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SERMONS

The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
June 23, 2002

By David Christian

Janani Luwum was the Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Boga-Zaire in East Africa in the 1970's. The church under the leadership of Archbishop Luwum had close to three million members, about as many as there are in the Episcopal Church in this country. The president of Uganda at that time was Dr. Idi Amin Dada.

Early in the morning of February 5, 1977, soldiers of the Ugandan Army entered the archbishop's home searching for weapons. None were found. Protesting the search, the archbishop and his bishops wrote a letter to President Amin stating the church's opposition to violence and seeking an audience with him to discuss the matter.

A week later they were called to the Government Conference Center. There they were met by about three thousand Ugandan troops and accused of hiding weapons and plotting to overthrow the government. All the bishops except Archbishop Luwum were then released. He was taken away in a car to a residence of President Amin.

There Archbishop Luwum was ordered to sign a confession to his part in the conspiracy. He refused. He was ordered to kneel before President Amin and beg forgiveness. He refused. He was then thrown down on the floor, stripped, and beaten. As he was beaten he began to pray. This infuriated Amin and he pulled out a gun and killed the Archbishop.

The story of Archbishop Luwum is a classic story of a martyr of the Church. It is a story of a person who fearlessly proclaimed the gospel in a hostile land. It is a story of a person who was persecuted for his proclamation of that gospel but who did not falter. It is a story of a person who understood the warnings and the promises of Jesus in today's gospel: warnings of hatred and oppression and danger for those who would follow him. And promises of God's presence with them in their trials, and of ultimate victory for those who persevere.

But what meaning can this gospel have for us here? After all, the large majority of people in our part of the world are Christian. People here are not beaten or killed for claiming to follow Christ. It's easy to be a Christian here, right?

The forces in our society that stand in opposition to living a Christian life are just as powerful as those faced by the Christians in East Africa or by the early Church. But they are much more subtle.

We are not often faced with the risk of imprisonment or death for following Christ, a fact for which I am grateful. But we are faced with less obvious risks: the risk of not being included in the "in" crowd; the risk of not being popular; the risk of being seen as weak or soft or a bleeding heart or odd or a loser, of not being successful, of not belonging.

The temptation in our culture is to make fun of an old friend because that is what our new friends are doing; to laugh at a racist joke because it really is kind of funny; to avoid an acquaintance because her problems are so depressing; to ignore that homeless man because he is not my problem; to close my eyes to the pain and hardship my decision causes other people because that's business.

Our world is just as hostile to the gospel as the world of Archbishop Luwum. There is an intense pressure to confine the church to these four walls for one or two hours on Sunday. But Christ calls us to carry the gospel out from this place into the world. As Christians we are called to "live 'in but not of the world.' This may be difficult, even painful, but it is the mission to which we are called. Christians are missionaries, people sent into the world to work and witness in daily life. Without this sense of mission, the church is merely a reflection of the culture's values."

This is what we are called to be about, to proclaim the gospel, to carry Christ into the world. It is difficult. We will meet resistance. Christ has promised us that. But he has also promised us that he will be with us. He has promised us that ultimately love will triumph over hatred. Hope will triumph over despair. Life will triumph over death. And he has promised us that in him we will share in that victory.

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi

Proper 7A
Jeremiah 20.7-13
Romans 5.15b-19
Matthew 10.(16-23)24-33