“If my people pray… then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.” [2 Chronicles 7.14 beginning and end]

Wow. This feels a little bit like a dejavu flashback or something. From two weeks ago when the question was to march or not to march, which i wrote about here. Afterwards i wrote a comparison piece looking at different marches over here.

As i’ve done my best to navigate the tricky waters of sitting somewhere in between the two extremes who both think i am getting it largely wrong, one principle i have spoken regularly about is holding on to the BOTH/AND over the EITHER/OR.

WHO DO I SOUND LIKE?

When it comes to matters of race, justice and poverty in South Africa, there are always those who think i am way too harsh with people. There are also those who think i am way too lenient with people. So it makes sense that i can’t let me opinions or actions be formed simply by listening to what the crowds think or my head would simply explode…

So how do i arrive at an opinion?

Well, as a follower of Jesus, i believe that the Holy Spirit lives in me and guides me to help me make decisions that fall in line with the kingdom of God. But then often i am disagreeing with people who also should have the Holy Spirit in them helping them make God decisions. So that becomes a tough way to measure.

One way that i use to inform me, both when looking at the mirror and also especially when i disagree with someone else is this question: Does this statement/action/attitude sound more like something Jesus would say or more like something the Pharisees would say?

That is a super helpful standard. Because the Pharisees and Sadducees and other religious types of the day often made statements [or had attitudes or suggested actions] that sounded quite religious and logical and made sense. And often they sounded like things God had already said in His word. Which made it a whole lot harder for the people following to ignore or disregard. But a defining characteristic was often love and often the right-sounding things were not presented with love for the recipients.

TO PRAY OR NOT TO PRAY

By now we all know that Angus Buchan, the Faith Like Potatoes pastor, is hosting a prayer meeting in Bloemfontein where an expected 1.7 million people are gathering to lift South Africa up in prayer.

And as we know…

“If my people pray… then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.”

This feels like a no brainer, How can prayer be a bad thing, right?

So i read a bunch of thoughts that friends of mine have to say about the prayer day and then i think some thoughts of my own.

And i go back to my informing question: Do my thoughts sound more like Jesus or like the Pharisees?

The one that scares me most is the thought i have which sounds more like Judas Iscariot:

4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him,objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages. [John 12]

Because that is the first question that comes to me: What if the money that 1.7 million people spent getting to Bloemfontein to pray [does God answer prayers prayed in Bloemfontein more than He does those prayed in Cape Town?] was spent on sanitation for the people living in Khayelitsha who have to poo in a bucket? 

Fortunately, as i just looked that up, the answer was in part presented to me – context context context people. As the very next verse reads:

6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Which again gives me an opportunity to test my heart. And because verse 6 doesn’t apply to me in this case, i think i might be safe from the concerns of verse 5 coming from bad motivation.

So back to Jesus and the Pharisees then.

READ AROUND AND THEN THINK A LOT AND THEN LAND

When there are questions about wearing black or marching or not marching or going to memorials for departed struggle icons and more, i tend to try and read around to see what a number of different people are saying before settling on a final opinion.

So let’s see what some of the public Facebook statuses of my friends showed what they were thinking on the matter.

i think the comment i liked the most were from my friend David who doesn’t judge the event at all in this comment but good or bad, has a hope for it which i resonate with completely.

I’m hoping the Holy Spirit will descend and there will be an outpouring of Christians who will live the verses: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need ” [David Jacobs]

This is probably the most fundamental belief i have on this whole thing – that good or bad i believe in a God who can work good in all situations [‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose.’ Romans 8.28 – not all things are good, but God is able to work in all things to bring good].

Next there is my friend Sindile who doesn’t see himself as a Christian, yet had these thoughts:

I must confess, this 1.7 million pray in on some farm in Bloemfontein confirms why I am so utterly iffy about being a Christian.

I’ve read the gospels front to back, 3 times.

I’ve even studied extensive passages in the original Greek and done word studies and exegetical work on many passages and I cannot fail to walk away impressed, wow’d and a little “lovestruck” by the ethical and deeply humane qualities of the biblical Jesus.

Putting aside the logical and rational issues I have with all religions, it is the religious who put me off, with their provincialism, tribalism and selective morality.

Call me judgemental(because I am being), but the defining characteristic of Christians in SA for me is the utter lack of integrity, the utter lack of Jesusy-ness…………..

You’d swear the majority of them have never bothered reading through the damn book. [Sindile Vabaza]

My friend Sam Mahlawe had this one liner to give an indication of where she might be:

Prayer for the “injustice” in our country led by a white farmer. Attendance 1.7 million. Let me go sleep…

But then she had a longer more directive statement to give us all something to think about:

If God has entrusted the Church with gifts as a means of bearing witness to God’s justice and restorative love, and yet we continue to remain socially inactive in our response to persistently unjust structures. Can we say that the complete love of God is truly in us? Let our mission be a holistic one; of both personal faith and social responsibility. Because if we ignore the world, then we essentially betray the word of God which sends us to serve the world.

Pray in faith for God to bring justice to our broken country, but then also work for justice in all spheres. That is true ministry. How in your own life and personal capacity would you say you are working towards justice?

#CommentsOnNationalDayofPrayer [Sam Mahlawe]

My friend Amy, had a similar question:

The (apparently) 1.7 million people praying in Bloemfontein tomorrow, what’s next on the agenda?

“Faith by itself, if it’s is not accompanied by action, is dead” [Amy Benn]

While Barry Lewis in Cape Town, who works in one of the poorest areas of South Africa, had this to say:

Tomorrow I will not be in Bloemfontein – I will be joining a different gathering, a community meeting in Sweet Home Farm.

When we pray for the healing of the land, please pray for this small piece of the city. Pray that the plague of informality (and everything this includes) is eradicated. Pray that fathers and mothers in the community will know a day when lack and fear of death and cold and transience are wiped away.

And join me, where we have been complicit in ‘managing’ a system where this context allows to exist instead of fighting to dismember it, in repenting. Then working out together what this repentance looks like.

God is gracious, He is kind. He has set out the simple formula for the healed land. It just takes our lives.

Barry Lewis quote

[Barry Lewis]

SO DO WE PRAY OR WHAT?

Having read all of those and some others, and listened to some of the people who were concerned with what i might say today – and let me just pop this in, that my absolute favourite comment came from my friend Melissa who simply said: Looking forward to reading what you have to say, B – What i read into that comment, knowing Melissa, is that she will weigh up what i have to say and make a decision about what she feels is right for her as opposed to simply agreeing or disagreeing with what i have to say because i say it. We need to always be weighing up and listening to the inside voice and then stepping out.

So, i do have some concerns:

# Resources spent in getting all the people to the place to pray

# The possible exclusion of poorer folk [although i imagine there will be some great stories of things done to get poor folk there too] because of the location of the meeting [so does this become an even for the wealthy?]

# The fear of this being the thing as opposed to the starting or continuing of the thing, as a few of my friends expressed above. If this is all there is, then it is not enough.

# What i assume will be a white man leading a million plus people in prayer. And this not so much as a criticism of the white man but as a possible missed opportunity of having someone of colour be given the mic to lead the time in prayer [which i hope hope hope will happen] which for me would demonstrate an understanding of the greater context. [While backing up the idea that God doesn’t regard Angus’ prayer as more important than not Angus prayer]

But i also have some encouragements:

# The church getting together feels like a good thing.

# The mobilisation of people who honestly are genuine in their desire to make a difference [i don’t doubt this for a second].

# The fact that all around the country there are other groups meeting today in solidarity with what is going on in Bloemfontein, who get that we don’t have to be in the same place to pray to the same God.

But again and again i keep having to face this verse:

“If my people pray… then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.”

Which really does make it sound like praying together is a great way to see a much needed healing of land.

Although then i am reminded that there is a little more to it:

2 Chronicles 7.14 prayer

# We need to humble ourselves. This speaks to those who chose to go to Bloemfontein to pray. This speaks to those who didn’t go to Bloemfontein to pray. It’s something i think most of us could all use a little work on.

# We need to pray.

# We need to seek His face. [And be reminded that when the rich young ruler sought His face he walked away disappointed because the call to sell all his stuff and follow Jesus was too high. And be reminded that when Zacchaeus sought His face he responded by giving away half of his possessions to the poor and paying back people he had cheated four times as much. And be reminded that Peter and John and the rest of the disciples walked away from their safe salaried professions to follow Jesus and be homeless for three years ad fully reliant on God and the church to supply their needs.]

# We need to turn from our wicked ways. i really hope that this will be something Angus Buchan spends some time on. What an opportunity to lead a million plus people into a time of confession and repentance and commitment to live differently. If i hear that happens in any kind of significant responsible way, i think that will make me a lot more excited about the event.

# The promise is that when these things have been done, God will hear from heaven, forgive our sin and heal our land. And we all know how desperately our land needs healing…

How about we don’t throw stones [even social media constructed ones] at the people who decided to go to Bloemfontein to pray?

How about we don’t throw stones at the people who decided not to go to Bloemfontein to pray?

But whether we went or didn’t, let’s spend some time today in prayer, making sure we don’t skip over the humble part or the turn from wicked ways part, and let’s take a long hard look in the mirror and ask what am i going to do tomorrow to be a part of being the answer to all of the prayers being prayed today?

[For some more summary thoughts as well as links to what four other very different people felt about the prayer, click here]