God willing the LCSA is installing its hird bishop on Sunday. After the orderly election on the 2nd December last year the LCSA has some time to get used to this idea of a new bishop. The new is always tied to the past. Looking back we are encouraged on our way forward together because we trust that as God gave us faithful men in the past to carry the burden of this precious calling, which demands us entirely, he will not leave us in the lurch in future either. After Bishop Georg Schulz DD served the LCSA for more than a quarter century [26 years: 1967-1993], Bishop David Tswaedi DD followed faithfully in his footsteps for 17 years [1993-2010]. We thank God for these men and also for the decades they led the LCSA. They were times of initiation and new beginnings, growth and stabilization, times of peace and conflict, times of ups and downs, always change, transition and developement. Always something new and still mostly more of the same. However never alone, but always the Lord was with his Church too! Hallowed is his name, his will be done and his kingdom comes - even in our time and age!
We are grateful that the Lord our God has granted the LCSA such dedicated servants in the past decades. Looking forward, we are hopeful that our God will permit our brother Tswaedi to continue serving the Church for many years to come with his wisdom gathered in the work as bishop, pastor and teacher locally and abroad. It is with great joy, pleasure and thankfulness that I look forward to having Dr. Tswaedi serving much more intensively at ikolishi lagithi [the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane]. We all know that that is where his passion and committed enthusiasm lies. May God bless this renewed concentration of our friends gifts and talents to this field.
On the 31st of March 1967 the synod at Ventersdorp decided to constitute the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa, and confirmed the mission superintend Georg Schulz to be the first bishop of the newly constituted church. As such he was installed at Roodepoort near Ventersdorp on the 2nd of April, 1967. Decades later Bishop Tswaedi was elected not far from Salem – in Thandakukhanya in Mpumalanga, the Lutheran center of that area. That is where our brother [umfowethu] the vice-bishop Victor Vilakazi is stationed. Bishop Tswaedi’s installation was also celebrated at Roodepoort the heartland of our Church in the old Western Transvaal [North-West] at the beginning of December 1993. Both installations of yesteryear were in the once beautiful church building of our Church, the white washed landmark at Roodepoort near Ventersdorp.
On Sunday as the Church bids Bishop Tswaedi farewell from the office of the Bishop, the celebrations are in the center of the vibrant Gauteng province. We are to gather in a tent. We are not in the promised land yet. We are still on the move. We – as all Christians on this world – are migrants towards our final destination, the heavenly realms, the home our Lord and savior Jesus Christ has prepared for us and for all those trusting in him. He has taken us who were strangers and even enemies of God and made us into his close friends, yes even family members by becoming our brother. It was he, who chose us to be compatriots in heaven and members of God’s family. That is why we who are always on the road, migrants, chwere chwere and foreigners everywhere – are still not really homeless and hopelessly lost, but rather very much at home, citizens in the one holy Christian Church scattered throughout the entire world, but also here in this tent on the open veld in Mofolo N.
We – the wandering people of God – can sing and praise right here and now: O Lord, how I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. No longer restricted to Mt. Zion, Jerusalem or Wittenberg but rather at home wherever he dwells and is worshiped in spirit and in truth [John 4]. According to his promise he is right there among us, wherever his word is truthfully proclaimed and his sacraments faithfully administered according to his institution - be it in a magnificent cathedral or under the thorntree [Acacia siberia] That is where he creates the true saving faith whenever it pleases him and in those listening to his gospel and tasting his celestial food. That is why we Lutherans together with all true Christians adhere so closely to our Lord’s commandments and promises, because they are the only true connection to our salvation in this world and also to the life to come. Jesus said of himself: Nobody comes to the Father except through me! This Jesus Christ as vouchsafed by the word alone, grace alone and faith alone is the source, means and goal of our life here and there. That is why St. Paul admonishes all of us: Fix your eyes on Jesus. He is the author and perfector of our faith+
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