Arise, Oh Africa! // A Spoken Word by Magasela Says

Arise, oh Africa!
The Lord has come. The Lord is coming.
Here is the gospel freely given to you –
God, the incarnate, the mercy seed,
Our Lord Jesus Christ

Came to a hopeless world
blacker than a hundred midnights
and dipped his fingers into our brokenness,
so that we do not walk like corpses destined for eternal damnation.

Jesus, the one who knew no sin, became sin so that in him,
we might become the righteousness of God.
He had plucked sin out of its secret place
and held it into the mirror of our eyes,
so that the blind can see and be born again.
This is good news!

Arise, oh Africa!
Be on your knees and let us repent!
We are in a dying world – dead in its trespasses.

In this world, pride is like a shape shifter –
and we resurrect new ways to offend God.
He keeps saving us and we just find new ways to die.
And we live for one-minute-pleasure
as if the neat linings of briefcases can ever contain us.

Our places of prayer have become a heap of rubble.
While we play church, Bibles are building dust.
Our cemeteries are full of souls buried in bondage
without the freedom of eternal life.

And we watch and wail as the world robs us of our children,
while we sit like caged birds,
taking up space inside our neat and tidy homes,
as if we are hollow men without purpose.

You have received this truth but like rusted nails,
digging and scrapping, you nail it to the ground.
You have packed up the moon and dismantled the sun.

Arise, oh Africa!
And cry out for this continent.
Cry out with those who are weeping their tear ducts dry,
waiting for change to happen.

If not you, whom shall the Lord send?
Whom shall the Lord send to the nations
fighting each other for bread and power?
Who will be the voice of hope
as souls cry out from this economic parasite flooding the nations?
Who will comfort the causalities of war?
Whom shall the Lord send?
Who will say, “Here I am. Send me!”

Don’t you know, you are the light of Africa?
The bride of Christ, custodian of his grace?
Like panels of stained glass through which the sun pours,
you are able to illuminate the dark with the light
of the Lord Jesus Christ –
Into the dark corners of Africa!

You are the temple of God who dwells his glory and grace in you.
You are a saved soul with a rich inheritance.
Freed from the pit of hell. You have been lifted up from the gutter.

You are liberated from a life of endless pain where nothing ends.
You are spared from a debt you could never pay.
Your sins were bought on the cross at a high price.
You are forgiven. You are finished!

So, I ask again:
Who will spread the fragrance of hope and weave it into a fabric of the unreached?
Who will stand up?
Who will stand up?
Who will follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Who will declare his glory through all the nations?
Who will profess proudly his holy creed?
Who will not hide their lamp under a basket?

Whom shall the Lord send?
Who will answer this mandate and say: “Here I am, send me!”