The bell, banners & blasphemy – Available Now!

Alan Storey‘s book – The bell, banners & blasphemy –
is now available from CMM.

The Cape Town Book Launch is on 11 April 2024 at 18.30 at the Book Lounge

(corner Buitenkant & 71 Roeland Streets, Cape Town City Centre)

Durban and Johannesburg launches will follow shortly.

Cost: R300.00 per copy. Delivery charges are additional.
Orders: aslowwalkbooks@gmail.com
Proceeds to Stepping Stones Children’s Centre in Cape Town.

 

   

The Johannesburg Fire: A Prayer…

All-compassionate God – you are the God who sees the misery of your people and who hears their cries. You are the one who actively inspires liberation and healing for all people everywhere. For this reason, we trust our prayers to you today. We trust our prayers to you because we trust you are who Jesus tells us you are – an all-compassionate God.

All-compassionate One, our prayers are for those who died in the Johannesburg fire this week, for those who were injured and all those grief-stricken. We bring them before you. We bring them not as strangers but as family members. Family members known to you, yet not known by us. We know the statistics; you know their names. We know the number of the dead; you have been lovingly present to them all of their days. You have known their longings and hopes and dreams. You know each of their life-stories, you were with them on the journey they took to reach and settle in that building. You witnessed their courage and perseverance. Some of them would have praised you for providing such a place. A terrible place yet, the best terrible place they could find.

Lord, there are no words in our vocabulary – that are able to hold the trauma and grief we have witnessed this past week. Yet when our words fail, we take strength in knowing that your Spirit helps us in our weakness, that when we do not know how to pray, your Spirit intercedes for us, with sighs that are deeper than our words.

Intercede Lord by your life-giving and comforting Spirit, yes, for these prayers spoken here and now, but most crucially intercede by your Spirit through the sighs of all those most painfully involved…

For the silent sighs of those who died in their sleep – breathing in smoke without knowing they were breathing in death.

For the gasping sighs – of those awake to the fact that the fire was stealing their oxygen.

For panicked sighs of those terrifyingly trapped. Blinded by smoke. Blocked by flame.

For the screaming sighs – calling out in search of child, in search of parent.

For the desperate sighs of helplessness. No way out.

For the sighs of defeat in the choice of death: Death by flame or death by falling.

For the sighs of the brave – deep breaths of courage – risking their lives to rescue and resuscitate.

For the sighs of those who attended to the tragic scene – who fought the fire, who carried the dead, who wrapped body after body.

For the sighs of relatives, identifying body after body.

For the sighs of those broken by grief – taken to edge of insanity.

For the sighs of those who are alone – with no one to process this pain with.

For the sighs of everlasting trauma that will mark every future breath.

All-compassionate God – soften our hearts and fill us with compassion to see as you see and hear as you hear – that we too may actively facilitate liberation and healing in our land and world. Forgive us for our instincts to blame the victims for their fate. For searching for scapegoats to hold responsible.  For scoring political points. For shirking responsibility.

Forgive us above all for our lack of compassion that allows suffering to go unnoticed and unattended every day in every corner of this country. Finally, only arresting our attention when gigantic tragedy results as the consequence of our indifference.

All-compassionate God have mercy and may your mercy move us to bring justice for the poorest of the poor. So be it.

The Purple Shall Govern

Picture from the Exhibition

 

Friends,

There is a hidden treasure right on our doorstep and yet many do not know of it. This treasure is as inspiring as it is challenging. I am referring to the exhibition entitled: Truth to Power by the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. You will find it at The Old Granary Building – two blocks down from the District Six Museum on Buitenkant Street. The Old Granary itself is an artform to behold – and no less so since it has been transformed to house the Tutu Peace Centre.

“The Truth to Power exhibition is a comprehensive showcase of the life and legacy of the late Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu. It aims to foster the values of Desmond and Leah Tutu among the youth, and to inspire a new generation of leaders who will build peace and justice in South Africa and the world.

The exhibition is divided into six themes which chart Tutu’s life within the context of the painful history of South Africa under Apartheid, where the Archbishop remains the gold thread of hope, outspokenness, faith and healing. It includes his ongoing activism in the democratic South Africa and sets the challenge to all of us to take on his baton of courageous leadership and unwavering values.”

The Six Themes of the Exhibition

Theme 1.               Apartheid Education: The Most Evil Act of All.
Theme 2.               The Struggle in the Church: Fighting a False Gospel.
Theme 3.               Faith in Action: The Campaign for Sanctions.
Theme 4.               Protest and Peace Making: In the Streets and Stadiums.
Theme 5.               Unfinished Business: Tutu, Truth and Reconciliation.
Theme 6.               TU + TU = Freedom.

The Purple Shall Govern

Included in the exhibition is a photo-reminder of the Apartheid police spraying protesters with a water canon of purple dye –
effectively tagging all protesters present (as well spraying the Central Methodist Mission on 2 September 1989). This gave rise to the ingenious graffiti “The Purple Shall Govern”.

I highly recommend taking the time to visit this exhibition. It is not only an important reminder of our recent history, but a beautiful witness of a good and faithful life. Both this important reminder and beautiful witness invite us to surrender our lives into the service of justice and mercy.

With grace,
Alan

On fire for justice and jubilee

 

 

Happy Pentecost!

Yes, today is Pentecost. If you didn’t know this, don’t feel bad – I can understand why. You see, there is zero advertising for this day. Unlike Christmas and Easter, Pentecost is yet to be used by marketing managers to get us to buy more stuff.

It seems Pentecost is too hot to handle and therefore unwise to cover in chocolate and uncomfortable to dress in a red jump suit. Besides, Cardies has not figured out how to come up with an equivalent to cute bunnies or red-nosed reindeer to mark the day. Most thankfully, Boney M has not written a song about Pentecost. But regardless of whether you know it or not, today is Pentecost.

Pentecost is the Greek name for the Jewish harvest festival (Shavuot), a prominent feast in the calendar of the ancient Hebrews, celebrating the giving of the Law to Moses at Sinai. Since Shavuot occurs 50 days after Passover, Hellenistic Jews gave it the name Pentecost (fiftieth day). Years later, it marked the day when a bunch of discouraged and defeated followers of Jesus were set on fire to live out his dream of justice and mercy for the world. A great wind swept their fear away and set them free to speak truthfully and live justly.

This resulted in a radically new community that we are told “had all things in common”. “They would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds … and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common … [and] there was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold … it was distributed to each as any had need.” [Extracts from Acts 2 and 4].

In other words on this 50th day after Passover, these Spirit inspired disciples began to fulfil the Year of Jubilee – the year of economic redistribution to reset society on an equal footing. This economic Sabbath is recorded in Leviticus 25:  “And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.” [Lev. 25:10]

A truly Pentecostal people practice Jubilee and petition for its implementation within society. This means that the issue of landlessness and inequality are Pentecostal issues. “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, says the Lord, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.” [Lev 25:23]. In other words, long before Section 25 of our Bill of Rights calls for “land reforms”, the Spirit of Pentecost calls for reparations through the redistribution of land. The year of Jubilee lived into being at Pentecost reminds us that the land belongs to God and not to us, and God longs for all to share in its hospitality and nourishment.

If we are not moved by the Spirit of justice and healing to address the issue of landlessness in SA, we will ultimately be moved by the Spirit of resentment and rage. If we are not moved by the fire of the Spirit, we will be moved by the fire of burning tyres. If we do not address this voluntarily, it will be addressed violently. A nation that has bricks to build high walls to insulate the wealthy but has no bricks to build houses to shelter the poor, can only collapse.

Come Holy Spirit and set us on fire for justice and Jubilee.

In grace,
Alan

Convicted to Confess

Sunday Sermon

2021 03 21 Alan Storey
Convicted to Confess
[Psalm 51:1-12]