'I listened to Madiba, not God'
2004-11-28 22:54
Cape Town - Extra chairs had to be brought into the church and a row of cars snaked down the road outside the United Reformed Church in Eersterivier, where Dr Allan Boesak made his return to the pulpit on Sunday.
Boesak was preaching again after an absence of 14 years.
In his sermon, Boesak referred to the years he spent in the Malmesbury prison.
"I realised one of the reasons God had me go to prison was because he wanted to speak to me that year.
"Outside of the prison God could not talk to me, because it was too noisy inside of me and around me.
"There were so many people shouting 'Boesak! Boesak! Boesak!', so much praise-singing for me that I could not hear the Lord's voice.
"I was so sucked into that life, I had to speak so loudly to break down apartheid, that I could not distinguish the voice of the Lord.
"And the Lord told me he wanted to speak to me. Alone."
Boesak said he considered returning to the pulpit as early as 1993.
"Then Madiba told me, no, they needed me. And I unfortunately listened to Madiba rather than to God."
He referred to the dragging of the church-unity process ("a painful thing, a sinful thing") a couple of times, even in his prayers when he said: "We praise You, Lord, that there are also people in the Dutch Reformed Church who know that the doors are open.
"We have had enough of apartheid, of removal. We ask You now, make us one!"