Today we had a guest lecturer on ‘Racial Transformation in Post-Apartheid South Africa.’ As I look around me here in Cape Town – and especially here in Langa (a black township) – I see the legacy of Apartheid. Although Apartheid officially ended in 1994, its effects did not disappear with Nelson Mandela’s election that year. Just below the surface of each conversation, attitude, government action, or personal interaction, the effects of Apartheid linger. For example, the very nature of Langa’s existence – a black township – is a testament to the segregation of Apartheid. I noticed on one of the first days here that the several elementary and middle schools alongside the road on the way to our SIT center are entirely white or entirely black. 75% of the CEO’s in this country are white. Yet, unlike America, whites are the minority here, making up roughly 10% of the population. The government is attempting to right the wrongs of Apartheid with legislation such as the Employment Equity Act of 1998 (essentially affirmative action) and the Black Economic Empowerment Act of 2003. Yet as I sat and listened to the struggles of today and the lasting legacy of Apartheid…I felt a feeling I’ve felt many times in America – I wrote in the margins of my notes: O LORD, a government solution will never work. In a sad and twisted way, humans will never be able to work themselves out of this mess they’ve worked themselves into, and yet many will die trying . . . never realizing that “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). The next verses that follow this are key: “Through him [Jesus] then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Heb 13:15-16). We await a Savior who will come and make all things new (Rev 21:6). In the meantime we are called to offer ourselves as living sacrifices (Rom 12:1), testifying to the Gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24), living as ambassadors for Christ with a message of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-21), to a broken world that is attempting to place human-solution-bandaids over deep deep sin-wounds. We are called to work and live for the Kingdom of redemption, wholeness, and reconciliation that Jesus desires to bring in people’s lives and communities – we are to give our lives in response to God’s grace . . . leaving everything (all our ideas of how to fix things, all our self-righteousness, all our cynicism, all our comforts and security) to follow Jesus and live like him.
It brings to mind one of my favorite worship songs:
I went out to change the world,
But I could not change within.
Sinful being that I am.
Who will deliver me?
I am crucified in Christ,
And I no longer live.
But He lives in me.
Praise be to God
for the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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