Mandela

Nelson Mandela is no longer, physically, in this world. He leaves a tremendous legacy, and a huge challenge still present for the human community. There has been lots of speculation about his religious beliefs. It is known that he was once a member of a Methodist church and attended church schools, but his beliefs were never explicitly stated. Still, when you read much of his writing you cannot help but see the biblical narrative very much in the background.

In his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom" Nelson Mandela talked of his experience of Christianity. He wrote: "The Church was as concerned with this world as with the next; I saw that virtually all of the achievements of Africans seemed to have come from the missionary work of the Church."

This Second Sunday of Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas in the Christian tradition, we had for our Gospel reading, Matthew 3: 1-12. Here we see John the Baptist, a voice crying in the wilderness, wearing camel's hair and eating locusts and wild honey. It is not exactly a Christmas message, it doesn't match what is going on in our Western indulgence leading up to Christmas. One of the very non "I'll be Home for Christmas" lines in this Gospel is this one.

"Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." It is interesting that Mandela once wrote,

"No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end.

He knew that the Gospel is not about always being right, or always getting it right, but is instead about always trying to get it right. His greatest gift and legacy is just this, that after all he endured, after all this world could dish out to try to silence him, to change his heart, he kept leaning toward the good. And when he was finally free, he leaned even farther, showing us what forgiveness and repentance look like, proving that the "good" had to be for all, even those who had worked so tirelessly to take it away from him.

When asked once by a reporter, after all had happened to him, what had he learned, he said, "Good and evil are always present....good people must choose. He will be missed, but not soon forgotten.

Bishop Greg