Sermon August 17, 2014 - Biblical Boldness

Sermons by Mark

As you may know, Hamilton, Susi and I use the lectionary to guide us in our use of scripture and theme for our weekly worship services. The lectionary systematically matches verses and themes together over a three year cycle and in doing so provides us with exposure to all of the major theological, historical and spiritual events in the Bible. It helps to generate ideas and prevents ministers from preaching from their soap boxes. I think it is a good resource.
This week the lectionary theme is about Boldness. And the suggested verses do make some bold statements. So I decided to hone in on that theme and directed my preparation to exploring boldness in the Bible.
With boldness specifically in mind I noted that there are lots of Bible stories of regular people, and I imagine they are much the same as you and me, who God used to perform acts of boldness. We find commoners, shepherds, and farmers who become Spirit-led and then take a stand for God against forces of injustice and evil.
So we see Moses standing before Pharaoh exclaiming that Egypt must “Let my people go!” He is demanding an end to the slavery of the Children of Israel and determined to fulfill God’s promise of a land for the Jews.
We find Esther, a young Jewish woman, who married in exile to the King of Persia, modern day Iran. Through a series of events, she had the opportunity to save the Jewish people in Persia from being executed. She risked her life, she showed quick thinking; she was savvy, she knew how to read people and keep their dark sides under control. As a result of her fearless integrity, a holocaust did not happen.
There is Nicodemus, a man who had the courage to search for the truth. He had the courage to think outside the box, and to talk to Jesus, despite the fact that the religious authorities essentially threatened people who would do such a thing. Nicodemus was a man after the truth, more than popularity or conformity.
And the Apostle Paul, who had the courage to rethink his religious heritage for himself after thinking through his experiences with God. He wasn’t afraid to call religious traditions into question. He was not content to simply rely on what his grandfather told him was true, he sought a relationship with God personally.
There is Joseph who saved his world from a long famine by boldly insisting that the people follow a dream he had. He saves Egypt, and he saves his own family who had sold him into slavery. He told his brothers that what they had done was bad, but that God used their evil actions for good.
Anyway, it takes very little reading in the Bible to see that God gives a Spirit to the meek to empower them to act out and speak boldly.
Outside of scripture there are many, many voices who spoke up for justice in their day. Gandhi spoke boldly. So did Dr Martin Luther King Jr and innumerable others who have stood against injustice and evil with the power of God’s redeeming love.
And where does the power come from for this boldness? As we can read in the book of Acts 4:31 – “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”
In today’s lessons we learn of a persistent woman who recognized who Jesus was, even before his own people did, and requested his help. She comes to Jesus and the woman implores him to heal her daughter. He appears to insult her by saying, "It's not right to take the children's food and give it to the dogs." In other words, I am sent by God to the Jews, not to the rest of the world. He is telling her “no, I will not help you.”
She was desperate for her daughter’s health needs, and aware of Jesus’ power more than his own people, who did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. So when Christ says no, she boldly responds: "Yes, but even the children can eat the scraps that fall from the table."
And Jesus is impressed by her insight and persistence, her boldness and he makes an exception and tells her, "Your daughter is healed."
People often read this account with confusion and sometimes ire. On the surface, this is an appalling story. The woman begs to have to daughter healed. First Jesus ignores her -- then he insults her referring to her as one of the dogs around the table. But her faith and boldness surprise him, and he gives her the desire of her heart.
This week, on a fluke, I had a great opportunity to meet one of the heroes of the anti-apartheid movement that was so active in ridding South Africa of that oppressive governmental model. My friend John Bourisseau called me and asked Kathy and me to join him and his wife, Mary, for dinner with a South African freedom fighter. Of course, I said yes. I love South Africa and so to meet someone who was involved with the struggle there would be an honor.
But after I got off of the phone, I went into suspicious mode. I have met so may freedom fighters who were in the heart of the resistance with Mandela and Winny and all the others, that I had to check this guy out. It is not unheard of for someone who was unheard of to make a career my masquerading as one of the core activists, only to learn later that the person had no involvement in what occurred in South Africa to end the regime.
So I called my friend, Craig Duffield, who is very knowledgeable about his country’s history and I asked him if he had ever heard of Allan Bautak. Craig pondered the question but it rang no bells. I told him he was speaking at Federated for the Chautauqua program and that some of us were taking him to dinner afterwards.
Ha! I thought. Another schemer trying to make a buck on the apartheid struggle.
“No, I know of no one called Allan Bautak.” Craig told me. “But I wonder if you have the name correct? Do you think you are having dinner with Allan Boesak?”
I’m looking for the note with the guy’s name on it. Bautak – Boesak, is there really any difference?
“Yes, I had the name wrong. It’s Boesak.”
Now I thought he’d give me some information on this Boesak fellow, but instead he asks, “What on earth is Allan Boesak doing at Federated church and how is it that you are going to dinner with him?”
And off Craig went with his memorized bio of Rev. Dr. Boesak.
I learned that Allan was indeed a freedom fighter, and was one of the biggest voices in the anti-apartheid movement. He was a mixed race coloured man, not a black man as was often the case. And Allan was an ordained Dutch Reformed minister and service churches in one of my favorite areas, the Paarl Valley about 35 miles north of Cape Town.
I learned that Allan grew up educated, but not privileged in any way. His father was a school teacher so his children were expected to learn in abundance. And although his dad dies when Allan was young, the thirst for knowledge remained with him.
In his teens Allan was agitated by the actions of white government as he saw how people of color were treated. But the pain became personal when Allan’s family and others were relocated by the government in a move to make Allan’s community all white.
These things percolated in Allan as he moved through his teen years into adulthood. Daily he would see the injustices of the white apartheid government, but as a mixed race colored man, he was granted more rights than the blacks.
For example, On Robbin Island, where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for some 24 years, there is a large hand painted menu in the dining room showing exactly the food rations provided for blacks and coloureds. Coloured received more food in prison, more coffee, mealies, bread and meat than the blacks. In prison and in society the coloureds had more privileges, such as transportation, education and even matters of religion, which is why so few coloured people joined the struggle against apartheid in the early years of resistance.
Around age 17, Allan became interested in faith and was especially drawn to preaching and speaking. This desire led him in to a theological education and his abilities defined for him his weapon of standing against apartheid. He preached against it at every opportunity. He believed that preaching gave him a non-violent means of standing against the injustice, and that faith would open doors for him to stand for equality. He did so with gusto and became a legend in his country and around the world. His boldness for justice became his calling card and his stage for resistance was the pulpit.
In 1982, in a move to reveal the evil of the separation of races and to weaken the hold of apartheid, Allan persuaded members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, of which the Dutch Reformed Church was a member, to declare apartheid a heresy and to suspend membership of the white South African churches. In 1983 he helped organize the United Democratic Front (UDF), a multiracial association of all manner of groups opposed to apartheid, and in 1984 he and others organized a massive boycott of the national elections. Boesak was arrested a number of times for his participation in demonstrations, and his movements and speech were restricted. In time, the battering of the foundations of apartheid accomplished the dismantling of the system and South Africa became a free, democratically governed nation in 1994.
Interestingly, years after the end of apartheid, Allan Boesak discerned that his own political party, the ANC or African National Congress, was slipping into a reverse racism against the whites. This found him once again preaching for the rights of all people and against the injustice that was growing among his own political party. His caution was heeded.
The dictionary says that boldness is:
1. not hesitating or fearful in the face of actual or possible danger or rebuff; courageous and daring:
2. not hesitating to break the rules of propriety; forward; impudent:
3. necessitating courage and daring; challenging:
However, Biblical Boldness has an additional element. And this is not me trying to say that our Christian boldness is better than the rest of the world. But in scripture there is the element, both spoken and unspoken, of the spiritual conviction to do the right thing because of the Holy Spirit.
Allan Boesak spoke of this conviction to do as Jesus would do in his talk here last Tuesday. He alluded that his boldness came from his savior. He said that Jesus placed on his heart the needs to stand for all people, not just his people. Justice, to Boesak, is as much a part of Jesus as is the manger and the empty grave. And boldness is what it takes to give voice to the issues of justice we encounter.
I remember Dave Norling telling me that when someone at a dinner party or gathering tried to tell him a racist joke, he would interrupt and ask pointedly, “Is this joke going to be racist?” If it was, he would walk away from the joke teller or tell the person that he would prefer not to hear it. He believed that even listening to a seemingly harmless joke gave strength to racism. A bold move to be sure.
I think by now you all know that I am not the kind of preacher or leader who tries to rally the troops and get us all excited and then sends us out the doors to be a bold witness for Jesus Christ in some manufactured hoopla to go and change the world. That’s not my way. But I do believe that God will use each of us in ways we could not imagine if we give God that space in our lives.
So from here, I ask you to consider where God would have you make a bold stand in your world. Sometimes it is speaking out against injustice. But other times it is taking a different position.
For example, my grandson, Jakob, a freshman at Kenston, has for years made friends with the kids who have no friends. He doesn’t do it in pity or charity, he does it because he can. He told me that his groups of mismatched friends are really very cool and he feels sad that the other kids don’t take the time to get to know these supposedly unpopular kids. So big, strong, tall, handsome Jake makes a point of introducing his sometimes unremarkable friends to everyone he knows.
My wife, Kathy, noted that boldness is often our response for that moment we find ourselves in, when we are required to step up to the place, not in a brash or loud manner, but when we know we must do the right thing. We will probably not remain at home plate, in the batter’s box for long, but we will need to do our best at our turn to bat. And then we move on.
Jesus was moved by the boldness of a concerned mother who was, in Christ’s culture, an equivalent to the dogs who roam under the table for the crumbs that may be dropped. She stood her ground in her need for her daughter to be healed, and Jesus was amazed by her faith and granted her that prayer.
Her boldness gained Christ’s attention, and so will your boldness when you find it impossible not to step up and do the right thing.
Amen-