The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 ~ Psalm 19 ~ 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a ~ Luke 4:14-21
I want to introduce you to Godwill. Godwill is a 10-year-old boy that I met in the Sudan, and I want you to hear Godwill’s voice. (Dean Pompa turns on recorder.) (Godwill sings.) “He’s in control all around the world. Master Jesus. He’s in control.” Meet Godwill, a 10-year-old boy whose father is a priest, one of the clergy of the Diocese of Kajo Keji, who has been living in exile since the civil war that has afflicted that people. His father is returning for the synod, the convention of the Diocese of Kajo Keji, considering his return to serve in that Diocese. Meet Godwill and meet the spirituality of a people returned from exile. He’s in control all around the world. Master Jesus. He’s in control. The people of Kajo Keji are like the people of Israel who have returned form Babylonian exile in the Old Testament lesson we read today. The people of Israel are returning from exile, the Babylonian exile, and they find in the Persian system of government a sympathetic system, one that has appointed Nehemiah the governor, Nehemiah being a faithful Israelite. Nehemiah, the governor, has been given permission by the Persian government to help rebuild the wall that surrounds the temple in Jerusalem.
The people who have been sent away in exile under the Babylonians now experience what they never imagined, but always hoped for–-that they could return to Jerusalem to the temple that they themselves would be bringing the materials and the stones that would rebuild that wall around the temple. But more so...many, of course, never imagined but always hoped that they would be in a place where they, too, would again be returned to their system of life, their rediscovery of the law that defined their relationship with God, a reconnection with that place of worship, a rediscovery of their spirituality, a spirituality that God is at the center of their lives, and that God himself is in control.
The people of Kajo Keji are among the 5% who are Christian in the Sudan, most of them being the South of the Sudan. They returned from the exile the civil war had forced upon them. You may have heard about this before from Archdeacon Cluett and others. It is hard for us to tell the story, hard even to comprehend unless you are there and see it. But short of chartering a number of jets, this is the best I can do.
A people who were forced into exile, fleeing from civil war, are returning home to their villages. Christian people are rediscovering that their humble infrastructure has been destroyed during that civil war. Their small churches, mostly made of mud and straw, have been empty for years and are now being repopulated and rediscovered.
Their bishop who was in exile now remains back in Kajo Keji and as they return and are slowly building again what most of us have taken for granted, that is their churches, literally the buildings of their churches and the structure to carry out the mission of the church. Actually their bishop in this geographic area that is their diocese is now leading that restructuring. Some churches are now being built out of cement block, and you know because we’ve partnered with them, that schools are now being built out of cement block as opposed to the schools that are made of mud and straw.
The bishop not only is leading that effort, but Bishop Poggo is now trying to build the very structures of what it means to be a church. He is building the Diocesan center where the leadership and the clergy can gather and be trained and educated, and sent to go and lead in the small villages around the Diocese. These villages are populated by the poor, and by the poor they are being built. We literally saw the beams being raised as we were there. Being built and raised are the beams of the Cathedral. At first Raymond Arcario, who was with me, and I looked at each other thinking–-it seems so counter-intuitive. Why not running water first? Why not a good system of food and transportation first? But why the beams of a Cathedral? As the week went on, we got it. Because the people there have to know, just like the people of Israel had to see the walls of the Temple being rebuilt, they had to know that the church was there, that the church was investing in them, and that they would have a place to worship, not only to worship, but to learn and to grow and to be taught and to be sent.
Indeed the Cathedral is being raised, a symbol and center for worship and education. Schools are being built to educate their children. Indeed, we attended more than one village gathering where, just like you, they attend PTA meetings. The parents of these children came with gratitude in their hearts that new schools were being built, and with a desire for their children to learn and grow and to become more than they had ever imagined.
Not only is infrastructure being built, but an economy is being built there–-places to train people, to teach them skills so that they might make things that can be traded or sold. Indeed, there is much being built in Kajo Keji after a return from exile. And like the people who stand at the water gate outside the Temple in Jerusalem, they return with an astounding hope, astounding hope. All of this rebuilding sits on a firm foundation of their understanding of spirituality. Jesus is in control.
Raymond Arcario, your Senior Warden, and I journeyed to Kajo Keji and we anointed ourselves ambassadors of joy. We’re ambassadors of joy.
I was there to represent the Bishop at their Diocesan convention and to teach a course on preaching in their leadership school. Raymond was there to be an ambassador of this Cathedral and to meet the people of Emmanuel Cathedral, our partner church. Our experience was that the firm foundation that we are building is, of course, built on relationships, and we were blessed to build relationships with a fiercely faithful, hopeful, resilient, and joyful people.
There we met Pianaleh, their Dean. We’ve been praying for him as Samuel. He prefers Pianaleh. (I’m going to change it in the prayers of the people and we’ll have a little crash course for all of the readers.) As a child Pianaleh, himself, chose to remain in his village during the civil war because his grandmother said to his family, “let us not flee to Uganda. We must remain here.” He now finds himself a spiritual leader in a rebuilding community.
Pianaleh is smart and sweet. He is compassionate and determined. These are gifts God has given him. There we met Anna Ponee and Peter Wanee, the other clergy of the Cathedral, joyous in spirit and committed to pastoral and educational ministries. There we met Seteracaw, an elder and a church teacher. His words were wise. His skin was weathered. His spirit was confident. There we met Longa Alex, the church warden, definitely a companion of Raymond Arcario. We met Jerry Joseph, the young worship leader who leads their Cathedral in youth ministry and leads their youth choir. Does this all sound familiar?
We met some of the women of the Cathedral: Rejoice Ponee, Roy Peta Adeta Colulee, Cecelia Wageia, who, by the way, we sang a little Simon & Garfunkel to--because that’s the only song I knew with Cecelia in it. I didn’t sing the whole thing, don’t worry. We met these committed women and we heard of their plans to expand their women's bible studies so that more women of the village of Romogi might have an opportunity to participate. Does this sound familiar?
And there we met Grace Taboo. Grace was the caretaker of all things, the coordinator of most things, the Bishop’s administrator, and a faithful member of the Cathedral’s women’s group. She offered us hospitality beyond measure. She laid scriptural foundation to our two Cathedrals’ budding relationship quoting Galatians 3:15 which, in summary, said that “when members of the Christian community come together in agreement on anything, no one can break it.”
There is a church, literally a church, being built before our very eyes, and how grateful I am that we can be part of that. This church is being built on faith and hope and a theological understanding that it is Jesus’ church and that Jesus is in control. It is a life attitude there. It has to be given all that they have experienced. They literally hand over their lives to God.
The physical structures that are coming to life because of our Diocesan partnership are important and vital-–a college, schools and churches. But the building up of the gospel is coming to life in the people there and our people here. The gifts that they have and what we have that we are willing to share with one another is where our relationship comes to life in the discovery of God’s wonder and gifts given and shared in one another.
In Corinthians today, St. Paul reminds the people of Corinth that there are many gifts that come from the same spirit. St. Paul knew, as Jesus knew, that to be the body of Christ, that is to be the hands and heart of Christ in the world, the people of the church must come to know their gifts and offer them to the world freely. St. Paul needed to remind the people of Corinth, and we need to be reminded that not one gift is greater than another, but the gifts woven together make a perfect tapestry that gives life and hope to the communities in which we live. This is the foundation in which our ministry and partnership comes to life on that side of the world and on this side.
The people of Kajo Keji asked one another in their synod, and by the way, if you’re wondering, their Diocesan convention is just like ours. Everybody is in a room, the bishop talks, gives an address, people offer not so much legislation, but things that need to be acted upon. It felt very much like any other church meeting of which I’ve been a part. And you know how much I love those. But in their Synod, these are the questions that they were asking of one another. How do we expand our ministry with youth? How do we become better evangelists? How do we become better stewards of what God has given us? Believe me, their understanding of what God has given them is amazing. How do we support the work of the church with our time and talent and our treasure? Does that sound familiar? Oh, and this one, I chuckled at this one. How do we understand ourselves as a Diocese? How do we move from an understanding of Diocese from that which a bishop and staff will do for us to an understanding of how we can support one another and our other churches in this Diocese with our gifts, our resources, and our talents shared?
There is a people, a church, returned from exile being born in the Sudan. The physical structures and support systems are coming to life before our very eyes, and our relationship is agreed upon. As it grows, I pray it will become strong. With that relationship, what it has to offer us is an authentic experience of what it literally means to be the body of Christ, a sharing of gifts to become the body of Christ. For now I recognize that we here in our own Cathedral face the same issues of being the church. We have our own issues of sustaining our physical presence in this place, a physical place where people can come and know that there is a Diocesan center, and a parish church where we can learn and grow and witness to the community in which we live. People need to know that we are here. They need to physically see us. We have challenges to keep the ship afloat, and we have ever-increasing opportunities for ministry. How do we expand our ministry with our youth? How do we live into a strategic and intentional ministry of evangelism, sharing the good news of Christ with the world and inviting others to come and join us to be part of this community? How do we continue to live as faithful stewards where we share our time, talents, and treasures, and support the work, the important work, of God’s church?
I pray we find our relationship with Emmanuel Cathedral. I pray that we discover a truth, a truth of spirituality that, in it all, we are not in control. God is in control. I pray that we can hand over our anxieties of how to keep the ship afloat, and accept and live out the gifts God has bestowed in each of us. Working together for the common purposes for which we have been called, I pray we may find yet another opportunity in this relationship with our brothers and sisters across the world to live into the questions of what it is to be the church, the body of Christ. I have a feeling that if we are faithful to that relationship with one another and with our brothers and sisters in Romogi, we will find ourselves affirmed that we, indeed, are the hands and hearts of Christ in the world.
Amen.
