Na lie pastor! Shouted Mumuson. He could not bear the litanies of well packaged venom punches from my pastor. The pastor had spent hours proving the fact the manner of old is still in existence. Was God the Alpha and Omega a chameleon he asked the hypnotized crowd but the classroom turn church remained as quiet as a grave yard? If Papa God do am for them inside de desert why I no go do them for una? Our problem be say weno get faith! Come sow a seed of change and see the manner wey God go take bless you .Our God the ?mannerful? God. Him pikin Jeus don ?square and squashed? suffering for all of us on the cross. We no be Simon of Cyrene, so do not think of carrying a cross, no,no,no e no bi our portion. Just manifest your faith by sowing seed for God, then, go home and wait for your crown.
Like a man challenging his ?chi? for a wrestling bout mumuson dare the pastor. The pastor preachment did not go down well with him. He has spent six months in the church sowing seeds yet the so called manner of prosperity he came in search of in the church had not fallen in his door. Just last night he made plans to undergo training in a vocational centre run by the salesians, he knew that the?Sunday?worship in the church was a farewell visit but his annoyance was that the pastor once descended so low to swim at the altar of falsehood. Why I sow seed Mr Pastor; to whom do you sow your own seed to? He queried, indeed monkey de work baboon dey chop. Physician, heal thyself. Go and get your own manner from God before your politics of falsehood can be acceptable in my sight. Satisfied with the fatal blow he has given the pastor, he slashed out of the church, boarded a taxi and went to the vocation centre for a free meal the salesians offered on Sundays.
Like the Bible Saul in the New Testament the scale of foolishness fell from his eye. He realized the fact that God does not work for a loafer. Humanity is a co-creator and must work to fend for himself because there is dignity in labour. True to the promise the co-coordinator of the vocation centre made, he dedicated his time, talent and treasure in ensuring that the students learnt something that will bring improvement to their life and the society.
Imagine, Mumuson, the once jobless and hopeless youth now have a workshop to his credit. He had paid the Bride price of his wife and she will join him in his two bedrooms flat after their wedding. He knew he needed no prophet to tell him the outcome of his foolishness if he had continued to wait for divine breakthrough by paying tight, fasting and wandering from one mountain to the next without doing anything to earn a living when the pastor himself have a source of income: the??religious politics of falsehood.
Like Mumuson, most of us needs to get wedded to the truth about the reality of life so as to allow the light of faith and the romance of common sense to shelter the prison door of laziness, greed and foolishness, setting us free from the captivity of religious fanaticism and liberating our minds from the indoctrination of the capitalist pastors who have nairalised religion and kobonised God.
No doubt politics of religious falsehood propagated by these so called shameless and materialistic men of God, who are pro Jesus in words and anti-Jesus in spirit and action, is reigning at a time that Nigerians are already hopelessly hopeful. When many people have lost hope in the triumph of darkness over light, the supremacy and primacy of hard work over laziness, discipline over indiscipline, reason over fantasy, competence over incompetence, and meritocracy over mediocrity. Like the Israelites of old many have questioned the power of God to effectively lead us out of bondage as such we are preparing our proverbial last meal. Why must we allow our fear of the sorrowful mystery deny us the happiness and consolation of joyful luminous and glorious mysteries of life.
Can?t we realize the fact that the last stroke has broken the camels back over two thousand and thirteen year ago in the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Christ Jesus arose shattering the prison, door of death to the dismay of the Pharisee, who has the so called materialistic pastors of today as their decendents. Jesus Christ holds the proof. He made it clear, that evil cannot triumph over good wickedness, cannot becloud righteousness, money cannot buy heaven, darkness cannot overshadow light, injustice cannot match justice and falsehood cannot suppress the truth.
The truth, remains that Christianity is a way of life and not a cult of ritual, a religion of action and not noise making. Truth gives hope to those who keep standing even in the midst of adversity while others are sitting. It take note if our quest to be selfless while selfishness occupy the centre stage. It simply are value to the tokenistic effort we make to carry our crosses daily instead of searching for a crossless Christ and a christless cross, in miracles, wealth and money. Truth rejoices at our stand to remain positively different, to swim against the current, to stand out from the crowd and walk solo with the Lord in his one holy apostolic family when other sell their consciences for the proverbial pot of porridge and the wine of religion of convenience and harlotry.
Sunset comes after sunrise, all unholy alliance, conspiratorial partnership, nairalistic prayer warrior, religious jobbers and 419ners will crumble at sunrise like the tower of Babel. Despite their poisoned and sophisticated tangle of falsehood the power of truth will always be too strong for them to contain. In their exploit and temporal success, they entirely missed the point. Even the demons perform miracle, the Babalawo may predict the future, satanic agents may give wealth and position but the stamp of truth is never on them because they are properties of falsehood. They are rolling out drum, but pitiably, it is for their funeral dirge.
The leopard will not and can never be spotless they seem to have forgotten. These rampaging and marauding apostles of falsehood should realize this; truth will forever remain a virgin. Haba! Wahahi! They, ignorant of history and tradition in Christendom, intoxicated by self reverence, greed, envy, jealousy, hatred stung by the bug of materialism and falsehood forgot that Christ Jesus left behind a unified, living and historical ecclesiastical family; which have survived the fallacious, erroneous and ravenous propaganda seeking to destroy her for over two thousand years. The strange, the bizarre and the ugly only make mockery of themselves by their desire to slaughter her. Like the supremacy of resurrection, that shattered the bronze gate and smashed the iron bars of deception and falsehood, the light of truth will continue to hunt and stupefied the propagators of nairalised, kobonised and falsified religion.
Their so called crippled might and strategy manifesting in indoctrination, exploitation, miracles and shameless display of wealth and ignorance is regrettable and laughable. It should be stated that the palm cannot cover the moon as such, it is out of place and totally unnecessary to try to manipulate religion for selfish purposes. Falsehood may be attractive, enticing, captivating and lovely but it only whip up sentiment and stop you from embracing real issues of life.
Truth may be bitter, sorrowful, and lonely but it remains indefatigable. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, the blind may not see it, the Jews may refuse it, the gentile may suspect it, hatred and falsehood may distort it but no mortal can seduce to his bed. Enemies of light and worshippers of darkness trying to sabotage the truth by manipulating history and tradition should realize that i will always have the pleasure of watching old men dance naked in open believing that the people are not seeing their nudity. Humanity is a member of God family and the closest to God is the ones who cares, share and serves humanity with his talent, time and treasure. Mr. Pastor take note .Naira and falsehood may buy you a jet in Nigeria but not a front seat in heaven.
Echoes of Reality
with
Martins Esom (08165148181)
