Abahlali and the yeast of the gospel

From Roger Scholtz

I’ve just returned from a prayer meeting at the Durban Magistrates’ Courts. It was organized by the Diakonia Council of Churches in solidarity with the ‘Kennedy 12’, members of the grassroots shack-dwellers movement called Abahlali baseMjondolo, who stand accused on various charges relating to attacks in the Kennedy Road Informal Settlement in September last year. I’ve written before about this situation and the judicial process around it, that is proving to be such a revealing litmus test of the health of our democracy and the organs of state that exist to serve the people of this land. You can read that blog at http://j.mp/8uAAn1 or you can visit the Abahlali website at www.abahlali.org to find out more.

My comment today is this: In the quiet perseverance of standing in prayerful solidarity with the poor, there is something truly powerful that is ignited. It might not seem like much to eyes that have grown accustomed to the shades and hues of secular power, but it is nothing less than the yeast of the gospel that does its subversive, transforming work in hidden places. Didn’t Jesus once say that the Kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and hid (that’s the word used in the original Greek) in a large measure of flour until all of it was leavened? (Lk 13:20-21; cf. Mt 13:33).

I caught a small glimpse of this again today. At the prayer meeting this morning there was a group of maybe 20 young American students who are visiting South Africa as part of a political science study tour. I got chatting to two of them briefly after the service. Understandably, they didn’t know much of the history of this situation or of Abahlali baseMjondolo. But by virtue of their presence and participation in a simple service of prayer, they have now become involved. Who knows where those ripples of involvement may reach? One of them writing a term paper perhaps about shackdwellers’ struggle for justice in democratic South Africa? A political science lecturer modifying his lesson plan to tell the story of Abahlali? A local church on the other side of the world interceding for the Kennedy 12? A grandmother of one of these students, hearing the story at the Easter lunch table, decides to write a letter…….? Who knows what might happen, or where any of these or other similar actions may lead?

It might not seem like much, but it’s the yeast of the gospel doing its subversive, transformative work in hidden places and mostly unnoticed ways. And the hope this brings that we hold onto with resolute determination is that one day, surprisingly, the whole batch of flour will be leavened – which will be plain for all to see. And then the Kennedy 12, and all the poor of our land, and the rich and the powerful who do not exclude themselves by resenting the inclusive nature of the gospel feast, and all of us will be able to share freely of the bread of life that promises to nourish and sustain us all. Let’s not grow weary in working towards that day that God will usher in as a sheer gift of grace!