大象传媒

Music
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (South African National Anthem)
Soweto Gospel Choir

Welcome and opening prayer
The Very Rev Xolani Dlwati, Dean of Johannesburg

Music
Holy Cross Church Choir, recorded by 大象传媒 on location in 2017

搁别补诲颈苍驳:听Jeremiah 1: 4-10
read in Afrikaans by Bridgitte Mathews, and in English by Clive Conway

Reflections
1. Bishop Nicholas Holtam
2. Lesego Michael
3. Judith Scott
4. Leia Hayward

Music
including Holy Cross Church Choir, recorded by 大象传媒 on location in 2017, and A Prayer of Desmond Tutu - James Whitbourn, sung by Commotio

搁别补诲颈苍驳:听John 15: 1-15
read by Amma Coker

Sermon
The Most Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury (for text see below)

Music
There is a balm in Gilead - Spiritual
Kathleen Battle & Jessye Norman

Prayers and Lord's Prayer
The Very Rev Xolani Dlwati, Dean of Johannesburg

Music
Baba Yetu (The Lord's Prayer)
sung by Stellenbosch University Choir

Blessing
Rev Dr Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town

Music
Avulekile Amasango
Soweto Melodic Voices,聽recorded by 大象传媒 on location in South Africa in 2017

Sermon

However hard people may try, it is impossible to speak of Archbishop Tutu without speaking of Jesus Christ. His life and witness only make sense when seen in the light of the love of God in Jesus Christ and the faith he had in the purposes and sure coming of the Kingdom.

St Paul says to the Corinthians, that this love 鈥渃onstrains us,鈥� 鈥� it was this love that so captured this bright, shining fire of a man, that he lit up the world around him with the holiness of an entirely God-called life.

Everything in him was orientated around this love of God 鈥� and it was this love which compelled him to speak and to act.

There are聽 many similarities between Jeremiah and Tutu. A prophet is one who speaks true words which change things. They are words that call to account, that bring into the light what is hidden in darkness, they are words which come at a great price and are spoken to cause a response. They are words which are usually ignored, opposed, and protested against. But these words must be spoken by the prophet because they are the words of God. Jeremiah was confronted with the presence of God calling him to things beyond his wildest imagination, to raise up and throw down nations and kingdoms by his words of prophecy.

What authority did he have? Desmond Tutu was often asked that, labelled a meddlesome priest, accused of interfering in politics ceaselessly. He lived politics - not interfered - because he knew that the authority over all human life was that of God. He knew that a nation that forgets that authority forgets its soul, forgets to value one another, forgets to champion the oppressed. He knew his call and that the sovereignty of God over every aspect of human existence, from the greatest to the smallest, was lived out in the expression of liberty, of freedom and inclusion.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu consistently spoke when he saw those on the side he had supported falling short of the standards of integrity that God seeks. He stood up against corruption in his own and other countries. He stood up for the oppressed in every place and every time because 聽he knew that God鈥檚 authority covered every aspect of world affairs.

He also spoke prophetically to the church, calling us to include, to welcome to struggle so that through justice we in the church could call for justice.

He 聽not only spoke聽 鈥� he acted. I remember hearing his spiritual director saying that you could tell he was a prophet because he shed so many tears, like Jeremiah a weeping prophet. His tears were not for himself 鈥� although it is staggering how he continued in the face of so much personal opposition聽 - arrests, bans, fines, taking away his passport, threats of violence and even of death. He shed tears because of the state of the world and the reality of what God intended the world to be. He acted from his personal experience of oppression, and that qualified him to speak in a particular way that the rest of us cannot imitate, but we can emulate.

His heart was truly broken by the evil he saw destroying lives.

He famously said, 鈥渢here is no neutrality between oppressor and oppressed.鈥� That if an elephant has its foot on a mouse鈥檚 tail, the mouse will not appreciate the objectivity of your neutrality.

But to side with the mouse against the elephant needs more than sheer bravado, it needs a great power聽 to change the situation. 鈥楾he Arch鈥� knew that the King of all was the one who had overcome the world and therefore when he spoke courageously and acted fearlessly the King, Christ Himself, had already overcome all the enemies he faced. It was because he was entirely convinced of the power of God鈥檚 love for the whole world in Christ that he insisted on forgiveness, on hope, on friendship, on dignity, on the importance of facing the truth and on the possibility of reconciliation. And he did it all with such profound joy.

Desmond Tutu knew that he was part of the world. There must certainly have moments of natural fear, of pain, of death, perhaps most of all of not overcoming the forces of darkness in apartheid, in human hatred, above all in the betrayal of the poorest and most vulnerable in the world. Yet he聽 believed that change was possible. Not because of anything he was able to achieve, or that it wasn鈥檛 difficult, but because of the promise of Jesus:

I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!鈥� John 15: 35

Famously on one occasion, when he was leading a service in Cape Town Cathedral, the police broke in to order the service closed. They lined the walls and formed up outside the Cathedral, and The Arch danced out. It was a dance of triumph, of worship, of the committal of his life into God鈥檚 hands. And alongside it was an invitation, a command to switch sides; to come onto the side of the one who has conquered the world.

I am truly grateful for the times I spent with him. Whenever I saw him I would leave with a voice ringing in my ears telling me to interfere, provided it was on the side of the mouse..

Let us respond to this life, be clear that we will be passionate on the side of the oppressed, never neutral, for Christ has overcome the world.

Let us speak and act in the authority of the one whose word is given to heal the world.

Let us cast away fear, see the authority of God, and act always on the side of the poorest and the oppressed.