A Visit from the Archbishop of York

Hey again y'all. Today was really cool, the Archbishop of York (from England) held an Inter-Anglican service today at our National Arena. Being a server (and thus being obliged to be there >.>) I initially thought that it would have been a 3-hour drag. My colleagues Sadikie, Stephanie and Dominic seemed to have been under the same impression, but lo and behold we were pleasantly surprised. The theme of the service was that "We are called to freedom, working for justice while embracing responsibility" and banners reflecting as much were placed all around the Arena. In part this was the bicentenary celebration of the abolition of the Trans-atlantic slave trade. It was only fitting that the first black man ever to have achieved such a high position in the Church be called to host it XD.

His name is (The Most Rev. Rt. Hon. blah-blah) Dr. John Mugabi Sentamu--a humourous, dark fellow (African-born) who has quite a history, having championed the case for a young buy who was murdered by racists in England. He even followed the father of the child here to pay his respects at the funeral. Incidentally, he described those called to the bar as being "thick-skinned, short-sighted, and ready to charge" (like a rhino), a bit of mockery derived from his own days of such no doubt. Now, he considers himself a donkey.

Yep, a donkey.

It makes sense actually because the donkey that carried Jesus into downtown Jerusalem was rather adorned. He drew a parallel between that scene and himself in his fancy robes, saying that he was simply Christ's donkey, carrying his Saviour to places where there was no love, no hope, no charity--in short any place that Mission Impossible (what I like to call Mission 3:16 :-)) involved. Funnily enough, he directed that same call to the other Bishops et. al on the altar--and while some smiled, I am sure their smiles did not reach their eyes in some cases. I wonder why?

I think more than 1500 people were in attendance, and that's not counting the people in the Sports Complex where they watched via CCTV. The sermon was excellent--not long/overbearing, but just right, to the point, with just the right bit of humour thrown in to keep any listener's interest. In fact let me see if I can simply describe the salient points:

In retrospect, the entire thing was about giving your service to God. We've heard it all before but the way he did it was 'right on the money' as they say. He lay bare the facts and was fiery without being nauseatingly so (something you'd sometimes find on Way of The Master Radio at times -_-) that a lot of us were 'flapping'. That's right, 'flapping' not 'flagging'--no typo. Allow me to explain--he wanted to bring across the point that for us to be effective for God, we needed to be deeply involved. Indeed we would need to have a closer relationship with God rather than the simple hi-and-bye routine that so many of us, (myself included -_-) have fallen into. The analogy he used was that of a glove that's being told what to do but hasn't been fitted over the hand of its master. Of course such a tool would be limp, ineffective, and in short not serving its master's purpose. Put the glove partly over the hand and it becomes a 'flapper'. In a sense it's neither here nor there, it resembles those of us that try to have a little bit of everything, so to speak. A little bit of church, a little bit of Jesus, a little bit of the world, and in the end we're not really doing anything of much significance o_O. Also that's the worst way to live--trying to please everybody and trying to satisfy your own needs at the same time. To those of us that profess to love Christ, remember what this passage, John 21:16 :

Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."

This basically echoes the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19-20 :

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

If you love God, take care of his sheep. It's the hallmark of Christ's life, he died for us that he may be saved. Thus in the same way that he gave His life for us, we too should extend that same sacrifice to those among us that do not know Him. He then linked that back to the theme of freedom (through Christ), justice (for the oppressed) and responsibility (for His sheep). It was all around a cool sermon throughout. I doubt I'll hear another for a loooong time (I hope our own Rector takes some pointers--hehe--just kidding, he gives some really good sermons but the delivery could be better).

I cannot regret having gone to that ceremony. I'm recording my thoughts here not only to allow other people to know what's going on, but also so I'll have a bit of a record to go by. I've got some work to do :-), and this time I'm actually happy about doing it. Christians need Christians as they say, and I think I'm definitely missing out on such things because I'm so busy all the time >_<. But as they say, if you want something, you'll make time for it. I want Jesus...I'll make time for Him. Praying that all will work out.

Blessings!