Sermons

I have been hearing some Scriptural readings in different sermons that I figured would be interesting for those in the United States, hence this blog entry. It should be noted that Pentecostal here doesn’t mean what it normally means in the United States. As a matter of fact, I offended someone when I asked if Pentecostal services normally involve speaking in tongues, which so far I have not seen. Pentecostal is often used as a blanket term for Christian but not Anglican or Catholic, the two largest churches here. One Pentecostal pastor whom I am friends with said that the distinction between say Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, etc. are not readily acknowledged and that on a practical level and particularly in practical conversation these all sort of mesh under the umbrella of Pentecostal. It may be a little more accurate to say “Pentecostal” in Uganda means something closer to what “Evangelical” means in the United States: a general term for many Protestant denominations. Interestingly the Pentecostals here in the rural area refer to themselves as “Born-Agains” and put a huge emphasis on conversion and followed by immediate radical self-transformation. I write all this about Pentecostalism because all the sermons were made at a church that people refer to as Pentecostal. The first is from a church in Kampala on my third week in Uganda. It was about Leah naming her children particularly Judah. See Genesis 29:31-35, but here’s a brief synopsis. Leah was miserable because she was not loved by her husband, Jacob who favored her sister Rachel, but she was having children not Rachel. Her first three sons were named pessimistic names, based off of her unfortunate situation. E.g. she named her first son Reuben based on this: “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.” (v 32) The next two were given similar names. Judah’s name means “This time I will praise the Lord” (v 34), where she decided to forgo her misery and praise God. The pastor explained that because of this name, Judah grew up to be the head of the family (in spite of being the fourth born) and then Judah’s clan became the most prosperous (see Numbers) and then became the head of Israel, the first of the twelve to march in battle in the Joshua/Judges period, and then King David. And then Jesus as the ultimate ruler of all. There was a connection between this naming and Jacob’s blessing of his sons in Genesis 49, of which many sons got rather bleak blessings but Judah got a much positive one. Leah’s decision to praise the Lord through Judah though was the first cause of his and his descendants positive existence, as opposed to her other three sons who not only lost seniority as sons to Judah but whose descendents had not quite as good blessings from Jacob nor quite as prosperous of a history. I feel like people in the U.S. often gloss over the naming parts of the Old Testament, which this sermon focused. In a nearby church, they gave the following sermon on Mark 8:22-26. I decided to copy the text below because it will important for understanding the sermon. Mark 8:22-26 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged to Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spat on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, ‘Do you see anything.’ He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’ Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying ‘Don’t go into the village.’” So the preacher emphasized the fact that Jesus took the blind man out of the town/city to heal him. (There is no real difference in meaning between the two in Ugandan English, and he used the word “city” instead. I will be true to his wording and do the same.) For him, the city represents our sinful states, e.g. lust/adultery, theft, abuse, witchcraft, etc. In order to be healed, we must leave our cities. This is why Jesus took the blind man out of the city before he healed him: it would be unproductive to heal without doing this. This wasn’t a questioning of Jesus’ power, but that the city, in particular the demonic presence there, was what caused him to blind in the first place so that he wouldn’t be fully healed. We must leave our cities, our states of sins, never turn back or even look back. (Of all things, this reminded me of Lot fleeing Sodom and Gemorrah at their destruction and his wife’s death because she looked back. See Gen 19:17, 23-26). If we turn back, we’ll end up much worse than when we started. He cited Jesus’ statement about a person being exorcized of a demon only to have the demon return with six of his friends. He didn’t make a distinction between having a sinful habit and being demon-possessed. The demon coming back was a return with a vengeance and then the six demons were six other sinful habits. This would only make our suffering worse. For him, you had to leave your cities we live in prevent us from receiving divine blessing and give you an unhappy life, and we need to allow Jesus to hold your hand so that you may leave.