24 Pentecost 2006  This is but the beginning of the birth pangs Mark 13:1-8 November 19, 2006

Imana Ishimwa Chane!  That's “God bless you very, very much” in Kinyaranda , Rwanda ’s national language. 

Since our last Rwanda Companionship Service I’ve acquired several warthog gifts.  For which I am grateful.  I am also grateful to finally have a picture of the vehicle Pastor Elidard was able to purchase.  What is new is that it’s even better than we thought.  Some were concerned about the practicality of a motorcycle in hilly Rwanda and also wondered about the rain. So it is a delight that by pulling some other moneys together he was able to buy a small car.  Instead of two wheels he has four, and can get around more easily than on his bike, which was the goal. Thanks be to God.

Before we look more closely at our Rwanda companionship I want to share with you a message our Bishop, David Mullen received recently from Bishop Medardo Gomez, the Bishop of another one of our Synod’s companions, the Lutheran Synod of El Salvador.  Bishop Gomez sent a letter expressing with profound sadness that on Nov. 4^th, two Lutheran Pastors in El Salvador were murdered outside their church after worship.  Bishop Mullen asks that we enfold the Lutheran Synod of El Salvador in our prayers at this time.  El Salvador is also a companion synod of the Southwest California Synod and Reg and I were able to visit Bishop Gomez years ago. 

I visited in 1989 when a civil war was going on.  Bishop Gomez’ office had just been bombed. To help us tell the story we were invited to take home small pieces of the blue painted stucco walls that were now all over the floor.   El Salvador eventually moved into years of relative peace, but turmoil for those doing prophetic ministry remains.  

The two pastors who were murdered were a husband and wife team. One on the conversations I remember from my trip to El Salvador was with Bishop Gomez’ wife as she spoke of her hope of welcoming women to ordained ministry.  They had none in 1989.  They now have a woman pastor among those martyred.  Bishop Gomez wrote to Bishop Mullen: “We ask for your prayers for the Carrillo family and for the Salvadoran Lutheran pastors, men and women, who are carrying out our prophetic ministry under fire.”  We will be praying for them in our prayers this morning.

As you know, our companions in Rwanda , have also had their times of great trial.  Our effort to understand the 1994 Rwanda genocide is not just a concern of history.  It is a concern about human dynamics; about pressures that build up for all kinds of reasons and then explode – as an earthquake explodes – as depicted on our bulletin cover. Darfur is in a similar kind of explosion and the world looks on with sorrow and frustration.  Is there something we should be doing in response?

Yes there is!  Today’s Gospel suggests we can take our clues from Jesus.  Mark’s Gospel asks, “Do you hear of wars and rumors of wars?” It has not been uncommon for Christians to hear of disasters and jump to the conclusion that the world is coming to an end and that there’s nothing to do but give up on creation.  But not so, says the Gospel. “Do not be alarmed! Do not be shocked; frozen; paralyzed.  Instead, be awake for how to a-line your selves with what is panging for birth – for creative new life – for what Jeremiah calls a future and a hope.    

That is what has happened, remarkably, in Rwanda .  The genocide could clearly have looked like the end of the world, but instead of paralysis the operative word there is ‘hope.” When we were there I was struck by how often I saw the word HOPE on billboards.  The Lutheran World Federation motto for their work in Rwanda is “Making Hope a Reality.”  And, as I have shared in other sermons, we are in a unique position to be a part of that hope. 

So what new is there to reflect on today?  The new, I think, is the Gospel’s call away from alarm and towards imagination.  Alarm is fear-based. Imagination is hope-based.  Fear has a powerful influence.  When we are afraid we constrict our movements and also our hearts.  We turn in upon ourselves in self-protection and doubt the very possibilities before us.  

Fear is sometimes wise – as in being afraid to run in front of a moving car.  But when fear keeps us from running the race of life that is set before us it is no longer wise.  Fear that keeps us from imagining the possible keeps us from participating in God’s unfolding newness. 

Imagination, on the other hand, does the opposite. Like faith, it imagines what cannot yet be seen.  Its power is that if we can imagine it, we have taken the first step.  Walter Brueggmann writes of “hopeful imagination.”  And this is what I hear us called to by the Gospel on this day celebrating our companionship with the Lutheran Synod of Rwanda and the Kagitumba Parish. 

Today’s Gospel doesn’t focus us on birth per say, but on birth pangs. Birth pangs in the first century would have been more commonly known about than they are today.  They did not have epidurals – or whatever eases the pain today.  Birth was simply painful and pangs were a good thing.  Birth pangs warned not only the mother, but also the community to stop business as usual and get ready with the business of birth.  Jesus speaks of pangs for the birth of new life; not alarm, but alertness focused on the future.  

That is the hope of Christians in Rwanda .  They have looked death in the face and are doing the hard work of entrusting the genocide victims to God’s care.  But they are also looking life in the face.  They are calling each other to hopeful imagination.  They have called the world to join them in this hope and by our companionship with them we have accepted this call.  

It is a hopeful thing every time we receive a request from Pastor Elidard naming how we might partner with them for the sake of the future.  The most recent request is for sponsors for children to get a good education.  We have the names of about 10 children ages 4 to 13 in the Kagitumba Parish who are candidates for a primary boarding school where they can receive a fine education.  There are also a few ready for secondary school and one who hopes to attend a Bible School program.  It costs about $400 a year for primary school, about $550 for secondary school and about $3500 for a year of Bible School – their equivalent to seminary training.

They have the hopeful imagination to make these requests.  Do we have the imagination to figure out how we might partner with them?  In addition a Lutheran School is in the midst of being born in Rwanda – and it is amazing.

One of our ELCA congregations in Santa Rosa, Bethlehem Lutheran, chose to make this school their project.  Others have helped as well, including some among us.  They have the land and the buildings; now they need supplies and teacher salaries. Another among us is exploring the possibilities of teaching there.  Wouldn’t that be something!  Imagine the possibilities!

Jesus calls us to listen in the midst of turmoil for the sound of birth pangs. Where is life panging for a future and a hope?  Right now, the hopeful imagination of the Kagitumba Parish is focused on education.  Their yearning for life pulls them towards finding ways to educate their children and train new pastors and lay leaders for their future. 

Today is a joyful day for Faith Lutheran because we are looking to God’s future of hope – not just for ourselves, but for people with whom we share a covenant.  We have promised to be companions with these brothers and sisters, a promise they and we have taken to heart.  From its Latin base “companion” means to break bread with.  

When Jesus invites us to break bread at his table of grace, he invites us into the most hopeful imagination possible.  Here we remember his body broken for the life of the world – broken to break cycles of violence.  The way is not by alarm, but by just such costly love. “Come, all you people. Come and praise your Maker” for praise nurtures imagination. Such imagination is but the beginning of the birth pangs of God’s reign. 

Amen.

+Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, California