Sermon for February 2, 2025 - The The Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple.
Painting of Saints Vincent Martyr, Vincent Ferrer, and Raymond of Penyafort. Oil on canvas. Anonymous author, school of Francisco Ribalta. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=406890
Throughout the year, the Anglican Church remembers and celebrates certain people and events that are important in the life of the Church. Whether they be saints from the distant or recent past, or people and events related to the church on these shores, their stories are meant to inspire and encourage us in our own walks of faith.
At our weekly Wednesday services, we often choose one of the saints that come up during that week. Using the book, For All the Saints, we are able to hear a little about each saint or event and often they include original writings from the saint of the day. Two weeks ago, we remembered Vincent, a deacon from Saragossa in modern-day Spain, someone of whom I had never heard before. We heard his story of martyrdom in 304CE when he had the choice to abandon his bishop during a fresh round of persecution, but instead, he kept his faith, stood side by side with his bishop, and faced the persecution.
Tradition tells us that the governor had every sort of torture inflicted on Vincent. He was stretched on the rack and his flesh torn with iron hooks. Then his wounds were rubbed with salt, and he was burned alive upon a red-hot gridiron. Finally, he was cast into prison and laid on a floor scattered with broken pottery, where he died. During his martyrdom, he preserved such peace and tranquillity that it astonished his jailer, who repented from his sins and was converted. Vincent's dead body was thrown into the sea in a sack, but was later recovered by the Christians, and his veneration immediately spread throughout the church. So when we find ourselves in difficult and uncontrollable circumstances, we can remember Vincent and call upon his steadfast endurance to confront our own struggles.
Last week, we remembered Thomas Aquinas, a doctor of the church and a theological heavyweight from the 1200’s. Of course, not all the saints are European, so in preparation for celebrating Black History Month, I looked for stories of saints and events from Africa and the Caribbean to share with you. There are plenty of saints from the first three centuries of the early church from North Africa; like Augustine, Clement, Origen, and Anthony to name a few because Alexandria and Carthage were important centres of early Christianity. Upon looking more closely, I noticed that the bulk of the stories of the saints from sub-Saharan Africa originate from the colonial period and stretch to the present.
Every year on June 3rd the Church remembers two very similar events separated by one hundred years in remembering the Martyrs of Uganda in 1886 and also Janani Luwum, the Archbishop of Uganda who was murdered in 1977. So, let’s hear a little more about these martyrs from For All the Saints and what they might be saying to us in our own walks of faith.
Depiction of how Ugandan Martyrs were tortured. By Jadnapac - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90930501
As our parishioners Joel and his family would already know, “The nation of Uganda lies in equatorial Africa; its south-eastern border runs along the shores of Lake Victoria. European explorers and missionaries first came upon the peoples of the area in the 1860s. Especially along Lake Victoria, in the region known as Buganda, they found a highly sophisticated society, a federation of kindred tribes under a hereditary monarch called the Kabaka. Christian missionaries, both Anglican and Roman Catholic, found a ready hearing among small but important groups of the Bugandan nation. The growing strength and influence of the Christian presence led the Kabaka, Mwanga, to launch a vicious persecution in 1885. This persecution culminated in a holocaust of Anglican and Roman Catholic converts at Namugongo on June 3, 1886. All told, some forty-five Ugandans suffered death for the sake of Christ. Their witness proved to be the seed of the Ugandan church, and by the time Uganda gained independence, it was the most Christian nation in Africa. Indeed, there were more Anglicans in Uganda than in any other church of the Anglican Communion.”
That in and of itself is a tale as old as time. From Jerusalem to Rome, from Japan to El Salvador, then and now, those in power, those wielding authority, never like to see it challenged. Herod, Nero, and others like them ensured that any threat to said power and authority was taken care of…violently and publicly to dissuade others. The Martyrs of Uganda aren’t the only martyrs we remember, but we also remember Archbishop Luwum. Let us continue in For All the Saints:
Archbishop Janani Luwum
“But history has a way of repeating itself. In 1972, Colonel Idi Amin overthrew the elected government of Uganda, and his regime soon became infamous throughout the world for its atrocities. But there was one structure which Amin could not control by means of terror — the Church of Uganda. The Anglican archbishop was Janani Luwum — a gentle, cheerful man, whose instincts were all toward loyalty and political non-involvement. But Amin’s injustices finally moved Luwum to protest.”
Archbishop Luwum becames a leading voice in criticizing the excesses of the Idi Amin regime. In 1977, Archbishop Luwum delivered a note of protest to dictator Idi Amin against the policies of arbitrary killings and unexplained disappearances. Shortly afterwards, the archbishop and other leading churchmen were accused of treason.
On February 16th, 1977, he was ordered to meet Amin in a personal interview and was arrested along with two others. The same day, Idi Amin convened a rally in Kampala with the three accused present. A few other "suspects" were paraded forth to read out "confessions" implicating the three men. The Archbishop was accused of being an agent of the exiled former president and for planning to stage a coup. The next day, Radio Uganda announced that the three had been killed when the car transporting them to an interrogation centre had collided with another vehicle. The accident, Radio Uganda reported, had occurred when the victims had tried to overpower the driver in an attempt to escape.
When Luwum's body was released to his relatives, it was riddled with bullets. According to the later testimony of witnesses, the victims had been taken to an army barracks, where they were bullied, beaten, and finally shot. Time magazine said, "Some reports even had it that Amin himself had pulled the trigger, but Amin angrily denied the charge, and there were no firsthand witnesses". According to a Human Rights Commission, Amin's right-hand man carried out the murder of Luwum and his colleagues. “So we remember Janani Luwum with the Martyrs of Uganda who perished in 1886, for he shared in their witness to the love and inviolable justice of God in Christ Jesus.”
In 2025, our world is just as turbulent as ever. While we will likely not be confronted with death because of our Christian faith, we, like Archbishop Luwum and the Martyrs of Uganda, must be ready to speak truth to power, to stand with the oppressed and the marginalized. With the swift and disruptive changes in our neighbours to the south, we are not immune from their devastating effects. They will want us to be dragged with them into a downward spiral that demonizes migrants, that severely restricts reproductive rights, that eliminates protections against discriminatory practices in schools and the workplace, and will strive to reconstruct a society that is closely aligned with the religious right. On this current trajectory, Gaza, the West Bank, and all Palestinian territory will be annexed and all but disappear. On this current trajectory, Ukraine will be coerced into accepting a ceasefire that cedes all occupied territories to Russia. To be silent is to be complicit. When Haile Selassie addressed the UN General Assembly in 1963, he said: “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
We remember these saints to inspire us to hope; hope that the light did not overcome the darkness, hope that even in the valley of the shadow of death God is with us, hope that things will change. Now is the time for us to not back down, but to take heart that by being steadfast in our faith and steadfast in our efforts to bring about the Kingdom of God each and every day, we can make a difference. We too can be agents of change, agents of light and love. So as we receive the body and blood of Christ to strengthen us to go out into the world, may we go out carrying Vincent, Archbishop Luwum, and all the other Martyrs of Uganda, known and unknown, in our hearts with us. Amen.
