Letter from the Bishop: Our faithfulness matters. Our witness matters.
Dear Friends,
“Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord.” Psalm 102:18
I visited Mozambique nearly 30 years ago on an exploratory trip to prepare for future teams to be sent by SOMA-USA, the short term mission organization fostering renewal in the power of the Holy Spirit. We were hosted by Bishop Denis Sengulane, a humble, saintly man. The churches had all been closed by the Marxist regime, and there was tremendous poverty and suffering after years of civil war. I sat in on the first meeting of the diocesan Standing Committee that they’d been able to hold in three years and, until some members walked in the door, the bishop didn’t know if they were alive or had been killed in the war.
Yet in spite of such violence and persecution, the Church there showed boldness in proclaiming Christ. Bishop Sengulane had himself, at great personal risk, mediated the resolution of the civil war. And I was stunned to learn that, in spite of unrest and abject poverty, they were planting a new church every week!
During our time there, the Bishop asked us to remember the suffering in Mozambique by praying Psalm 102 for them. I still have a reminder to do just that in the margin of my Bible next to the Psalm’s heading, which the NIV gives as, “A prayer of an afflicted man. When he is faint and pours out his lament before the Lord.”
Psalm 102 was appointed this week in the Daily Lectionary and praying it brought home to me the truth that, in the midst of social upheaval and hardship, how we respond will profoundly affect not only us but future generations.
The Psalmist pours out his heart to God, lamenting both his personal suffering and the plight of the nation. But he doesn’t stop there. He goes on to declare God’s faithfulness: “He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.” And then he says in verse 18, “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord.”
Scripture is showing us that how we respond to the crises we’re experiencing will affect whether the next generations walk in faith. I am still inspired and encouraged by the faithfulness of those I came to know in Mozambique. And yet I tend to get so stuck in my own experience of what is going on around me that I don’t look ahead to see that those who will come after me may be encouraged to follow the Lord or tempted turn away from him, based on my example.
There is much more at stake in our discipleship than we’re inclined to remember. Our faithfulness matters. Our witness matters.
And so, even as we pour out to God our doubts and fears and discouragement over what may threaten to overwhelm us, let’s also hold fast to our ever-trustworthy God, and pray earnestly for those who suffer hardship and adversity and injustice here and around the world. May our faithfulness be written that future generations may know and love and praise the Lord.
Faithfully yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. John A. M. Guernsey