Nelson Mandela and Advent

In preparation for playing the movie role of Nelson Mandela, Idris Elba spent a night in the prison on Robben Island where Mandela spent eighteen of his twenty-seven years of imprisonment for his fight against apartheid in South Africa.  As luck would have it, I began this day reading of this actor’s terror on the first day of filming as he felt the daunting challenge of portraying this living saint.  As this day ends, I join people all over the globe both mourning and celebrating the life of this liberator and reconciler who allowed that prison to become the crucible for his transformation and thus the transformation of his nation. 

In this season of Advent, prison is both a powerful reality and symbol.  Some of the most profound Advent meditations I know were written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Alfred Delp, both imprisoned in Nazi Germany but still looking in hope toward the coming of Christ.  As we seek redemption for a broken world, we are confined in prison waiting for release.  The prison door can only be opened from the outside.  So we wait for the day of peace for which we yearn, knowing that only the power of God can change this world that holds us captive.  Yet we also know that God does this work through human beings who allow themselves to be used at times of crisis. 

Rarely are we blessed to see such a revolution—both spiritual and political—as that led by Nelson Mandela.  The transformation of a society began when one man turned his prison cell into a monastery where he wrestled with the bitterness of oppression and found a way to forgive and thus lead his nation to peace and reconciliation.  This night a grateful world gives thanks for a glimpse of what we await—the reign of peace and justice where people of all tribes and nations can live in harmony with God and one another. 

The Rev. Linda Wofford Hawkins 

Rector 
December 5, 2013