was the plight of a friend on Jesus’s bosom named Lazarus. Am not sure about the intention of the sisters inviting Jesus. I gues they knew he could understand the language of a friend better to avert death or at least to keep a friend’s last testament or will.
It is common in many of our African communities to confide the last words. When an elderly person is very sick, the close persons would be invited, especially kirth and kin to be repositories or mini-dictionaries of the last words. Even, today, churches pay attention to the classical seven last words of Jesus on the cross and write long and short sermons about them if not entire books. I gues sometimes Jesus would laugh at how we represent or misrepresent some of his very terse statements in a bid to be embodiments and purveyors of His last words.
Jean Vanier, in his commentary on John’s Gospel suggests that Lazarus had a developmental disability. Several pieces of evidence are offered to substantiate the claim. First, that two adult sisters living with their adult brother was an unusual situation as brothers would often be responsible for the economic security of their sisters in a predominantly patriachal society of the ancient world. Second, by implication, Lazarus was single and presumably the two sisters had foregone the financial security that came with marital status for the sake of caring for their brother who called for their attention twenty- four- seven as it were. Third, in a patriachal culture,the house in Bethany was refered to in feminine terms as the “home of Martha” rather than that of Lazarus. Fourth, even after being raised from the dead, according to John’s Gospel, Lazarus never spoke a word suggesting he was non- verbal.
Vanier’s suggestions are quite instructive in throwing some aspects of Good News for disability ministry in an African context. First, Jesus had a best friend with a developmental disability and they remained friends without making it mandatory for cure in the relationship. We get the impression that it is the relationship of mutual care that is therapeutic contrary to what we often hear from some of these fly- by- night neo-pentecostal preachers’ claims that the dumb will speak, the lame will walk, the blind will see and the list goes on. Feeding on the poverty and naivete of the ordinary people, they make them pay their way to receive fake healings and miracles. People stampede and sometimes die in an attempt to get the first miracle in churches or stadiums. If they are luck to survive the stampede, they come back maimed physically and spiritually because of the shoving and the scrounging. Nothing changes. The loud claims from the so called “Man and Women of God” remain hollow as fake prophets take the offering in huge containers and buy houses in leafy surburbs. They even extra money to spare for holidays and expensive medical insurance. What hypocrisy to deprive and deny the ordinary people opportunities to access bare and minimal health care with the claims that they can cure this and that. Meanwhile, the prophets visit expensive hospitals for their own ailments.
Call Lazarus’s disability Down-Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy. He seems to have quite a significant disablity that called for the attention of two loving sisters who took turns to care for their brother with the assistence of Jesus and the entire community. Yes you need a community to raise a child, let alone someone with a disability.
Do we not say in Shona language Seka urema wafa(You can only laugh at disability when you are dead). Never at any one time should human beings laugh at disability because you never know how your life will end. Saints, embedded in African wisdom is the invitation that, disability is a communal journey as it was in the story of the community of Lazarus.
The Church is invited to invest in disability ministry in terms of material and spiritual resources. Even it terms of time. To be able to say yes to ‘unwanted distractions’as it were. In the midst of his busy schedule, Jesus had time for Lazarus, the two sisters and the entire community. We get the impression that his delay was some kind of self preparation for the task ahead of him. He knew that the sickness was not going to end in death but He was going to butress the claim that He indeed was the ‘Resurrection and the Life’.
In order to respond appropriately to those in need, we must be prepared accordingly. God is not calling us to mean tasks. There are times when we need to clean the mess in a rest-room after those who cannot help themseves. Times to prepare meals that have no partakers because those in need may lose appetite without due notice. We need to spend all night vigils for one reason or another taking care of our loved ones. There are times when we need to sacrifice the comfort and security of our jobs and marriages in order to be in the company of brother Lazarus or some other dear friend.
In our societies, culture dictates that when someone is sick, relatives and friends take turns to be physically on the empathetic journey with the sick and the bereaved. Days after burial, the immediate relatives take time off their usual routine to be with the bereaved as long as is necessary. The grieving literally do not have the energy to cook, to wash and do other household chores for themseves. Weeks can trun into months as these rituals of care are observed just in order to embolden the frail.
An enormous amount of sacrifice is called for especially in these days of COVID 19. It is difficult to social distance, to mask up and to sanitise. Social distance is inimical to the very essence of building relationships just like the practice of putting on masks. When I smile, I want you to see the movement of my lips. Any feeling must be made visible on my face for when we do body viewing before burial, is it not just the face we see and identify with. Applying sanitizer on our hands has the implications that we are cleaning dirty acquired from contact with friends. It is the same when we often refuse to put on latex gloves as we care for loved ones who wet their pants in one way or the other. We take great risks.
We often risk to great lengths in taking care of our loved ones either with significant disabilities or those who are affected by the debilitating effects of COVID 19. Sometimes relatives can lie that one has died due to natural causes, or hide the sick in their homes just to avoid the stigma that goes with someone who gets sick of the COVID 19 viurs. We surely need to learn to adapt to this new situation in order to survive. We have to let go some of our coveted cultural pracices that put us at high risk and make us super spreaders of COVID 19.
We need to retain the love that Jesus had for His friend that invited Him to weep even as he knew he had the power to raise him. To be clothed with the love of the sisters who tooks turns to care for their brother around the clock. Jesus’s instructions to the community that they had to ‘unbind’ Lazarus means that healing is a corporate responsibility. Is it not true that families with healthy relationships tend be successful even by the standards of this world than those with conflicted relations?
Just recently our brother- in -law contracted COVID 19 and he neeeded USD$600 for him to be admitted just for a night at a private hospital for his sugar level to be monitored. The family joined hands from scratch to pay the bill and the next morning he was much better. He could now be monitored from home but the first step was to take him out of danger. Money reserved for children’s school fees and other essentials was diverted to save life.
In life, we are called to pay attention to “unwanted distractions” in service to God and humanity. In disability ministry, in the context of COVID 19, and many other life situations that we find ourseves in this journey called life. With the good Lord, who hears us better, than we are able to speak, we have the confidence that what we call “unwanted distaractions” are God’s invitations for service.
Amen
References.
Zac Koons, Lazarus and the Resurrection of a Boy with Down Syndrome. Livingchurch.org. accessed. Sunday 11 July 2021.
Short and Despised but Very Much Alive
Luke 10: 8-1-3 Jesus went on into Jericho and was passing through. There was a Chief tax colletor there named Zaccheus, who was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was a liitle man and could not see Jesus because of the crowd.(Good News Bible)
When we were growing up as little children, we were told that our motherland, Zimbabwe was a country once inhabitated by people called the “Bushmen” perjoratively known as ZviMandivonerepi(Shona language). The vernacular nickname literaly meant, “from how har did you notice my presence”. This group of people who now predominantly inhabit the Kalahari desert of Botswana were said to be very short in stature. It was said, if you confirmed that you saw them at a nearer distance, they would beat you up. You were therefore supposed to say you saw them from a very far away, then you will be left alone. It was a story in African idiom that taught us never to belittle people because they are short in stature by God’s design.
Today, we come across the story of Zaccheus, a Mandivonerepi in Shona idiom, short of stature, a little man but a Chief of Staff among tax collectors. Tax collectors in the then Roman Empire were not paid. They were detested and despised for collecting taxes on behalf of a colonial government. They were supposed to be well respected, put on clothes, eat and feed their families. The taxes collected were supposed to balance up with the people under their physical spaces of assignment. They were hated to the bone. Desmond Tutu, writing from South Africa is quick to reminds us thus;
“When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity of others”
How did Zaccheus become filthy rich in a predominantly poor community? Tax collectors could charge extra extra for their own pockets. The injuction by John the Baptist directed to the tax collectors against collecting more than what was legal rings a bell(Luke 2:13-13). They became rich through unorthodox means. It is not just but that is what was happening. The system was being sustained by the blood and sweat of the poor. Zaccheus was entangled in the oppressive system, despised and hated but “living large” as we would say.
The thoughtfulness about wanting to meets Jesus in-spite-of natural barriers of height and size of the physical body is astounding. The dexterity shown in climbing a sycamore tree defying the odds of class is mind boggling. Snakes, ants and some other dangerous predators could also find comourflage in the branches of the tree but Zaccheus had goal and mission to accomplish. All barriers became secondary.
I can imagine the human gaze of so many eyes as they are stretched up the tree. Jesus looks up to the ‘short man’ squatting on a potentially breakable and dangerous branch and commands him to come down for a ‘fiesta’ at his house. The Rich Young Ruler was commanded to go and sell all that he had when he made the same intiative to see Jesus. He however denied the offer, the command of discsipleship to “come follow” Jesus(Mark 10:17-27). The elder brother in the “Parable of the Lost Father” recorded in Luke 15 (Lost Father because his extravagance in love over a lost son defies logic in Babrara Brown Taylor’s terms) Are we going to encounter a similar scenario here?
Zaccheus had no second thoughts over his quest to meet Jesus. He is not ashamed of the human spectacle. Maybe he was used to that as a public figure. You can be used to the human scorn and jibe that any and every form of it no matter how loud it sounds becomes hollow nonsense. He knows this is his day. He has heard throgh holy gossip about many wonderful things Jesus had done to others as he went about his business. With the same dexterity used to climb the tree, he hastens with speed downwards. Do they not say it is easier to climb than to come down. Zaccheus could have just taken the shortcut and thrust himself to the ground but he did not. Zaccheus is short, disabled and rich but needs new life.
Is it not instructive that Jesus does not say Zaccheus was going to get a miracle of a few inches tall? This is what we often hear from some modern day preachers who claim supper powers to change what God made. One time my heart sank when I heard some preacher in Zimbabwe claiming he had elongated some man’s genitalia as he spoke over a loud speaker in the full glare of thousands of people in the stadium. “Grow, grow, grow!.” The next morning, what could just have been treated as laughable came as hard news in a major newspaper. Jesus simply says I am your guest today at your house. Come down. He invited himself but what is ironic is that the guest became the host. He took charge the same way he did when he was invited in the home of Cleopas and friend on the Way to Emmaus(Luke 24:13-25). He breaks people’s eyes for them to have a clearer vision. Cleopas and company’s hearts were warmed and Zaccheus’s heart was softened and convicted.
Zaccheus is a victim of a system that offers him a job and many others like him without fair remuneration. Defying the odds of disability, he rises through the ranks and becomes the Chief Revenue Officer. Yes, tax collectors took advantage of ordinary people and milked them dry. But just behind them is a much more evil monster that reaps without even a single drop of sweat. We have young people in our midst who are seen on the raodsides and sometimes reclining against the walls with wands of cash in both local and foreign currency denominations. They are just runners of big cartels that use them. If they are not careful, they will not be able to afford bus fare to go back home as they surrender the day’s sweat to the rightful owners. It is a vicious cycle everyday as they are victims of domestic violence when food on the table in their own homes does not balance up. Yet they go to work everyday. Illegal, as the trade is on the streets, these people are not arrested because they are conduits of the powerful evil system. It is a “Catch and Release” game as they work for powerful people.
Meanwhile the law is weaponized to silence and victimize human rights defenders and those who walk with the “least of these”. It takes conscience to transcend beyond the narrow confines dictated by an evil system. Systemic injustice is normalised so much that what is human and humane is viewed as abnormal.
Jesus’ mission is not about infortainment. He came to defy what oppresses both the oppressor and the oppressed. Is it not true that the oppressed tend to internalise their lot and think it is the normal way of conducting business?. Archbishop Desmond Tutu remarked that the opresssors are double bound by their chains. It is time to climb down, to take steps to own house and dine with Jesus and anyone else who cares less to be defiled.
Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury likens Zaccheus’ encounter with Jesus to some kind of baptism. In Williams’ words:
“ Baptism is a ceremony in which we are washed, cleansed and re-created. It is a ceremony in which we are pushed into the middle of a human situation that may hurt us, and that will not leave us untouched or unsullied. And the gathering of the baptised people is therefore not a convocation of those who are privileged, elite and separate, but of those who have accepted what it means to be part of the needy, contaminated, messy world. To put it in another way, you don’t go down into the waters of the Jordan without stirring up a great deal of mud.”
Saints, it is through contact, through dining, through meaningful relationships with those who are at the receiving end of injustice that we are all freed. By embracing the ethic of justice, we are able to say with Zaccheus it is time to repay back those defrauded by the system ‘fourfold’. It is time to open our eyes to the plight of the poor who can no longer eke a living during the lockdowns occasioned by COVID 19.
Tears well in our eyes everyday as we see hardworking vendors who built their habitats and market stalls so they can earn an honest living being pulled down in the name of restoring urban sanity. Our mothers and fathers in the countryside who used to get something out of their sons and daughters in the city are left in the open, without social security. Meanwhile the Churches are busy forming Zaccheus Clubs or Hubs that advocate for equity at International Fora and Conference Rooms when the same ideals are nowhere near grassroots. The elite in the Church are just concerned about their own welfare and air travel to holiday resorts. Meanwhile the young people are perpertual victims of depression, drug abuse and suicide.
The Zaccheus scenario has a lot of resonance with my story. Growing up in the rural village of Mberengwa, it was not easy for our parents to send us to school. They lacked the economic muscle to raise school fees. They fought hard selling whatever they could. Growing crops for subsistence purposes, they put up a little extra for sale to make sure we acccessed some education. I remember the times when they were only left with cows for draught power to plough the fields which they later sold for our sustanance. This was in the hope that one day, our “little and small” selves would become gainfully employed and become self supporting. Their dream was that one day their children would come back to empower the villages. Alas, the systems we are a part of do not allow for that kind of scenario as joblessness is the order of the day long after college education.
Zaccheus, a man of small of stature in rural Palestine, makes his way up the ladder. He is a paragon of humilty, repentance, justice, and shalom. Jesus sees Zaccheus first as he is trying just to get a glimpse of him. The crowds represent systems that obstruct clear vision of Jesus, of life. We are callded to deploy strategies that defy evil systems. At last we will dine with Jesus, and experience shalom as God has gifted us beyond measure. Disability is not an obstacle. Covid 19 will come and go but we are destined to triumph as evil will never have the last word.
References
Rowan Williams, 2014. Being Christian: Baptism. Bible, Eucharist, Prayer. U.K: W. B. Eedmans.
Tutu Desmond. Goodreads. www. goodreads. com. Accessed. 12 July 2021.
Barbra Brown Taylor, 1993, The Preaching Life. Boston, Cowley
Lockdown is not a Sabbath
Luke 13:10-17New International Version
10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
I am familiar with chronic back pain becasue I have lived with it for almost seven years now. It has introduced me to the “School of Medicine”. I am familiar with such terms as Degenerative Disc Disease, Lumber Stenosis, Sciatica and the related pharmacological drugs that go along with relieving such pain. I have been referred to different Neurosurgeons. I know their addresses and even their new ones for those who have relocated to new palces of business.
Some concerned friends have advised me to try traditional medicine while others have suggested spiritual healing from the self proclaimed neo-pentecostal prophets. I am at one with my chronic pain. It has become my companion. Seven years together is not a joke. The concern by friends and foe are uncalled for. It is just an extra load on a preexistent burden.
My Mom had huge problems with chronic back pain too. The converstaion that I had with one of the doctors seems to suggest that I inherited the trait somehow. Like Mom, like son. What’s the big deal? Are we not all made in God’s likeness?
At one time my Mom could not walk. She crawled like a little baby. In that state of health, use of a public restroom is not easy. She needed private restrooms for health and ensuring some kind of privacy. Support, help and encouragement in that state is critical. Spending time with my small children gave her some relief, whatever the content of their discussion. Children are great ‘pain-killers’, no wonder Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me…’.
One of my sisters came to live with us to help my wife look after our Mom. Even with two female helpers, I could sense my Mom neeeded extra assistance. Culturally, a man would stay away from such tasks as lifting a mother into the car. I overstepped cultural taboos in order to save Mom.
It was on this other day as we came from one doctor who gave her some medication that my Mom just stood up and started to walk. My little children started ululating and until that day I never realised how concerned they were about their grandmother’s predicament. My Mom was equally surprised about her healing because she never expected it. What freedom, what peace, what sholom, not only for her but the entire family. Even the community of faith that had spent time visiting and praying with us were rejoicing for what the Lord had done in our midst. It is interesting that my Mom’s miracle was not good news to everybody. Need I say more. The devil is always a liar.
It was on a Sabbath day when Jesus takes notice of a woman with chronic back pain for 18 years while teaching in the Synagogue. She was familiar with her condition and other people were used to her as such. Jesus says, enough is enough and touches her in a special way. She gets total relief from her disability as she encounters Jesus.
The leaders of the synagougue are angry. They suggest that she should come on other days to be healed not on the Sabbath day. It is the woman, not Jesus exactly who had broken the cultural Jewish commandment or should I say the human made taboo that healing must not take place on a Sabbath.
As I reflect about those of us with disabilities during these days of the Covid 19 pandemic, the idea of lockdown restrictions come to mind. Just as it was in Jesus’ day, the blind, the lame, the dumb, the demon possessed , the paralytic and the bent-over for 18 years were poor people who literally lived from hand to mouth everyday. They did not have enough resources to stock and live on for an extended period without going back to the streets. On the streets pavements, they either worked for themselves or recieved gifts from whoever would care to share. Each time they go out to find something to put on the table, they are confronted with a list of “Dos and Don’ts”.
Saints, we live in systems that believe in the notion that our disability is our fault. Our political and religious leaders, sitting in their comfort zones are persuaded that when we go to the street to beg, to ask for food just enough for the day, it is due to laziness. Is it not ironic that the more people are pushed out of the streets, the more they come back in their numbers because that which puts people in the streets has not been addresssed. Martin Luther King Jr, responding to similar crises calls for a revolution of values.
“ A true revoution of values will cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On one hand we are called to play the good Samaritanon on life’s roadside;but that will only be an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
Friends, we live in an environment that continuosly makes it impossible for the poor to access basic healthcare. I was at a local clinic in my village recently. The very basic pain relief pill was not there, just paracetamol. The BP machine had no batteries. The thermometer was not working. There was no drinking water. In that scenario, you cannot afford to be sick.
In these days of the COVID 19 pandemic, hospital care is for the elite, those with the financial muscle to afford private hospital care. My brother-in- law contracted COVID 19 and he is diabetic. His sugar level was so high that he needed hospital care. We were discaouraged to try public health facilities because that is equal to fast-tracking someone to the deathbed. We sacrificed leg and limb at least to afford him one night at a private hospital. He is still alive. Thanks be to God.
We live in systems that prioritize the interests of the ones with capital. Look at the speed with which COVID 19 vaccines have been rolled out. In less than 2 years, there is Pfizer, Astrazeneca, Sinovac, Sinopharm etc, the list goes on and on. Even with those many vaccines on the market, poor countries do not have a choice. You just get whatever is available to your country and to your community. And they are not always available all the time. Am not sure whether a stampede for scarce resources knows social distance.
Jesus came to put the opponents of the poor to shame. He announces the arrival of the the year of Jubilee. He came to remind the people the true meaning of the Sabbath. Babra Brown Taylor, an Episcopalian Priest says that Sabbath is a “palace in time…into which human being are invited every single week of our lives”. If it is a palace in time, we are sit in it, not in an effort to do anything but to rest and to rememnber our freedom knowing that the creater cares and loves us. To stop and enjoy our freedom is holy. To mask up, to observe physical distance, to sanitize and to be vaccinated against COVID 19 are holy acts. The fourth commandment says “ Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy”(Exodus 20:8). It is a recognition that in Genesis 1&2, the Creator paused in delight of Creation. Are we not supposed to pause in delight when burdened mothers who have suffered for long have had their burdens off-loaded?. Policies that allow people with disabilities to have access to repsroductive health rights need to be put in palce. The poor must have access to jobs and be able to look after their families. When we pause to observe the Sabbath, it becomes a time to say hey, come let us thank God.
It was an arduous task for Jesus to explain in plain language whether the Synagogue leaders would not untie their oxen or donkeys from a manger and lead them to the waters. Is human life not equally important?. We live in a world that is comfortable in treating people with disabilitires as objects of common pity and charity. A society that refuses to open channels for the poor to enjoy that Sabbath. The Sabbath is an opportunity to thank God that we are liberated not to observe restrictions or lockdowns.
May God afford us the true Sabbath that brings life not death.
Amen.
References
Liz Theoharis, 2017. “More than Flinging a Coin”: True Compassion as a Critique of Charity. Kairos Center for Religions, Rights &Social Justice. kairoscenter.org. Accessed, 13 July 2021.
Barbra Brown Taylor, 2009. An Altar In the World. New York: HarperOne
The Miracle of Care
5: 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”(NIV)
I like this African proverbial story:
An anthropologist showed a game to the children of an African family. He placed a basket of delicious fruits near a tree trunk and told them: “The first child to reach the tree will get the basket”. When he gave them the start signal, he was surprised that they were all walking together, holding hands until they reached the tree and shared the fruit!. When he asked them; “Why did you do that when everyone of you could get the basket only for themselves!” They answered with astonishment: “Ubuntu!”. “That is, how can one of us be happy while the rest are miserable?”.
It is the principle of Ubuntu that was followed. The dictum of “I am because we are”. All the sick could have just held hands and plunged themselves into the pool when the water was stirred. It was not going to be possible for one of them to be sick for thirty eight years, to lie there in desperation and sorrow by the pool of healing. Yes, deep down in his heart, he sang,
“Where was your care when lonely I brooded in my dreary dungeon,
When my guts writhed as hunger gnawed at my heart-strings,
When thirst parched my craving and cramping belly,
Where was your fondness?”
Poem written in memory of the late Zimbabwean artist Dambudzo Marechera(1952-1987).
“Sir,I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred..”
We live in a deseprate environment where care for thsoe with terminal conditions are left to mind their own business. In disability discourse, a friend of mine with Cerebral Palsy said ,
“I do not care about terminology that much. Whether disability is a social contruction or not is not that is not a problem with me. All I know is that I am fearfully and wonderfully made but I am a wheeelchair user. There are certain things that I can do on my own and there are other things that I cannot. I need the assistance of other people. I cannot not pretend that I am like you Muno.”
I assured him that there are other things where I also depended on him as my friend. I highlighted that we are both independent in our own right but there is a sense in which our vulnerability as human beings lead us to interdependence. As long as we live, no one, virtually no one can do it alone. We all belong together. We are members of an extended family and we cannot do without each other. In Kate Bowler’s terms, “There is no cure for being human”, suffering is inevitable.
This is especially so in these days of condolences arising out of COVID 19. We have heard of friends who pass on evryday due to related complications. There are times when it is not clear whether one should visit the sick or not. It is even difficult to go to the funeral. All we know is that we can expose ourselves and others as we are trying to exercise our ministry of availability. One act of care can lead to more complications and more tears. Yes we can make a phone call but it is not an adequate, not enough. People say if we live, we will live together and if we die we die together. These are positive values emanating from our shared humanity. But our values are further de-valuing us as we get sick and die one by one.
“Do not be alarmed! ”, we were told. It is just a mater of washing hands, you may call it sanitizing if you like. Keeping physical or social distance for a while. Then the big thing about the new normal; of covering mouth and nose called masking up. Many demonstrations of how to mask up followed. New patterns of making reusable masks were introduced. Companies cashed in as they pushed volumes on Personal Protective Equipment(PPE). The profit motive became the incentive in responding to the novel disease.
Numbers in churches were limited to 100, then 50, then total shutdown in order to curb the disease. We religiously took body temperatures after running helter-skelter to look for affordable thermometres.
At first, doctors ran away when there was just one suspected case of COVID 19 at a major hospital. It started off as a crime of those coming from the Diaspora, one case recorded, two, three, four. The numbers stagnated at eleven, with one death and others surviving. From eleven to fifty, one hundred, one thousand, and now several thousands locally and millions globally. How do we care for each other?
Churches have been closed. Some hospitals no longer admit COVID 19 patients. Our homes have no room for social distancing let alone isolations. I live a high density surburb where two small rooms can house up to eight family members. It is common to see young men and women loitering in the streets during the day and conclude they are just idle. Meanwhile, they only go to the house to eat and sleep as there is no adequate space to socialise. Banks have equally closed and work-places have reduced on the number of who can come to work per day. It is is not my problem. It is not your fault. Your suffering is mine and vice-versa. It is our dilemma, together. We look forward to a miracle of cure and care.
Yes a cure is needed but this is not the man at the pool’s greatest predicament. He is yearning for human care.
“Sir,I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred..”
The grief and powerlessnes of seeing your loved one getting sick with nothing to do is heart- rending. The sick and their relatives are treated like outcasts in the face of COVID 19. There is no room for sympathy and empathy as each one is trying to protect themselves and survive. The survival of the fittest counts where no one is fit. The law of the jungle reigns supreme some two thousand years after Jesus lived in flesh and blood. It is in such times when you know who your true frends and relatives are. True friendship and true relations care! Yes Lord, you said you were coming soon in the same way we saw you going up. Maybe you have overstayed and the hearts that were once “warmed” are growing colder by the day.
“Sir,I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred..”
The fight is no longer only against COVID 19 but against hatred and discrimination. The virus seperates families and friends and so does chronic disability. It has brought up the worst in us as a people and society. COVID 19 patients have lost their humanity. Lest we forget, they got the virus despite being careful. It is them, it is we, it is me, it is us. They were scared of the unknown just as we all are. They have not lost their humanity. The more we nurture the capacity to care, the faster we can all recover. It is not the virus that kills but the dearth of care. God expects us to be kinder and caring. Disability is not a problem but when there is no one to add extra strength into the troubled waters of healing, we feel lonely and powerless to lift ourselves up.
Even in global economic affairs, we need the “haves” to partner with the “have nots”. When we share our riches and poverty together, we are mutually enriched. We inhabit the same planet where each one of us must take a part for our joint life to be wholesome. Jesus came to show us the way. No amout of excuses to for the staus quo to continnue will help us. No amount of life-denying forces need our attention. It is time to get up, take our pallet and go home. Home is the best place to be. We can enjoy our meals, fellowship and indeed regain our humanity. Thanks be to God.
References
Kate Bowler, 2021. No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need Hearby. Random House.
“Everyday is a Special Occasion”
Luke 14:12-14
New International Version
12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
My friend said to me that these days they want to live their life to the full. On asking them what they meant by that, they retorted that the rate at which people are dying as a result of the COVID 19 disease is alarming. They now take “Everyday as a Special Occasion” for the morrow is becoming more and more uncertain and unpredicatble. We surely live at a difficult period in time. Yet Jesus assures us in John 10:10 that God’s heartbeat desires to accord us abundant life, all of us.
There is a popular Shona song in Zimbabwe whose inspiration comes from the protracted war of independence against colonial rule. “Kuguta kwataita uku, pane umwe asipo, Jojo akasara kuhondo.” Literally it means, we have had our stomachs full but there is someone missing. His name is Jojo, and he perished in the bush as we were fighting for our independence. Jojo never made it home to join us for the banquet we are now enjoying. As we celebrate and have our fill, we need to remember and honour him and all others like him who were with us then.
The government of Zimbabwe later created a national shrine called the National Heroes Acre where the remains of the cadres of the revolution are interred, black and white, male and female together. Towering among the graves is a special tomb in memory of the Jojos, all who could not make it to the independence dining table. It is called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Though unnamed , they are remembered and celebrated. It is them who were at the forefront of the war, no wonder they perished for all of us to enjoy the fruits of independence.
They never had an opportunity to ardon suits and ties. They fought in the war barefooted among thorns and thistles. Such people demonstrated bravery in the wintry colds and the scorching heat of the sun with the barest minimum for our sake and theirs.
In Luke 14, Jesus is sitting at the table with high profile people who have literally forgotten all those who have been in the trenches with them. On his way to Jerusalem, he cannot turn down an invitation for dinner at the house of a reputable Pharissee. It is on a Sabbath day and Jesus breaks protocol, flouts holy laws and does not observe table manners.
As soon as he enters the house, Jesus notices someone who cannot enjoy the fruits of God’s independence, a man suffering from abnormal swelling of the body and heals him immediately. Instead of being nice like a good guest, he literally usurps the microphone and starts lecturing to the host. Tables have been turned up side down. The guest becomes the host.
“When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Jesus is not happy with the guest list constisting of friends only. It is customary in our societies to invite those who are likely to reciprocate by either a counter invitation or a brown gift envelope. Do they not say one good turn deserves another. In Shona idiom, Kandiro kanoenda kunobva kamwe.(Literally, a plateful goes where the other comes from). Is it not human nature to associate with those who can give a reciprocal gesture?
I am reminded of a place where we used to eat out in town at an open arena. We would buy our food, and the next thing street kids would show up chasing each other. They did not take our food by force but we would just give it away somewhat “voluntarily”. Our food was delicious and palatable, but once these kids started chasing each other, it was enough distraction to give it up. The bad odour that would come our way would go straight into your chest and that would be the end of the banquet.
Brothers and sisters, in order to enjoy our food our environments must be clean. We need to provide enough water, food, adequate employment for everybody to live a life of dignity so we can all enjoy. We are all important before God. We are all sustained by the same God and the same universe in which we move and have our being.
Our churches are citadels of racism, sexism and classism. I know of members who in our churches if you do not give them their status, I mean highter status they would move out or move on to other fellowships where they are accorded positions of honour.
Jesus is not asking us to be content with piece-meal acts of charity to the poor but to remove barriers that keep others at the bottom. He wants us to eat from the same table as equals with the blind, the lame, the poor, and the crippled.
In Jesus’s day, the stated categories of people would fall under those who were considered poor. People who were on the margins of society. Jesus gives us a model of redemptive relationships.
Friends, we cannot bribe or bargain with God in our giving. Whether it is in the form of tithes, free will offerings or any humble acts of generosity. Is it not ironic that many individuals and companies do not want to invest in disability ministry for the mere reason that people with disabilities sometimes do not give back in the form of direct benefits to the givers. Say you help someone with significant disability like down-syndrome, what direct benefit in human terms is someone likely to reap out of that effort. Colleges normally want to invest in bright students because they know they are propping up the college brand name.They are putting themseves on the map as it were.
Jesus turns the tables right side up. He values people the same. We cannot put price tags to human dignity. God values everybody. We must love our neighbours as we love ourselves. If we have self hate, then there is no way we can value others.
Recently, Zimbabwe and Mozambique and other African countries were struck by Cyclones of unprecedented proportions that left many dead, others injured and disabled while a good number were unaccounted for. I have a family in my church that lost 3 members of the same family, leaving 17 others unaccounted for. They were not able to go and mourn their departed because the area was inaccessible. It was and is still traumatic. But thanks be to God, the Almighty has a way of resurrecting us in this life and in the life to come. Many people from near and far put their resources together to help.
In reference to the Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe, an elderly woman in her 70s walks 17 km to a drop in centre with her pots and pans to respond to the victims of the cyclone. She was named the heroine of the Cyclone and when you google you see her picture staggering with a full 90kg bag on her head to go and give her friendship to those she had never met and known. Unexpected friendships are desirable. In the Bible we see many such examples that defy the odds of cultural expectations, the Good Samaritans. Why the good Samaritan, because they are others who are not as good and gracious across the ethnic divide.
We live in communities that remain strapped by socio-political environments that do not provide jobs and opportunities for young people, for the men and women who need to send their children to school, for people with disabilities that have remained invisible and downtrodden, for the women in labour pains who run the risk of having children with Cerebral Palsy even in cases where that can be prevented. Clean water and sanitation programmes and not to mention daily bread. We, all of us remain dependant on the care of others. In that journey, we have learnt that to receive care is a holy place. We have positively accepted our receiving hand because we know that receiving with gratitude is an act of reciprocity.
Seeking to Know God’s Name
Exodus 3:13
New International Version
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?
I have some permanent scars on either sides of my head. It made me curious as a young boy to ask my mother if she had an idea why this was so. The storyline attests that my birth was a huge struggle. The midwives then, had to help my Mom through vacuum extraction as they pulled me out from my mother’s womb. The labour process left these indelible marks. I was named after the struggles my Mom went through. Munorwei?. (Why are you fighting?). It was believed that the struggles my Mom and Dad went through were a result of evil forces that were obstructing me from seeing the light of the day.
As if that was not enough, in the middle of the war against colonial rule, life had its harzardous moments. This is the time of the armed struggle, sometimes loosely called the bush war. There were stormy exchanges of gunfire and our parents and their children would run into the bush where they found cover. This day my Mom was running carring her two little babies, myself and my sister. My Mom held me on her bosom as my sister was strapped on her back. There was one “Good Samaritan” who felt for my Mom’s burden. She offered to help as they were running for dear life towards the same direction.
After a mile or so of gasping for breath, my Mom realised that the woman who was carrying her child was now sprinting alone. She did not think twice and retraced her footsteps. Back to the fireworks. I was crying on top of my voice in the pathway where the grass was taller than my little self. Baby cries were oblivious of dangers of war mongers that could be attracted then. Any noise, any sound detected could leave us vulnerable to the unknown fate. The direction of safety no longer counted. My Mom decided to go homewards. Mudzimu weshiri uri mudendere(The ancestors of a bird are in its nest). The best protection one can find is in the home.
Our parents went through tough times then. We should never forget them. I mean neglect them if we are still fortunate to have them alive. If departed, cherish their memories for onward guidance. Their love and admonitions remain our compass in good times and when we are tempted to stray.
Moses’s birth and upbringing was fraught with difficulties. Male children were not expected to live at that time becasue it was deemed a form of population control. Population explosion of an alien people bred a “seige mentality” in Pharaoh’s mind. Perceived enemies needed to be nipped in the bud at any cost. The Hebrews were becoming numerous and they could potentially outnumber the Egyptians.
Moses’ parents, especially his Mom went through a “hellish” experience to save his life. We are all familiar with the story of how Moses was hid in the banks of the Nile river. Moses was later foster parented in Pharaoh’s residence out of the generosity of God, mediated through human instrumentality, ironically through Pharaoh’s daughter.
On this other day, Moses had a nasty encounter that ended in the death of an Egyptian playmate as his nationalistic fervour got the better of him. He flees from the obvious wrath. This is why we find him in Midian, tending his father in law’s flock.
In that ordinary day to day life of struggle, he meets God. Or is it that God meets Moses?. Whatever the case. The encounter was unmistakably out of the ordinary. There was no room for excuses.
Moses is instructed to take off his sandals. The ground on which he was standing was Holy. Here comes his assignment to go and liberate God’s people. Where?. In the very same place he had fled from. It was just like facing gunfire in the hope of being sustained by the power greater than self. “Mmmmmm, mmmm, mmm!”. Speech disorder was inexcusable. When God assigns there is provision for our limitations. God is the one who makes people in unique ways. The Psalmist is perplexed by the thought and poetically remarks,
Psalm139:13-14 “For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you becasue I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well”.
Some are tall and some are short. Some are black, while some are white. Some brown. In post Apartheid South Africa, we all envisioned as Rainbow Nation. A country where all would enjoy in God’s world. Zimbabweans looked forward to a reconciled nation after the war where are all equal. Martin Luther King Jr dreamed of an America where all were going to be judged based on “ the content of their character not by the colour of their skin”. These ideals are still on God’s heart today even though they are are far from being realised. Moses is given a task to go and liberate his people from the heavy hand of Pharaoh. Here is God’s heart expressed in no uncertain terms;
Exodus 3:7-8 (NIV) 7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them ….”
It was a reminder that Moses’ upbringing was a form of training. The struggles encountered so far were a kind of preparation for the assignment ahead. God is ready for self- disclosure. The burning bush is not enough. After God’s self revelation, there is room to ask questions.
Exodus 3: 13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?
God’s self disclosure is very clear. But in its clarity, there is still room for questions and further expression for we cannever exhaust God.
I am reminded of spirit mediums(masvikiro) in Shona Indigenous Spirituality in my country of bith. Spirit mediums, particulary ancestors are regarded as protectors of the living. They provide health and wealth in all its human dimensions. They manifest through human agency and speak through either men or women functionaries in the family. The svikiro comes in a trance and the family must accept one at a time. The Methodist theologian John Wesley Zwomunondiita Kurewa (2000), notes that the elders test the credibility of the medium through three main criteria before formally entertaining one: 1. “Who sent you to deliver this critical message?” 2. Do the facts of the svikiro tally with their history or culture? 3. Does the svikiro speak to the present circcumstances that the family or clan is going through?.
First, the ability to name the ancestor speaking through the medium gives the svikiro authority to be respected or accepted. Second, knowledge of the history and culture of the people provides a point of contact in terms of the “trials and tribulations” that a people have gone through. Third, familiarity with the present circumstances makes the message relevant to protect and redeem a people. If the above criteria falls short somewhere, the svikiro is deemed a false one.
It is not the credibilty of God that is at stake here. What is at stake is the credibility of Moses. Moses’ authority is going to be supported by the character of the God who is sending him to liberate the people. Moses’s disability does not count here. What counts is the God who is familiar with the struggles of the people under the yoke of Pharaoh.
People are bound to ask Moses. They know him as an ordinary person. They are aware of the circumstances that they are all under. No need for a visiting professor of distinction to lecture them. They know his wife, his father-in-law, how many sheep he owns or does not own. They know his past and his not so clean curriculum vitae. How is he going to defend his credibility? Moses needed to know God’s name. Only God’s name will be a solid starting point. What is he going to tell them? . Kurewa(2000) has this to say about ministry:
“A preacher who knows the name of the one who sent him or her has his or her job half done already. Likewise, effective preaching can be done only by a preacher who knows the history –the suffering, the struggles, the fears, and the anxieties- of the people. A preacher needs to undertand the customs and the traditions of his or her own people in order to communicate the good news”.
Saints, our physical disposition does not matter much. Our own history must “decrease and God increases” in our calling. What is imporant is whether we can stand and defend our calling. Barbra Brown Taylor, the Episcopalian priest is quick to remind us that God does not call us once but many times. On our journey of faith, our ears, our attention must be ever and always be listening to God’s voice. I never knew I was going to be an Evangelist at some point, a Pastor, a Theological Educator a Writer etc. We cannever box God’s assignment. We cannot cast it in stone. Our call must remain fluid and open. Sometimes God commands us to places that we would rather avoid, to go and speak salvation to power even as we are timid. Our task is simple. It is to name this God in our life and ministry and in public places where the Spirit leads. The great “ I am who I am” who sends us just as we are.
Of course our preparedness to the task ahead matters. We need to be theologically schooled to describe God. A theological stance that meets us on the Road to Damascus and removes the scales on our eyes. Not all schools lead to liberation. Some do the opposite. We need to be converstant with the cultures we operate in, the struggles, the fears, the joys, the aspirations, the hopes.
Lord,we seek to know your Name in all situations. Make Yourself known in our life. Through our disability and amidst deadly pademics such as HIV and COVID 19, hunger and violence, ignorance and fears. Amen.
References
John Wesley Zwomunondita Kurewa: 2000. Preaching &Cultural Identity: Proclaiming the Gospel In Africa. Nashville: Abingdon Press.(pp76-78).
Barbra Brown Taylor. 1993. The Preaching Life. New York: Cowley.
Creating Sanctuary
Luke 9:57-58
As they were on their way , a man said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”(NIV)
Jim was like the “Son of man”. He was like Jesus. He was epileptic. Jim suffered epilepsy when he was doing his Ordinary Level Studies. A brief moment with him will tell you that he is intellectually very smart guy. It was after brain tumor surgery that he would never live like he used to do. He moves from place to place blessing poeple with his presence. Jim is the embodiment of God. In spite of his epileptic condition, he still carries the image of God in its fullness.
It all started with one, James, ( not real name), who used to come to our church and disturbed the “Order of Services”. He would walk in and start dancing even as you are in the midst of the preaching event. Sometimes smartly dressed and at other times in shoddy attire. He justs pops in and makes noise or asks for what he wants without obsrerving due protocol. Those who are ordained to maintain order in the church shove him away, sometimes softly and other times with brute force. The maintanance of order is with sincerity, for God’s sake, but my heart is grieved. I feel Jim has a place in our midst if only people can give him room. The ones doing the policing, the clearance of holy nuisance in the house of God think they are doing their service in God’s favour. The Word of God must be delivered without distractions. Does it not?.
In a worship service, people can sing, they can play guitar or clap hands. They can sound the drum and they can dance. They can give announcements. But when it comes to the preaching of the word, it is now time to switch off our cell phones. Not even to put them on mute or silence but to switch them off as “the time that we have all been waiting for has come”. It is as if all these other activities that we were doing in the worship service have very little or nothing at all to do with glorifyng God. How I love worship that includes everything and everyone in one package. Iranaeus, the second century theologian says “The glory of God is a human being fully alive”. Friends, God is glorified when we create room for all of us to be full, to be who we are, to be fully alive.
In Shona language, they would say ‘Enda unopengera kwawakaroyiwa’(Go and express your madness where you were bewitched). I do not blame those who are policing the pulpit, the Church and God’s people from profanity. We who claim to have been set free by Jesus and the dictates of Christinaity seem to behave in ways that demontrate that our freedom is to ensnare others who are not like us. The Holy Church of God is a place for order and not chaos. Such scriptures as I Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace” are used to justify moral high ground. Does it add value to our faith or the faith of others?
The Episcopalian priest Barbra Brown Taylor and author has this to say:
‘Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy. He was brought down by law and order allied with religion- which is a deadly mix. Beware of those who claim to know the mind of God and are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform. Beware of those wo cannot tell God’s will- from their own’
One day Jim was run over by a car as he was trying to cross the road. He was a member of our Church who never went through all the formalities of church membership, catechism, baptism, confirmation. When he passed on, we accorded him a Church funeral, whatever that means. He was part of our Sanctuary in every way. The news of his passing on left us all devastated. We were however thankful to have been part of his life and him being a part of us.
Rachel Evans Held puts it in this way; “Imagine if every church became a place where everyone is safe, but no one is comfortable. Imagine if every church became a place where we told one another the truth. We might just create sanctuary”.
Jim was a man of no fixed abode. Sometimes he would not sleep at home and his Mom would look for him all over the place until she found him. Jim was just like Jesus. Foxes have dens. Birds of the air have nests. But Jim, like the Son of Man has nowhere to place his head. Christans are comfortable in being like Jesus in all aother easy ways except to be people of no fixed abode. Being itinerant makes us uncomfortable. We all want predictability. At one time Jesus wanted to rest. Mark 6:31 “There were many coming and going, and they had no time even to eat. So he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to an isolated place and rest awhile…” But we are told before they reached this remote place, people in need got there well ahead of them. Jesus did not turn them away but was moved with compassion and started ministering to them. A Church that ministers to the needy and desperate people is the church of Jesus Christ.
People are more comfortable with a middle class type of Jesus. One with status. Yet as far as I can remember, when he was here on earth, his most elaborate form of transportation was a donkey, not a limousine or a private jet.
Jim was like the Son of Man. Made in God’s image. Jim had the image of God even though he was epileptic. For God so loved Jim, that unless we love and care those of us like him, then we do not know God.
Verna Dozier an American high school teacher and Christian educator in the Episcopalian tradition has this to say: “ The church missed its high calling to be a new thing in the world when it decided to worship Jesus instead of following him….Worship is setting Jesus on a pedestal, distancing him, enshrining(enshrouding) him in liturgies, stained glass windows, biblical translations, medallions, pilgrimages to places where he walked-the whole nine yards. Following him is doing what he did, weeping over a situation that was so far removed from the dream of God and spending his life to make it different. Following is discipleship.”.
Discipleship is about meeting Jesus where Jesus has chosen to be found. I mean in most unexpected places.
Matthew 25:35-40(NIV) gives us a clue to following Jesus.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
In order to see Jesus wherever he is found is a christian way of life. The South African Baptist theologian Louise Kretzschmar says dicipleship is a way of “knowing, a way of being, a way of relating and a way of doing.” “Knowing” is the intellectual formation of constantly predisposing our minds to be in constant renewal(Romans 12:2). “Being” speaks to the aspects of Christain identity and character longing for a life of “clean hands and pure hearts”(Psalm 24:3-4). “Relating” denotes intentionally forming right relationships based on Jesus’ love ethic. Just as Jesus loves us, so we must love one another(John 13:34-35). “Doing” is the ability to perform right action, loving neighbour as we love ourselves(Luke 19:27). When we long to do the above, we have created sanctuary for all. We are like the Son of Man. Those who long to belong can indeed find peace in God’s world.
Verna Dozier, 1991. The Dream of God: A Call to Return. New York: Cowley Publications
Rachel Held Evans, 2015. “Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving and Finding the Church. Thomas Nelson Inc.
Louise Kretzschmar 2012, The Christian formation of South African believers for engagement with State and Society. In Bentley W. &Forster D.A. Between Capital and Cathedral: Essays on Church-State Relationships. Pretoria: UNISA.
“An Owl Does not have Horns”
Revelation 4:1 After this I looked, and a door in heaven stood open!
In Zimbabwean folklore an owl was a bird that used to command terror to most other birds. One day, one of the clever birds decided to face the fearsome owl and drew closer to it. The more it drew coser, a stunning discovery was that what actually looked like horns were just two big feathery ears. A fight then started. The owl was bitten “home and away” that day. Sadly so, in the presence of other smaller birds. It was a humiliating experience for the bully owl.
All the other birds then realised that after all an owl is not that mighty and strong. Even the smallest of the flying stock started to have a “field day” at will with the owl. Since that day, the owl started to move around at night in fear of other birds. Yes, the heavelny doorway is open as is declared in the Book of Revelation, but there are muscular bouncers preventing others entry. Like the proverbial folklore of the owl, let us draw closer. Who knows, we will discover that after all “an owl does not have horns?”.
Friends, we have all fallen in love with Christianity because it is God’s invitation for all to come . Matthew 11:28 “ Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”. Open invitation to God’s shalom. Revelation 4:1 “After this I looked, and a door in heaven stood open!”. Many people indeed flock heavenwards as they see the open door. On close range, there are bouncers on the doorway who forbid others to proceed to God’s peace and tranquility. I come in the Name of the Lord with the Good News for the people of God. Keep drawing closer and closer, see the open door, do a thorough examination of the bouncers on God’s doorway. You will find the bouncers do not belong there. They are misplaced, mis-located, misrepresenting the Lord Almighty. They do not have the authority to block you and I into God’s Kingdom both present and future.
We are all familiar with inscriptions on Church gates and sanctuary doors posters. “All Belong”, “All Are Welcome”, “No Discrimination”. Such loud claims resonate with the ideal image of the Kingdom of God. Ask a parent whose child has a disability, and you are likely to hear a different story. The architecture of the church may have ramps while people’s hearts have high walls and security razor wire. The women may constitute ninenty nine per -cent of the church membership, yet they still remain a marginalised majority. People of colour are made to worship at different times under the same roof. Do the open doors are lead to different destinations? Dear Lord, there are muscular bouncers on your doorway.
In contexts of poverty, it is easy to sense that there are clusters of the marginalisation among the communities on the fringes. In India, for example, Gandhi had this to say “If it weren’t for Christians, I’d be a Christian?”. Gandhi was fascianated by the Jesus he encountered in the Gospels. Walking into a Church with the intention of knowing more about this Jesus in Calcutta, right at the entrance of the sanctuary, Gandhi was stopped by the ushers. Not for a welcome greeting but for a blockade. It was a Church for high caste Indians and whites only and he was none of the above. Lord, there is need to emaciate the bouncers on your doorway.
Rachel Held Evans , an American Christian author emphasizing that Jesus’s message was about faith, mercy and grace has this to say:
“ This is what God’s kingdom is like : a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, becasue they said yes. And there’s always room for more”.
The evangelist Daniel Thambyrajah Niles of Sri Lanka echoes the same sentiment. “Evangelism is witness. It is one beggar telling another beggar where to get food”. Jesus’s encounter with D.T. Niles genearated obedience and joyous service anchored in wholly yielding to God in Word and Deed. Of course bread comes from the maker of heaven and earth. To be more precise, Jesus says he is the Bread of Life and anyone who partakes of Jesus will never go hungry again. I am particulary interested in reminding us that before God we are all beggars. None of us can save ourselves. We are all recipients of that which we cannot make available. Salvation comes from the Lord. But why is it that those who access it, or to be more accurate, are accessed by it tend to make it difficult for others to receive it also?.
I used to be a member of a Baptist Church whose poster right at the gate announced in big letters that, “JESUS IS NOT ONLY ALL YOU NEED BUT HE IS ENOUGH”. Saints, I believed this with all my heart, mind and soul. This congregation used to run two separate services on a Sunday. One in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The former was called the English service and the latter Shona Service. I was already a pastor in training, comforatble in both languages and leading a youth ministry for the so called afternoon congregation. I was early to church on that day. I had said yes to the invitation to partake of the Bread of Life in the morning and in the afternoon services. An innocent lady came to me and whispered that she thought I was lost as Black people worshipped in the afternoon. I was quick to tell her that I knew that and in fact I was also serving on the pastoral team. She went away and spent the whole service staring at me rather than looking up to Jesus. I was also looking at her because I was obviously distracted. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, when we embrace one another, we embrace God.
God’s Kingdom on earth is supposed to give us a foretaste of what it will be like in Heaven. This is why we pray, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”. There are gatekeepers who are keen to tell us where we belong. That Jesus is all we need is true. That Jesus is enough is true as well. Human gatekeeprers have re-defined that Jesus is enough for others and not all.
I come to remind all of us in the Name of Jesus that this is God’s world and God is in control. To declare that We must all refuse to be elbowed out of God’s entrance. God has room for us all. The blind, the lame, the crippled and the poor. The earlier we realise that, the better we know our God. God values everybody becasue we are all his children.
We live in a time when the words, Nematambudziko (a Shona) eepresssion to convey our condolences must daily remind us of our common origins and our common destiny. Out of the dust of the earth we came and to the dust we shall return(Genesis 3:19). Our love for one another must go beyond just inscriptions on posters into the lived experiences of the community of God.
It takes lot of courage to advovate for the church’s open doors becasue as much as we evengelise, we want to make God in our own image. We are so confortable with the narrow gates where few make it and the majority do not. Martin Luther King Jr boldly asserts:
“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it polite?’Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a point when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.”
God’s doorway is open. Are you courageous enough to join the church of God to challenge self imposed bouncers on God’s doorway?. Revelation 4:1 After this I looked, and a door in heaven stood open! In loaded statements, Rachel Held Evans says:
“… the gospel doesn’t need a coalition devoted to keeping the wrong people out.It needs a family of sinners, saved by grace, commited to tearing down the walls, throwing open the doors, and shouting, “Welcome! There is bread and wine. Come eat with us and talk.” This isn’t a kingdom for the worthy; it’s a kingdom for the hungry.”
Come on in!
References
Creighton Lacy, 1984. The Legacy of D.T. Niles . International Bulletin of Missinary Research
Daily Press, Agust 26, 2016 .Why did Gandhi say, ‘If it weren’t for Christans, I ‘d be a Christian?’. Accesed 24 July 2021.
Rachel Held Evans, 2015. “Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving and Finding the Church”. Thomas Nelson Inc.
Hope Beyond What Is Seen
Corinthians 4:16-18
New International Version
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
We are all familiar with dreams. Sometimes we wake up from those restful moments very excited about our journeys. It may be difficult to recount dreams in specific detail. Other times we jump up in bewilderment about our nocturnal pilgrimages and adventures. Still other times we open our eyes in fear and despair depending on the world we had visited. No wonder my friend Henry upon being greeted with a “Good morning and how are you?!” His reply was; “I do not know whether I am awake or dreaming”. Some of the things we encounter in life are not so easy to describe. Especially life’s not so pleasant episodes. Significant disability. Covid 19 crises have presented huge dilemmas to the hospitals and to the community at large. Our hospitals are full of the sick and our morgues are full of the dead. Our doctors are doing all they can to save the sick and many times their efforts are not rewarded. Saint Paul was no stranger to these. He encourages us to have hope beyond what is seen.
We are living in times where one would wish the realities were mere dreams. The sufferings brought about by inflation amidst joblessness. The tragedies of losing loved ones where it is difficult to pay our coveted last respects. We are so used to culturally and religiously accompany our deaprted and dear ones with singing. Not any more. The definition of what constitutes a decent burial needs unpacking. The journey of the last moments is even more and more daunting. We spend our last moments alone and lonely. The sick are the new monsters rather than the sweet humans in need of our love and care. Are we now pale reflections of the image of God?. We still do care but how can we show the hospitality of God in the midst of the deadly Corona virus?
In one village, we lost six lives after the customary practice of washing of the dead body and the rite of body viewing. Mourners simply wanted to say “good bye” to the departed and exposed themselves to fatal risks. They became next in the death row. These are difficult times.
Those of us with significant disabilities can no longer find care and support when in need. Our tradional carers are seized with problems beyond themselves. Sometimes called to eternity without due notice. Our faith in God is seriously challenged. In the words of Desmond Mpilo Tutu of South Africa, “Sometimes you want to whisper in God’s ear, “God, we know you are in charge, but why don’t you make it slightly more obvious?”. Obvious to stop the deadly disease, to provide care and nurture to those who are in desperate need, and to wipe the tears on the cheeks of those who are mourning. Paul says, it is time to fix our eyes on the eternal. And groan in faith we must.
We are crushed right, left and center. Must we lose heart? Paul says No. In spite of the visible signs that we are “wasting away” daily hope remains our inhreritance. With despair written all over our faces, it does not have the last testament. Our bodies carry visible signs that all is not well. Our minds are on overdrive almost always. It is difficult to tell whether we are awake or we are in our dreams.
We can no longer send our wheelcahirs for routine service let alone replace them when need arises. We can no longer afford medication or even a doctor’s visit. Our clinics lack basic medical supplies. In spiritual matters, our usual communion and appointments with God are difficult to navigate as churches remain closed. Visiting our neighbours is now a luxury we cannot afford. The yearning for community cannot find fulfilment. We are not only alone but lonely. But that we can still reflect upon the meaning of life is a great sign of inward renewal.
It is at such times the words of Victor E.Frankl, the Austrian neurologist and Holocaust survivor have something to say. “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, no can his life be repeated, thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it”(sic) Frankl further says, “ What is to give light must endure burning”. There is life beyond the present trials and tribulations.
Pauls says, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” Yes, even though our bodies are affected, they still matter before God. God values us the way we are in this life and in the life to come. No need to adopt a “Happy Christian Syndrome” where we pretend all is well when it is not. God is not a stranger to our sufferings. Even Jesus felt abandoned as he faces the cross. “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”(Matthew 27:46). Jesus did not remove his eyes on God from where all the help comes from. He kept the faith.
One time I was with my Mom at the hospital and there was a woman who had lost a son earnestly pleading with God. “But Lord I prayed and went on a fast for ten days in the hope that my son would not die”. But the son had passed on. I started a conversation about the woman’s prayer with a security personnel at the hospital gate as I waited for the next visiting hour in hospital. She said to me, “What we often forget is that we do not pray with power but we pray to a powerful God”. In other words, as much as we need to pray, the outcome does not depend on the clarity and loudness of our prayer but on God who is all powerful.
I come in the Name of Jesus to remind us that it does not depend on us but on God. We surely do have control about many things in our lives. Not everything depends on us but God. God knows our strengths and frailites. God knows what we can do and can not do. St Augustine says, “God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves”.
St Augustine goes on to say, “You have made us for Yourself , O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You”. Jesus, Paul and others who followed God might have wanted to live longer but when it was time to go, death was irresistible. As Paul narrates his trials and tribulations of ministry, he realises that we have this treasure in common earthenware vessels. We do not lose heart though because death is not the end.
The longing for communion and love with God is enough to sustain us in the midst of the things that we do not understand. Our disabled bodies, trials and tribulations through COVID 19 are all around us. HIV, violence, and other forms of societal discord are passing phases that do not compare to the presence of God with us in the midst of adversity.
Yes, there is need to agitate for better living conditions in this world. We need to fight for justice. Eternal life is not something reserved for the future in the “sweet bye and bye”. Eternal life must begin now because we have God’s companionship on this side of Heaven. When we suffer, God is in pain with us. We can embrace a spirituality of social justice. Bowing down to the Baal of mere dogma and credalism is a luxury that we cannot afford. Verna Dozier says “The important question to ask is not what do you believe but what difference it makes that you believe”. We need to make a mark in this spiritual pilgrimage.
May we be reminded that we are guests in this world. We have not yet arrived. In Shona culture, we say Muenzi haapedzi dura(A guest does not deplete the granary). This is a call to show hospitality to the stranger. We cannot afford to be mean to strangers because they are passing by. They are not here to stay. We accord visitors the best meals with the intention of making them as confortable as they can. Even if we do not have enough resources, blankets, food etc, we would rather brave the cold for that night and and hundle for a little while. All for the sake of the guest.
Those of us who belong to the homestead can always enjoy later. We want the visitor, the guest, the stranger to feel at home. We know our discomfort is temporary compared to what we are investing in the welfare of our guest. Cleopas and friend on their way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) invited a guest even without adequate preparation for receiving him that night. It was getting dark and it was not safe for the stranger to proceed on his own. Look at what happened later that evening. The guest became the host. Their hearts were “warmed” as it were. They had renewed energy to retrace their footsteps that same evening to announce the Good News.
Saint Paul’s enouragement to the Church of Corinth is worthy memorising and committing to heart. We must not be discouraged with our present circumstances. However upalatable they are. Whether coming from within or from without. Internal or external. “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”.
Thanks be to God.
Conclusion
We live in this world with all its imperfections. Everyone is saying COVID 19 will go and we know that when that happens, life will be radically different. Lives lost cannot be replaced. Funerals have lost respect and decorum. The pandemic has gone with our friends and relatives without due notice. We do not know when it will be our turn. Disabilities have always been with us since time immemorial, visible or invisible. What matters is creating room for the other in spite of our infirmities. We must fight against human made barriers that make it impossible for others to live life to the full. God’s word must be made alive through human embodiment as we preach and live the Word. It is a dangerous path but the only one that leads all of us to life.
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