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Rt. Rev.
Musonda T. S. Mwamba
THE GIFT OF GOD
(THE DAY OF PENTECOST)
SERMON PREACHED BY THE RT. REV MUSONDA T.S. MWAMBA
BISHOP OF BOTSWANA
AT
ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH
225 WEST 99TH STREET, NEW YORK CITY
27 MAY, 2007
When
I think of Beyonce, Miriam Makeba, and Nelson Mandela and many others.
And specifically today when I think of: Frances Elizabeth, Mason Damien,
Catherine Yu Woh, Alexander Valentin, Jakob Riis, and Sanaa Ashley who
shall receive the Sacrament of Baptism. When I think of all these
beautiful people I see in them the Spirit of God wonderously at work
and one is grateful and thankful to God for His workings.
There is much to be grateful and thankful for in life. We must take
nothing for granted. When at times I am inclined to forget I remember
this story about the missionary and the big lion.
There was a missionary who came across a big lion in the forest. Scared
stiff the missionary dropped to his knees and began to pray to God for
dear life has he had never prayed before. Opening one eye he noticed
that the lion was also kneeling and paws together praying. Immensely
encouraged by this sight the missionary opened the other eye and said to
the lion, “ I see my brother we are of the same faith”. And the lion
responded, “ I don’t know about you but I am just saying grace! Lord
for what I am about to receive I am truly thankful and make me ever
mindful of the needs of others. Amen”!
It is a good thing to have a spirit of gratitude and thankfulness. This
morning I am thankful to God to be worshipping here with you in this
beautiful Church of St. Michael’s on this Holy Feast of Pentecost.
I am especially thankful to God that my visit coincides with the
Bicentennial Celebration of St. Michael’s existence.
In this holy place for 200 years God has been worshipped. For 200 years
many lives have been transformed. For 200 years many lives have found
comfort, faith, hope, and love in this holy place.
Thank you Canon George Brandt, Jr, for your gracious invitation to me. I
first met Canon Brandt 21 years ago. I was a young priest straight from
Oxford and smelling of incense! And he a brilliant Provincial Secretary
of our Province of Central Africa. He had more hair on his head then!
I followed in his footsteps as Provincial Secretary. I lived in the
same house, drove the same car and used the same office, as he did. I
noticed, here, in his office that he was ordained to Holy Orders at St.
James Cathedral, Chicago. It so happens I preached there two years
ago. So I seem to be following in his footsteps even here! Oddly we
also trained as lawyers!
Now being here at St. Michael’s, and having met some of you lovely
people at the reception on Wednesday night. I have been thinking that I
could easily fit in as the next Rector of St. Michael’s Church! We could
make Canon Brandt a Bishop in Nigeria! Thank you all for your gracious
welcome.
We gather this morning in God’s Presence to celebrate the Feast of
Pentecost and the Sacrament of Baptism. I want to share with you a few
thoughts on this two important experiences in our spiritual lives.
Lets first think briefly on Pentencost. What does Beyonce, Miriam
Makeba, Nelson Mandela and others have to do with Pentecost?
Five years ago, I attended a fundraising concert for the Queen of the
Bamaletes in Gaborone, Botswana, at which the legendary singer Miriam
Makeba performed.
She looked young, beautiful, vivacious, and full of energy on stage. My
son Eno then 11 years old was with me. You have to understand this guy
in context.
When he was 9 years old I once picked him up from school and asked him
what they had done that day. He said that the teacher had given them an
assignment to write about famous men and women. So I asked him who he
had written about. He replied that he had written about himself but he
did not have all the information yet!
So this famous man – yet to be! – sat next to me as we watched Miriam
Makeba put on a dazzling performance singing and dancing. I told him
that she was 71 years old. He said, ‘ Get out of here! She must be
lying about her age because she looks like she is in her 40s’. I said
she actually was 71. Then he said, ‘ Perhaps she has put on too much
make-up’!
Maybe she had. Miriam Makeba certainly did not look her age. She was
wrapped up in her performance. Maybe that’s what made her look young.
Then it hit me as I listened to her sing and looked at the artists in
the Jazz band accompanying her.
Each artist was playing their bit and each bit fitted in with the whole.
Each artist whether on the saxophone, trumpet, piano, Bass, and drums
was expressing a gift they possessed in them and in so doing
actualizing themselves, coming alive. Their act in playing their
instruments revealed something about them – a spirit, a will, a gift
which wrapped them in joy and translated them into the beautiful music
that thrilled our souls in the audience. The artists were part of a
creative process. The creative process that breathed life in humanity
in Genesis so humankind became a living soul. The creative process
which Jesus breathed on his disciples and said to them, “Receive the
Holy Spirit”.
It hit me listening and looking at them that they were also
unconsciously saying something about God. That God was still breathing
life on us and for awhile were feeling good. Enjoying the moment.
It hit me I was witnessing a living Pentecost. God’s Spirit was
spilling over in the singing of Miriam Makeba and the playing of the
instruments of each artist in the Jazz band.
You see, dear friends, stripped of all the religious make – up, may be
to much of it. Pentecost is the expression of God’s Spirit active in
our world. Active in each of us in the gifts we possess. The living out
of the different gifts we have is Pentecost. When we are in
tune with the particular talents God has
blessed us with we become part of the creative
process of God. God’s Spirit spills
over our lives and others and the world. God breathes in us.
We are all gifted in life and through the Spirit of God our gifts find
life. This is the spirit of Pentecost.
Pentecost is also about awareness and transcendence. As the
audience listened and watched the dazzling performance the music touched
each of us in our inner being. Our emotions danced within. The spirit of
music transcended color, culture, gender, status and nationality.
Pentecost has no boundaries it transcends human restrictions,
prejudices, small thoughts.
One becomes aware that Pentecost reveals that : only love sees
and understands.
Miriam Makeba was singing out her love and the Jazz band playing
out their love. And we who listened were touched by their love.
In that living Pentecost hearts were connected. That is what the gift
of love and life is about connecting with one another.
So, Jesus breaths on us and says, “ Receive the Holy Spirit”. In other
words receive love and live it out. Receive life and dare to live it
out without fear of failing because God is right there with you.
So, I think of Beyonce she is living out her gift as an artist and
actress. I think of Nelson Mandela he also living out his gift as a
politician. Somehow, Mandela singing and dancing as one of the
Dreamgirls! Doesn’t just jell.
I think of all of us here and believe wholeheartedly St. Paul’s eloquent
words that: “ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for
the common good. To one is given the utterance of wisdom, and to another
the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another
faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one
Spirit…”
St. Paul goes on but all these gifts are the work of One and the Same
Spirit who distributes them to each individual at will as he chooses.
All our gifts are from God for the affirmation and building up of the
people of God. We are like the artists in a Jazz band or Orchestra each
with an instrument to play. In this case it is your life. Make
something beautiful of it, enrich others and make our world a better
place to live.
This is our calling in this life. This calling is our gift at Baptism.
On which I conclude my thoughts. I know God loves children. He loves
children because they are so strait forward and open to new things and
curious. A kindergarten teacher took some popular sayings and asked the
children to finish the last parts and this is how it went :
‘Don’t bite the hand that….the kids responded….’looks dirty’
‘Don’t count your
chickens… the kids responded… ‘cook them’.
‘If you can’t stand
the heat ….the kids responded…’get a pool’
On that pool note! We are all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks,
slaves or free we are all made to drink of one Spirit.
This means we are all baptized into something larger than we can ever
imagine. And God help us to live into that. God help us to see the
large picture. God’s picture in breath and length embraces every tribe,
every nation, every color, every language on the face of the earth. We
are all one in Christ.
Baptism transcends all barriers that separate people because it is all
about grace. They are no first class sections, or business class,
economy class in the Kingdom of God. Just the grace section. The love
of God that draws us all the good, the bad and the ugly to Himself. And
since we find all these funny people in God’s Kingdom the only option
open to us is to learn to love them and live with them. Oh, you also
have to learn to smile! Such is the Kingdom of God of God.
The Anglican Communion faced with the challenges of sexuality at this
period of its history needs to reflecting deeply on the reality that
Baptism in the Body of Christ draws us all into the infinity of God’s
grace within us and outside of us which is inclusive of all peoples and
which can never be reduced to suit our wills and wishes. The Kingdom of
God is something we grow into and its about love and service and
healing, and reconciling a broken World and Church. For this purpose
these children are born in Christ.
This what Pentecost and Baptism are about: living out God’s love and
life in a broken world. |
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