We tend to think of Easter as a chance to get away from the everyday stuff of life. The story of Easter is the stuff of life. We have a religious and political execution. We have social commentary all over the passion story. Everyone from the Judas to the High Priest to Pilates wife have commentary on Jesus and who he is. The politics of Pilate and religious leaders is really quite impressive and theologically astute because it was inspired by God – “it is better that one man die than the whole people perish” and we even have the ubiquitous news – there was an inscription over His head in Aramaic and Latin and Greek.
I try and read as much as I can about world affairs because the news coverage in this country about other countries is abominable and because it is important to try and see things coming that effect our mission and ministry and mercy overseas. The news media in the US seem to be deliberately trying not to talk about the fact that there is a genocidal hatred of Christians going on right now that takes thousands of lives a day. Our news is more interested in the Presidents private hoops shooting contest and the President is more interested in trying not to tell us what is actually going on with the IRS, Health Care of the lack of it, or maybe its destruction, the NSA, relations with Russia and on we go. Right now the entire top half of the continent of Africa with few exceptions is in the middle of a great move toward Islamization. It was said years ago that Islamists want to make all of Africa Muslim by 2015. Due to the lack of any kind of America leadership in the area and feckless American leadership all around Africa in the near and middle East there id going to be some real problems. Africa was undergoing a real economic surge until recently and the idea of Islamization is really to return society to the 4th century. In Kenya the El Shabab terrorists are active and doing things that have an impact on our mission and ministry. In Nigeria Bokol Haram is the organization that is systematically killing Christians. In fact the single most dangerous place in the world as of this week to be a Christian maybe Nigeria.
Anyway the idea of Easter is a chance to be taken out of the world for a few hours is a typical piece of American maudlin spirituality. This comes from the The Daily Times of Nigeria and is about the Governor of a State in Nigeria called Kwara. The governors name seems Muslim but I can’t find out for sure if he is a Muslim of not. What I do know is that it might be nice for an American leader to say something like this. I also like the idea of “imbibing the enduring lesson of forgiveness”.
The Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has enjoined Christians and other Nigerians to use the Easter season to pray fervently for peace and continued stability in the country.
Ahmed made the call in an Easter Message signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Alhaji Abdulwahab Oba.
He stressed that it has become imperative that Nigerians should employ the potency of prayers in the quest to tackle the spate of violence, kidnapping and murder that have become rampant in the country.
The governor urged Christians to imbibe the enduring lessons of forgiveness, selflessness and perseverance that the 40 day Lenten, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that the Easter Season teaches.
“There is no better time than now for Christians in Nigeria to rededicate themselves to the service of God and work towards making the society a better place in line with the teaching of Jesus Christ,” he said.
Ahmed wished Christians in particular and Nigerians as a whole, a happy Easter celebration.
Our partner church – the Lutheran Church of Nigeria LCN started in 1936 in the rural Ibesikpo clan with the late Rev. Dr. Jonathan Udo Ekong as the pioneering father. It has grown from 16 initial congregations to 339 congregations in 38 districts. We work in 15 states of Nigeria and in a dozen different languages with our unifying language being English. Keep them in your prayers.
