Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army 02 March 2014
and the Rural Ministries Conference at Cypress Bible Camp 04 March 2014 by
Captain Michael Ramsay
We men, as you
know, can be fairly organized and very task-orientated and when I was in
teacher-training many years ago we learned that while women are generally more
skilled at the creative side of things, men have a much higher aptitude for
math and all that side of things. So here is a math question for you that Ed
here and I were faced with a few years ago driving back from Beaver Creek
Bible Camp. Let’s see how you do. If you start off with 1 Officer bus driver and
5 other men from Maple Creek and you add 1 Officer and 4 other men from Swift Current,
how many men do you have? (11).
Good. Now if you
subtract 1 Alvin and later, after Saskatoon, you plan to add 1 David (David is
Captain Ed’s son) how many men should you have on your bus as you leave men’s
camp? (10) Do you think we could get that right? With nine men on the bus doing
a head count we came up with anywhere from 6– 11 people present and we were
quite content with that until someone eventually asked, ‘where’s Tim?’ Sure
enough as soon as we pulled out of the camp, down came Tim to where the bus was
supposed to be and we were already gone - leaving Tim standing at the path
wondering what had happened and why we had left without him. (His pastor and
another pastor and all of his friends from the church)
Now to be fair to
all of us in the bus who did leave Tim behind, we did come back as soon as we
realized our error. And when we were doing our head counts, just as we were
pulling out without Tim, I did ask anyone who wasn’t there before we left to
raise their hand and speak up now or we’d leave them behind and Tim – Tim
didn’t speak up to let us know that we’d left him behind.
We did get Tim and
were joking with him most of the way back – all the way through Saskatoon
anyway, through Delisle. We were joking as we were talking about how we could
be so ‘out of it’ that someone could be left behind when all of a sudden, Ed
pulled the bus over to the side of the highway: “we forgot David”, he said. In
all our excitement in mocking ourselves for forgetting Tim, Ed –who was driving
– and we completely forgot to pick up Ed’s son, David, in Saskatoon. To make a
much longer story short, we called two other people who were in Saskatoon and
they kindly picked up David and brought him to Swift Current where they
rendezvoused with Ed and then they continued on home.
I think often
times we – if you are anything like me – can fail to see God in our local rural
ministries, the way we failed to see who was or was not on this bus from camp.
I know our scriptures say that there have been times when we have even
entertained angels unaware. I have told a story of what I believe was just that
from an urban setting.
When our children
were just little, we sold our home and our businesses and moved into North
America’s poorest postal code - Vancouver’s downtown eastside - as full-time
urban missionaries with The Salvation Army.
We saw many
miracles in that setting but our time there, as you can well imagine, wasn’t
always rosy though. I remember one day – one morning, I was mugged. I knew
better but I wasn’t paying attention. It was early in the morning and I was
right on Main and Hastings – the most infamous intersection in this most
infamous neighbourhood and I was on the pay phone with Susan who was out of
town at the time.
Someone came
running up behind me, grabbed my briefcase and tore down Main Street. In the
briefcase was my laptop and all the information for the summer school program I
was running for the kids in the area; so, like anyone mugged in the depths of
skid row, I’m sure, I…well, I chased the mugger.
I followed him
down Main Street through Chinatown across busy streets and around the myriad of
mazes that are Vancouver’s back alleys. Scaring rats, jumping over sleeping
street folk, I pursued my assailant. When I was within reach of him… I fell
right in front of a bus and though I escaped from in front of the bus with my
life, the mugger escaped with my briefcase, my laptop, and the program files
for the kids.
It was when I was
walking back, completely distraught and despondent from this incident, that I
experienced the miracle that happened: I encountered an angel, a messenger of
God, in the back alleys of Vancouver’s storied downtown eastside. I can still
remember vividly; he looked like a ‘dumpster diver;’ he prayed with me and he
offered me these words of encouragement from Romans 5:3,4 “...but let us also
rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Inside I sighed. I
knew he was right. God gave me these words to encourage me because my life was
about to get turned upside down in ways we haven’t got time to address here
today. God gave me these words to encourage me.
Today, how many
times does God come to us through angels, messengers, and or people in our
communities? How many times do we run into the same people struggling with the
same problems but today something is different, today they have a message from
God for us but maybe we don’t see it; maybe we write it off and ignore it.
There is a schizophrenic gentleman who comes into my office not as
often as he used too but I now try to pay special attention to what he says
because often hidden somewhere in the midst of his ramblings is a message from
God. Many times we have helped people our in the courts or in the food banks or
other ministries here and only really notice after the encounter that God was
there. I think in rural ministries particularly we have the opportunity to see
God and serve Him through our neighbours in ways that we do not have elsewhere.
We all know the scriptures Matthew 25:34-40:
34 “Then the King
will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take
your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you
gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed
clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison
and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the
righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or
thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and
invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick
or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will
reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these
brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
And this is the
same for us as we walk alongside our brothers and sisters in everyday life, in
our churches, in our communities: even those people who can try to monopolize
our time or our energy. Sometimes these people in real need in our
neighbourhoods and communities may be the Lord himself or a messenger of His. I
want to leave you with one more story that I read a couple of years ago in, the
Expository Times.
James V, the King
of Scotland used to go around the country dressed like everyone else: a common
person. That is because he wanted to meet the everyday people of the country
not just the rich and powerful. He wanted to see how the normal people lived.
One day he was
dressed in very old clothes and was going by a place known as Cramond Brig,
when he is attacked by robbers who don’t know who he is. There is a fierce
struggle and he is nearly overcome when, at just the right moment, a poor farm
worker - Jock Howieson - hears the commotion comes to the disguised king’s aid.
Now Jock, the poor
labourer, who works on this portion of the King’s land, known as Cramond Brig,
now Jock unawares takes the undercover king home and gives him a dinner of
broth and Jock - as the king is recouping – naturally asks the man who he is.
The King responds
– in a Scottish brogue that I am not even going to attempt – ‘Ach, I’m a good
man of Edinburgh.’
‘And where do you
live in that city and where do you work?’
‘Well,’ says
James, ‘I live at the palace and I work there too.’
‘The palace, is
it? I’d like to see the palace; if I could see the King, I’d tell him a thing
or two…’
‘About what?’ asks
the King in disguise.
‘I’d tell him that
I should own this land that I am on. I work it every day and he never comes
here and gets his hands dirty working this land’
‘You’re right
enough’, says the man. You come tomorrow to the palace at Holly Rood and I’ll
show you around. Come at two.’
So the next day at
two o’clock, Jock Howieson, is washed, dressed and at the palace to meet his
new friend at the back door. The good man, whom Jock had served and saved the
day before, shows him around the kitchen, the dining room, the bedrooms – the whole
place. Then, at last, the two of them come to the great rooms of the State.
‘Do you want to
see the King?’ the man asks Jock.
‘Oh yes indeed’,
says Jock, ‘I do. I do want to see the King.’
So they enter the
great hall and as they come in, men bow and ladies curtsey. It is really quite
a thing to see.
So Jock whispers
to his friend, ‘How will I know who the king is?’
‘He’s the only one
who keeps his hat on’…
Jock says, ‘But…
there’s only us two with our hats…’ and Jock immediately takes off his hat as
he realises that James is indeed the King of Scotland.
And so it is with
us today. Jesus is King, what we do for the least of these through our local
communities – just like Jock, just like the Matthew’s sheep in Jesus’ parable
of the sheep and the goats, what ever we do for the least, the lost and the
last, we are actually doing for Christ. Today, He is walking around with each
of us showing us his domain here on earth and just waiting for us to take off
our hats in service to Him. Let us do just that take off our hats and
acknowledge His Lordship by looking out for our local neighbour – especially
the least, the lost and the last.
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