The Zande people have other interesting phrases. If they can’t quite grasp your name, they may say that “they haven’t found room for it in their head as yet.” A literal translation of the question—how did you sleep last night? – comes across with the much livelier inquiry – “what is the news of your sleeping?” And so heaven is a compound word that translates “the good place far, far away.” It is linked of course in the Lord’s Prayer with earth—or this extensive surface of land on which we stand.
Living in a good place far, far away is not escapism. Therapy in our culture might invite someone to “find their good place.” We want youth groups to bond over highs and lows. And maybe we should just concentrate on the highs as I am told by my Improv coach and player daughter that playing out of one’s negative side is always the cheaper laugh. Learning spontaneity and creative reactivity from what is positive is much more difficult and requires more discipline. “Rejoice in the Lord, always,” says the Apostle Paul, “and again I say rejoice.” He writes that after he has called us to the discipline of thinking on those things that are good, true, honorable and worthy of praise.
In other words—think and live into that good place far, far away. Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come on this surface on which we stand as it is already experienced in that good place far, far away. Jesus adds that the Kingdom of heaven is come near, and the response of entry is to turn around your life, its direction and presumably its frames of reference. This good place far, far away is among you. We are invited to head there; and are reminded that faith is that certainty of things yet unseen.
I realize that I am experiencing life in the Cathedral compound of All Saints in Nzara, South Sudan, during a rather special week when the Diocese comes together, to live, counsel and worship together. At any moment you see people sitting around enjoying each other, cooking and then gathering for their Synod meetings. Clergy Conference has been going for two days during the week, and we have just concluded the week with a five hour ordination service, at which I came on to preach in the fourth hour! And they wanted a sermon no shorter than twenty minutes.
“They feel safe here,” said Aida Peni, the Bishop’s wife. Not everyone can live in the compound, but those who do, including the Diocesan and Cathedral staff, have a growing community around them. The reality on this earth is that the peace that opened up a crack in the war clouds afflicting the country is fragile, even as talks go on. Opposing forces remain in their camps and are far from ready to dismantle. Our gathering was a three hour walk away from such a camp. The strife has created untold suffering and misery, deprivation and frustrated plans to harness creative and imaginary capable minds with material possibility and progress in daily life.
Yet the Diocese of Nzara celebrated—ten years of war and conflict-interrupted development as a parish, and yet still achieving most of its goals for five years in two. People’s health, children’s education and the spiritual goals of the Gospel are their foci, and the Diocese of Iowa has walked alongside the entire time. It was right to use this window of peace to share in their ten year celebration.
“We are oppressed,” said the Apostle Paul, “but never crushed.” Paul set his citizenship in heaven—that good place far, far away—not to pursue pie in the sky, but because he had access to heaven on earth through his profound faith in Jesus Christ. When he declared to the Romans that nothing could separate us from the love of God, it was because “such is the Kingdom of heaven.” The fruits of the Spirit of joy, peace, hope, patience, love etc. are heavenly fruits; as is the potential for justice, peace and reconciliation. It’s how we live in heaven; and it finds its expression through living committed faith on earth. Paul set his citizenship in that good place far, far away, and he was able to bring it very close to the lives of the men and women he met. And he so committed to such a life that he would tell the Corinthians that if Christ is not risen he was the most pitiable of humans. No one wants that reputation. Yet who is the fool when you can connect and live now in that good place far, far away? Death or that moment when “your visa expires”—another new contemporary Zande phrase—then becomes the “coming home” of which we so often speak.
Christian faith is bound up in the rhythm of death and resurrection. As Lent approaches we are reminded that it is the way of Jesus. Baptism also starts us down such a path of understanding. Are children simply made a deeper part of the family of faith, or are they brought to that good place far, far away which begins with those first steps of faith? Living as in heaven is our Lord’s Prayer.
It's an incredibly hard life in South Sudan, and in Nzara, our companion diocese. Faith however creates exuberant joy in worship, fervor in prayer, and a commitment to live each day for the health and education and transformation of others and society. It’s what they claim God expects in God’s loving way.
As guests here I know that we are skillfully and lovingly kept away from their deepest and even common pains. For after all, we might not have found the room yet in our minds to access that good place far, far away that Jesus opens to us for this very life we live, and to which our orientation as people of faith following Jesus seeks to direct us. We may still be thinking how the will and kingdom of God starts on earth, and heaven is something we build. It’s a wonderful eye opener to contemplate that the good place far, far away is what we by faith now live, and our mission is to bring it on earth as we do so.
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| The inauguration of 6 classrooms and two offices for St. Timothy Nursery and Primary School in the Diocese of Nzara. Photo: Victor Mangu Elisama |
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| the inauguration of 6 classrooms and two offices for St. Timothy Nursery and Primary School in the Diocese of Nzara. Photo: Victor Mangu Elisama |
