Beloved, sisters & brothers in Christ, it is a joy to be with you here today at the heart of my pastoral visit to the Diocese of Cameroon. I am very grateful to Archbishop Cyril, and Bishop Dibo, for extending this invitation and for your generous hospitality.
I am here with you today as pastor and shepherd. I am here to pray with you; to encourage you; to assure you that you are not forgotten. I was pleased to be able to travel to the South West region yesterday, to visit the Biaka Foundation. But I was saddened not to be able to reach St Peter’s Church to meet local clergy due to heavy rain and flooding on the roads. It brought home to me how impacted your lives and ministry must be by the damage to roads and infrastructure.
I come also, bringing with me the prayers of the Anglican Communion. I will carry your stories with me when I leave; and I will encourage others to pray for you. I give thanks to God for your faithfulness, and for your persistence in proclaiming the hope of Jesus Christ amid the suffering of your people.
I have heard of your struggles - the hardships you go through, your longing for healing, inclusion and dignity. I weep with you in your weeping. I long for your healing. I come to be with you, as a servant of Christ, as one among you, bringing the message of the Gospel: our hope in the name of God, the maker of heaven and earth; and the good news of Jesus Christ, ‘who is our hope’ (1Tim 1.1).
Brothers and sisters, in our scriptures we see the struggle of God’s people. We see the struggle against the powers of sin and oppression; the struggle in times of war and displacement, wilderness and exile; we even see the struggle of God’s people against God himself.
In our reading from the book of Genesis, Jacob is struggling. He is struggling from the broken relationship with his brother, Esau. He cannot see a way out other than warfare, and he is on the losing side. He knows that his brother is approaching the river Jabbok with 400 men, and Jacob is greatly afraid. He tries to appease his brother, sending flocks and gifts across the river ahead of him. Jacob is terrified.
But it is in this night of dread, fear and violence that Jacob encounters God.
The Angel of God appears and wrestles with Jacob through the night. Jacob wrestles and struggles, with his own guilt; with his broken relationship with his brother; with the fear that there is no hope of reconciliation, only tragedy.
Jacob wrestles with God - testing, pushing, demanding, seeking refusing to let go until he receives a blessing.
And God is with Jacob in the wrestling – God refuses to let Jacob go until the blessing comes.
This story shows us that when we are struggling, when we are wrestling with fears - internal, external, in our families, in our communities, in our nations - that God is with us in the wrestling and in the blessing. That God seeks to partner with us as we look for reconciliation and hope.
What can we take from this? Firstly, we see that God knows the struggle, God sees the struggle. God is with Jacob in the struggle.
And God sees your struggle. When it feels like the eyes of the world are turned away, God looks upon you. When it feels like you are fighting a battle in complex circumstances and unclear gains or losses, God is with you. God wrestles and struggles with you in the darkness, until the blessing comes.
God sees you. God is with you in the struggle and in the blessing. Alleluia! Amen!
Jesus sees you. Jesus is with you in the struggle and in the blessing. Alleluia! Amen!
We see you.
In the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus sees the people and has compassion on them. It is a beautiful story of Jesus demonstrating the love of God turning towards his people in compassion and mercy.
When others begin to turn the people away, sending them out, still hungry - Jesus sees them, brings them in and feeds them.
Where human imagination and compassion fail, and even Jesus’ own disciples can’t imagine what might happen, Jesus sees his people, loves them and blesses them.
And Jesus does this from a place of grief, in his own struggle.
In our story from the Gospel, Jesus has just heard that his cousin, John the Baptist, has been murdered by Herod. Jesus seeks to get away, to be alone, to pray to his Father in heaven.
Jesus experiences the brutality of suffering and oppression, not only in his own death on the cross, but also in the killing of his cousin, John. We cannot underestimate how closely Jesus understands the pain and suffering of those experiencing similar oppression in our world, the fear and anxiety that rule daily life. Jesus sees his people and understands their pain.
The crowd press in on him and he feels their pain too – there is nothing that can separate Jesus from us, even when we turn from him. And where we cannot go, Jesus goes.
Alleluia. Amen.
What Jesus offers no human power can offer. Even from the midst of his own struggle and grief, Jesus has compassion on the crowd.
Not just sympathy, or shallow feeling, this is a deep compassion that rises from within. He is moved with the compassion that you feel it in your stomach – that you can’t help but be affected by.
This compassion is such a strong feeling for Jesus that he can’t help but act upon it.
In the miraculous abundance of God’s grace, Jesus not only heals the people but also feeds them.
Again, where human imagination fails to see what is possible, God does something miraculous: ‘for nothing will be impossible with God’.
Alleluia. Amen.
Jesus takes the five loaves and the two fish, looks up to heaven and blesses them, breaks them and gives them to the disciples – and the disciples give them to the crowd.
Our God is a God of abundance. Jesus brings us close to heal us. Jesus restores us in body and in spirit. Jesus feeds us with the bread of heaven, with himself, the true bread that comes to give us life.
Jesus brings the crowd near, he sees them; he hears their desperate cry for healing amid their suffering. And just as God was with Jacob in the wrestling - God is with them in the struggle.
I long for your healing and peace. I long for each of you to know that you are beloved of God; that you are precious in God’s sight; that you are seen and known by the one who saves you.
I pray that Christ, who is the bringer of peace, will mend what is torn apart.
I pray that Christ, the healer, will bind up your wounds and revive you.
I pray that Christ, the one who sees and knows the heart of every person, will be your hope, your comfort, and your assurance.
I pray that amid division, displacement and oppression, Jesus the Prince of Peace will bring hope.
Alleluia! Amen!
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, stand firm in the faith to which you have been called.
Find your hope in the one who sees you and knows you. For our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth!
Alleluia! Amen!
