"We must re-dedicate ourselves to the struggle against complacency, greed, nepotism, and the lust for power" - Archbishop

 

ARCHBISHOP THABO MAKGOBA

PRIMATE and METROPOLITAN OF THE ACSA

Diocesan Family Weekend, Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman

Archdeaconry of Molopo, Taung Central

MM Sibitloane Special School

31st August 2025

Readings: Jeremiah 2: 4-13; Psalm 81:1,10-16; Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16; Luke 14:1,7-14

May I speak in the name of God, who is Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Amen.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, people of God in the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman, it is an honour and a privilege to have been asked to share with you the Word of God here in Taung at today's service. Thank you to you, Bishop Brian, to your leadership team and the whole community for inviting me to join your Family Weekend—it's been a joyous and inspiring time for me to get away from my desk in Cape Town and to come and visit you here, where, as they say, “the rubber meets the road” in God's church. Thank you too to those who have worked hard to prepare for the weekend, for the dialogue with young people yesterday and for today's service. A special welcome to our distinguished guests, fellow clergy, and to all of you, the whole wonderful diocesan family.

Your ministry in service and witness through God’s love and grace in this part of God's world is inspiring. As the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews urges us in Chapter 10 (v. 25), do continue to encourage one another in the love of the Lord, just as you have done throughout the long history of this Diocese, for—as we heard in today's reading from Chapter 13—Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, and we are called to continue, as we are doing today, offering a sacrifice of praise to God.

The Gospel reading we have heard (Luke 14:1ff) gives us an account of Jesus’ teaching at the house of a prominent Pharisee. His teaching here is not to be regarded simply as good advice for guests, such as that offered by Solomon in his Book of Proverbs (25:6). It goes much further than that, because in urging us to humble ourselves, Jesus attaches to the act of doing so a spiritual significance, one that bears witness to the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus uses in this parable the example of how seating is arranged at a banquet, he is referring to the practice of keeping the best seats for those the world regards as being the most important, those who hold the highest rank in society. He suggests that it's better to choose a more modest seat, on the basis that you can always be called up to the top table if the host asks you to. We mustn't misunderstand this passage: Jesus is not saying we should give a public display of false modesty in the expectation that we will be exalted later by being called to the top. No, he is simply saying we should practice humility for its own sake, not because of any prestige or reward we might get. It is a plain piece of advice in line with his other teachings, condemning the attitude of doing good in the expectation of receiving either a tangible, earthly reward or even a heavenly reward.

The point is that we should seek to do good, including to those who cannot give anything in return, and leave the question of recompense or reward to God. And if we turn to the Lord we will find all the righteousness demanded by the law. Each one of us, no matter our gender, our race, our sexual orientation or our station in life—rich or poor, prominent or obscure—has the privilege of looking with unveiled faces upon the glory of the Lord our God as revealed in Christ.

Just as the readings from Hebrews and Luke challenged people of their time, and continue to challenge us today, so too does the prophecy of Jeremiah (2:4-13) when he accuses Israel of forsaking the God who brought them out of the land of Egypt; they defiled God's land, they listened to Baal, a pagan god and they preferred “profitless” gods to their own God, rendering even the heavens aghast at such sacrilege.

As the people of this Diocese, as the people of the Northern Cape, as the people of South Africa, what can we draw from today’s readings? What do they say to us in the here and now? Let's run through a quick list of what God is saying in today's readings, and ask which items on the list apply to us today in South Africa.

From Jeremiah: God freed the people from oppression in Egypt, led them through the wilderness and into the promised land, yet they defiled that land and made God's heritage an abomination. From Hebrews: Those who received the letter were urged to show hospitality to strangers; to remember prisoners; to respect marriage; to keep their lives free from the love of money; to do good and to share what they have. And from Luke's Gospel: Jesus urges his listeners to humble themselves, to invite the poor, the lame and the blind to share in what gives us life and health.

When we look at the corruption and misuse of our resources in our country today, can we honestly say that we have fully lived up to the promise offered by our liberation 30 years ago? When we see violent mobs preventing migrants from getting medical treatment, can we say we have shown hospitality to strangers? When our overcrowded prisons generate crime and violence instead of ending it, can we say we have remembered prisoners? When we look at the shocking phenomenon of domestic violence, can we say we respect marriage? And when the sons and daughters of the rich get the best opportunities in life, and become well-off themselves, while the sons daughters and sons of the poor struggle to escape the vicious cycle of deprivation that keeps them poor, can we say that we are doing good and sharing with the poor?

The answer, time and again in the South Africa of today is No. And our failures are not only of government; they are failures of the private sector also, and also failures in our own communities. We are squandering what God has bequeathed us through the generations which fought for our liberation. And that is why, despite the criticisms of the National Dialogue process which was launched earlier this month, I agreed to join the group of independent figures who have been asked to be advisers to the process. I said long before I was asked to serve that the dialogue won't work if it is dictated to by politicians, and our group of advisers is having discussions with the legacy foundations who have those concerns. My impression is that many of those who reject the dialogue either have material interests to defend or reflect a middle-class which is protected from the worst of the bad governance most of us experience, and I don't hear the critics suggest alternatives other than trotting out party manifestos.

In the 1990s we negotiated the cornerstones of our democracy through the body known as Codesa. I have long urged that we need a Codesa 2 to negotiate a new social compact governing land and the economy, and the National Dialogue gives us our best shot at doing that. The evidence I see, particularly from rural communities such as my own in Limpopo province, is that most ordinary South Africans agree. I am obsessed with the need for solutions beyond talk. For as the Scripture says, faith without action is dead. (James 2:17) A group of respected grassroots organisations including shack-dwellers, housing activists and human rights groups which is attending the dialogue has acknowledged that the process is flawed and its ambitions may be unrealistic. “Yet," the group says, "It marks a radical departure from past government-led engagements. In some ways, it is a quiet admission: the fate of the nation cannot be left to a government that has poor political will and evidently no solutions. For once, the call is going to the public—overwhelmingly poor and working-class—for answers.”

The National Dialogue will involve nearly 14,000 community dialogues at ward, district and sectoral levels. Given the levels of dissatisfaction at the grassroots in our society, any politician who thinks he or she can control the process is sorely mistaken, The process can generate new policies and even new political parties. So I urge all of you at every level to make your voices heard: in Taung, in Kuruman, in Bathlaros, in Danielskuil, in Upington, in Kimberley and in every town and district in the Diocese, take possession of the process and organise around it. And I would urge every South African, in every community in the country, to follow your example.

Please pray that we will recognise that the chasm between the rich and poor in South Africa cannot be tolerated any longer, and that we will act on that recognition. We have a New Struggle as South Africans, one which replaces the old struggle against apartheid, and that is a New Struggle to regain our moral compass, to end economic inequality, to bring about equality of opportunity and to realise the promises enshrined in our Constitution.

We must re-dedicate ourselves to the struggle against complacency, greed, nepotism, and the lust for power; to the struggle against the pursuit of narrow self-interest, personal gain, status, and material wealth – in short let us commit ourselves to the struggle for true justice, including economic justice.

Let me return to why we are gathered here in Taung, which is to celebrate Diocesan Family Day. What is a family in Jesus’s eyes? A family consists of those who are doing the will of God (Matt. 12:50). In other words, the relationships that count are not physical, but moral and spiritual. Our aim must be to belong with Jesus to the family of our one Father in heaven and to do God's will. It is my hope that we can be that family of Jesus.

Let me end with the words of Paul to the Ephesians: ”Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom of God will ever see me again. I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with His own blood. I now commit you to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.’ (Acts 20:25ff)

Congratulations on organising such a wonderful weekend, full of celebrations as a diocesan family. I invite you to turn to loving ways and to become conduits of God's peace. God loves you, and so do I. God bless this Diocese, this Province, South Africa and the world. Amen.

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