“The Day I Co-Chaired a Meeting with Senator Barack Obama”

 In July 2006, I received an unexpected call from Senator Barack Obama’s office in Washington, D.C. He was visiting South Africa for the first time and wanted to meet with me. At the time, I was serving as the Africa Director of the Gamaliel Foundation, a faith-based organizing network focused on justice, equity, and grassroots empowerment.

Senator Obama had also worked with Gamaliel in the 1990s on the South Side of Chicago—though we didn’t overlap, our paths were connected by mission.

At first, his staff requested a meeting in Pretoria. I declined—I was too busy organizing local communities and helping build participative democracy in the new South Africa. A colleague in Chicago warned me, “You just turned down the future president of the United States!” I laughed and said, “I’ve got democracy to build. What can a senator add to that?” (I was half-joking.)

Eventually, I agreed to meet in Cape Town, where he was also visiting Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his successor, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane. I made one request: I would bring along some housewives and clergy—real people from the communities we were organizing. His team agreed.

We met at a hotel boardroom on the Cape Town Waterfront. Before Obama arrived, his staff approached me and said, “Reverend, the Senator would like you to co-chair the meeting with him.” When he entered the room, Obama greeted us with warm hugs. At the long boardroom table, he and I sat at the head, my delegation on one side, and his—including the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, the Consul General, and their spouses—on the other.

My delegation laid out our concerns: crime, drugs, unemployment, and especially the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS in our communities. We shared how we had visited the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria in 2005 with a delegation that included U.S. and South African Lutheran bishops, clergy, and lay leaders—20 people in total—seeking PEPFAR funding for churches working with AIDS orphans and patients.

We were turned away.

As we shared this, Obama leaned over and whispered, “Reverend, I turned out the targets. You do the pin.” (That’s organizing speak for: I got the right people in the room—now make the demand.)

So we did. When the Ambassador didn’t immediately respond, Obama asked, “Mr. Ambassador, if you received letters from U.S. church leaders requesting this funding, what would you do?” The Ambassador replied, “Then I would have to act.”

I said, “Then we’ll organize hundreds of letters.” He agreed.

After the meeting, Obama and I embraced again. Within weeks, he launched his presidential campaign. One year later, in July 2007, I moved to the United States to serve the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), where I was called to bridge the divide between the church’s activist and devotional streams—linking deep spirituality with public action.

But there was a twist.

Despite over 500 letters, we heard nothing from the Ambassador. So, my U.S. partners contacted Candidate Obama. He wrote directly to the Ambassador: “Last year, when Rev. Jacob and I met with you in Cape Town, you promised to act if U.S. church leaders wrote to you…”

Soon after, we received a small grant of $10,000 for Diakonia AIDS Ministry in Soweto—a project of the Lutheran Diocese of Johannesburg. More importantly, the South African Ministry of Health—whom we had also organized—contributed $40,000, quadrupling the U.S. amount.

That ministry continues to do powerful work to this day. I visited them in 2024, and the fruits of grassroots organizing were still visible.

This wasn’t just a meeting with a senator. It was a moment that revealed what’s possible when faith meets justice, and when organizing brings everyday people face to face with power.

This is the story of how real change happens—not by proximity to fame, but through persistence, people, and prophetic vision.

Who are the Poor and What is the Good News For Them?

Who are the Poor and What is the Good News For Them? 

Someone said, good news to the hungry is not preaching but food! Sounds about right, doesn't it. The whole social gospel was built on that principle. The social gospel also refers to the words of James. "If someone comes to you hungry, what good is it to pray for them and tell them to go trusting God. Give them something to eat!" 

But who are the poor? 

A young man came to church one day, sat through the whole service and worshiped God as everyone else was. After the service, he went to fellowship hour. He was a happy, charismatic chap. Chatting with everyone, spreading a positivity and joy for having been in church. People were drawn to him. Some thought "I wish we had more young men like this. Maybe even or especially in our church." So they asked him for his contact details. It turned out that he had not home address. He was a transient person, just going from place to place. All his worldly possessions were in his small backpack. Yet he was content. He was also so happy to be in church, to hear God's word, to praise God and bring joy to and within the family of Christ." 

Was this young man poor? 

When Jesus opened the scriptures in the temple, he read, “The Spirit of God is upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” The Greek word used for poor here is also the word Jesus uses in the sermon on the plain, which we see two chapters later in Luke, “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.” 

Poor refers to those who, as Matthew says, “are poor in Spirit”. The word was used broadly for anybody with a lack, anyone who was on the outside, marginalized. Jesus was talking about those who do not have salvation, those who may have everything material but are spiritually poor. The good news to the poor is that this is the year of the jubilee, the time of God’s favor. Now Jubilee was a known practice in the Jewish Old Testament times. It was a time where debts were forgiven, land was restored by not planting on it so that it replenished itself. Slaves were set free. All Isaiah wrote about. So why was Jesus making a big deal about proclaiming the Jubilee? This practice had become latent. Why? Not because of exile and conquest, but because they had strayed from the true God. 

Jesus was saying, “You all have no Jubilee and have had no Jubilee for a while. Therefore, I came as God incarnate to show you the way." Who is that way? Jesus is. 

What is the message of the Jubilee, this new Jubilee? 

• The poor in Spirit are going to be set free by the Gospel of Jesus Christ 
• Those in prison, the prison of their religion, will be set free 
• Those who are blind, blinded to the error of their ways and beliefs and cannot see the Truth, they will see. 
• Those captive to the past, will be set free and all things made new. 
• Those who are struggling with acceptance of themselves and feel outside, or made to feel like an outsider will be freed. 

As Jesus was called to proclaim, so we too are we called to proclaim. In word and deed. The young man proclaimed, just by being and radiating the joy of the Lord. So it may be easy for us to say, “Okay I radiate the joy of the Lord - at least some times. I share the love of God in what I do.” I think Jesus would agree with us. Yet, if we are to follow Jesus’s example we see that Jesus did good, shared love and peace, but he went further. He told about this grace. 

I was tempted when I was a young man, to just “do justice, do good, love mercy and walk humbly with God” as we often say in church quoting Micah 6:8. Once again, yes, we are called to live that way in Christ, but we are also to preach the Gospel. But God opened my eyes to see that the physically freed,  and the materially satisfied, still need the Savior, the Messiah of their souls. Proclaiming the Gospel, teaching about Jesus as the Way, Truth and source of Life - eternal Life is what I have to do. It's what we all have to do as disciples of Christ. It is the Good News. Let’s not keep it to ourselves. Let’s live the Jubilee. We are free to live that jubilee in Christ and to proclaim it. 

Then... we radiate the joy and inner peace and fulfillment as the young man had and did. Amen

Woman What is Your Concern ?

Show and Tell

What happened to Evangelism?

Have you washed windows recently?  Or maybe you've spread butter on a slice of bread recently? No?  Ok, have you brushed your teeth recently?  I am sure you have!  I hope you have!

I remember my father teaching me to wash the car.  Yes, we didn't go to the car-wash.  We had to earn our pocket money.  The last thing you do when you wash the car, said Dad, is you clean the windows.  He let me do it the first time, then he did the inspection.  Of course, he went straight to the edges of the glass, the area closest to the frame, and pointed out that while the center - the obvious area you looked out of - was clean, the edges were not.  So he instructed me that the job was not done until the edges were clean.  In future, I decided, I would always start with the edges. I did this to the point that I would often not completely clean the center while the edges were spotless. My eye would focus on the edges rather than the center.  I didn't want to default by missing the edges, the periphery.

Well, I'm sure you got the point of the buttered bread.  Yes, it's about buttering the edges first, they say.  I have found myself making sure every bit of the edge is buttered, not quite paying as much attention to the center.  As for brushing the teeth, you guessed it.  We are so intent on not missing the difficult-to-reach places in our mouths that we often leave the obvious, visible parts to the end - sometimes skipping them in favor of the hidden parts.

In recent years, I have been feeling that these may be metaphors of the church's omissions regarding evangelism - telling the basic message of salvation and inviting people to know the person of Jesus Christ!  Sometime in the not-too-distant past, we decided that the church was not proclaiming the whole gospel to the whole person.  We observed that the Church was too focused on evangelism and not enough on mission - living the gospel outside of our personal and into the public world.  I was, and still am a strong protagonist of this "missional" emphasis too.  This it the edge of the window, the edge of the slice of bread, the difficult-to-reach part of our set of teeth.

I wonder if we as the Church have let the pendulum swing and stay on the other end?  In the circles I serve, I notice a very strong emphasis on social service and social justice, and almost no action on evangelism.  The average church - and I work with hundreds of churches - does not struggle with having most of its leadership portfolios filled, but almost without fail has a vacant seat for the evangelism chair.  At best, we may have a leader but no committee, or no evangelism activities to report.  Some churches, when asked about their evangelism plan or activities, quickly list all their "mission" activities - their social services and "open-to-the-public" fun activities.

We should not discount these "mission" activities, but is it really evangelism.  Do people really stop us on the street, or in the middle of our "mission" activities and ask us why we do these activities?  Do they really ask us to tell them about this Jesus that we apparently know and believe and in whose name we do these good deeds?  God bless you if you have had any significant number of people engage you as a result of your "mission work" and given you the opportunity to tell them about Jesus and invite them to believe in Him.

It seems to me that we have swung so far from the "telling" in order to "do", that we've simply stopped telling altogether.  I admit that we still have a long way in the "doing", particularly in the area of social justice action that address the social ills of our time, but that is no excuse for us to give up on telling.  Yes, society has changed.  Society is always changing, and we as Church need to adapt to as well as influence the change.  If at times, societal change causes us to give up on the fundamentals of our commission in the world, then we need to do less adapting and more influencing.

I started my ministry as a lay church youth worker in 1985. My focus was holistic discipleship of youth and young adults.  We built a significant interdenominational christian movement of youth around Durban, South Africa.  My model for youth ministry included: Spiritual Development, Skills Development, Socio-political Development and Emotional-psychological development.  Having grown up in apartheid South Africa and being committed to justice and the end of apartheid from childhood, social justice was the lens through which I approached all of the areas of ministry.

Around fifteen years later, after I became an ordained pastor, a former youth member of the organization I had led, came to visit me.  He first thanked me for all I had taught him.  He, like me, was an active part of the movement for change that led to democracy in 1994.  He enumerated my teachings and mentoring, highlighting my continued work even after I had returned from imprisonment at the hands of the apartheid government in 1996.  Then he stopped, looked at me and said, "You know, you always told us that you were doing all that you did because of your faith in Jesus, but you never once told us how we could know this Jesus!  We followed you as God led you, but we were not led to this God!"  He had been Roman Catholic but had given up on church until recently, when someone took the time and effort to intentionally tell him about Jesus.  He said that he now believes that Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus loves him... explaining his whole faith statement. Up until that time, he had seen the works but had not heard the salvation story.

Yes, (confessing, mouthing) faith without works is dead, but the reverse is also true - works without telling, without verbalizing that great faith, is nothing but altruism with a christian cloak.  So let's talk faith.  Let's not shy away from having faith conversations.  I have read many recent books about being or becoming a "missional church."  I was happy to see a renewed focus on prayer, studying the bible, connecting and building community with our members, meeting the needs of our surrounding communities and foreign "mission".  Sadly, almost all stop short of the telling!  If evangelism outreach is mentioned at all, it is about "showing" and "being" only.  Let's not shy away from telling our faith. The Jesus story is still powerful! May the force (Holy Spirit) be with you (us)!  And the good liturgical Christians said, "And also with you!"

You gotta be crazy to follow Jesus

Sermon Notes: 

Reverend Terrance A Jacob, Jordan New Life Community Church

Date:  Sunday, August 23, 2009                 10:30 a.m. 

Text: John 6: 56-69

You Gotta be Crazy to Follow Jesus

Introduction:

As I read the Gospel readings for the last month, I wondered why Jesus seems to be bent on graphically describing the kind of relationship we should have with him, even to the point of making it sound gory.  “Eat my flesh and drink my blood.” “Eat of me…”  “I am the bread… eat me…”  I think that if I was sitting with the Lord, I would have motioned him aside and whispered to him, “Lord, let it drop now.  Ease up on these people.  You made your point.  You don’t have to labor this to the point of discomfort!”  Scripture says that after these statements of the Lord, many of his disciples stopped following him.

So after all this crazy talk, Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked them if they were going to leave too, but they said that they will follow him.  You see, they were crazy too.  I am sure the others that left looked at the Twelve and said, “This man is crazy!  You all gotta be crazy to follow him too.”  And so I have entitled my sermon for today, “You gotta be crazy to follow Jesus!”

1.       The Gospel does not make sense

Firstly, the Gospel does not make sense.  In fact, Paul says that that the gospel is foolishness to those outside (1 Cor 1:18).  Let’s face it, it often does not add up.  God sees that we are being disobedient, in spite of God’s many actions to help us obey His laws, so what does He do?  He sends his only son, to become human – with all its suffering, pain and limitations – and then to die a cruel death on the Cross, like a common criminal.  Then God tells us that through His son, all who believe will now be pardoned of ALL their sin and made acceptable before God; that those who believe in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life!

The Lord’s coming into the world is also with no pomp and ceremony.  He is born in a manger, in a stable to two people who are not even married!  Mary is still a virgin, when she becomes pregnant – sounds really crazy, doesn’t it?  The King becomes nervous about this baby.  The angels tell his parents that he should be Immanuel (God is with us).  They give him the name "Jesus", because He will save His people from their sins.

2.       No respecter of persons

Secondly, Jesus was no respecter of persons – he did not care about status and standing.  When Jesus begins His ministry, he chooses the most unlikely people to entrust with the spread of the Gospel.  Mostly uneducated; some fisherman, a tax-collector, others who were not anywhere close to being elite or scholars.  Then this King of Kings, spends most of His time with ordinary people, so much so that he gets accused of being a friend of sinners – prostitutes and drunks.

This was a busy week for us at Jordan New Life Lutheran Church.  We interacted with so many people.  I met some interesting and some crazy people.  A few come to mind.  In the parking lot during the Community Meal with the Tour de Revs (five Lutheran pastors touring Lutheran churches around the county on bicycles), I met a woman who seemed to be “looking after” - almost selling - the free water bottles the Revs brought from the Lutheran World Hunger program.  I went to her, greeted her and she reached out her arms.  I gave her a good hug, and as I hugged her, I asked, “So what are you selling?”  She said, “Everything is free, except me!”  I smiled and slapped her across her shoulder gently.  She turned to me with a broad smile saying, “You made my day.  You made my day!” 

As I reflected on my interaction with the woman I thanked God for Grace.  She was drunk and a prostitute.  Men generally just use her.  Everyone frowns on her, but Jesus does not!  I felt this deep sense of compassion, and I hugged her like I would hug anyone of you at JNL.  As I stepped back and she said what she did about my making her day, I had a lump in my throat.  Did God find ME worthy enough to hug the poor woman through feeble me, today?  Did He really?  I did not think twice when I held her close to me, or when I whispered to her, even though I knew that everyone knew who she was, a prostitute and drunk.  They must think I am crazy – but I was on autopilot and Jesus was flying.  Another person came to our church during the week.  “I’m Marcel”, she said, “but they call me Tamika.”  I took his hand knowing that he is a transvestite, and continued to hold it as he told me that he needs a lot of help; that he is in prostitution and on crack, etc.  I was moved with compassion again, even as many around me stared at me, knowing the stigma surrounding Tamika, a transvestite.  God wants to touch people who are suffering and he wants you and I to be His hands (God’s work, our hands – an ELCA theme).  And so, my brothers and sisters, we gotta be crazy to follow Jesus! 

3.       The craziness is in the following

It is not the actions that are crazy; it is the following that is crazy.  If it was in the actions, we would have something to boast about and it would be our quest to attain.  Growing up, I used to always admire the clergy who were kind of on the edge.  I priest who would go to the Bar to meet a student; the pastor who would hide a fugitive; the nun who would bring in a prostitute and befriend her.  I wondered if they were simply non-conformists or just mischievous.  I discovered from getting to know some of them that they are not driven by being non-conformists or being different, they are simply driven to follow Jesus.  It is the Lord who leads them in ways that seem questionable.  All this, because He wants to reach out and touch…

The disciples were crazy to follow this man.  He claimed to be the Son of God, yet he mixed with sinners.  When the religious people of the day were about to stone a woman for having committed adultery, she happened to run in His direction, and Jesus protected her.  He knew that she had done wrong, yet he did not dwell on her sin but on her well-being and her future.  He prevents the stoning, speaks words of forgiveness and shows her a new way.  What a gospel!  What a Savior!   He is thirsty one day, and He goes to the well.  There He sees a "loose" woman.  The religious people say that He should not talk to a woman in public, let alone someone who was not a Jew - from a so-called "inferior race".  What does the Lord do?  He starts chatting with her.

While we know that the Lord’s actions lead to salvation, the actual interactions raised eyebrows and drew sharp criticism.  To the natural mind, his actions were questionable.  Yet, the disciples continued to follow Him.  They had to be a bunch of crazies to follow Him.

Conclusion:

Why do I say, “You gotta be crazy to follow Jesus”?  Formal religion is all neat and tidy; with dogmas, creeds, liturgies, membership, rules and procedures.  Most religious people pride themselves in being upstanding saints – holy people – on the right path.  Often we look down over our noses at those who are struggling with obvious sin and trouble.  The way of the Jesus, the Way of the Cross is different.  Jesus said that I did not come for those who are well, I came for those who need a doctor.  The gospel comes to the poor and downtrodden and picks them up out of poverty, sickness and sin.  Jesus picks us up out of our condition of sin.  When we were blind to our sin and need for a Savior, He gave us sight.  When He sees a prostitute, He wants to touch her.  When he sees that person struggling with an addiction to crack, weed or alcohol, Jesus wants to touch them – no matter if they are reeking of the stuff!  When He sees someone in bondage – whether by demons, past traumatic stress or mental illness, he wants to touch them, he wants to free them - He wants to show them love!  To the lonely He wants to be a friend.  To the hungry He wants to give food.  To the lost He wants to take them home.  He’s not crazy, He’s not mad, He is… God is Love.  Love wants to reach out and touch.  Are we crazy enough to go against the grain and be God’s hands to a needy world?  Then, You gotta be crazy to follow Jesus!

To walk humbly in the context of protests...

WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE?

So police killed a young man in Greece. The cop was imprisoned. Last week, 6 years after the killing, protesters took to the streets in Athens, Greece. Sound familiar? Wait.... These are Europeans. Police killed a young man.... these "violent" protests are current! Protesters burning buildings and police vehicles. Did I say "violent" and "European"? So, I ask, "Are they also hurting the "European cause"? Don't know what really went down in Greece, but I know what's happening here.

I'm just sick of "good people" feeling they need to say something about racism, but feel they also have to condemn the "violent" protesters in the same breath! My good brothers and sisters, the prophetic cry for this kairos is to stand with the millions of people-of-color AND people of European Descent to call out the realty of racism in our land! Just that!

Now, whether we are Black, White, Brown or whatever shade, if we cannot condemn racism - not the angry protesters - please let's do the country a favor and keep our thoughts private, at least for now. It's just not the time. Now is the time to be saying, "We believe that Black lives matter, and that we as a people need to own up to our responsibility to work to end racism, starting where we are and then addressing the systems and structures that cause what happens in Ferguson, Cleveland, New York, Chicago and in too any of our backyards."

Many "good meaning" people are feeling the urge to say something about Ferguson, New York and Cleveland in recent times.  It's become almost politically incorrect not to say something. Thank God for the few who have focused on the problem of Racism in the USA, and have had the sense not to make reference to the "violent" protests as hurting the "Black cause".  Many "good meaning" liberals are wanting to help deal with anger issues in our community.  God help us if we start spending money and time on anger management, rather that dealing with the cause of that anger, the sin of systemic racism.

I am reminded of similar situations in apartheid South Africa.  It was in times of resistance and protest that many liberals and sympathizers disassociated with the cause.  I remember many of us asking: "What if you had your foot on my neck and all I could do was reach your little toe?  What if I chose to rip off that little toe in order to get your foot off my neck.  Will my retaliation be considered violence and thuggery?  When one being raped chooses to hit back, even castrate the rapist, is that violence?  And will the observer condemn rape in society adding that they are saddened by the violence with which the victim (sic), i.e., the survivor inflicts on society?

So "what does the Lord require?" (c.f.Micah 6:8). I beseech us, implore us, beg us all...show some respect!  Sounds like that is what is meant by, "walk humbly".