This week, some of you may have been affected by the power outage in parts of Westville that lasted most of Wednesday and Thursday. We had no Eskom power at the church, but the solar panels generated enough electricity to make sure that we could carry on pretty much unaffected at the office. It wasn't long ago (when load-shedding was still a thing) that we would find ourselves pottering around helplessly for hours, tidying bookshelves, reading, preparing sermons with pen and paper ...
The installation of solar power has changed all that and we were so grateful this week to avoid all the disruption. But something else also changed: previously when going through an extended outage, there was a feeling of shared frustration with the wider community - you could sense the whole suburb willing the power back on. Now, we were cut off from that frustration and within no time, I found I wasn't thinking at all about what the rest of the community was experiencing.
South Africa has often been described by economists as the most unequal society on earth - our country displays the biggest gaps between the haves and have-nots. Given that reality, it takes quite a deliberate effort to make sure that we are not completely numb to the suffering around us. During the 09h00 service last week, I was so struck by the shift that Brigitta described in herself - the conscious choice she made to move from giving a sandwich to a homeless man, to sitting with him and sharing a sandwich. That is like the journey Jesus made by entering our world and becoming one of us, isn't it? What will solidarity with others look like for you and me this week?
The installation of solar power has changed all that and we were so grateful this week to avoid all the disruption. But something else also changed: previously when going through an extended outage, there was a feeling of shared frustration with the wider community - you could sense the whole suburb willing the power back on. Now, we were cut off from that frustration and within no time, I found I wasn't thinking at all about what the rest of the community was experiencing.
South Africa has often been described by economists as the most unequal society on earth - our country displays the biggest gaps between the haves and have-nots. Given that reality, it takes quite a deliberate effort to make sure that we are not completely numb to the suffering around us. During the 09h00 service last week, I was so struck by the shift that Brigitta described in herself - the conscious choice she made to move from giving a sandwich to a homeless man, to sitting with him and sharing a sandwich. That is like the journey Jesus made by entering our world and becoming one of us, isn't it? What will solidarity with others look like for you and me this week?