Hi folks, I hope you’ve had an ok week? This Sunday we meet at the Crescent Club in the upstairs bar at 8.00pm.
This week we are looking again at some of the influencers of the christian life, this week we are reflecting on Archbishop Desmond Tutu – Rabble-rouser for peace. We start with some of his words… “Without forgiveness there is no future”. ‘I am sorry’ are three of the hardest words we will ever say… these words he spoke whilst being interviewed, laughing as he said them… Nelson Mandela invited Tutu to establish the Truth and Reconciliation commission, this gave perpetrators of violence the opportunity to confess to those they had wronged in some way and ask for forgiveness. This was in the wake of all that had gone on in South Africa.
Tutu believed through his reading of scripture and the teachings of Jesus that confession could help victims to find healing and perpetrators forgiveness. The results stunned the world as Tutu took the principles of confession out of private pietism and in to the public square. It caused a type of social holiness that began to infiltrate the nation and reduce violence at the time.
When asked how he managed to sustain himself through the many years he engaged in this, without hesitation he said ‘Oh through prayer, it is prayer that puts fuel in the fire’. In the back yard of his house he has a brightly coloured prayer room which he visits several times a day. In 1993 he was challenged by a nun about his prayer life. The nun said to him… ‘You have been a celebrity too long, it is taking its toll on you and those around you. You need to once more realise your nothingness before God’.
After all the bitterness in the country and as a black man under apartheid with an alcoholic Father he could have let violence consume him, but he chose to forgive… In an interview in 2014 he said this about his father ‘but if I could speak to him today, I would want to tell him that I had forgiven him’.
Questions
If you could be a rabble rouser for an issue, what would it be?
How do his words “Without forgiveness there is no future” make you feel?
What does this sentence say to you – ‘You need to once more realise your nothingness before God’?
How do you feel about confession?
How do you feel about forgiveness?
Peace, Rob
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.