Reflection at Service for Nelson Mandela
Nathan Baxter, Episcopal Bishop of Central Pennsylvania, recently said, “My wife and I have made pilgrimages to South Africa and visited Robben Island. I must admit that I find it mind boggling to believe one could spend decades in such conditions and be formed for grace. Yet, a profound theological truth is that nothing is wasted in God’s economy if we surrender it to God’s grace.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has famously said of his friend, Nelson Mandela, “….suffering can do one of two things to a person. It can make you bitter and hard and really resentful of things. Or as it seems to do with very many people–it is like fires of adversity that toughen someone. They make you strong but paradoxically also they make you compassionate, and gentle. I think that that is what happened to him.”
It is this I want us to hold in our minds and hearts today.
How far too often “an eye for an eye” is the standard by which the world operates. None other than Mahatma Gandhi remarked, “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”
Revenge for past injury and suffering pervades our courts, our streets, our politics, and most certainly our international relations. What a travesty that at the memorial the other day for a man who demonstrated one can and did forgive his enemies, it feels at times like Mandela’s soul was absent.
How can we ever forgive and reconcile when the President of the United States can’t even politely shake the hand of Raoul Castro with creating a political firestorm!
As we all know, and constantly need reminding, standing up for truth and justice and the dignity of every human being has a cost. A cross, a bullet, a hangman’s noose, public ridicule. At a very basic personal level . . . it also means letting loose of our pain and anger, our suffering.
This is the season of Advent wherein we hear the voice of John the Baptist calling on everyone to repent. “Repent, for the time is a hand.” Repent means to turn around and go in a different direction. Most certainly we need to turn away from self-righteous anger and behave differently than the way of vengeance.
But repent also has another meaning. The second meaning of repent . . . to enlarge your heart.
We who serve in the heart of this city and witness to this community are grateful for one like Nelson Mandela whose life’s testimony is that it really is possible, by God’s grace, to turn around—and to do so with a heart that’s large enough to embrace the very ones who broke it in the first place.
When the days are dark, when injustice, indifference and oppression rule the day, when revenge is the way of the world . . . it too easy to lose heart. Mandiba reminds us, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
–John Paddock
Christ Church Blog 
Mary Grech here….. I have read with interest all the differing accounts of Nelson Mandela’s life: the “spin” from both the left and the right. It appears to me that this man was pretty complex: not only did he unify a people, and help a country, but he was part of a terror organization that maimed and massacred many innocent people. It would seem to me that he chose to make difficult decisions in the face of difficult choices. John, from this blog post it would appear that you accept that the ends justify his means. Is that correct? You pose that shaking Raul Castro’s hand is a “gesture” of courtesy. Really? In this visual, digital, sound bite age a handshake is acceptance. Raul is a dictator that to my knowledge has continued his brother’s control by terror and brute force, with no sign of repentance, while maintaining a lavish lifestyle for himself. To what good end are you justifying his actions? I look forward to our answer….Merry Christmas.
Mary,
One of our greatest Christian values is that of repentance and conversion. Saul of Tarsus sought after Christians to have them killed. He converted after his experience on the Damascus Road and became the Apostle to Gentiles and a martyr for Jesus whom we know as St. Paul. Nelson Mandela was a member of of a terrorist organization. But during his 27 years in prison he was converted to a pacifist. He even reached out and worked with F.W. De Klerk who had been his enemy and they shared a Nobel Peace Prize. He famously said that if one talks to and works with one’s enemies, they eventually could become friends.
The shaking of a hand is an expression of courtesy. This morning both a prostitute and a violent homeless man came to the church seeking assistance. I shook hands with both of them. Do I accept their bad choices and behaviors? No. Do I accept them as flawed and broken children of God? Yes.
Our baptismal covenant says that we respect the dignity of every human being. All of us are created in the image of God. How can I refuse to shake the hand of the image of God?
John Paddock