One Body, Many Members

Your Excellencies and distinguished friends from the many member states of the African Union, on this celebration of the 60^th anniversary of the organization’s founding, I welcome you to St. Paul’s within the Walls.

Dear siblings from around the city who come to this church each week to find spiritual sustenance, community, and the hope to keep living as One Body in a world that so often chooses to settle for division—I welcome you to this magnificent celebration of our common life called Africa Day.

And for those of you who have come to us today for the first time, whether your sojourn is for this day only or whether you are seeking a church home—I invite you to imagine with us what might be possible if each of us allow our lives to serve as seeds of transformation toward a more just, loving, and shared creation.

We who call this community our home are on a journey together, and we gather here to ask the God of all to guide us as we grow together, walk together, and serve together.

We speak many languages and come from many countries. 

We proudly bear the heritage of our families, honor the cultural customs that make us unique, and understand our national bonds and social connections as gifts and blessings to be celebrated.

But we also are all too aware of how such tribal markers can be exploited by loud, but weak leaders to turn us against one another and to convince us that we have no need of each other.

When we believe the original lie that our differences should drive us to division, instead of seeing our diversity as cause for celebration and a revelation of the very multiplicity of God’s nature—then all our worst fears begin to come true.

Interpersonal relations break down and distrust dominates our interactions.

The suffering of our neighbor ceases to cause our hearts to stir, and we excuse ourselves from caring about the lives of those who “aren’t like us.”

Wars become commonplace, betrayal and infidelity become the most common diplomatic and economic tools, and dreams of a different reality and world die in the parched mouths and famished souls of children caught in the crossfire.

We who are gathered here today are called to proclaim another way.

Whether we call ourselves Muslim, Christian, agnostic, or atheist— whether we come from one of the countries of Africa, Europe, Asia, or the Americas—even if we have been disappointed and disillusioned by life and unbearably broken hearted by hoping against hope for a better way of being.

We can live and journey together in a way that serves as a witness to the world, and a catalyst for the change that will draw us into the peaceable realm of the new creation.

Jesus’ prayer today to his Father, as he prepares to ascend and become present to his followers in a new way is, “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” 

This oneness is not a unity that erases distinction, but one that relies upon authentic relationship to understand true wholeness.

As Christians, we rely upon our understanding of the mystical Body of Christ, with its many members, to speak about this particular kind of unity.

Just as a hand is not a foot, but both are equally important as part of the larger body—so are we who differ in country of origin, age and status, preferred language and even religious inclination still part of the larger body that God uses to heal and reconcile the world.

There are other metaphors from other traditions that describe this reality—wonderful motivators that can spur us to see each other as siblings and fellow children of God instead of competitors and adversaries.

What bears repeating always, but especially as we gather to celebrate Africa Day is that knowing this is one thing—living it is another.

The African Union has put forward ambitious continent-wide goals, flagship projects of Agenda 2063 designed to better connect countries and ensure and improve the life and livelihood of African citizens.

These goals arise from the fields of transportation, education, trade, energy, and security, and they are beyond the reach of any single country on the continent.

Egypt’s economic security is bound with Rwanda’s, Congo’s educational success is connected to Chad’s, security in South Africa relies on security in South Sudan.

While the differences between North and Central Africa may at times seem insurmountable, while the frustrations and destruction wrought by colonialism may threaten to overwhelm any progress toward new relationships, and while pressures and politics from outside the continent undermine the self-determination and unity of the African people—the only way to overcome these very real challenges is as one body.

One Body, many members—that is the idea that undergirds the church, it was the foundational principle of the Organization of African Unity and the African Union, and it is the goal for which we must strive if we wish to affect meaningful and lasting change in our world.

As we celebrate the variety of gifts that arise through our Nigerian, Ugandan, Algerian, Ethiopian, Mauritian, and Angolan siblings today—as we praise God in song, word, and deed today in many languages and seek the strength to work for and with one another once more…let us focus our efforts on the small seeds of transformation first.

Let us open our hearts to learn from one another and to truly hear the stories of joy and pain that our neighbors must tell.

Let us invest in each other and forge the bonds of friendship daily in the hopes that a sustained relationship of trust and respect will allow us to overcome the inevitable disagreements and misunderstandings that arise among human beings.

And let us seek to alleviate one another’s suffering—whether personal, national, or systematically global—so that we may grow in the understanding that when one member of the Body suffers, we all suffer, and understand that our neighbor’s life and livelihood are intimately tied to our own.

If we plant these seeds in our own hearts and allow the garden of the new creation to grow in the communities and networks in which we move, then perhaps we will also reap together the fruits of healing and reconciliation that feed us to accomplish the ambitious goals that currently seem out of reach. Perhaps living and thriving as one Body with many members will allow us to dream dreams again, and imagine our way into the kind of world where God’s will can truly be done.