Thanksgiving Service Sermon - Abuja Synod 2007

THIRD SESSION OF THE SIXTH SYNOD THANKSGIVING SERVICE SERMON
By The Venerable George Ugo Njoku
(Dean, St. Francis of Assisi Theological College, Wusasa, Zaria)

OPENING PRAYER
Let Your Gospel come to us not in word only, Oh Lord, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and in great assurance; that with humble, teachable, and obedient hearts we may receive what You have revealed and do always that which You have commanded; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.


INTRODUCTION
Anybody who understands the import of a clergyman of my type being asked to preach in an occasion like this will sure excuse me if I use the whole time of the sermon to appreciate and eulogize our Baba, the Primate. However, I dare not do that as it will be inappropriate, as I have not been asked to eulogize but to evangelize. Nevertheless, let me on behalf of my family, use this opportunity very sincerely to express our profound gratitude and appreciation to Baba Primate for once more expressing his characteristic lion’s heart in risking to give people like me the continued opportunity to serve. Particularly, Baba, Eshe kwukwo! for the recent preferment which is like a resurrection from the dead, as it was twelve years ago since we had a preferment.
Talking of a call from the dead as the voice of Jesus did to Lazurus, I have a testimony of the voice of Baba Primate raising me from my sick-bed. I was sick sometime ago while working in his office. Then, he called for me to come immediately. My wife suggested that I tell him that I was sick. I refused and went. He asked me “Where have you been?” “I have been at home sick, Your Grace” I replied. “With whose permission? You don’t just get sick here without permission, for there is no time here for the celebration of laziness, do you hear that?” “Yes Your Grace”. And do you know what? That was the end of the sickness. Having learnt that, anytime my body wants to be unnecessarily lazy, I have always told it: “Please behave yourself, for I don’t have any permission to be sick and I won’t apply for any” And it works!. Baba’s voice raises the sick!

“BE HOLY FOR I AM HOLY” ( Lev. 11:45)

Baba Primate’s choice of his Synod themes deserves some comments. From the time I came over to Abuja in 2003, we have had “A Caring Church” (2003), “The Idols Men Worship” (2004), “Lord Teach Us How To Pray” (2005), “Work While It Is Day” (2006), and now in 2007 “Be Holy For I Am Holy”. In all these Baba surely has identified the need for that essential current that gives light and life to the whole edifice of human spiritual endeavour—holiness. He is saying: having fared well in mercy, in prophesy, in prayer and in work, let us now “purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (II Cor. 7:1).
The book of Leviticus served as the pastors handbook for the ancient priests of Israel. Much of it is devoted to specific regulations concerning offerings, sacrifices, ritual purity, ordination, feasts, and festivals. There are also regulations that go beyond the religious institutions and that deal with the events of life. The implication of those regulations is that all of life is, in fact, religious. All that we do, whether in direct worship or not, is part of our relationship to God. Thus we should not separate life into categories of sacred and secular, imagining that only the so-called ‘sacred’ areas belong to God. God sees us as totalities, and all of our life — work, worship, relationships, creativity, leisure, family — is important to Him.
Some people have chosen to relativize the provisions of the book on the basis that they were formulated for a basically rural, agricultural and ancient people, whereas we are, for the most part, urbanized, industrialized, and modern. Thus, we often wonder about the rules themselves, which seem to have no bearing on contemporary life. However, a slight shifting of our mental gears should help us to overcome the problems of interpreting Leviticus for today. Looking at the basic idea rather than at the specific rules, we can see how each rule embodies a principle that is just as valid today as it was in Moses’ day. Other people also relativize the provisions of Leviticus by regarding it as for the priests alone. This also falls below the New Testament usage where the same regard and charge is given to the whole Body of Christ (Col. 1:22; 3: 12ff.; II Tim. 1: 9; Heb. 3:1; I Pet. 1: 15; 2: 9).
I have therefore decided to undertake a textual consideration of the theme under the following headings: the context, the content and the challenge. The context will focus our attention on the need to hear the text as the original recipients did, the content will help us to tease out the important ramifications or components of what God’s holiness means, while the challenge will address some lines of contemporary applications to ourselves.

THE CONTEXT
The theme “Be Holy for I am Holy” was spoken by God to the people of Israel in the context of a covenant relationship with him—there was something between God and Israel that warranted or demanded a similarity of conduct. It is therefore incongruent to Scripture for those that are not in any relationship with God (unbelievers) to be required to be Holy—for where will they get the where withal? When unbelievers exhibit unholy conducts, they are actually doing what they are supposed to be doing—acting in consonance with the person they are in relationship with—the Devil (John 8: 42-47).
Thus, the “for” can be interpreted as both an imperative and an empowerment. As an imperative, it means that for Israel to walk with God, holiness is not optional but a must. As an empowerment, it means that it takes God for Israel to be holy. Thus the command is also an invitation to be empowered—to be like God, able to effect righteousness. It goes without saying that the holiness of God is beyond man’s natural ability. Thus for God to say to man “Be holy for I am holy” implies God’s promise to provide what it takes for man to be holy. It is therefore very ridiculous for some people to be trying to be holy on their own. This only leads to a “holier than thou attitude”—an offensive sanctimonious self-righteousness which is like a filthy rag before God (Is. 64:6). The Bible rather tells us that “to those who received him . . . He gave power to become the children of God” (Acts 1:12).

THE CONTENT
Content-wise, there are many sides to the holiness of God as indicated by the different words we use to express the same idea: sanctification, consecration, and ordination. All these words refer to the idea of making or declaring something sacred; dedicating something to a specific purpose; causing something to be respected or revered. Thus we consecrate our bishops and communion elements, and ordain our pastors.

The following are some aspects of holiness necessary for our consideration here:

Holiness of His otherness/seperateness (Nso, Mimo, Tsarki). This is the aspect that emphasizes the fact that God is not man but “the wholly Other”. Thus his charge for us to be holy is an invitation for us to be essentially different. This is an essential component of the meaning of the Church as “people called out”. This inevitably involves some necessary separation, abstinence and distinction—the difference must be clear.

Holiness of the truth, justice and peace(righteousness) . This aspect emphasizes the need for proper socio-ethical conduct befitting the God that is the Father and Creator of the whole universe/mankind and equally loves and cares for everything he has created without discrimination.

Holiness of lowliness/meekness/simplicity (the unleavened bread). Here the emphasis is on an intentional low-profile lifestyle for the sake of God. A lifestyle that will constantly remind the person living it and those watching him that “all glory must be to the Lord, and no man on earth should give glory to himself”.

Holiness of cleanliness/purity (environmental sanitation). A very relevant aspect of the holiness of God as cleanliness is next to godliness (Dt. 23:9-14). This is very evident to those of us in Abuja as Abuja can be seen as becoming increasingly holy, but not without the necessary attendant stresses and strains, pains and sufferings. Thanks to the people’s endurance and the government’s efforts.

Holiness of fire (suffering). Obviously holiness goes with suffering—the symbolic purifying fire which tries our faith as gold is tried in the furnace. Unfortunately this aspect of God’s holiness is largely lost in the scheme of the contemporary Church’s teachings. But “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God . . . should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Heb. 2:10).

THE CHALLENGE
The challenge before us is that of embracing holiness as that which embodies the whole instructions that will make our walk with God and work for God possible, successful and acceptable. The fact is that the greatest impediment to our present quest for holiness will be our fear of what people will say—the fear of being different. It is not that we do not know most of what we are expected to do, but that many around us are not prepared to condone any attitude that challenges them unto holiness. We know much of what it means to be spiritual, but often our spirituality is misdirected as illustrated by the following story.

A man inadvertently provided an enclosure while walling his premises. This eventually became a urinary for passers-by thus making the place very smelly. In the bid to stop this, the man posted a notice which read: “Don’t urinate, here. Please”. This did not deter people from going on to urinate there. The man tried various other notices including: “Don’t urinate here. Offenders will be fine =N=5000.00”. “Don’t urinate here. Offenders will be prosecuted”. “Don’t urinate here. I beg you in Jesus name”. None of these succeeded in stopping the menace until the man changed the notice to: “Urinate here at your own peril. Signed: Native Doctor”. At once, the urinating stopped. Even those urinating before reading the notice tried to stop half-way after reading it. Thus we know how to fear spiritual realities, the wrong ones unfortunately as most people fear the native doctor more than their pastor.

We also know how to go to any length to get what we want. Some of the requirements of God from his people Israel will sure seem irrelevant to us, but they played their part in focussing the attention and loyalty of the people on God. Today in the name of being under grace and not under the law, many Christians are using the grace of God as a license for unholy living. Even pagans know that as human being we all need some physical tangible parameters for the expression of our spirituality as illustrated by this story:

A man after many years of suffering from a severe ailment was advised as usual to go and meet a renowned and distant Baba native doctor. After some reluctance because he goes to church, the man decided to go to see the Baba escorted by his wife. On reaching, they met a long queue. After waiting for a long time, it was their turn and the man entered to see the Baba who congratulated him for coming, as imminent death was facing him. Baba went on to prescribe some medications for him without much diagnosis which the spirits had revealed before hand. At the end he charged the man not to talk to any human being as he goes home, and on getting home to enter his house with his back. He also asked him to return in two weeks with the following items for some sacrifices: a goat, a life lizard, a cockroach and the right eye of a fly. What sort of requirements are these, and how would the man cope with his wife? we would ask. But he did all these anyway. On getting home, the perplexed wife who had been running after him asked what was wrong and the man answered: “That was what Baba said I should do if I wanted the medicine to work” and the wife said “no wonder”.

So the man wanted the medicine to work and endured and carefully complied with the regulations no matter how ridiculous they seemed. So it is with these holiness regulations—they make the miracles of our spirituality to work. These instructions must be adhered to for the medicine to work for our deliverance, salvation and healing etc. The irony of our generation is that we are a generation that has no regards for the instructions but still clamour for the medicine to work.
Spirituality/Religion (Christianity/Islam/Paganism) without Holiness is a fake spirituality, like fake drugs it gives to its users a false impression of wholeness and health. Effort must therefore be made to flush it out of our system. I hereby propose that we establish an Ecclesiatical NAFDAC that should go around and check the quality (holiness content) of the spiritualities being peddled all around us. Most of them will be found wanting as usual—I bet you.

So my dear brothers and sister, let us fight the fear of what people will say about us and do our best to adhere to what BABA God has said.

Take up thy cross, nor heed the shame, Nor let thy foolish pride rebel:
Thy LORD for thee the Cross endured, To save thy soul from death and hell.


CLOSING PRAYER
Now to Him who is able to keep us from falling and to present us without blemish before the presence of His glory with rejoicing. To the only God, our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and for ever. Amen.