REFLECTIONS ON MARCH FOR LIFE

On 6^th December, 2016, I was part of the Lilongwe March for Life that was organized by the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) and the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) in all but five of Malawi’s 28 districts. The marches were a culmination of 14-days of prayer for life and family that began on 21^st November and ended on 4^th December. They were primarily to counter the supposed government plan to table pro-abortion and pro-same-sex legislation during the current sitting of parliament, 21^st November to 16^th December. The government spokesperson, however, said that there was no such impending legislation in parliament; rather, there was a Law Commission report making recommendations to government to adopt new legislation on abortion. Of course, such sentiments did not stop the march from proceeding. As somebody that was there, I would like to offer my observations about the Lilongwe march’s positivity and orderliness, show of religious unity in the public sphere, maturing ecumenism, and political muscle-flexing. In my next installment, Beyond the March, I will share my thoughts of what should happen after the march. I have already share my thoughts on why I think that Christians should participate in this march in my previous blog.

A Positive and Orderly March

Contrary to many media reports of an “anti-gay and anti-abortion” march, the march was not billed as an anti-gay and anti-abortion march. The march was about being pro-life and pro-family both of which are tenets that the Bible-believing church has held these past two millennia. Certainly in a democracy any group has freedom of association and even the right to demonstrate. Christians and those of other faiths with like-minded values marched in solidarity to affirm their allegiance to their pro-life and pro-family way of life in the context of an increasing imperial imposition of same-sex and liberalized-abortion values from the “developed” countries. Obviously behind such thinking is the felt superiority of those who would want to impose such values on another society hence the label imperial. Apart from a T-shirt that said “real men don’t bend over”, for the most part I did not hear or see any form of derogatory remarks against those that are LGBTI from the crowd, the EAM/ECM speakers, or anyone else. 

The march was orderly unlike most marches that sometimes degenerate into rioting and looting. The peacefulness of the march made the Police to be there ceremonially though they seemed to me to be in full force ready for any eventualities. The mc on the truck carrying the PA system is the one who directed us on where to sit when we came to the parliament building. Though the organizers were accused of forcing primary school pupils to join the march, I heard one of the children saying that they had just finished writing their exams and had been let off early from school. No person was harmed in any way; no property was damaged in any way. This was an exemplary march.

A Show of Religious Unity in the Public Sphere

One of the riveting scenes in my mind is that of platform mc, Rev. Dr Zacc Kawalala of Word Alive Ministries International which is a Neocharismatic church, welcoming Rev. Father Henry Saindi of the Catholic Church to make a speech whilst in the background a Rastarian Lion of Judah flag was blowing in the wind. I stood watching this scene in fascination almost next to two Muslims imams who were intently listening to what Father Saindi was saying. This was a reminder that religious people share many similar values and seek quite similar kinds of societies though they may differ in specifics. Sure, there are those with extremist tendencies in every religion (the likes of Boko Haram and the Lord’s Resistance Army) that would want to dictate every aspect of life totalitarian style but these have no place in democracy. 

Of course, this is not the only platform for religious unity on public matters as there is also the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) which was very instrumental in our transition from a one-party dictatorship to a multiparty democracy between 1992 and 1994. And PAC’s good work continues on to today. My point here though is that the march was a reminder that there can be and should be religious unity in the public sphere to advance matters of justice, peace, and prosperity. In this way, the religious communities can properly play the role of civil society which Ollen Mwalubunju says “is the realm of organized social life which lies between the individual and the state and is the arena of social engagement which is above the individual yet below the state” and, in its active form, “is key for sustained political reform and a viable state-society relationship”.[1] Instead of parroting to the government of the day that they are “partners in development”, religious groups should act as watchdogs for justice, peace, and prosperity in society. This march showed that the churches can properly play the role of an active civil society that bring about political reform.

A Maturing Ecumenism in the Public Sphere

The march was ecumenical, that is, Christians from across the denominations worked together. It is usually hard to get Evangelical/Born-Again Christians to consider most Catholics as true believers and vice versa. To put things in historical perspective, consider that it was only during the Second Vatican Council (October 1962 – December 1965) that Catholics started regarding Protestants – of which Evangelicals/Born-Agains are a subset – as their “estranged brethren”. Before that, and stretching all the way to the Reformation in the 1500s, Catholics pretty much regarded Protestants as heretics.  In the Malawian context, Born-Again churches and Catholics rarely do things together. Take the Way of the Cross Good Friday processions, for example. The Born-Again churches have their more boisterous version while the Catholics have their more solemn one and at times do cross each other’s paths. So it was a pleasant surprise to see the realization on both sides that they need not major on what separates them but rather what unites them in the public sphere. This pragmatism, in my opinion, is a maturity on both sides. As was observed during the march, a church speaking univocally makes for a strong prophetic voice that speaks truth to power. This is what we need in our infant democracy. 

A Necessary Flexing of Political Muscle

Finally, that this was a big political statement was not lost on anyone with political eyes to see. The organizational aspect of it that involved groups in all but five districts, speaks of a formidable movement. The fact that many people took time off their work and businesses to march also speaks of great commitment to this cause. There are no official attendance statistics yet but Makhumbo Munthali, the EAM’s point-person for the march, estimates that there were approximately 5,000 in Lilongwe, about 7,000 in Blantyre, and probably 40,000 nationally. 

This is a very needed statement in the Malawian context where the apathetic ruling elite take the people for granted. It was a reminder that the church will not allow the powers that be to ride rough-shod over the people as they pursue whatever self-serving agenda they may plan. Rev. Dr. Zacc Kawalala, who is also the chairperson of EAM’s Ethics, Peace, and Justice Commission – made an overt threat to the parliamentarians present that day by saying that if the MPs were to vote otherwise concerning legislation to do with abortion and same-sex marriages, they would not be voted back into office come 2019.

Thank you EAM and ECM for awakening our consciences to be the salt and light to a very sick nation. The march is not it. It’s not the place of arrival. It’s just part of the process. The real issue becomes what happens after it.

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[1] Ollen Mwalabunju, “Civil Society”, in Nandini Patel and Lars Svasand (editors), Government and Politics in Malawi, Center for Social Research/Chr. Michelsen Institute, 2007, pp. 268-269.

THE MARCH FOR LIFE'S CHRISTIAN NAYSAYERS AND A TRUNCATED GOSPEL

I was surprised by many I thought would know better when it comes to the mission of God in the earth when they made statements to the effect that the church has no business marching for the right to life of the unborn and maintaining that marriage should continue be legally defined as heterosexual. Others even asked if Jesus would be part of the march if he were alive today. However, when one considers that God’s mission or purpose in creation was for humanity to lovingly obey God (worship – Genesis 2:16, 17), to love and care for each other (fellowship – Genesis 2:22-25), and to use and replenish the earth’s resources to glorify God (stewardship – Genesis 1:28-30), it becomes rather obvious that God’s mission/purpose is more than worship, least of all a worship that is restricted to “preaching” the Gospel. 

Why do I say that? When humanity disobeyed God and fell (Genesis 3), those three relationships – worship, fellowship, and stewardship – became affected by evil. Instead of worshiping God, humans worshiped the Satan (“prince of the power of the air” – Ephesians 2:1-3); instead of loving and caring for each other, fellowship soon disintegrated into the fratricide of Abel by Cain (Genesis 4); and, instead of replenishing the earth’s resources, humans are making life on earth unsustainable by their over-consumption and ecologically unfriendly ways of living. That’s the bad news. The good news, or the Gospel, is God’s restoration of these things in Christ Jesus who reverses the curse by his death on the cross and so begins to usher in the restoration of God’s reign in the earth which will climax in his second-coming and a new heaven and new earth (Colossians 1:19-23). In other words, the gospel has more than the God-ward call to worship God; rather, it extends to a restoration of fellowship amongst humans which will seek the thriving of all humanity. Of course, this also means that the gospel also extends to issues of the environment and work but that is for another post. 

Now this is where I see a truncated gospel in my brethren: They have limited the Gospel to just preaching the word of God (evangelism) so that the idea of the church seeking restored fellowship amongst humans by protecting the unborn and remaining true to God’s idea of heterosexual marriage is irrelevant or, at worst, heretical. The Gospel encompasses humanity’s social, cultural, and political aspects when seen in terms of restored fellowships. So not to send the message across to our MPs, who sooner or later will be debating such matters that will shape our nation for good or evil, would be to neglect our role as salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-15). 

Also to insinuate that Jesus or Paul would not have joined the March for Life is to misunderstand the subtle ways that they confronted the systems of oppression of their day. The fact that both of them did not directly confront oppression does not mean that they did not work within their systems to bring about change. Jesus, in a very male-dominated society that did not consider women as being worth much to the point of refusing legal tes 

timony from them in a court of law, sent Mary Magdalene as a witness to his disciples (read men) about the most important event in history, his resurrection (John 20:17-18). Paul could tell Philemon that he should consider Onesimus his real brother and not a mere slave, a very revolutionary approach for that time (Philemon 1:15-16). Both Jesus and Paul strived for fellowship and equality within their limiting contexts so much that I would say that they would have marched with us today in solidarity with those whose lives are cut-off in the womb and those who seek to maintain God’s purpose to replenishing and subduing the earth.

KINGDOM PRAYERS END THE WORLD!

‎When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. Revelation 8:1-5, The Holy Bible, English Standard Version

The Sovereign Lord who needs nothing has freely chosen to use the prayers of His saints to be the catalyst that consummates His kingdom. No, He needs no one and nothing yet in His love and wisdom has chosen us puny sin-prone humans that don’t deserve His mercy to be co-workers with Him in ushering in His new age. This is very clear from John’s vision of the seventh seal where an angel offers incense with the prayers of the saints that bring about the Second Coming of Jesus.
Incense and prayer have a long history in the Bible. The psalmist prays “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Psalm 141:2). Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, encountered the angel who told him about his son’s birth while offering incense in the temple when “the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense” (Luke 1:10, emphasis mine).

The amazing thing though about this vision is that the incense and prayers become the catalyst for the Second Coming. The angel takes the golden censer with the incense, fills it with fire from the altar (where fire symbolizes the judgment of God), and throws it on the earth. When that happens, there are “peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake” (Revelation 8:5) the kind of things that signify a storm theophany (appearance of God like a storm). This is similar to the appearance of God at Mount Sinai where “on the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled” (Exodus 19:16). In Revelation, there are two other such storm theophanies both of which are a part of the seventh and final judgment of the trumpets (11:19) and of the bowls (16:18). The seventh of the seals, trumpets, and bowl judgments bring the world to the end in which God comes in power, the Second Coming.

Here is the amazing thing: God is using the kingdom prayers of the saints to bring about the end. Kingdom prayers are essentially those that are crying out, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). In other words, these are prayers of hastening the Second Coming of Jesus who will establish God’s kingdom in the earth at that time. And it is the saints who will bring this about not only by their prayers but also by their witness since “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). Wow!

We are not praying in vain, saints! God is using our prayers to hasten His kingdom. No wonder Satan hates it when we pray and places every obstacle in our efforts because he knows that his end will be nearer when we pray. May you return to that place of prayer in your life! May you remember that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). May your prayers be kingdom prayers that seek to expand the Gospel reach! May you start praying for the nations to hear the Gospel! May you support the sending of preachers to ends of the earth! Most of all, may you pray!

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WHAT KIND OF PRAYERS DO YOU PRAY?

‎1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.  ‎2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.  ‎3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, ‎4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Revelation 8:1-4

It has been loud in heaven. Very loud. The Lamb who was slain and who is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Jesus), has opened six of the seven seals of the scroll that contains God’s judgments on an evil and unrepentant world (Revelation 7:1-17). The first four seals unleashed four horsemen representing the love for conquest (white horse), war (red horse), famine (black horse), and death by pestilence (pale horse) who have already wreaked their havoc on the earth. Interestingly, these are not direct judgments from God per se. Rather, they are man’s propensity for evil turning upon itself so that the love for conquest births war which lead to famine and finally to death by pestilence. The fifth seal reveals a scene in heaven where the souls of the saints “who had slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne” pray to God, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then the sixth seal is opened and there is a great earthquake and phenomena that attend the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament and the Second Coming of Jesus in the New Testament: blackened sun, blood-red moon, falling stars, a vanishing sky, and mountains and islands that disappear. The effect of these on “those that dwell on the earth” – Revelation’s code word for evil unrepentant people – is to seek a quick death to escape the wrath of God. Then, in typical apocalyptic fashion, John the Revelator shows us another scene before the throne of God where saints worship God. Very loud.

Then there is silence for half an hour in heaven. Why?  An angel is offering incense in a golden censer and a lot of incense is given to him to offer together with the prayers of the saints. But why the silence? It could be that there is anticipation as to what this seventh seal will bring about in terms of God’s judgment. It could also be that this is representative of the silent environment in which a priest operated when he offered incense in the Jerusalem temple. Whatever it the reason may be, the silence in heaven lasts for half an hour in which the angel offers incense mixed with the prayers of all the saints before the throne. Already the souls of the martyred saints have cried out to God seeking His judgment and vindication (Rev. 6:10). Here, “all the saints” include those that are still in the earth at this time.

Now my question is: what kind of prayers are these saints on earth praying? A new car? A promotion? A wife? A husband? A good grade in the past exam? More money? I don’t think so. These are prayers that are essentially saying “May Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as in heaven”, kingdom prayers that hasten the Second Coming of Jesus to restore God’s rule in the earth (Luke 11:2). The saints pray for the empowering of God’s people to be witnesses (Acts 1:8), for boldness in witnessing as God performs miracles through them in Jesus’ name (Acts 4:29-30), for bold preaching of the gospel (Ephesians 6:19), for the gospel of the kingdom to reach the ends of the earth so that Jesus would return to establish the kingdom (Matthew 24:14). The overriding principle is “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you” where, in the context of that saying, “all these things” mean the needs of this world (Matthew 6:33).

Now my question to you: What kind of prayers to you pray? Do you pray kingdom prayers that aim to hasten the Second Coming of Jesus? Are your prayers about the gospel going to the ends of the earth? Are your prayers about being empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a bold witness? Are your prayers about asking God to miraculously move in your friends’ and family’s lives so they can enter into His kingdom? May you pray kingdom prayers. Amen.