Saint Michael’s Church
Serving God and Bishop’s Stortford
Sermon 18 July 2010
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St Michael's Church 18th July 2010 7th Sunday after Trinity 8.00am and 6.00pm Rev'd Toby Marchand |
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NELSON MANDELA
Today is the 92nd Birthday of Nelson Mandela. I want to pay tribute to him in a few words this morning/evening.
He was born 92 years ago today.
Nelson Mandela was born on July 18 of 1918. He is the former President of South Africa and the first who was elected in a completely democratic election. Prior to his presidency, Mandela was an activist against apartheid, and he was the leader of the armed wing of the African National Congress. He was convicted by the South African courts of sabotage as well as other charges when he led the movement in his country against apartheid. Because of his conviction, Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison, many of those years were spent on Robben Island. While he was in jail, he developed a reputation. While there, he performed hard labour. Prisoners were segregated. Prisoners for political reasons received less privileges. He was allowed one letter and one visitor every six months.
After his release from prison, he supported negotiation as well as reconciliation in order to develop multi-racial democracy in the country. Following the end of apartheid, many people have given Mandela praise, and this includes some of his former opponents. He is now a statesman who states his opinion about many topics. For his work, he had received more than 250 awards, and the most notable of these awards is probably the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.
Nelson Mandela has been married three times. He married Evelyn Ntoko Mase, but they broke up in 1957 after thirteen years of marriage. The cause of divorce may have been the stress of constant absences as well as the fact that she was of Jehovah's Witness faith, which requires political neutrality. Mandela's second wife, Winne Madikizela-Mandela, was the first black social worker in Johannesburg. Together they had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa. Zindzi was eighteen months old when her dad was put in prison. Their marriage ended with a divorce in March of 1996, but for much of their marriage, he was imprisoned. His third marriage was when he was eighty one years old, and he was married to Graca Machel, who was the widow of former Mozambican president Samora Machel, who had been killed in an air crash twelve years prior. The wedding occurred after months of negotiations for the bride price to be given to Machel's clan.
In July of 2001, Nelson Mandela was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was treated for it, which included seven weeks of radiation treatment. When he was 85 years old in 2004, he announced that he would not be involved in political life any more. He wanted to spend his final years with his family. Now he has white hair and walks with the support of a stick.
Since Mandela has retired, he has been fighting against AIDS, as his son Makgatho Mandela died from AIDS in 2005
His birthday was in 2009 recognised by the United Nations as "Nelson Mandela International Day" and will be celebrated across the world.
The increasingly frail leader is spending the day with family at his Johannesburg home.
Local politicians united in wishing the anti-apartheid icon well on his birthday, with international leaders hailing his contribution to global politics and the fight for human rights.
Global leaders and ordinary people in South Africa and abroad have committed to devoting 67 minutes of their time to community service, to mark the number of years Mandela spent in politics.
"President Mandela has given 67 years of his life, now what we all could do is try to use 67 minutes of our lives, and change the world for the better," said Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland.
The one thing that has impressed the world more than anything else has been the lack of bitterness with which Mandela has confronted his time in prison and his treatment by his opponents. More than almost any other Christian leader he has shown that the power of forgiveness is the power to change lives.
Who could possibly have believed when he was enduring hard labour in prison on Robben Island that he would one day be President of his country?
Who could possibly have believed then that he would make a State Visit to Britain as President, and that the Queen in her Christmas Address that year would be able to say that “.... Mandela was in inspiration to many people, showing how we can all accept the facts of the past without bitterness, and learn to see new opportunities as more important than differences and disputes of the past.”?
Let me end with the words of Mandela himself. They come from his inauguration speech as South African President on 10th May 1994.
He said: “Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate; our biggest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?”
Actually who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God. Your ‘playing small’ doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel secure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not within some of us---it is within EVERYONE.
And as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others” .
In Nelson Mandela along with Desmond Tutu South Africa has given the world a wonderful gift.
So let us rejoice with all the world today on this second Mandela International Day that 92 years ago today God brought in to being a man called Nelson.
Toby Marchand
Office Address:
Saint Michael’s Church
Windhill
Bishops Stortford
Hertfordshire
CM23 2ND