Stompie
Today I want to go to one of the heaviest parts of this book of Peter's Storey's, and I have this vision of everybody leaving these two WhatsApp groups because I'm going to speak about Stompie. Peter Storey was intimately involved with the whole Stompie controversy.
Stompie was a 14 year old boy who was kidnapped along with a couple of other boys and then murdered brutally. And of course, Winnie Mandela was implicated in this whole thing, but somehow managed to get away with it.
Live for Justice
And Peter Storey was quite intimately involved with the whole event. And he was the minister who was asked to conduct the funeral for Stompy. And here are some challenging words that he spoke at the funeral. He said: “Long before his life was so brutally taken, Stompie was already willing to lay it down. And there are millions like him. If a 14 year old child is willing to die for freedom, nothing will stop freedom coming. And when that day comes, we will remember the Stompies and know they've had a part in fulfilling the scriptures that declare: A little child shall lead them.” Referring of course to Isaiah 11:6, and Jesus’ words about children and the Kingdom of God.
And so two questions today. Firstly, what are you willing to lay your life down for? Martin Luther King famously said that a man who has nothing he is willing to die for has nothing worth living for. Stompie gave his life as he fought for freedom. He was a young leader wanting to stand up and see that his people could be treated fairly in the dignity he gave his life to their end.
What would you give your life for? Jesus gave his life for us so that we could go free and so that we could live good lives. We need to give our lives for something worthwhile, for something that will make this world, your community, a better place.
Anger Into Action
The second question I want to ask is: What angers you? Does a story of a boy getting brutally murdered make you angry? Or are you neutral when you hear a story like this? Oh, how I pray that God would make us Christians angrier at injustice.
Now, we don't want an anger that will make us lash out or hurt anybody, but anger directed in the right ways can lead to great action. It was Augustine who said “hope has two beautiful daughters, their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”
So many were angry when Stompie was murdered, rightly so, and some reacted in violence which didn't help, and others let their anger motivate them in good ways to get involved, to stand up against injustice.
I love this quote from William Arthur Ward. He said: “It's wise to direct your anger towards problems, not people.” And so as you reflect on this tragedy today, I hope that you'll lay down your life for something that means. I hope that we can have the courage to lay down our lives for something meaningful like the gospel. And I hope that we will get angry at injustice, not lashing out in violent ways, but letting our anger motivate us to stand up for good wherever we are.
