Br. Curtis Almquist

Janani Luwum

John 12:24-32

In 1972, an Ugandan military dictator, Idi Amin, overthrew the elected Ugandan government and began terrorizing and butchering the population, especially two groups: academics and Christians. Some called it the Ugandan holocaust. In the calendar of the church we remember today an Ugandan Archbishop, Janani Luwum. He was a gentle, zealous, courageous man who met face-to-face with Idi Amin, confronted him on his atrocities, and asked for atonement.[1] Leaving the meeting, Archbishop Luwum told his companions, “They are going to kill me. I am not afraid.” The next day his body was found riddled with bullets.

Uganda fifty years ago may seem far away; however, we need only witness the governmental terrorizing in our own country to see how the seeds of an Ugandan-like incursion have found a home here. We witness daily trauma and injustice for persons whose first language is not English, persons of color, persons who do not follow an exclusive brand of Christianity, persons who are not straight or cisgendered, and many others.

Tomorrow begins the season of Lent. The Ash Wednesday liturgy presents us with a “Litany of Penitence.” We will confess and repent for where we, individually, have lapsed in our baptismal promises, including “our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty.”[2] What will come of this? Those of us who make this confession will each have our own reasons, each of us will have our own resolve, and each of will have our own reach as we seek to amend our own lives and others’.

Will our resolve require courage? No, I don’t think so. Courageous people do not see themselves as courageous. They did what needed to be done, what they had prepared for or promised. A clear moment arose, and they acted or spoke as only they could. In that moment, it’s what their life was all about. The word “courage” arises in the voice of the witnesses. We see someone as courageous. Archbishop Luwum did not see himself as courageous.

I have a suggestion, as we individually anticipate making our confession tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, for “our blindness to human need and suffering, our indifference to injustice and cruelty,” and a great deal more. I suggest we overlay our confession with what we know about “the suffering, injustice, and cruelty” that surrounds us, and what we are prepared to do about it. This is not a preparation for being courageous. Courage will take care of itself. This is about clarity, about being clear what our life is to be about, each of us in our own way, as we lay down our lives to follow Jesus, we each being like “a grain of wheat.”

Blessed Janani Luwum, whom we remember today.

[1] Janani Luwum was married, the father of nine children. He was educated at St. Augustine’s College, Canterbury, and at the London College of Divinity. The anniversary of his death, January 16, is a day of remembrance and a public holiday for the 52,000,000 people of Uganda: “Archbishop Janani Luwum Day.”

[2] The Litany of Penitence is found within the Ash Wednesday liturgy in The Book of Common Prayer (1979), 264-69.