Excerpt from the Archbishop's sermon:
Midnight Mass – Christmas Eve
24th December 2024
Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr
The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba
Archbishop of Cape Town
Isaiah 9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
May I speak in the name of God who is Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Amen.
On this holy night, on behalf of the Cathedral, the Diocese and the Province, I wish each one of you a blessed and peaceful Christmas. And I warmly welcome all of you, whether you are worshipping here or online.
Thank you to everyone who has helped to plan this service tonight, a service which has come to play such an important part in the life of the city and the Diocese, a service that celebrates the love that God has for each one of us, a love so deep, so profound, that the incarnate God becomes one of and with us. Thank you to our magnificent choir, Director of Music and Organist for giving us a glimpse of heaven. Thank you to the Lay Ministers, to the Verger, Greg, to all the staff of the Cathedral, and to the Chancellor, the Church Wardens and the Cathedral Council, for the time, energy and care you bring to your tasks.
Thank you especially, Mfundisi Mcebisi Pinyana, our Priest-in-Charge, for your dedicated service in the interregnum, and to your family for helping you bear the twin burdens of acting in place of a dean and still serving as my chaplain. I am pleased to announce that the Bishops of the Province have agreed that we should decorate Mfundisi Mcebisi as an Honorary Canon. Thank you also to my staff at Bishopscourt who have supported him during these months, especially the Revd Grant Walters, the Provincial Executive Officer, and my PA, the Revd Abigail Hopley.
Our congratulations go to Dean-elect Terry Lester, whom I will install in a service on February 2nd. The election had its bumps, but I was thrilled both with the unanimous vote for Terry, and with the enthusiastic response to his appointment. As a child of the Constantia Valley, a veteran of the struggle, an experienced leader in a wide variety of contexts in the Diocese, and a long-serving Sub-Dean, he, Nicolette and their family of five children and four grandchildren bring many gifts to this community. Would you believe it, he even has a Muslim daughter-in-law and a Jewish son-in-law! Can you imagine a more fully representative Capetonian than that?!
It won’t surprise those who’ve heard me preach at this service in past years that I want to begin with a focus tonight on the marginalised, those on the fringes of society. The American writer, John Cheever, reflects in his short story, “Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor”, on underprivileged children in New York at this time of year. The story tells how they see messages “on every corner, and pictures in the magazines and newspapers and on every wall and window in the city,” which tell them that if they are good, they will get what they want. But then, thinking of their parents, Cheever’s character, Charlie, pronounces these haunting words: “And when it came Christmas morning, how could you explain it, how could you tell them that Santa Claus only visited the rich, that he didn’t know about the good.”
That story, telling of how the rich children get even more, while the poor receive the least, describes an overwhelming reality for many people in many places, and it breaks our hearts. That story, the story of many parts of our city, of our nation and of the world, is also the story of the lives of the shepherds about whom we have just heard in our Gospel reading. Social historians tell us that in biblical times, shepherds lived socially and politically deprived lives, in economically vulnerable situations, all within the broader environment of the politics of radical exclusion with no foreseeable future. As people living on the outskirts of town, shepherds were prevented from accessing many ordinary rights. They could not enter the Temple, they were stopped from using certain roads and public spaces and were the victims of untold prejudices. They were barred from being witnesses in court cases – but they were the people chosen by God as witnesses to the birth of our Saviour.
Their story starts off in darkness, as they watched their flocks by night, but it ends in light as the brilliance of the hosts of angels fills the sky. In that simple transformation, we see the promise of change that this Gospel story holds, that as God’s message pierces the darkness, the silence is broken by angelic songs. I love the way that we are told that they rushed to find the place where Jesus, Mary and Joseph were. Scholars tell us that to have rushed there, they would have refused to take the long, tedious, winding back roads that they were legally obliged to travel on. No, they decided to use the main roads, the roads which were reserved for people who were ritually clean or of a higher class. In doing so, the shepherds literally took back the streets, reasserted their presence where it was forbidden, and thus took back their power.
That small detail presents to us the Christmas story as a lesson in how to take back power, opening new possibilities for us and for our world. Equally important is how the shepherds, who had been silent up to now, literally find their voices and praise God, telling everyone of the event that had been revealed to them. The Christmas message can empower us, as it empowered the shepherds, to break our silence and reclaim that which has been taken from us. It empowers us to reverse the old order so that we too share in the miracle of a new beginning, of new birth.
Finally, note the small but significant word the angels use when they proclaim that they bring “good news of great joy for ALL the people” – not just some, but all the people. Christmas excludes no one. The story that comes later, of the visit of the three Magi to the manger, reinforces this fundamental truth, that no one is excluded, all are welcome. As Desmond Tutu used to say, our faith tells us that there are no outsiders. All are welcome: black and white; rich and poor; clever and not so clever; beautiful and not so beautiful; gay, lesbian or straight; male, female or those who identify differently. We all belong in God’s family. Gender, race, class, social status, orientation, none of these arbitrary classifications count, none are an obstacle to being welcomed, included and transformed into the best version of ourselves, people empowered to build a new world.
As I contemplated my Christmas message this year, I asked a couple of friends, well-known and not so well-known, what they thought South Africa and the world faced at this time. One bemoaned what he called “the vortex of corruption and bureaucratic ineptitude continuing to swirl in South Africa.“ Another remarked on how difficult our situation as a nation remains, and decried the emptiness of our political discourse, while the first went on to tell me that the election of populist politicians around the world gives us little reason for hope as we enter 2025.
All of this is true. Whether it is water shortages in Gauteng, construction mafia in KwaZulu/Natal, education and health services in the Eastern Cape, gang violence in the Western Cape – and all provinces face these challenges to one or another degree – or failing municipalities everywhere, the Ramaphosa administration did not meet our expectations. The Government of National Unity will go the same way if politicians continue to live in the past, believing they have a God-given right to rule and ignoring the fundamental need to compromise; a need that if they do not recognise, they will be punished even more spectacularly at municipal, provincial and national elections to come.
Even as the angels of the Christmas story sing about joy and peace and hope, poverty, violence and desperate unemployment hang like a dark spectre over the lives of hundreds of thousands of people on our very doorsteps. We don’t need telling again that we are one of the most unequal societies in the world, but new and eye-opening research published by the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics throws new light on the challenge we face if we are to break the link between race and resources and bring about more racial equality in the distribution of wealth in our society.
Based on an analysis of estate records, the research was able to establish how much wealth South Africans can expect to inherit from their forebears. It found that nearly half – 47 percent – of white South Africans stand to inherit wealth of at least R250,000. But only three percent of black South Africans and eight percent of Coloured South Africans can expect to inherit that much. (The figure for what the research calls “Asian” South Africans is 43 percent). People’s homes constitute a large share of total household wealth in South Africa, and the research indicates that even that wealth which has been accumulated by black South Africans can be attributed in large measure to large numbers of black home-owners benefitting from the privatisation of township housing rather than by buying into formerly white areas.
The politics of radical exclusion which prevailed at the time of Christ’s birth are reflected in our own realities not only in South Africa but across much of the world. Global financial crises, from which corporations and banks emerge as too big to fail, while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, undermine confidence in established democracies, spawning populist authoritarian leaders, in turn diminishing respect for human rights and undermining social cohesion. No systemic approach, no ideology seems to offer viable solutions.
At the same time, the relative world peace which prevailed in the second half of the 20th century has been replaced by regional wars which threaten to metastasize like an aggressive cancer. In our own continent, the hunger and violence in the Sudan and South Sudan grows worse daily, children die from hunger and the DR Congo echoes with the cries of conflict. In the Middle East, the names of places we recognize from the Christmas story in the Bible are now associated with the depraved horrors of war, crimes against humanity and genocide. Bethlehem in the Occupied West Bank is still under brutal occupation. Tyre in Lebanon has been bombed and invaded. Damascus, the city of St Paul, is now rid of its dictator but is being bombed by its neighbour and its future is threatened by the rivalries of great powers which seek above all else to draw the new government into their orbits. The fact that the ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon is, with some exceptions, holding, emboldens me to call once again for an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, for the ceasefire in Lebanon to be fully respected, and for Syria to be allowed to develop its own government, democratic and accountable only to its own citizens.
Despite all this, for South Africa at least, I do have real hope. In the midst of loud noises and headlines, the Government of National Unity is holding so far, and if the various foundations established in the names of our best leaders of the past manage to bring their influence to bear, there is every prospect of the proposed National Dialogue getting off the ground. If that happens, 2025 can become a year of transformation. However, if such a dialogue is to provide solutions to our most urgent and deep-seated problems, it cannot be a gathering of elites, and the politicians need to take a back seat. It must be a conversation in which ignored voices, including the unemployed, find their agency, in which marginalised people speak for themselves and articulate their situations, share their dreams, offer solutions and take back their political and economic power. No one can be left out of the process.
There is no more urgent an issue for the national dialogue to address than the crisis facing young South Africans. We desperately need a coherent, transparent and measurable strategy to empower young people by building their capabilities and creating access to opportunities for engagement. To do this, our religious institutions, our communities, our business partners and our government must adopt a comprehensive view of their needs. For our country to survive, we have to deliver on the promise of economic, civic and social activities that foster livelihoods, political participation and establish youth-to-youth connections to combat risky behaviours while fostering positive development.
Unfortunately, families and schools are often overstretched and trapped into habits that prevent progress. The New Struggle for a new South Africa that I have been advocating for the last decade has as one of its goals the building of critical capabilities that fundamentally transform the way young people see their role and responsibilities in the world. Academic and vocational skills are not enough. Young people from poor communities also need to learn life skills to take care of their health, make informed decisions, develop relationships and solve problems. Adult support from role models, coaching and encouragement are often lacking. Enabling young people to learn, express themselves and interact in structured settings has significant impact on their self-confidence and intra-personal skills, which in turn, increases their ability to contribute productively to their development and that of their community. The New Struggle aims to build innovative new programs, partnering with South African industry and commerce, to begin transforming inequality into equality of opportunity.
As we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, there is no reason to despair. For we know that true peace is based on the establishment of justice, and if we are to realise the promise of Christmas, we need to re-dedicate ourselves to working for justice. Yes, thirty years into our political liberation we are frustrated and angry at the failures of our nation. But I love the saying attributed to that great African saint, Augustine of Hippo, that “Hope has two beautiful daughters, anger and courage. Anger at the way things are and the courage to ensure that they do not stay that way.” So our anger at the betrayal of our hopes must spur us into courageous action to recover them and set us back on the path which democracy and our Constitution promised us.
In a later passage in Isaiah than that which we heard tonight, the prophet makes clear that despite God's power and might, despite God's transcendence, it is wrong to infer that God is too great to care (Is 40:25ff). As Jesus said in Matthew's Gospel, the very hairs on our heads are all numbered. No a single sparrow can fall to the ground without our Creator knowing it, and each of us is more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows (Mt 10: 29-31).
So in this time of stress and strain in the life of the church and the world, it is important to remember that God cares for each of us, no matter what our condition. God cares for each individual victim of gender-based violence; God cares for the victim of abuse in the church, whether in England, Zimbabwe or South Africa; God cares for those who are threatened and abused by gangs, whether ordinary criminals or construction or transport mafia; God cares for the victims of those who hold others to ransom, trying to extort money from people who are just trying to do their jobs.
And God also cares for the marginalised. God cares for every single one of the eight-and-a-half million South Africans who are unemployed; God cares for those who struggle to keep food on their families' tables, who battle just to keep body and soul together; and God cares for the sons and the daughters of the poor who are trapped in a self-perpetuating spiral of poverty, inadequate education and denial of opportunity.
Darkness and death will not have the last word. Light and life will pierce through them, birthing a New Struggle inspired by the Advent hope, a struggle to ensure that the kingdoms of this world are transformed into the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. (Rev 11:5)
On this most holy Christmas night, God bless you and your families. God loves you, and so do I.
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Preparing for the service, the Revd Mcebisi Pinyana, Priest-in-Charge:
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