The Blood of the Martyrs

ONLINE REFLECTION FOR ST. PAUL’S, FOLEY

JUNE 3, 2020

FEAST DAY – THE MARTYRS OF UGANDA

In my opening video for you, I talked about my belief in “existential redemption” – God’s ability to move through the most challenging circumstances, even death, to bring about New Life. Think about the Hebrew’s standing on the shores of the Red Sea, with the Egyptian army drawing close in their chariots.  Think of the cross on Golgotha, and the Messiah hanging from it. Hope was dead.  But, it was only the beginning.

The church calendar, providentially, today emphasizes that point.

Let us pray:

 O God, by whose providence the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church: Grant that we who remember before you the blessed martyrs of Uganda, may, like them, be steadfast in our faith in Jesus Christ, to whom they gave obedience, even unto death, and by their sacrifice brought forth a plentiful harvest; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Matthew 24:9-14

On this day in 1886, thirty-two young men, pages of the court of King Mwanga of Buganda, were burned to death at Namugongo for their refusal to renounce Christianity. In the following months many other Christians throughout the country died by spear or fire for their faith.  

These martyrdoms totally changed the dynamic of Christian growth in Uganda. Introduced by a handful of Anglican and Roman missionaries after 1877, the Christian faith had been preached only to the immediate members of the court, by order of King Mutesa. His successor, Mwanga, became increasingly angry as he realized that the first converts put loyalty to Christ above the traditional loyalty to the king. Martyrdoms began in 1885. Mwanga first forbade anyone to go near a Christian mission on pain of death, but finding himself unable to cool the ardor of the converts, resolved to wipe out Christianity. 

The Namugongo martyrdoms produced a result entirely opposite to Mwanga's intentions. The example of these martyrs, who walked to their deaths singing hymns and praying for their enemies, so inspired many of the bystanders that they began to seek instruction from the remaining Christians. Within a few years the original handful of converts had multiplied many times and spread far beyond the court. The martyrs had left the indelible impression that Christianity was truly African, not simply a white man's religion. Most of the missionary work was carried out by Africans rather than by white missionaries, and Christianity spread steadily. Uganda now has the largest percentage of professed Christians of any nation in Africa.  

Several years ago I heard an African clergyman, born of pagan parents, tell of his conversion. He said: 

One afternoon I was bicycling along a road and met a young man about my own age bicycling in the opposite direction. He promptly turned about and began to ride beside me and to talk. He spoke with great enthusiasm about Jesus, whom I had never heard of before, and how He had destroyed the power of death and evil by dying and rising again, and how He was God become man to reconcile man with God. I heard what my companion had to say, and before we parted I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Now, the young man who preached the Good News of Jesus Christ to me that afternoon had himself heard of Jesus for the first time that morning.

Renewed persecution of Christians in the 1970's by the military dictatorship of Idi Amin proved the vitality of the example of the Namugongo martyrs. Among the thousands of new martyrs, both Anglican and Roman, was Janani Luwum, Archbishop of the (Anglican) Church of Uganda.     

Janani Luwum, archbishop of Uganda, martyred by Idi Amin in 1977

Uganda is the largest Province in the Episcopal Church… the most Christian country in all of Africa.

The Blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the church – attributed to the early church father, Tertullian, late in the second Christian century.  A more faithful translation is this: "We spring up in greater numbers the more we are mown down by you: the blood of the Christians is the seed of a new life," 

When we are baptized, we are baptized into the death of Jesus – not just into the promise of eternal life.

One of my favorite hymns includes these words:

When through the deep waters I call thee to go

The rivers of woe will not thee overflow

For I shall be with thee

Thy troubles to bless,

And sanctify to thee,

Thy deepest distress.