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The Smile of Victory: Remembering Mandela’s Release

February 11, 2010

Posted by Wallace+

Nelson MandelaIf you didn't see it, or even if you did, I recommend Sunday's "Nelson Mandela's Captive Audience," in the "Week in Review" section of the New York Times.

"....the victory of dignity and hope over despair and hatred, of self- discipline and love over persecution and evil..."

I was especially taken by the first entry in this collection of short essays.  Jack Mapanje's words hold a special poignancy for me, personally, as I lived in Malawi during the Banda regime.  I was an innocent adolescent boy, the son of the American Anbassador.  And, on reading his words, I can't help but think about and feel the weightiness of the choices that we Americans make by allying ourselves with this or that regime.  I was an innocent American boy; and yet, I wasn't.  By virtue of my country's alliance with a dictatorial regime, my hands--a boy's hands--weren't clean--though they should have been; as every child's hands should be.

Lord, guide us in these weighty matters.  Give us courage, and help us to make the most humane choices we can make.  And, on this the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from unjust imprisonment, may you inspire each of us to be, in our own way, a little more like him.

Even a little more, Lord, even a little more.

 

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SERMONS

To Bethlehem; to Bethlehem, we have come.

And, of course, this Christmas, tonight, and tomorrow, new memories are being made; a Carol sung, pure and exquisite; an old friend; warm, endearing words exchanged; a first Christmas for a new grandbaby; a candle lit, a face aglow, eyes agleam.

The Pointer’s Point

More than fifty times, in his published writings, Barth refers to the Grunewald image; and, indeed, usually, it is precisely in reference to John,  and John’s relation to the figure of Christ; as he points.
Barth (and Grunewald before him) understood John’s sole purpose to be to serve as a pointer to Christ, a reference to Christ, a witness to Christ.

Keep Alert, Awake, and Watchful

On any given day, there are those things that would get our attention; those things that would bring fresh perspective; those things would remind us of what is most important, what is most true. If, that is, if we but notice. We never know when those things, those experiences, those people might come. And so it has always been, so it has always been.

The Rule of 72

The Rule of 72, they call it.  It’s a rule of thumb to figure how long it’ll take to double your money. If you know you can get 5%, on your investment, then you divide 5 into 72 and that tells you: it’ll take roughly 14 and ½ years to double your money. That’s the Rule of 72. Now, sometimes an investor doesn’t want to wait 14 and a ½ years, or however long the Rule of 72 tells you that you have to wait and so increased risks are taken. And sometimes you win, and sometimes you loose.

Walk the Way of a Servant

We all want, in the words of St. Paul, to “lead a life worthy of God.” A life worthy of God. Un-like the lives of the false prophets, of Micah’s day, or the false teachers of Jesus’ day, the scribes and the Pharisees, teachers of the law. Their lives are un-worthy of God, we are told, in no uncertain terms. In their hypocrisy, they serve, not God, not God’s people, but themselves.

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