This sermon was preached by Bishop Arthur Walmsley.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Matthew 5:21-37
“Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him.” — Deut. 30:19
Let me tell you about a young man named Ahmed. We went with our daughter and a couple of friends in the fall of 2007 for a tour of the North African country of Morocco. We had arranged the trip ourselves, and for the entire time we were in the country Ahmed was our guide and our driver. As the trip went on, we got to know his story. His father, whom we met along the way, was a lifelong tour guide. Ahmed was ambitious, worked hard, went to university, got an undergraduate degree in economics, and later a master’s in computer science. Â
But for him and literally hundreds of thousands of young people in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East there are no jobs commensurate with their education. As events have been unfolding in Egypt in the past three weeks, I have thought a good deal about Ahmed. We found out one day why he declined to have lunch with us; he would go off, roll out his prayer rug, and say noonday prayers because he was a faithful Muslim. And so it appears as well that the energy in Egypt for the demonstrations in Tahrir Square has not been generated by violent Islamic fundamentalism but by the frustration of young people like Ahmed for whom their governments and their economies have no place for them. That story is echoed by the countless journalists and others who have talked to the throngs of the young people who have been the energizing force of this non-violent revolution. In Egypt, in Jordan, in Tunisia, in Yemen, there is a cry for change by the poor and the marginalized. In southern Sudan where our Anglican Church is very strong, upwards of 95% of the people last month voted to secede from an oppressive regime in Khartoum. As Moses invites, Choose life and you and your descendants may live.
What does the Bible offer us as a way of responding to the global economic and social crises?