A Sermon for Advent 2, 2013
Recently
in the news some science has come out declaring that men’s and women’s brains
are wired differently.
Male
brains appeared to be wired front to back, with few connections bridging the
two hemispheres.
In
females, the pathways criss-crossed between left and right.
These
differences might explain, the scientists speculate, why men, in general, tend
to be better at learning and performing a single task, like cycling or
navigating, whereas women are more equipped for multitasking, say the researchers
in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The
only problem with all this is it gives permission to bring up all those
stereotypical male female differences that we think exist, whether the science
supports them or not, and all that results in is a kind of separatism between
men and women, something that, in my generation at least, we’ve been trying to
work away from for all sorts of human rights reasons.
Even
the scientists admit that so called brain hardwiring can evolve and change as
people learn and develop, thus undermining these so called differences.
This
week in the season of Advent we think of the prophets who, according to the
biblical recorders and our tradition, were mostly men. There are, however, a significant number of
women in our scripture, who deserve the description of prophet but get masked
by a long tradition that only seems to hear the male voice.
Isaiah,
perhaps the most well known of the prophets, considered the mother of his
children to be a prophetess (Is8:3) and both Hannah, mother of Samuel, and Mary
Mother of Jesus are well known for their songs which contain powerful
prophecies about materialism being overthrown by poverty, and the poor and weak
having their day and being blessed by God.
Those words alone make them prophets.
Miriam,
sister of Aaron and Moses, is described in exodus as a prophetess, and in the
book of Judges, Deborah, a judge over Israel, displays all the qualities and
duties of her male prophet counterparts, and there are many more.
A
prophet is someone who is sent, someone with a message, someone who is a
mouthpiece for a truth, and ethic and a belief.
Many prophets come out of suffering and hardship, Indeed you could argue that such harsh
experience can be a catalyst for prophetic ability and inspiration. You see, as I have said many times before,
prophets are not fortune tellers or future tellers.
Prophets
don’t tell you what is going to happen, they tell you what will happen if…….
they
tell you what consequences will befall if…….
and
they tell you what can be achieved if……
The
most startling of these prophecies, which humanity has yet to fully achieve is
that shared by Micah and Isaiah where they say:
They will beat their
swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take
up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Everyone will sit
under their own vine
and under their own fig tree,
and no one will make
them afraid,
for the Lord Almighty has spoken.
All the nations may
walk
in the name of their gods,
but we will walk in
the name of the Lord
our God for ever and ever.
Most
if not all of the prophets, in their different ways, spoke out against
separatism, against oppression and against violence and for an inclusive
humanity under the God of love.
And
most, if not all prophets were ordinary people who somehow found themselves
caught up with a cause, a direction or a truth, and decided to follow it.
Archbishop
Desmond Tutu described Nelson Mandela as a prophet of tolerance. And as, in the wake of his death, Mandela’s
story is recounted and assessed, his place as a modern day prophet is starkly
clear.
Mandela’s
motivation was powered by an opposition to the most abhorrent form of
separatism, that of race and colour:
Apartheid
– from an Afrikaans word meaning ‘The
state of being apart’ became a great crime as it manifested itself in both
major and trivial ways, etching away at human dignity at an everyday level, and
causing conflict and retaliation at other levels as people and organisations
were banned and declared illegal and people imprisoned and life taken.
When
Mandela was eventually freed from his imprisonment, after some 27 years of
captivity, he remarked that true freedom only comes with forgiveness.
For
him, to be entrapped in dispute, in revenge or in conflict was no better than
being in that small cell on Robben Island.
It has been said of Mandela that for him and enemy was a friend waiting
to be made.
And
it was these powerful attitudes that fuelled his optimistic understanding that
reconciliation was the only way forward, and was the solution to this aberrant
segregation and humiliation of his fellow human beings.
All the nations may
walk
in the name of their gods,
He
had been scrupulous to ensure that he demonstrated a profound respect for all
the faiths to be found in his country. After he was elected by Parliament as the
first democratically elected President on 9 May 1994, on the Friday he went to
a mosque and on the following day he attended a synagogue and on the Sunday
attended a larger inter-denominational service at the FNB Stadium in Soweto. At
his inauguration, prayers were offered by Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Christian
ministers.
Everyone will sit
under their own vine
and under their own fig tree,
I
heard a sports reporter on the radio remember Mandela making a surprise visit
to a football stadium, at the anxiety of his security, wandered through the
crowd talking to people. One man in a
wheelchair shouted out’ your achievement has been great’ and his answer was,
yes it has been great hasn’t it, but its your achievement.
His
self deprecation was part of his power. He once addressed the labour party
conference, describing himself as an unemployed pensioner with a criminal
record, and the went on to speak of tolerance, forgiveness and reconciliation.
And
so on this second Sunday in Advent, when we remember all those who cried out
from various wildernesses, about the truth of a loving God and a capable
humanity,
may
our second Advent candle glow with their prophetic voice, and for now help us
remember the gift of Nelson Mandela’s life, prophecy and example.
Archbishop
Tutu’s prayer
"We
offer a prayer of contrition. We come with humble and broken hearts for all the
ways we have fallen short of the glory of God.
"We
come carrying our sorrow for all of the ways that we have fallen short of the
example that Madiba offered us; an example of integrity, of reconciliation, of
leadership in the service of the people.
"So
we thank God for Rolihlahla. We thank God that this man had the courage to
learn and to grow.
