Blown away by Angus Buchan’s powerful sermon of hope
SATURDAY, November 19, 2016, FNB Stadium, Soweto and 60 000 people pour in to hear what Angus Buchan is going to say this afternoon at the Sacred Assembly he has called.
I have never been the slightest bit susceptible to any kind of evangelising, but my wife acquired tickets and so, sensing a story, I decided to go and we headed for the Calabash.
The stadium was already filling up when we arrived at 11am but we got good seats, with good elevation so we could see the stage and the large real-time screens around the ground.
I started looking around and casing the set-up and the people who were pouring in in their thousands. I’d noticed a couple of tow-trucks in the parking area – and here were some of the drivers – built like tow-trucks themselves.
But they were in the minority. Mostly, the people were 40-something, well-dressed whites who looked like they were doing all right incomewise. I’d estimate the percent- age race groups present were 60 percent white, 30 percent black and 10 percent other groups. By the time the headline act got on stage there were about 60 000 people present.
My preconceived brief to myself in attending this event was: assess the audience and try to understand how so many disparate characters and personalities can come together in praise and fellow feeling for one straight-shooting preacher who pulls no punches. At this point I had no idea of the whirlwind that was coming.
Angus Buchan’s son introduced him and the great man took over. I have never heard such power and conviction, sincerity and urgency in one voice. I was mesmerised. I was humbled. I was blown away, torn apart and put back together again. There is not an iota of prevarication or PR in Angus Buchan. He is the most plain-spoken, down-to-Earth orator I have ever heard. He speaks directly to your heart – and to the soul of the nation.
I have never heard a more powerful speech, sermon, call it what you will, in my life.
By now I was putty in his hands, as was everyone else in the stadium. He spoke with transcendent passion of the glory of God and at the same time shot down the liars, thieves and crooks, and the corruption in our country. It was hair-raising.
Apparently there were “dignitaries”, politicians by another name, in some of the boxes at the stadium; he didn’t spare them – saying they must stop lying to the people and restore our nation to the highest moral values – and, according to Buchan, that means only God’s values and precepts should prevail, have to prevail, if we are to save South Africa.
Of course the bulk of his message is addressed to the need to reaffirm, strengthen and safeguard families – the lifeblood of our society. By now I was in tears. Tears of pain, but mainly tears of joy – I had found a man, a message, a faith I could believe in.
As our country contests every backward step it takes in the courts, 60 000 people knelt down in a stadium in Soweto and prayed for their troubled souls and begged God to heal their torn country. Big ask, maybe, but this is a time for big questions. And they are not the kind that can be argued by lawyers or answered by the highest courts in the land. Sorry, but no advocate, no public prosecutor, no judge, no politician is up for the job.
We are not involved in a legal dispute here – this is a fight for our lives and our freedom. We are filled with fear on the one hand and drowning in disgust on the other.
What do we care if one lying lawyer recants? What difference will it make if another politician becomes president? How will that change anything? It may give the politically driven some passing satisfaction but it won’t change anything! We are in such dire straits that there is no vot- ing process on Earth that can improve our lot.
No, we don’t need a new president, but a new precedent – one that puts others first.
No, I agree, not possible, not in this lifetime, not in RSA, not in the US of A! No sir! You’ve got to get in there, fight for your rights, get yours, get what’s owed to you – yeah – gotta getsum, getsum, get what’s mine!
Huh? How’s that working for you South Africa? Sleeping well? Digestion okay? Fear factor under control? Good, good, go for it man – you’re gonna make a killing!
Ah well, I can’t do it any more; I’ve tried, just can’t make it work. Cashing in my chips, don’t want to play no more – so long, sayonara, adios. I want to do what Angus Buchan called on us to do: the right thing, the kind thing, the unselfish thing – the only thing.
And do it to the most haunting refrain sung that afternoon – the words Njalo, njalo – “Always and all the time.” RB Simpson South Hills, Joburg