In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. (Psalm 18:6 NIV)
St Paul said: “But I have had God’s help to this very day, and so I stand here and testify to small and great alike.” (Act 26:22 NIV)
THE END OF NON-RACIALISM? By Dave Steward, Executive Director of the FW de Klerk Foundation
In his recent address to the Cape Town Press Club, Hlumelo Biko pointed to the increasing tendency within the ANC to “objectivise”, to “other” and to “border” non-black communities – and particularly whites. He warned that this process was not good news for those who are being objectivised.
What did he mean?
A speech by Jeff Radebe last month in Parliament provides some pointers regarding the manner in which the Government is ramping up its rhetoric. In a relatively short address, he referred no fewer than seven times to the depredations of the past –
Such references pepper most policy statements made by the ANC. Whatever their historic merit – or lack of merit – it would be surprising if they do not stir up some degree of racial animosity – or at the very least – reinforce perceptions of white moral inferiority and black entitlement. Inevitably they fuel demands for restitution – particularly of land – which most black South Africans firmly believe was stolen from their ancestors.
The message characterises whites as “the other” and places them beyond the border of “us” because they are presented as being either directly responsible for “apartheid colonialism” – or as being its present day heirs and beneficiaries. Whites are indelibly tarnished by the past – while blacks are identified with the forces of freedom and democracy. The “legacy of apartheid and colonialism” is routinely identified as the root cause of most of South Africa’s problems – and particularly of the triple crisis of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
Increasing use is made of the term “apartheid colonialism” – implying that whites are transient alien interlopers. For example, the Green Paper on Land Reform proclaims that “all anti-colonial struggles are at the core about two things, repossession of lost land and restoring the centrality of indigenous culture” (i.e. placing blacks at the centre and “bordering” and “othering” minorities at the periphery).
The message continues that, in the second phase of national transition, the time has now arrived to take action against these vestiges of apartheid and colonialism.
All this raises questions about the degree to which non-racialism is still a core value of our new society, of our government and of the ruling alliance.
It is a question that was recently addressed by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation in a study of racial perceptions in a number of ANC branches in Gauteng. The findings revealed “a growing sense of isolation and fracture among non-African constituencies” which could have “profound implications for the party’s (the ANC’s) ‘identity’ as a non-racial party.”
Although participants in the survey noted that the ANC “theoretically supports the ideal of non-racialism” they felt that there were “significant problems with race relations within the ANC, at all levels” – particularly in branches with strong minority membership – such as Eldorado Park, Sandton and Lenasia. Among the problems were perceptions of racism and the sense that non-Africans were excluded from leadership positions.
The authors of the study go on to discuss the ANC doctrine that the institutional racism of “colonialism of a special type” can be overcome only through the “empowerment of blacks in general and Africans in particular”. This will require “the radical restructuring of key aspects of the economy so as to destroy the material basis of the white racist power structure.” This process – which lies at the core of the ANC’s National Democratic Revolution – is described by Firoz Cachalia as “anti-racist-racism”. According to Pallo Jordan,
“The movement adopted as policy the conscious and deliberate re-racialisation of South Africa by undertaking a host of measures, among which are affirmative action, to ensure that the results of decades of systematic discrimination and denial of job opportunities are reversed. In other words, the purpose of affirmative action is to create circumstances in which affirmative action will no longer be necessary.”
The ANC’s updated 2012 Strategy and Tactics document states that “the need for such affirmative action will decline in the same measure as all centres of power and influence and other critical spheres of social endeavour become broadly representative of the country’s demographics. In the process, all inequalities that may persist or arise need to be addressed.”
The “re-racialisation” of South Africa is gathering pace. The government rigidly allocates posts in the public service according to demographics – down to the first decimal point – regardless of merit, objective circumstances or the manifest injustice inflicted on the individuals involved. Coloured employees of the Department of Correctional Services in the Western Cape are informed that they will not be promoted – because they have exceeded their national racial quota of 8.8%. 1 500 white members of the SAPS have been refused promotion to vacant officers posts because they have exceeded their 9% quota. Late last year Minister Rob Davies said that demographic representivity should also be applied to the private sector: “We need to make sure that in the country’s economy, control, ownership and leadership are reflective of the demographics of the society in the same way the political space does.”
What we are experiencing is racial social engineering on a Verwoerdian scale, where once again, the course of South Africans’ lives is being determined by their race and not by individual merit. Because it will take generations to achieve “broad demographic representivity in all centres of power and influence” minority communities can expect to be subjected to “anti-racist racism” for the indefinite future. For all intents and purposes South Africa is no longer a non-racial society.
The “re-racialistion” of South Africa is the antithesis of the constitutional values of human dignity, equality and non-racialism on which our new society has been based. It contravenes South Africa’s international treaty obligations – and it will certainly destroy any hope of national unity. Without national unity we will have little chance of successfully implementing the National Development Plan or of addressing the many challenges that confront us – including the pressing need for a rational, workable and non-racist transformation process.
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. (Eph 5:4 NIV)
How easily do we often overlook sins, sometimes even condoning them if not excusing them openly. That’s why we have to take this apostolic admonition all the more serious: which are out of place! A Christian should keep his eternal home in mind and therefore not get too comfortable and accommodating to foreign customs and estranging cultures. Rather he should live up to his heavenly calling. How could he find excuses for obscenities, foolish talk or coarse joking before the supreme judgment throne of his heavenly king and Lord? Whatever is righteous, pure, decent, lovely, virtuous and befitting in the kingdom of God, that is appropriate and a Christian should put his mind, heart and soul to that. However everything with bad taste, evil and godless should be kept much further than an arms length away. Flee it and keep away from it.
Yet the apostle does not only forbid. He also commands thanksgiving. The Psalmist confesses: “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High!” (Psalm 92:1 ESV) Whenever a person is reborn and the Holy Spirit dwells in him, then it is a holy joy and pleasure to praise, laud and thank his Lord and God. How blessed are those, who are moved by the Holy Spirit to this heartfelt gratitude and thankfulness. Just compare the very different occasions to determine, when you were more happy and joyful: On the one hand, when you where praising God’s grace and mercy with songs and delightful melodies of your mouth or when it was dripping with malice and evil tripe? Don’t respond with the excuse, that even if singing praises are joyful pleasures, yet they don’t belong everywhere – just into the Lord’s sanctuary and church. No – praise and thanksgiving belongs into our homes, onto open pastures and fields, into walkways, alleys and highways by day and by night – yes even into the private rooms and even public taverns and the like. Wherever you can’t praise God and thank him, there a Christian should not make himself at home either. A Christian needs to praise and thank his God wherever he is – especially where he settles down to live. That’s like the air he breathes and part of his daily bread: Thanksgiving and praising the Lord, his God and savior.
An obedient will, gracious rest, love to practice, humility and truthfulness, clear eyes, a faithful heart at peace and a joyful mind: Help o Lord that I might attain these + (Author unknown )
This is a translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Thursday after Sunday Oculi (3rd Sunday in Lent). The prayer was translated rather literally and not poetically. Both are found on Pg. 135 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu! (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and published in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. (1. Chronicles 29:11 NIV)
He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.“ (Revelations 14:7 NIV)
Wednesday in Lent III 6 March 2013
LTS Chapel Pretoria, South Africa
“I am Among you as One who Serves”
St. Luke 22:24-30
Prayer: Merciful Father, God of all consolation, we bless you for giving your Son into the flesh to bear our sin and be our Savior. By Your Word and Spirit, stir our hearts to turn from all sin and to trust in your gracious promises, that enlivened by Your mercy we might find our greatness in living as Your brothers and sisters, giving of ourselves even as you have given Yourself to us in your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.
Martin Luther once said of the Lord Jesus, that in the Lord’s Supper, He is the main course, the chef, the waiter, and the butler. Jesus does it all. Listen to His own words, “I am among you as one who serves.” Elsewhere in Mark 10, Jesus says that He did not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. Jesus speaks the words of our text just after He had demonstrated what a bountiful and good servant He is. He served the disciples by instituting the holy supper of His body and His blood. In this Sacrament which would forever render the old Passover obsolete, Jesus establishes the new testament in His blood. Here is a meal beyond compare for it is the very body and blood of the Lamb of God. Never was there a Passover meal like this! More than the remembrance of the ancestor’s ancient deliverance from Pharaoh’s bondage, this Sacrament bestows the forgiveness of sins in the Messiah’s body and blood. Here the Savior shows Himself to be the Servant who humbles Himself even to death on a cross to redeem and rescue a whole world living under a death sentence.
But is precisely in the dusk of that night when the Son of God had spread the table of His kingdom before the disciples, that a dispute erupts among them. Who should be regarded as the greatest? It was a pious argument, no doubt. Each disciple could recount what he had sacrificed, what he had left to follow Jesus. The argument about greatness was unheard among Jesus’ disciples. It had happened before. It would happen again. It happens even today when those who bear the name “Christian” seek to have others recognize their standing in the kingdom on the basis of their piety, or spiritual gifts, or what they have suffered on account of Christ, or the status that they think is theirs on the basis of office and position. We can even use our record of service as a claim to honor and greatness.
Jesus does not simply shame the men who would be His apostles with their awkward positioning. He says to them that they will have the places in His Father’s Kingdom assigned to them. They have been with Jesus from the beginning. They have endured His trials and suffered with Him. They will reign with Him, eating and drinking at His table, and judging the twelve tribes of Israel through their preaching. Jesus calls them back to what really matters; Himself. He is the One who is among them as their Servant. That is what really matters. There is no way for Jesus to be your Savior unless He is Servant.
This morning we come to confess the ways that our eyes have been blinded to this Lord who is among us as One who serves. Have you claimed a special place on account of your discipleship? Have you thought more about your status as a student of theology, a pastor or teacher of the church, a deaconess student or worker in the church than about Christ? Have you lived as though your greatness depended on what others think of you, how they evaluate you rather than how Christ has claimed you as His own, cleansing you with His blood? When we honestly examine ourselves, we do see that God’s law cuts us down to size. Before Him no one can boast. What we think of as our humility can be a disguise for arrogance.
There is nothing for us to do but to cry out with the Psalmist: “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared” (Psalm 130:3-4). There is forgiveness of all your sins –the arrogance, the pride, the trust you have placed in your own capacity and much more- for Jesus still is among us as the One who serves. Your sin He has carried to the cross. All of it. Nothing was left out. And to all who come in repentance and faith, He will serve you once again today with the word of pardon, the absolution that sets you free for the sake of His bitter suffering and death for that is the kind of Servant He is.
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place. (Eph 5:4 NIV)
The apostle Saint James calls the tongue a fire and a world of evil (James 3:6). In the same vein you could call it a world of rubbish and dirt. Just listen to the youth on the playground or grown-ups socializing. There’s a lot of obscenity, foolish talk and coarse joking going on even if that is clearly in contradiction to the apostolic admonition to the Ephesians. It doesn’t go with a Christian way of life. The danger is that this coarse vocabulary and style is just the tip of the ice-berg and only a reflection of the inner life of corrupt, evil and sick heart. That’s what needs repentance, conversion and healing. Christ himself is the blessed tutor, who instructs, guides and demonstrates positive communication of wholesome blessings and sharing life-giving words which comfort, uplift, edify and sustain instead of cursing, degrading, hurting, breaking down, insulting and shaming – killing if they could. The old Adam tries to pull us down into the mire, whereas the Holy Spirit does his tireless work of sanctification in us to continually promote Christ and his life style in us so that we don’t tire to strive to live pleasing to God and as a blessing to our fellow beings.
Lord, our God! You are holy and nothing unclean can exist in your presence. Help, that we, who tend to unholiness and uncleanliness would give up all that does not meet your approval. Protect us especially to fall into the sins of our tongue, so that we do not bring disrepute and calamity over us and our fellow beings. Sanctify us through and through, so that body, soul and spirit may be kept blameless until the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Protect us in this night also from every evil thought and dream. Let us find rest in you o Lord and awaken us to sing your praises. Amen.
In life and pastime, in peace and war, at home or work, at all times let us remain honest, disciplined, hard-working and faithful to honour you and benefit our neighbour.
Lord God, you gladly and graciously forgive sinners. You happily welcome your fallen children home. Even in punishment you think of forgiveness and healing. We fall down before you and worship you as our God and Savior. Amen, Amen. (Max von Schenkendorf, 1783-1817 )
This is a translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Wednesday after Sunday Oculi (3rd Sunday in Lent). The hymn by von Schenkendorf was translated rather literally and not poetically. Both are found on Pg. 134 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu! (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and published in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.
“Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.” (1.Samuel 2:3 NIV)
Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (1.John 3:18 NIV)
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. (Eph 5:3 NIV)
That is a tremendous demand by the apostle. Which congregation can say that it fulfils this apostolic mandate wholeheartedly? Most levels of society have lost all divine orientation with regards to the sixth commandment. Even in the Christian congregation men and women have lots to confess in this regard. It is not a question of intellect or schooling. It is the same challenge everywhere. Negative examples abound and not much positive remains to answer this apostolic commandment, that there should not even be a hint of sexual immorality never mind talk or practice of any kind of impurity or greed.
The apostle is not one of those, who would adapt the divine law to fit our whims or inclinations. He would not even change the commandment if there was no sign of compliance either. The strict demand calls for deep rooted penance, especially as the appropriate levels of sanctification are not attained. He demands great and truly holy things from us, so that we are at least led to this profound penance where we do not live up to the required holiness and sanctity in sanctification.
Renew me, O eternal Light, And let my heart and soul be bright, Illumined with the light of grace That issues from your holy face.
Remove the power of sin from me And cleanse all my impurity That I may have the strength and will Temptations of the flesh to still.
Create in me a new heart, Lord, That gladly I obey your Word. Let what you will be my desire, And with new life my soul inspire.
Grant that I only you may love And seek those things which are above Till I behold you face to face, O Light eternal, through your grace. (Johann Friedrich Ruopp, 1672-1708; translated August Crull, 1845-1923)
This is a translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Tuesday after Sunday Oculi (3rd Sunday in Lent) and is found on Pg. 133 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu! (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and published in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.
“Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.” (Isaiah 29:14 NIV)
God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (Hebrews 2:4 NIV)
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph 5:1-2 NIV)
Here we are put under the impression, that we are called more to imitate and follow Jesus Christ than the Father; but God the Father appears to us in the Son Jesus Christ and only in the Son Jesus Christ do we recognize, that it means to imitate and follow the Father. It is the love towards those, whom the Father loves and also the Son. The Father and the Son do not express their love in the same way as we do. The Father receives sacrifice, but does offer sacrifice himself and yet he loves the human kind. The Son offers himself as pleasing and fragrant sacrifice to the Father. In this sacrificial offering he shows his love towards those, whom the Father loves. We however can not love like the Father loves, before whom all things are and from whom they all receive their being, nor can we love like the love, through whom all things are and continue to have their existence. Yet we ought to love like both and even if we can not be gift and offering for our brethren, we should be actively engaged for others even to the point of willingly suffering vicariously and in love for others fearing neither cross nor death.
Almighty, eternal God! We thank and praise you, that for Christ’s sake you have adopted us your children. We plead you, rule and guide us through your Holy Spirit, so that we would love you and our neighbor as your son loved us and gave himself as a living sacrifice and sweet fragrance for us and our salvation… We commit ourselves into your grace and ask you to wake us again in the morrow that we would rise afresh and healthy to praise and thank you. We ask this in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.
The inner Christian life is radiant even if their exterior is suffering and passing away. The eternal heavenly gifts that the king of the heavens has in store for them are yet unknown. What nobody has felt or experienced yet, is already enlightened them and is guiding them heavenward.
Externally they often appear poor and humble, a theatre for the angels really, and despised by the world, yet inwardly they are filled with glorious things, dressed with jewels and crowns that please Jesus. They are timeless miracles prepared for their king, who dwells amongst lilies, roses and orchids – to serve him willingly and therefore fitted in holy garments and finery.
Inwardly they are of divine ancestry, having their origin in God and through his most powerful word; his holy fires are aflame in them, enlightened from above, sustained and nourished from there. The angels are their siblings, that join in their singing and praise with blissful and most exuberant songs and hymns. That sounds majestic and wonderfully in honour of their God and Lord + (Christian Friedrich Richter, 1676-1711)
This is a translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Monday after Sunday Oculi (3rd Sunday in Lent). The hymn was translated rather literally, but not poetically. Both are found on Pg. 132 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu! (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and published in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.
Wilhelm's space 