|
Lectionary
SIXTH BEFORE CHRISTMAS: 9 – 15 NOVEMBER, 2008
THEME:
GOD’S LIBERATING ACT: “LET MY PEOPLE GO!”
READING: EXODUS
7: 14 – 18
In our text, God calls for the freedom of
the Israelites not only from political slavery, but from
religious, economic and social slavery. Like the Israelites,
Africa was, and is still enslaved. The political and economic
slavery of Africa by the West prompts God to say “Let my
people Africa go!
Popular Jamaican music star Jimmy Cliff
sang the song:-
“Don’t free my hand and leave my mind in
chain
Don’t say I’m free and you’re still washing my brain
You do the things that you want me do…”
Are the minds
of Africans not still in chains? Are the economies of our
nations not still in chains? Are the mineral resources of
Africa not still in chains?
God is saying to you the
social oppressors, the economic oppressors, the intellectual
oppressors of Africa, ‘Let my people go!” The people of Africa
are God’s people, and God will not sit by and watch them
suffer for much longer.
The world is taking advantage of
Africa by using its mineral resources to supply arms and
ammunitions, and by supporting conflicts and wars; but it is
also denying Africa the economic opportunity of exporting its
agricultural products, which will make real the promise of
abundant life to Africa. Our text is a call to the West to
stop sabotaging the economy of Africa with the use of threats,
sanctions, conditionalities, etc.
The LORD, the God of
the Africans, has sent me to say to you, “Let my people go!”
If only the world could find wisdom in God’s word, then Africa
would be a paradise to live in.
Elijah Akibo-Jones,
Methodist Church of Sierra Leone
PRAYER
May we
your children, O Lord, be united to fight fearlessly against
evil and injustice and not compromise with oppression, so as
to set people and nations free from bondage of all sort, and
to enjoy life in all its fullness, through Jesus Christ our
Lord, Amen
READINGS FOR THE WEEK
Exodus 7: 14 –
18; Luke 4: 16 – 21; Exodus 12: 31 – 42; Philemon; Galatians
3: 26 – 4: 7 | |
|