Dear Tingasiga;
Celebration of this year’s formal Christmas is behind us. We look forward to the end of this artificial calendar year, one in which humanity has carried on with our usual variety of good and bad thoughts and deeds. Wars between countries, terror of man against man, and all manner of human rights abuse have been dispensed with brutality that has conformed to the script that has been followed down the ages. Interpersonal and group interactions have held fast onto their relentless display of fallen humanity’s failure to consistently abide by the Golden Rule.
‘Do unto others what you would have them do unto you’ has remained unattainable, with consequences that have at times shocked us despite their familiarity. One is not surprised by our failure to attain that ideal, for we are hopelessly incapable of doing so under our own steam. We have tried to worship God and seek His hand in our lives and interactions. Unlike North America and Europe where the attrition of those who identify as Christians continues unabated, church attendance in Uganda remains relatively healthy. Some churches have seen increasing numbers. Rituals of worship, and individual thanksgiving celebrations, suggest a healthy church in the land.
However, the visible and consequential actions of many church members, me included, are inconsistent with our claim to be Christians. Religion and its rituals have trumped the essence of Christ in our lives. Worship of God without transformed hearts and lives has become a way of life for millions of church goers. Political and economic leaders offer large sums of money to the churches, even as they cause human pain and suffering in their insatiable quest for power and satisfaction of the desires of their flesh. While they may deceive fellow humanity and themselves, the Lord knows their hearts. God says through the prophet Isaiah in 1:11-15: ‘The multitude of your sacrifices-what are they to me? I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals. I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you? This trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New moons, Sabbaths and convocations. I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your new moon feasts and appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!’ The Lord reminds us that we cannot deceive Him. In Isaiah 19:13-16, the Lord says, ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but t5heir hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based in merely human rules they have been taught. Therefore, once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder.
The wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish’ Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, ‘Who sees us? Who will know?’ you turn things upside down as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘You did not make me’? Can the pot say to the potter, ‘You know nothing’? There is nothing wrong with formal worship of The Lord in the sanctuaries and other places where we gather on Sundays and other special days of fellowship. Most church rituals are harmless, though not essential to worship of the Lord. However, indulging in these rituals while inflicting or enabling injustice, violence, corruption, and other abuse of God’s children is hypocrisy that does not escape God’s notice.
Which brings me back to last week’s celebration of Christmas. Let Christmas be every day. Let it not be about the fact that Jesus was born. Let the reason why he was born engage our hearts and minds, not just on Christmas day but every single day of our lives. And the reason Jesus was born is this; He was born to suffer and die so that we would be saved. He was born to die so that our lost relationship with God could be restored. Christmas only happened so that there would be Easter. Without Easter, there would have been no need for Christmas. Without Calvary, there would have been no Bethlehem. Without His death, there would have been no need for His birth.
The Lord summed it up with His response to Nicodemus, a prominent Pharisee and Member of the Sanhedrin (the Jewish High Command) who came to talk to Him secretly at night. We read in John 3:16 the summary of Christ’s message to Nicodemus, to you and to me. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.’ That is the story of Christmas. That is the story of the church that the disciples of Jesus. The Apostle Paul, and other early messengers planted nearly two thousand years ago. And once we have believed in Him, we must seek to be like Him. We cannot attain that desirable goal while we live on earth.
But we must give ourselves to him for transformation by His Holy Spirit , so that we think and act in a manner that emulates Him. We read in 1 john 2:6, ‘Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.’ This is my message to President Yoweri Museveni, to Mrs. Janet Museveni, to their political, military and other armed subordinates. This is my message to the opposition politicians and to all people with power and responsibility in this country. This is my message to leaders of churches and their congregations. This is my message to you, Tingasiga, and to me.