Madiba

Following Nelson Mandela’s death you have likely heard him frequently called “Madiba.” Madiba is the name of the Xhosa tribe to which he belongs. In South Africa is an honor to call somebody by the name of their tribe. In Mandela’s case he was a part of the royalty of that tribe.

For we Christians we could easily say we belong to the Christian tribe. It is an honor to be called Christian.

Again we can see this reflected in the Masai version of the Nicene Creed which was written in 1978 by missionaries in Africa. It is a creed that I used with some regularity in my ministry while leading worship.

Here it is:

We believe in the one High God, who out of love created the beautiful world and everything good in it. He created man and wanted man to be happy in the world. God loves the world and every nation and tribe on the earth. We have known this High God in darkness, and now we know him in the light. God promised in the book of his word, the bible, that he would save the world and all the nations and tribes.

We believe that God made good his promise by sending his son, Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left his home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and man, showing the meaning of religion is love. He was rejected by his people, tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died. He lay buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch him, and on the third day, he rose from the grave. He ascended to the skies. He is the Lord.

We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him. All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins, be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love and share the bread together in love, to announce the good news to others until Jesus comes again. We are waiting for him. He is alive. He lives. This we believe. Amen.