Homily at the Patronal Festival And Bicentennial Celebrations at St Francis Of Assisi, Simonstown, 5 October 2014:
Theme: Bio-Diversity
Genesis 1:24-31; Psalm 150 (Sung); Rev 5: 1-14; Gospel: St Luke: 12:42-48
I
greet you all in the name of God who is Creator, Sustainer and
Redeemer. Amen.
Let
me start first by congratulating you for attaining a great milestone
in the history of our Province: 200 years of faithful service,
worship and witness in this place. We give thanks to God and I think
we need to applaud this milestone. I acknowledge the presence of my
predecessor, Archbishop Njongo, as I give thanks to the parish and
Father Bob for inviting me to come and share this day with you today.
I miss Fr Bob because whilst he was chaplain at Herschel, my daughter
used to invite me to his sermons. She would say, “Dad, you always
preach, come and listen to my chaplain preach at school”. So I
would attend these inspiring and profound sermons by Bob.
Yours
is a story of faithfulness and courage, and God’s faithfulness and
care for you as a parish and people. I might be “preaching to the
choir” but as you all know, patronal festivals or feasts of title
are “nostalgic” occasions. You recall things gone past, how you
are faring now and postulate the end with joy or fear – or you
don’t even want to think about what the end will be like. These
raise deep theological questions of how to live with the knowledge of
God’s revelation, his incarnation in the here and now and what your
or our end will be and how we should live whilst we are on “borrowed”
time in this life. How should we respond to God’s revelation in
creation? Could there be another way of looking at this?
The
anthem sung by the choir just before the gradual hymn was
particularly moving and made me reflect more deeply on the things I
feel nostalgic about. And the elements brought to the front as
symbols of bio-diversity were also helpful in reminding me of your
patron saint, Francis. Francis and bio-diversity and care for the
“outliers” or marginalised are synonymous. As you seek to imitate
Christ and live up to the example of your patron saint, Francis, and
in your frailty or strength or in whatever state you find yourself,
how should you respond to God’s revelation in creation?
I
have been asked to reflect on bio-diversity, as your patronal
festival falls within the season of creation. Bio-diversity boils
down to relationships. Two weeks ago, at Provincial Standing
Committee, we were reminded of the reality of climate change as part
of our relationship with the environment. Some may dispute this
reality. But as one who calls Makgobaskloof home, I do notice the
changes that make it far different from the way it was when I grew up
there. The Letaba River is sometimes is too low or too full, the Ga
Makgoba settlement is too dry and barren and full of resettled
people.
At
PSC, we were reminded of frightening and sobering statistics showing
that 60% of the ecosystem on which we depend for life is now degraded
beyond the point of repair: our water supplies and air are polluted
and unsafe, and our bird life, animals, fish and forests are
suffering. We see rising food prices and we are told that Southern
Africa is warming at twice the global average. We may doubt the
details of these statistics but we can’t ignore the warnings
because we don’t agree scientifically.
One
of the Anglican Communion marks of mission urges us to “strive to
safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of
the earth.” How do we do that, in the face of what I have painted?
To
my children’s consternation, I have become known as “the toilet
archbishop” because of my constant call that the poorest of the
poor should be provided with proper water and sanitation. The cost to
the fiscus of not doing so is much more than that of doing so,
because of the consequences that ripple through to the health and
other budgets. Hence I want to call on you, over and above what you
do for social outreach, to join me in highlighting the plight of
those without proper water and sanitation. Share your skills and
research in devising solutions to this basic need. Order your
intercessions to pray for an end to the plight of those who live
without proper sanitation. Become known as the “the toilet parish”
because of your concern and determination to resolve water and
sanitation challenges in our country. Your patron saint would
probably have identified with this call, this cause, and not with
large houses, many garages and big and many cars.
How
should we respond to the word read, proclaimed, prayed and said, to
the sacrament shared, and to God‘s faithfulness to this parish over
the last 200 years? The Psalmist in Psalm 150 sung and the heavenly
host in the passage from Revelation read today urge us to respond by
praise and worship, “Worthy is the Lamb”. You have done that well
this morning. But how do we exude this life of worship and praise
both inside this parochial space and outside, where we live and move
and encounter our diverse contexts?
As
John Suggit, who is seated in the pews this morning, is sometime
quoted as saying, let’s get our theology correct. We can’t end
the Genesis passage read by Sir Rupert Bromley with subduing and
dominating the earth (Genesis 1:24-31). We need also to care for it.
We can’t worry about the soul only in the company of the heavenly
host in the vision read from Revelation and not worry about our body
and mind and those of our neighbours (in the broadest sense ). We
can’t afford the dualism that is sometimes preached and that has
become prevalent and encourages escapism. Our lives, like that of St
Francis, are lives full of hope. Hope, as John Suggit and Denise
Ackermann describe it, is ”getting our hands dirty and effecting
the change we desire because we believe God is with us and is already
changing our lot”. Again Suggit is quoted as saying to his
homiletics students (I hope it is correct!) that if you can’t say
it in three sentences, don’t bother to say it. So to comply with
this expectation, all I have said boils to two key theological
aspirations: What is liberation (redemption) and how should we live
in the here-and-now as people nurtured by the word of God?
We
do these amongst other virtues by renewing our relationship with one
another as neighbours and as God‘s children; we care for one
another; we listen, hear and live the word of God in the world and
with all God’s creation as the psalmist did, in praise and honour
to God who cares for all of us, like God does even for the sparrow.
We
are so grateful to God for this, our Church’s oldest parish. It has
felt special for me to take part in this service. May you grow as a
parish and continue in God’s strength. May each one of you continue
to live in hope. Be like your patron saint, Francis – be
hope-filled as you prosper in the things of God. Amen.
+Thabo Makgoba
