Wilhelm's space

Theme                        : He stands out!

“Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it bad been slain, standing in the centre of the throne, encircled by four creatures and the elders”, (Rev. 5:6).

What do people think of Julius Malema? Some say, ‘He is just another Black Eugen Terreblache’. Other say, ‘He is an embodiment of the philosophy of Stephen Bantu Biko’. Others merely dismiss him is expressions such as, ‘he is merely a chameleon that knows how to change its colours depending on the environment’.

Almost a similar question was posed by our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples after almost two years traversing the territoryof Judah, Samariaand Galilee. At the River soon after His baptism, a voice identified him thus, “this is my Son’. At the Transfiguration the same heavenly voice identified him thus, “this is my Son”. However the disciples haven’t had the opportunity to publicly confess His identity. May God bless us as we consider this text under the theme, “He stands out!

Above cultic shrines: Caesarea Philippi seemed to have the magnetic power of pulling world religions unto itself. A beautiful town below the majesticMt.Hermon, right at the source of theJordan with its wonderful spring waters! This place used to be a shrine of Baal-Gad worshipped and adored by pagan Canaanites. Years later it was changed to be a locus of worshipping the Greek god Pan. A marble temple in honour of Caesar Augustus was erected here by Herod the Great. Philip the Tetrarch adorned it further and gave it the name, Caesarea Philippi in honour of both the emperor and himself.

Peter’s confession at this very place marks Christ as being above and distinct from everything that had been worshipped and confessed right here. It further marks the dethroning all the false gods and religions of the pre-occupation era byIsraelas well as the colonial Greek and Roman rulers that were venerated here.

He alone is confessed, worshipped and glorified. All other deities carry no divinity in them but are human creations and artistic works. We need to note also that this confession at this place, in these phrases, in this historical time was explosive and dangerous, yet it needed to be made. Christ stands out, he transcends all and everything Caesarea-Philippi is and represents.

2. Above all OT luminaries: The response from the general public to the question, varied from John to any one of the prophets. Some say when we look at this man, we see John.

2.1.          It was Herod who after he had murdered John first likened Jesus with John. It was a spiteful statement made with glee and derision. Jesus is the resurrection John, he mused and seemingly taken over by the populace. On the other hand there was an element of truth in the statement as John and Jesus in their preaching of repentance and administration of baptism, ushered in thekingdomofGod. Both rejected ritualistic baptisms as was common-place then and brought to light a sacramental one!

But John also confessed that Jesus is on a different plain altogether. He must increase and I must decrease he publicly stated.

2.2.          Some equated Jesus with Elijah. Indeed there are parallels between the two. Their greatness is in the prayers they offered, the deeds of power they enacted in healing as well as in their spoken words; they both waged vigorous campaigns against false religions!

However, Jesus would not wish to be like Elijah, he refused to emulate the great man when so asked. ‘Why don’t you bring down fire on these unbelieving people like Elijah did?’ They encouraged him. He turned down the fire just like in his ascension, he opted for a cloud!

The fire he carried was in his compassion for those imprisoned by their in their sins, as well as the broken, marginalized, unwanted, etc. His inner being burned with deep and great compassion for them. This is what makes him stand out, what makes him great and distinct, thus different from Elijah.

2.3.          Some saw some elements of Jeremiah in him: Jeremiah was the forever weeping prophet. What a ministry he had! Ridiculed, imprisoned, persecuted, pitted against false prophets in the public square by the politicians of his day. If Jesus wept overJerusalem, Jeremiah wept in secret, his eyes were reddened, his head throbbed! He served stubborn and unrepentant people.

Yet, he had hope of a New Covenant, he doubted God’s promised!

Still, he could, may, will not be likened with the Son of Man! He is greater than Jeremiah! [It’s intriguing why Moses was not mentioned. He will feature in the next chapter, but that’s message for another day].

Above great Confessors: The text does not inform nor suggest to us how long it took Peter to come up with such exact, appropriate and fitting words. Neither does it tell us why God our heavenly Father saw it fit to intervene and let Peter, let alone the other disciples to SAY IT ALOUD what THEY make of Him!

3.         In John’s gospel, Andrew told Peter, ‘Come we have found the Messiah’. However in the Synoptics this question had not been raised not answered until now.

3.2.          In relation to all the prophets, king, seers, judges, Jesus of Nazareth can and will be the only to carry and on this crown and title, “The saving Messiah and Christ”.  He does this by relinquishing his soul, not frowning the shame of the cross, but determined to risk it all for the redemption of the world. This is where he stands out above all. He was and still is ready to come to us and serve us. This is his call to the world of today and all people: To confess me you need to do the following:

• Let go of all your past and present religious treasures like Caesarea-Philippi.
• Let go of al the great men and women so easily hero-worship and deny Him that honour and glory.
• Let go of ourselves and give room to the Father to lead us by his Spirit into true confession of who Jesus is.

Prayer: We praise and thank you God Holy Spirit for not abandoning your church when you helped Peter and still wants to help us today, that we confess Jesus as Lord and the Lamb of God. Amen.

Well, I am concerned about this matter – and very much so. Mainly because the government has indicated that it is trying to curb and seriously interfere with the democratic checks and balances in place: Press and judiciary. Due to their own criminal record this is ominous. It’s as if the president and his fraudulent ilk are trying to arrange their own immunity with some daring impunity. Read here, what the FW de Klerk foundation has got to say on this issue:

THE GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSED REVIEW OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT’S JUDGMENTS

By Dave Steward, Executive Director, FW de Klerk Foundation

South Africans are understandably perplexed by Minister Jeff Radebe’s presentation earlier this week of the discussion paper on the  proposed review of the Constitutional Court’s judgments. After months of ominous rumbling the ANC volcano produced only an obfuscating – but apparently  innocuous – puff of smoke.

The rumblings had, indeed, caused constitutionalists serious concern.

On 8 July, 2011 President Zuma warned that “the powers conferred on the courts cannot be superior to the powers resulting from the political and consequently administrative mandate resulting from popular democratic elections”. Nor should the government’s political opponents be able to subvert the popularly elected government by using the courts to “co-govern the country”. He later stated baldly that the government wanted to review the powers of the Constitutional Court.

On 18 August ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe charged that the Constitutional Court was being used as an opposition to the governmentand and cited the Court’s Judgment in the Glenister case as an example.

However, the most scathing criticism came at the beginning of September in an article by Adv Ngoako Ramathlodi, the Deputy Minister of Correctional Services.

He claimed that during the constitutional negotiations the ‘regime’ had given up elements of political power to the black majority but had immigrated substantial power away from the legislature and the executive and had vested it in the judiciary, Chapter 9 institutions and civil society. As a result, “the black majority enjoys empty political power while forces against change reign supreme in the economy, judiciary, public opinion and civil society.” White interests consistently challenged government policy in the courts “where the forces against change still hold relative hegemony.”

Last Sunday, ANC Chief Whip Dr Mathole Motshekga, continued the refrain by stating that “certain people” wanted to hand over the powers of parliament and President Zuma to the courts. He added ominously that
•    amendments to the Constitution were not excluded – but would not interfere with the fundamental rights of South Africans.

During his presentation of  the discussion paper, Minister Radebe insisted that it was irresponsible for commentators to interpret these statements as an indication that “the ANC is hell bent on revoking the fundamental rights and freedoms that many had fought and some died for.” On the contrary, the Constitution was “an embodiment of the values that the ANC stood and fought for”. The ANC-led government (including Adv Ramathlodi?) would “defend these values at all cost, including the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law which are the bedrock of our constitutional democracy.”

Everyone should welcome the Minister’s renewed commitment to the Constitution. However, there are still some disturbing seismic reverberations.

The Minister claimed that section 16 of Schedule 6 of the Constitution gives him, together with the Judicial service Commission, the authority to rationalise “all courts, including their structure, composition, functioning and jurisdiction, and all relevant legislation”…”with a view to establishing a judicial system suited to the requirements of the new Constitution.” Accordingly “the President’s comments relating to the review of the powers of the Constitutional Court is consonant with the rationalisation project mandated by the Constitution”.  In fact, Schedule 6 was clearly intended to deal with transitional arrangements “as soon as possible after the new Constitution took effect.”

Also, the proposed review is cast almost entirely within the framework of the need for transformation.  Although transformation is quite rightly a central constitutional imperative, it is not the Constitution’s only concern. The Constitution is a balanced document that seeks to protect the fundamental rights of all South Africans and to establish a society that is based on non-racialism, non-sexism, the supremacy of the Constitution and of the rule of law. It is also committed to the establishment of a genuinely democratic system of multiparty government “to ensure accountability, responsiveness and openness.”

In fact, the ANC’s concerns with the courts do not centre on their transformation record, but rather in their record in consistently striking down unconstitutional laws and conduct.
Nor is the proposed review concerned with establishing proper balance and separation between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. As we saw in 2007 both the executive and the legislature answer to the ANC’s national elective conferences and not directly to the electorate.  Without any mandate from the voters, delegates at Polokwane initiated the dismissal of the president and adopted the legislative programme that parliament would be required to follow.  The only key lever of state power that continues to elude the ANC is the judiciary.

The Review should accordingly be seen  within the context of the ANC’s long-standing  goal in its Strategy & Tactics documents “to strengthen the hold of the democratic movement (i.e. the ANC) over state power, and to transform the state machinery to serve the cause of social transformation. The levers of state power include the legislatures, the executives, the public service, the security forces, the judiciary, parastatals, the public broadcaster, and so on.”

“Control by democratic forces means that these institutions should operate on the basis of the precepts of the Constitution (as interpreted by the ANC) ; they should be guided by new doctrines (the ANC’s National Democratic Revolution); they should reflect in their composition the demographics of the country (deployed ANC cadres); and they should owe allegiance to the new order (the order established by ANC).” (My italics.)

Minister Radebe’s assurances echo  similar assurances in the Strategy & Tactics documents in which the ANC commits itself to “the fundamental provisions of the basic law of the land, which accords with its own vision of a democratic and just society.” However, it does so “within the context of correcting the historical injustices of apartheid”- i.e. within the framework of the transformation ideology expounded in the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).

It is too early for us to spread our picnic blankets on the slopes of Mount ANC.  We should keep our constitutional seismographs handy and get ready to move as soon as there are any signs that the foundations of our new democracy are beginning to shift.

March 2, 2012 – Friday Morning

"For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction." (Gn.41,52)

God hath caused me to be fruitful …

The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” ¹

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.  For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.  ²

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,  so that the tested genuineness of your faith–more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  ³

But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.  ⁴

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. ⁵

______________

 ¹Gen 41:52; ²2Co 1:3-5; ³1Pe 1:6,7; ⁴2Ti 4:17; ⁵1Pe 4:19;

The Lord's vineyard: Jes.5,1-7

This 2nd Sunday of Lent – called “Reminiscere” – the Christian Church is contemplating God’s work in the world and especially the Church as that of a gardener, who owns a vineyard. The Sermon text prescribed for this Sunday is from the prophet Isaiah in the fifth chapter verses 1-7.  The sermon posted here is by Pastor Mtshali and was translated into Tswana by Rev. E.A.W.Weber DD. Thanks to the support by LHF these orders of service can be posted throughout Southern Africa to those without email/internet.

Read the Zulu order here: Lutheran order of Service for 2nd Sunday in Lent Reminisere  and the Tswana one here: Lutheran order of service in Tswana for Reminiscere 2012

May God bless you and the ongoing work in his vineyard +++ and please don’t forget to ask him to send more workers into the harvest, which is so plentiful.

Prof. John Pless from CTS Ft.Wayne, IN

On Wednesday during the Seminary Confessional Service Prof. John Pless from CTS Ft.Wayne (IN) preached this sermon on the prescribed text from the Word of God (Hebrews 12:1-11). He kindly consented for us to publish this on the web. Read here for more: LTS Sermon by Prof. J.Pless Lent 2012 29 February 2012

The victory of Christ over Satans temptation

Here is the Lutheran Order of service in both isiZulu and se Tswana for the first Sunday in Lent: Invocavit.

On this Sunday the Church remembers the satanic temptation of the first Adam in Paradise to which he succumbed (OT: Gen.3,1ff) , but also the victory of the second Adam over the devil (Mt.4,1ff) to bring about our redemption and salvation from those original wounds. Praise be to Jesus Christ now and forever – and everybody answer “Amen”! We pray: Kyrie eleison! as we face the temptations of this life, but we gain confidence by looking up at Jesus Christ the author and perfector of our faith. Read in the epistle for today in Hebrews 4,14-16.

We also commemorate the significant sermons of Dr. Martin Luther delivered in Wittenberg to address the “Bilderstuermer” and other fanatics after leaving his exile on the Wartburg prematurely to prevent further damage to the Church reformation in that time. Read these sermons here at this link: http://www.godrules.net/library/luther/NEW1luther_b8.htm

Thanks to the support of pastors in the Lutheran Church of Southern Africa this posting is possible every Sunday. Today’s sermon is on 2.Cor.6,1-10 by Rev. Petrus Lubede and was translated into seTswana by Rev. E.A.W.Weber DD. Here they are in isiZulu: Zulu Sermon for Invocavit on 2.Cor.6,1-10 by Pastor Petrus Lubede and also in seTswana: Tswana Sermon on 2.Cor.6,1-10 for Invocavit by Rev. Petrus Lubede.

The ENInews reports today: “Violent repression of church demonstration in Congo raises concerns: After the Congolese Roman Catholic church challenged the credibility of election results in which President Joseph Kabila was declared the winner, the stabbing death of a nun and the arrest of three priests and two nuns in February are causing concern. The unease heightened after police on 16 February violently broke up a peaceful march the church had organized to demand truth about the November polls. Two weeks earlier, Sr. Mary Lilliane Mapalayi had been killed at a school in western Kasai province where she served as a treasurer.” [ENI-12-0098, 300 words]

Dear friends and fellow Lutherans:

Here are the regular postings of the pericopes, prayers and sermons for tomorrows Sunday on Amos  5:21-24 by courtesy of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation (LHF). This time the sermon is written by Rev. E.A.W.Weber DD, who also translates these postings regularly.  

May you have a very blessed Sunday edified by the triune God’s most precious word and in the fellowship with him and his congregation + 

Lutheran Order of Service in seTswana for Sunday Estomihi (Sunday before Lent)

Lutheran Order of Service in isiZulu for Estomini (Sunday before Lent)

Read here, what President Matthew Harrison (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) prepared to say before the COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVT. REFORM in Washington today: 2-16-12_Full_HC_Mandate_Harrison We thank our dear God that he gives such leaders to the Church. May this our triune God in his grace and goodness bless and keep him in the true faith now and for ever +