Dear Kenyan Christians,
Easter is once again here with us and it is such a blessing that it coincides with Ramadhan. Ramadhan is the holy month of fasting and reflection for our brothers and sisters of the Muslim faith. I wish them all a Ramadhan that is Kareem.
Easter is a moment for Christians to take time to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. More importantly, we are called to reflect on God’s love and grace to humankind.
We find ourselves asking what kind of love is this that would have God sacrifice His only son for us to have our life and dignity restored. Did we deserve such a premium sacrifice? How do we say thank you to God for His love? How have we embraced this love? Is it possible that we may do things that undermine it?
Jesus did not just conquer death, He remained silent before His accusers, and He did not resist the violence that was meted upon Him. He is ultimately crucified on the cross, a humiliating and painful means of putting the worst of criminals to death.
Jesus becomes the absolute reflection of victim of injustice in society. Yet in an abrupt turn of events, an apparent defeat becomes victory. Jesus triumphs over the powers of violence, humiliation and dehumanisation.
Someone once said that, “You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving”. Easter is a magnificent celebration of love in action. The giving of a priceless gift that demonstrates God’s extravagant love, indeed, radical hospitality for humanity.
While we celebrate that many marginalised persons have been part of Christ’s victory over death, we are aware that there are many more in our midst who are not celebrating this victory. Many have had their dignity remaining entombed by forces of darkness through erratic doctrines and traditions.
There has been a deliberate intention to perpetuate a misunderstanding, misrepresentation and mistrust but also discrimination and violence against God’s children on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. And with this, lives have been lost and destroyed.
When God sacrificed His son to die for us, He did not seek to qualify who it was that Jesus was dying for. Jesus died for everyone and not necessarily Christians. Also important to Christians is the fact that Christ's death was the ultimate sacrifice that took away the need for intermediaries between a believer in Christ and God.
These are fundamental essentials in the Christian faith, yet many who confess Christianity are ignorant about them, leave alone, uphold them. This is the basis on which Archbishop Tutu once said that, “God is not a Christian”. Did you know that we wouldn’t be having the Christian faith were it not for God’s Easter gift?
It is therefore tragic that a February 2023 Supreme Court ruling against the discrimination of Kenyans on the basis of sexual orientation sparked tantrums among a section of the Kenyan clergy and politicians. The irony is that most of these persons confess Christianity as their faith and are today “celebrating” Easter.
They rose against an unqualified gift and called for discrimination so as to protect “tradition”. It is unbelievable that someone confessing Christianity would want the Easter manifestations of extravagant love and radical hospitality and people's dignity and indeed lives, sacrificed to protect “tradition”.
Easter is about God’s care and providence. It is about God’s care for His image in us, the basis for our inherent dignity. It is about God’s divine providence, the reconciliation of God’s image in us to Himself.
Easter is about celebrating the very being of every single one of us as a bearer of God’s image. An absolute reconciler of humanity to God. A bestowal of inherent belonging and dignity that cannot be earned and which cannot be withheld from anyone of us.
It is for this reason that I call out the anti-Supreme Court decision lynch mob. They want to become the latter-day intermediaries between God and Kenyans. They want to establish checks and balances in how God relates with Kenyans.
God must stop being indiscriminate. God must respect our traditions. God must realise that this is how we live. God’s grace unlimited is dangerous, so they are saying. In other words, the Kenyan clergy and politicians are trying to manufacture a narrow definition that prescribes areas of their interest within which God can be confined. A narrow sphere of God’s operations without the in which LGBTIQ2+.
This is a direct affront to God-given gifts of dignity and life and the Christian faith. We are worried that this trend works not only to erode the dignity of all marginalised groups, not just Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ2+) persons in the Church of Christ and society as a whole.
Through these acts, these clergy/Christians seek to crucify Christ for a second time by rolling back the dignity bestowed on us by Jesus Christ on the Cross. This effectively transforms this particular Easter to become a time for us to stand for justice for those whom society has marginalised. We must seek to affirm the resurrection power and extravagant love for we are all created equal and in God’s full, complete and divine image.
I pray that this Easter, every single LGBTIQ2+ person as well as all the marginalised in the Kenyan society will experience God’s extravagant love. I also pray that, this Easter, the Church in Africa, and more so its leadership, will find the true meaning and wonderful love that is behind the Easter story.
Because contrary to the human psyche, the Lord’s Table belongs to all.
(Formerly Peter Solomon Gichira)
