In this sermon I attempt to dissect / understand and analyze Ancestory and the Bible. I’ve titled this sermon as Origins; just as the Bible starts with Genesis – The Beginning.
Everything that follows builds on a foundation!
It is important for us to understand the significance and importance of looking at the start of a story, film or play, court case etc. etc. and life as we know it in order to fully understand what is going on in the story. For us to understand the significance of the Bible, we need to first understand that God created Heaven and Earth. And without this key bit of foundation to the story, the rest of the Bible does not make complete sense. And whilst we set off on this journey to discover the beginning; we are eternally dumbfounded because we are talking about a God who was there before the Beginning; a God without a beginning nor an end. So it’s important for us to remember throughout this sermon that we are only talking about a limited beginning – that of ourselves.
From the beginning the Spirit of God was already present hovering over a formless and void earth as detailed in Genesis 1 vs 1. There were no humans, no Pastors nor Priests, no formation, no light – Nothing! Well, except a Spirit – the Word of God. So when God gave a command for there to be light. There needed to be something to obey the command. Now notice: Man was not created yet so we will never know any of this to be factually true. But we believe it to be true. The story of creation is the first demonstration of our need to have an origin, or a start point. And in science they reference the Big Bang that mysteriously and magically created all things. But there were no witnesses either to witness any such Bang. Even those who do not believe in creation still seek to put some sort of start to our existence. As Christians we know we will never be truly able to prove the beginning but we chose to have faith that before our creation the Spirit of God already existed, and it took instruction from God Himself to create our beginning.
At this point it is important to highlight the simple fact. If there was no one to witness all of this then there is no way the writer could be certain. So our beginning was and is and forever will be UNCERTAIN.
Today we do not know several things that happened in history; who built the pyramids and how they actually did it. With all our science and engineering knowledge we cannot build pyramids to this day. We don’t know so many historical stories. We only know what was journaled by scholars of the time, or story-tellers. The Aztecs, hieroglyphics, bushman paintings. Our existence is fuelled by mysteries. And even if science proposes new answers to many of these mysteries, there is an undeniable fact: we can never have first hand confirmation of what happened. We can never be certain of the facts.
But: still we look backwards!
The allure to examine history will never end. And one day in the future we too will be studied as history subjects by our descendants. We will always look backwards to measure ourselves against history. I would go as far as to say there is no progress unless we mark where we are so we can measure whether or not we have indeed progressed and moved onwards or upwards.
“Origins” is in every sphere of existence. Everything we do we measure from start, followed by steady progress and growth; until we are deceased. So it follows that you can only be your present age if the numbers started at zero: 1st year, then 2nd year and so fourth until your present age. This is the truth for each individual, item, animal and plant. But does the story start with us? Surely not! For us to start we were born and raised. And as we grow, we give birth to the next generation and pass on our ways of doing things onto them. The way we do things and conduct our lives were taught to us also by our parents. And we hope that our children will pass on the traditions and cultures we taught them onto their children and keep our legacy alive through the cultures and traditions that can potentially live on beyond our individual lifetimes. And this is how cultures and traditions were created. Similarly, the ways in which we worship was also taught to us and through continued practice we generally raise our children under those teachings. So religion like culture is also passed down from generation to generation.
In this sermon we want to trigger thoughts of our own origins. We want to look at how our own origins are significant and must be considered if we are to truly grow in our walk with God and in life. At the core of our “Origins” is our need to first define our identity. In the African context, (and this will apply to many other tribes and people from around the world), we have generally adopted Christianity following colonization and indoctrination by our colonizers into a religion that demonized our traditional beliefs. As a result we have generally been raised to believe that some of the traditional cultural practices are evil and wrong; pushing many of us to fully adopt Christianity as the correct set of rules and practices we must follow. It’s important to note that many of the current generations are several generations after the first generations that were actually colonized. And all we know is that Christianity is right but our traditional worship is wrong. And more recently we have started to see a generation start to question their identity because they question a religion that was imposed on them by the colonizers. I have been asked by many inquisitive minds how someone can adopt a religion that belonged to their oppressors; and worship a God who was the God for the chosen people – who, according to general knowledge, do not relate to Africans at large. The conflict has grown into people trying to worship God and yet trying to stay connected to their traditional roots and ancestry. The big question then arises; can we serve God and worship our ancestors at the same time? And this is clearly answered in Exodus 20:5. God has clearly instructed by stating, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God’.
This leads to a follow on point and question that is often raised by many others; why is it deemed evil and unholy when Africans worship their ancestors and yet the whole Old Testament is generally about the ancestors of Jesus. Why is it permissible to learn about His ancestors whom we are seemingly not directly related to, as they are seen as the ancestors of our oppressors; and yet we are heathens in acknowledging our own ancestors. If it is a sin before God to worship our ancestors and yet it is essential that one must know one’s origins, then how can one worship God alone and still pay reverence to their lineage. And the answer lies in clear sight in both science and the Bible. The importance of providing this answer through this sermon is key to our Great commission as is outlined in Matthew 28:16–20, where on a mountain in Galilee Jesus calls on his followers to make disciples of and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the instructions of our Lord Jesus Christ we know that our faith is for all nations and as such all people. But how then do we expect a people to accept a faith that they do not view as though it includes them.
My attempt to address this is to first challenge the notion of Christianity not being inclusive of all nations and peoples.
Firstly let us understand the origins of modern Christianity. And to do this we go back to the First Council of Nicea in AD 325. The Council of Nicaea was the first council in the history of the Christian church that was intended to address the entire body of believers. It was convened by the emperor Constantine