Who Guards Our Souls?

Her name is Sobita, and she is from South Asia.  In 2008, her parents sold her to be married.  The man paid a dowry for her and Sobita left home.  She was barely of marrying age, and only had a Grade 1 education.  Sobita joined her husband in his family home.  Sobita was not particularly well-liked by her husband’s parents.  Things got worse when a matter of months after getting married she was pregnant.  The parents were furious!  They were furious because it was one more mouth to feed, one more person to care for in an impoverished community.

Sobita was seen to be responsible for this.  She was shunned.  She was given less food and became weak.  The child was born, and the child was healthy, but the mother was getting weaker.  Sobita was then found to be with child again.  This time, the parents of her husband had no mercy.  They starved her.  Her child was born very soon afterwards and was emaciated.  It died.  Sobita was removed from the home.  Her husband disowned her; the parents couldn’t afford her; she couldn’t go home to her original family for they had already sold her and did not want another responsibility.  So Sobita and her son lived on the streets in Bangladesh.
 
Starving, emaciated and poor, they were discovered by people from World Vision who took her in, fed her, took care of her son, and gave her sanctuary.  Sobita was asked what her great wish was in life.  She responded that she wished she could get a better education than her Grade 1 in order that she could make enough money to look after her son.  When asked about her ultimate joy, she said that it would be that her son could get a wonderful education and become a great and a happy and a wealthy man.  Sobita went into World Vision’s care.

This may sound like a very strange way to start a Mother’s Day sermon.  Some of you may think that this sounds very depressing.  On the contrary, it is a statement of reality of what many of the mothers in the world experience.  Unfortunately, it is all too common that mothers, taking care of their children have to do so in the most appalling conditions.  Many of them become destitute; many of them become enslaved.  It is hard to imagine what it must be like to be a mother in that context.

As Christians, we have also been deeply troubled about how to deal with those who are put into slavery.  For many hundreds of years, it was assumed that the text that I read from Peter 1 a few moments ago is an endorsement of slavery.  In the Antebellum period in the United States, there was this belief that this text gave credibility to the ownership and even at times the abuse of slaves.  Yet, there were others who read this text differently:  the likes of William Wilberforce, who saw in the passage a message of Christ’s loving, sacrificial compassion.

How do these two themes come together, I ask?  I sometimes run into people who when they are critical of the Christian faith will point to a text such as this – “servants obey your masters” – and they will point in a very simplistic way to what they think is an error in our thinking and a sign that religion can be oppressive.  There might be even some of you, who when you read this, wonder if they are right.  I am here to give you another perspective.

The perspective I bring to you is to place what was said by Peter in an historical context.  As you might know, he is writing in this whole part of Peter 1 about the household, about how different people in different relationships within a household are to conduct themselves and how they are to get along.  In this particular case, he is addressing a fundamental problem in Asia Minor at the time, and that is that slaves and servants had become an integral part of the social network.  There was hardly a major home that didn’t have servants or slaves.  It was common.

What was fascinating, and this is a point that Craig Evans brings out, is that many of those early Christians, many of the first converts to the faith, were themselves slaves and servants.  Not only that, but most of them were women.  The women who were slaves and servants had adopted the Christian faith because they were attracted to the freedom that it gave them in Jesus Christ.  In believing in Jesus Christ and in being a follower of Jesus Christ, even as slave or servant, they felt that they could conduct their lives with hope and with freedom and with dignity.
 
The working class, the underclass, the under-under class were Christians.  That is why they are referred to, not so much in this passage on slaves, but what in Greek is oketai, which sort of means “a household servant” someone who nevertheless is worthy of some respect, and that they are to care for the despotai or “despots” who are the masters, and that it is the role of the servant to care for the master.  Why?  Well, there are a number of reasons, and one of them is that it is because they could bear witness to their Christian faith in following Jesus Christ.  A slave, by being obedient, by being kind, and by being sincere became good citizens.  As Christians and as good citizens, they could win over their masters to the new faith that follows Jesus of Nazareth.

It was also though a word to the slaves not to use force against their masters.  Later on in Peter 1, he says “Do not repay evil for evil, but overcome evil with good.”  The Apostle Paul says the same thing in Romans.  Jesus says the same thing about turning the other cheek.  It is not submissiveness per se, but rather it is “do not return evil for evil” do not give back to your master the abuse that your master has given you.  Do it wisely.  Serve wisely.

It was also, and this is a point that has been brought out by Gustavo Gutierrez, a way the slaves could protect themselves.  Peter was concerned that these new Christian slaves would have this incredible sense of freedom, but with their freedom would come licence, and with licence would come tyranny.  So he says, “If you do good you have nothing to fear.  If you suffer for righteousness, then you suffer for righteousness, but there is somebody who has already done that, and his name is Jesus.”  Peter 1 quotes from the magnificent Isaiah 53 of The Suffering Servant, and he suggests in this that Jesus was The Suffering Servant, the servant who laid down his life for the sake of others.  Peter knew that in this emerging Church in the dangerous world of Asia Minor, the only way these servants could be safe is if they still practiced what they did with dignity.
 
That was not the only message.  He also says that they are free.  They are servants of God, but they are free, and live therefore as free people, but also as people who are good citizens.  How could you possibly, if you read this text in the history and the context of what was said, believe that the Christian faith was in favour of slavery?  It is not!  It is in favour of slaves!  Let me say that again.  The Christian faith is not in favour of slavery; it is in favour of slaves.  It is caring for their wellbeing!

I cannot help but think how within the context of the early Church, particularly those slaves who were women, those who were often abused were so incredible in their witness.  This is because if you look at how Christianity spreads and how rapidly it moved through Asia Minor and the Roman Empire, it was because of the witness of slaves.  The slaves became the evangelists of their age.  Unfortunately, the sad reality is that at the end of the passage, Peter also talks about God being the guardian of our souls.  God is the guardian of our souls and needs to be the protector and guardian of our souls.  This is the Good News.  He is the guardian of our souls for those who find themselves in positions of trouble or in positions of servitude.  It is the guardian of our souls who looks after those who are servants and slaves.

Today, unfortunately the situation in many parts of the world is not unlike that of Asia Minor in 80 AD.  There are still many, many examples of slavery and mothers having to deal with the challenge of slavery, especially with the servitude of their children.  According to a report recently by UNICEF, there are 50,000 children, mainly boys, who are trained beggars in Senegal.  They are trained to become beggars by entering what are known are Quranic schools, schools that study the Koran, and they are called Daaras.  But, the Daaras’are a smoke-screen for what is the exploitation of children.  They are not really teaching the Koran, as is done in legitimate schools, but in illegitimate schools these children are handed over by their parents into the care of these schools, and these schools now send the children on to the street to beg.  They take away their shoes, they give them a tin cup, and they force them to go and beg on the streets of Senegal.  These children, who are known as the Talibe, are four to fourteen years old.  Once they have done their work and they are too old, no longer cute enough to attract money, they are discarded and forced to live on their own in the streets.  Many of their mothers have no idea where they are.

Another example, and one that is incredible, is the number of children who are placed in domestic servitude in the world.  According to the United Nations, there are ten million children living in domestic servitude in the world, 71 per cent are girls.  They are forced to work in domestic situations from the age of eight or nine years old.  It is estimated that even in the United States there are fifty thousand such children, and I know personally here in Toronto situations where that still occurs.  Can you imagine being their mother?
 
There is another form of servitude and that is what is known as the Camel Jockeys of the Persian Gulf.  Last Saturday, I watched along with many of you the Kentucky Derby.  And, whenever I think of the Kentucky Derby, I think of Dr. Hunnisett.  Now, you are probably wondering why I associate these two.  It is because she has a bet with herself as to who is going to win the Kentucky Derby.  She is a Kentucky Derby fanatic!  You didn’t know this about her, did you?  She might sound very upright when she leads in prayers, but her heart and mind last weekend was on the Kentucky Derby!  I always think of Jean and the Kentucky Derby!  And, it is fun and it is lively and there are flowers and it is beautiful and it is a gorgeous thing, and isn’t it marvellous when that happens.
 
Unfortunately, there is an undercurrent within the world of racing.  Not so much at the Kentucky Derby, but in the Persian Gulf where there are camel races on which people bet heavily.  It is one of the most popular forms of racing in the world, believe it or not.  What they do is they go and take children from Pakistan, often little boys sometimes only two years old.  They take them from their mothers and they ship them to the Persian Gulf and they stunt their growth physically.  They don’t allow them proper nutrition, and so as they grow up they become extremely short, light-weight boys, who can maximize the speed of a camel.  It happens!  These boys, often when they have done their racing and have become too mature are tragically murdered.  

This is happening now:  child soldiers in Sierra Leone, in the Burmese Army, in Somalia, carry the new light weight weapons and become the children of war.  They are taken from their mothers and forced to become soldiers at twelve years old.  Can you imagine being their mother?  And, if this doesn’t cause some outrage within your soul, if this doesn’t trouble you, then you have lost your heart.  The fact is it causes a person when one faces this kind of slavery in the world, when you hear of the children in Nigeria being taken from their mothers, when you hear these things, to think it is incomprehensible that these things can happen in our progressive, modern, well equipped, knowledge-based society and world.  But it does happen!

At times, you get this anger rising within you.  I think that we are indignant about what is happening in Nigeria right now.  I remember when I became really indignant about the slavery of children in South Africa in the 1970s and when I saw the conditions that they lived in, and I thought, “Will they ever get their freedom?  Will they ever get a chance to get their own land and renew their dignity?”  (It was 20 years ago this week that they did!)  With all the problems that they were having, I was so angry back then, and I remember my mother taking me to one side and saying, “Andrew, whatever you do, never repay evil for evil.  Remember it is not evil that overcomes the good. it is good that overcomes the evil.  You might hear that evil overcomes the good.  You might hear that tyranny is successful.  You might find the taking up of arms as the way to deal with it, but no, it is good that overcomes the evil.”   That, my mother said, was one of the cornerstones of our faith.

My mother was right!  This is exactly what we see in our text from Peter 1.  This is exactly what he was saying to the servants and the slaves:  not passivity, but just responding in a way that does not exacerbate the evil, but rather in a way that promotes the good.  He talks about sacrifice and then he quotes that incredible passage that Jesus bore our sins on the tree so that we might live to righteousness, and that by his wounds we are healed, and that the sacrifice of the Lord provides the healing of the world.  He wants those slaves to emulate the very Lord that they believe in.
 
Isn’t that exactly what mothers everywhere should do and embrace?  Of course, we should be outraged at the slavery in our world.  We should resist it with every power that we have got.  We should overcome the sources of it, which are money and greed and power and address those things.  But, at the same time, it seems to be this incredible call to mothers in every culture and in our own and to you here today to embrace the sacrificial ministry of Jesus.  That sacrificial ministry means that no matter what situation you or your child might be in, or your children might be in, you are not alone.  
The Guardian of your soul is with you.  When you feel the need to resist the evil that is around you with evil, you hear the Guardian of your soul saying, “Overcome evil with good.”  You might at times, when you feel that you lose hope for society and you are deeply troubled about the state of the world, you hear the Guardian of your soul talking to you and saying, “My Spirit can change the world.”  You might at times feel enmity with your children.  You might be disappointed in them or them in you.  You might feel that there is little or no hope in the relationship, for there are broken relationships between mothers and children, and you hear the Guardian of your soul saying, “Be reconciled through me.”  You might feel that you are overwhelmed as a mother with all the business of life and all the demands that are upon you.  It is incredible the amount of hours and the commitment that mothers have to put in to be good mothers.  In the midst of this, the Guardian of your soul is saying to you, “Keep in touch with me.  Renew your spirit in me.”

I have met many great mothers over the years:  inspirational mothers from the townships of Cape Town to the barrios of Latin America to the streets of Toronto.  But I have got to tell you that there was one mother I met some years ago in Ottawa who absolutely amazed me!  She was the mother of a soldier, a Canadian soldier, who had fought in Bosnia in the Balkans.  Fortunately, God bless her, her son came home alive.  Even though she attended memorial services for other soldiers who had not, she had her son.  The problem was her son was wounded.  He was wounded in body, but more so in his mind.  He couldn’t cope.  This mother knew that for the rest of her life she was going to have to care for her son.

I remember talking to her after we had been at a service in Ottawa at the Cenotaph.  I asked her how she could do this.  How could she possibly live her life with her son and how will she manage? Her words were inspirational, because she equated her role as a mother with Christ’s role.  She saw in Christ a suffering servant, who had given his all for her:  “How then can I not give my all for my son?”  She had brought the whole of Peter 1 together.  This is exactly what he was saying to the slaves.  This is exactly what he was saying to the servants.
 
Christ has given himself for you.  Christ is there to empower you.  He is the Guardian of your soul.  Go now, and be the Guardian of the souls of others.  Walk the challenge for mothers and us all! Amen.