Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 4:27-32, Philippians 2:14-16: Green Grenade.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 21 April 2013 and Corps 614 Regent Park, 30 August 2015 by Captain Michael Ramsay

This is the 2015 version, to read the original, click here:  http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/04/galatians-519-21-ephesians-427-32.html 

Back in Swift Current one Sunday my friend, Tim, told me this story:

Early on a Sunday morning before he is up and ready for Church, there was a knock on the door of Tim’s new place. He had just recently moved in. He gets up, answers the door; it is a police officer. She asks, “Are you Tim?”

“Yes”

“I need you to come with me”, she says.

“Why”

She tells him what it is that he has supposedly done. Tim doesn’t think that this applies to him. As far as he knows he has never been involved in whatever the police officer is talking about but “Okay.” He's still half asleep.

“Go get dressed”, she tells him. He does.

The whole time he is wondering, of course, ‘what is going on?’ As he is getting dressed, of course, he is thinking that there is something not right here; so as he comes out of his room, fully clothed, of course, he asks her again, “Who are you looking for?”

As they walk out the door, “Tim”, she says.

As they go to the police car, “Tim who?” he says. “What is the last name of the Tim you’re looking for?”

“You tell me your last name first”, she says. He does. “Show me your ID, please”, she says. He does. “Have a nice day, Tim”, she says. He does. Apparently some other Tim – in whom the police were interested - used to live in this apartment before him; or the new landlord thought he was some other Tim or something like that. But anyway that was Tim’s excuse for missing church that day. I thought that was a good excuse.

This was a case of mistaken identity. In our texts today – especially the one from Galatians – we may have cases of mistaken identity as well. The pericopes we read this morning are all passages from letters that the Apostle Paul has written to the Saints (In the Bible, when we see the word 'Saints' to whom is it referring? Christians). Paul has written these letters to Saints/Christians in various communities he knows well. He is writing these letters to churches he has planted himself. He is writing these letters – in the cases of the Philippians and the Ephesians – to people he loves and respects. And to the Galatians, he writes of their common problem, Galatians 5:19-21:

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

People who indulge in hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like will not inherit the kingdom of God.[1] This is pretty serious stuff. He is not talking about those who have not claimed that Jesus is Lord (See Matthew 7:15-27; see also Matthew 25:31ff.); Paul is writing this letter to and for people in the churches. Matthew 7:21, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Paul says that those in the Christian churches – that he himself knows and some of these churches he actually planted himself – Paul says to his friends that those of us who live a life with hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy and the like will not even inherit the kingdom of God.[2] This is serious stuff (cf. TSA doc 10).

This can be a real problem too. Paul had to write this similar sentiment in many of his letters, three of which we have read from today. Paul had to warn people who were meeting in the Christian congregations. Paul had to warn the Saints in these Christian communities. Paul had to warn the good guys not to get drawn into this stuff or, he says, they will not even inherit the kingdom of God.[3]

We know too that just as this was obviously a temptation for people in the Roman world of the first century, it is equally a temptation in the English-speaking world of the 21^st Century. Who of us hasn’t seen or experienced hatred (hating someone), discord (not getting along with someone), jealousy, fits of rage (getting angry at people and things), selfish ambition (wanting to be better than someone), dissentions, factions (this includes getting people on your side, gossiping, talking behind people's back), envy, and the like? And who of us ourselves hasn’t been tempted to consider indulging in hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like? Here then is the question for us pertaining to mistaken identity. Have any of us been convincing ourselves that we are Saints when in reality we actually regularly partake in hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like? And if we do, what can we do about it?

These behaviours can be such a temptation to draw us away from a loving relationship with God and our neighbour, can’t it? We have heard the analogy of yeast working its way through dough. When we are surrounded by all of this stuff, it becomes contagious. We have heard the expression, ‘one bad apple spoils the whole bunch’. This is true. Where one day no one is engaged in discord, dissentions, factions, and the like; one person indulges him or herself and gossips with another person who then huddles in a corner with a third person who then tells someone else about all of their perceived problems with someone (which may or may not even be true!) and then they tell two friends and then they tell two friends and then they tell two friends, and so on and so on and so on and soon the whole congregation is full of cliques, factions, whispering, gossiping, fits of rage and the like. And that is not a good place to be. And that is exactly where some of these first century churches were and that is exactly where a lot of the 21^st century churches appear to be and - I don't know the whole history here but - that is exactly where I would hope and pray that we would never find ourselves as a congregation – in this very real danger of – as Paul says - not inheriting the Kingdom of God.

The effects of these things - hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like - are disastrous. It is like this. I was at an RCMP, a police chaplaincy-training course a couple of years ago in Edmonton. There were many good speakers. The Edmonton ERT (SWAT) Team Leader let us play with some of their toys (their weapons) and he spoke to us about the importance of chaplains in his job when people are shooting at them and when they have to consider what course of action to take themselves.

The keynote speaker, Gerry Fostaty, was a fellow who has written a book, As You Were: The Tragedy at Valcartier, about an incident that happened to him when he was a teenager in military cadets.[4] He was probably about 19 or 20 and he was a leader of younger cadets – probably Rebecca or Sarah-Grace’s age. They were at a cadet camp in Valcartier, Quebec. As part of the camp, they got to play with weapons not entirely unlike we did at the conference in Edmonton. The cadets (even more) learned how to use the weapons properly and how to take care of the weapons and how the weapons worked and all kinds of things like that.

In one class, the adult instructor was handing out dummy grenades for the children to examine. The dummy grenades you can apparently tell from the real grenades because the dummies are brightly coloured - orange, pink, blue – not the military green of combat weaponry. The cadets, these children were encouraged to take apart these dummy grenades, put them back together, examine how they work, etc., etc., etc… Apparently and disastrously in with the orange, pink, and blue-coloured grenades was at least one live green grenade. The children were passing this live green grenade – along with the other toy grenades – along the line of cadets in the class. They were taking the pin out and placing it back in and they were holding (I don’t know what the term is but…) the safety and disabling and reassembling it along with the other coloured grenades and then one little boy pulled the pin on the live grenade and holding it out too long…

The writer of this book was out of the room at the time; he ran in when he heard the explosion and found his little brother who -was not seriously injured- along with many others who were. One deadly green grenade had mixed in with the harmless coloured grenades and this one green grenade brought destruction with it and it brought death with it.

The result of this green grenade in the room full of children is essentially the same as what results when hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like wind up in our churches. These are our green grenades. When we put ourselves first, engaging in selfish ambition instead of thinking of others as greater than ourselves (as Paul extols us; Philippians 2) the results are essentially the same.[5] Just as the green grenade brings physical death when people handle it and it goes unchecked, Paul reminds us that hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like, bring everlasting death to those who are consumed with them. Paul says they will not inherit the kingdom of God.

So what can we do about this? The Apostle Paul says, in essence, that we should remove the green grenades from the box; we should remove these things from the church. We should, Ephesians 4:31-5:2a:

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us…

Remove the green grenades before they go off. Paul says, Galatians 5:16, 22-25:

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh… But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Remove the green grenades before it is too late. Paul says, Philippians 2:3-4,12-13:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others... Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose. 

Friends, I remind us all today that selfishness, gossip, slander, talking about others in this way, unforgiveness, pulling each other down instead of building each other up. These are the green grenades that can blow the roof right off the top of a corps that to has until now been actively fighting in the Salvation War. When we think of ourselves as equal or greater than others, when we allow ourselves to get worked up about what other people are doing or saying, when we start to talk about others, not forgiving them but tearing them down instead of building them up, that is really our pulling the pin out of a green grenade that the Enemy has tossed into the Holy of Holies, that is the body of Christ.[6] So today I challenge each and every one of us and I encourage each and every one of us here “to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (TSA doc 10) and as Philippians 2:3,4 records, let us “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility [let us] value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Francis Foulkes, Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1989 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 10), S. 139: Quoting the Old Testament again, the Septuagint of Psalm 4:4, he says, Be angry but do not sin. The av rendering of the psalm, ‘Stand in awe, and sin not’, gives a different turn to it. The Hebrew verb rāgaz means basically to ‘tremble’, and it could be with fear or rage (BDB). Whichever was the psalmist’s thought, the Septuagint is meaningful and relevant. There is anger which is righteous anger, such as we see in our Lord himself (e.g. Mark 3:5; John 2:13–17); but his anger never led to sin, because his emotions were kept under perfect control.

[2] R. Alan Cole,  Galatians: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1989 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 9), S. 217: Inherit the kingdom of God; although Paul is emphatic that we cannot by ‘doing’ the works of the law enter our promised inheritance (3:12, 18), but that entry is by faith alone (3:11), yet he strongly asserts here that by ‘doing’ these very different things we can bar ourselves from the kingdom …those who do such things thereby show themselves to be without the transforming gift of faith which leads to the gift of the promised Spirit, which, in turn, leads to the fruits of the Spirit, the seal of our inheritance.

[3] Cf. James Montgomery Boice, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Galatians/Exposition of Galatians/III. The Call to Godly Living (5:1-6:10)/C. Life in the Spirit (5:13-26)/2. The works of the flesh (5:19-21), Book Version: 4.0.2

[4] Gerry Fostaty, As You Were: The Tragedy at Valcartier (Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions, 2011).

[5] Ralph P. Martin, Philippians: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1987 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 11), S. 101: The ethical terms used here expose the spiritual malaise at the heart of the church, and point to the all-sufficient remedy. Selfish ambition, eritheia (rv, ‘faction’) is the same word as in 1:17 where it is used to describe the inimical intention of Paul’s enemies. Of the Philippians it is used of party squabbles and petty conceits. We might translate it ‘quarrelsomeness’, although that does not quite convey the hint of self-seeking which the word contains. Such a display which Galatians 5:19–21 brands as an ‘act of the sinful nature’ sadly disfigured the inner life of the church.

[6] Cf. Morna D. Hooker, The Letter to the Philippians, NIB XI, 499

Galatians 2:11-14: Do I Know You?

Presented to Corps 614 Regent Park of The Salvation Army 23 August 2015 and 14 July 2013 by Captain Michael Ramsay.

This is the 2015 version, to read he 2013 version click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/07/galatians-chapter-2-do-i-know-you.html 

Two years ago, when Colonel Mark Tilsley was just installed as the new Chief Secretary he told us this story:

There was a man who was new to town. He just got transferred to a new city. The company was having a softball game and he thought that this would be a good time to get to know people in the company and the town. He went up to bat. He missed the first pitch and someone yelled, 'good try Mr. Moore'; he didn’t think that he knew anyone; he looked around; he struck out and someone yelled, 'we're cheering for you Mr. Moore.' Who is calling him? Again and again he goes up to bat, inning after inning and each at bat he is just as bad as the previous one but each time he hears someone yell, 'well done Mr. Moore', 'Doing good Mr. Moore', 'We're cheering for you Mr. Moore.' He is looking around. He can't see anyone he knows - except his wife and son but each time he is up to bat - even though he can't hit anything someone is cheering him on, 'Good game Mr. Moore.'

      After the game he asks his family, 'Did you hear that person cheering me on?' 'Do you know who it was?'

      'It was me', his son says, 'I wanted to support you and make you feel better.'

      'Why did you call me Mr. Moore instead of dad like usual?'

      ‘I didn't want anyone to know I was related to you. You were terrible.’

‘Thanks, son.’

 This is not entirely dissimilar to Peter in Galatians 2.  We notice that at first he enjoys associating with Gentile Christians but then some Jerusalem Christians show up and it is as if he pretends that he isn't related to the Gentiles. Whereas Peter was eating and otherwise associating with the Gentile Christians before, now these Christians show up from Jerusalem and everything is different. He won't eat with them.

One of the myriad of Jewish cultural-religious laws - which were fulfilled in Christ - states that Jews can't associate with Gentiles, let alone eat with them - or they'll become 'un-clean' - sort of like Apartied South Africa or segregation in the US. In our text today when the Jewish Christians appear, the Apostle Peter then starts acting like a segregationist: he stops sitting with his Gentile Christians friends and seems to start obeying all these segregationists' Jewish laws.

Now Peter isn't a segregationist and so for anyone familiar with Peter and for anyone familiar with the NT in general and the book of Acts in particular, this is quite strange. All through Acts is recorded Gentiles becoming Christians, at first it seems as if those becoming Christians are already Jewish proselytes but later the Spirit is seen descending on people who are still fully and completely Gentiles (Acts 6,8; Acts 10,11). The Spirit comes on those who eat non-kosher food and who have never been circumcised (Acts 10). Gentiles are becoming a part of the people of God without first becoming Jews. God is welcoming Gentiles to be a part of the people of God (Acts 11:17). They are being saved just as Jews are being saved and they are all saved the same way; we are all saved the same way (cf. Romans 2): through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, not through law and our religious practices.

Peter, Paul, and Barnabas know all of this and Peter has not been following all of the Jewish laws up until this point in his ministry; in fact he is being very sociable with the Gentile Christians when all of a sudden these Jewish Christians from James show up (Galatians 2:11-13). Then everything changes…

Can you imagine what it would be like to be one of these Gentile Christians with him? One minute Peter and the other Jewish Christians are your best friends: worshipping and serving along side you and then some people come from Jerusalem and they won't even talk to you? How would you feel? What would you do? How would this affect the spreading of the Gospel? And why would Peter do this? Why would Peter all of a sudden seemingly turn his back on these people and his whole mission?

Do we remember the dream that Peter had (Acts 10)? Peter sees all these unclean, forbidden foods for Jews descend from heaven and God tells him to kill and eat and Peter knows that this dream means that there is no longer a barrier between Jews and Gentiles. Peter now knows that he is allowed to associate with Gentiles; Peter now knows that Gentiles can be saved just as the Jews can; Peter now knows that Gentiles can be saved without first becoming Jews; Peter now knows all this as he is the first one to bring this Gospel to the Gentiles. And in Antioch, Peter is celebrating, feasting, and worshiping with the Gentile Christians and then everything changes.
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 Why? What has happened to Peter and what happened to Barnabas? What happened to these men used greatly by God in his mission to the Gentiles and others? Why are they now seemingly turning their backs on the Gentile Christians? What is going on here?

Some people have suggested that Peter is all of a sudden self-conscious about his faith. Some people have suggested that Peter is happy being with the Gentiles when there is no one else around but as soon as 'important' Jewish Christians show up he no longer has time for Gentiles because he wants to be accepted by these Jews or because he wants them to tell James about how good he is or something like that.

I find this hard to believe and I find it harder to believe still that both Peter and Barnabas could be tempted to turn their backs on people for such a shallow reason. Remember that Barnabas is the one who stands up to the early Church by vouching for Paul when the others won't have anything to do with him (Acts 9:26-30). Remember that Barnabas is the one who stands up to Paul in favour of John Mark (Acts 15:36-41; cf. Colossians 4:10, 2 Timothy 4:11). Remember that Barnabas with Paul reports to James and the Church in Jerusalem what the Holy Spirit is already doing in the lives of Christian Gentiles (Acts 13-15). How can Barnabas - who has never been intimidated by anyone before - all of a sudden change when these people show up from Jerusalem? And Peter - as we already said -  is the one first used by God to bring Gentiles to the Faith and he is the one through whom God articulates that mission clearly in a dream (Acts 10). Could these two men of God all of a sudden forget everything that they have risked their very lives and everything else for? Could they?

Are they like children who hang out with their church friends at the coffee shop until their school friends show up and then move to another table. Are they like teenagers in the store with their parents, who, spying some peers, all of a sudden totally ignore their parents because they are afraid of what their friends will think? I don't think so. I don't think this is why they are doing this. I think that Peter, Barnabas and the others are acting this way for much more noble purposes but I do think that the end results are just the same.

There is a story I read this week about Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the UK: Once when she was campaigning, she stopped by an old-age home and visited the Alzheimer's wing. She asked a patient, 'do you know who I am?' To which the response was, 'No dear, but if you ask the nurse she can help you.'
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Paul is helping out much the same way here. This letter, Galatians, was probably written ca. CE48-50, in the years leading up to the Jewish revolt against Roman rule that brought so much death, destruction and even the ultimate destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (CE70). There is this destructive wave of nationalism sweeping over the Jewish people. They are separating themselves more and more from the Romans and they are separating themselves more and more from the Gentiles as they are preparing to bring war to the Middle-East. [2]

The early Christians are getting caught up in the lead up to the war. Remember that Peter, Paul, and Barnabas are all Jewish Christians. The people they are with in Antioch and the people in Galatia are Gentile Christians and back home there is a Jewish revolt brewing. Jews are about to start a war against Gentiles. I have read some suggestions that the people mentioned in the text from James here are probably bringing information of this growing Jewish intolerance and impending Jewish revolt to Peter, Paul, and Barnabas.[3] They are warning them about prejudice, violence, and the real possibility of military revolt.

Now, when people rebel against their occupiers, what do they do to the sympathizers of their occupiers? When the ‘Free French’ rebelled against Nazi occupation, what did they do to people they thought were friendly to the Germans - whether they really were or not? When one regime falls and another comes to power - like we have seen in Libya, Iraq, and Egypt in recent history - what happens to supporters, friends, allies, or sympathizers of the old regime? What has the US done to people on the other side of their wars in the 21st Century? Remember Saddam? Remember Osama? Remember Abu Gharib? Remember Guantanamo Bay? Remember all of the even innocent people who were swooped up, dropped off, killed, or even tortured? Remember?

Jerusalem here is on the verge of a revolt against Rome - the America of their day. James in all likelihood has sent these people here to warn Peter, Paul and Barnabas about this and he may even have requested that Jewish Christians stop associating with non-Jewish Christians because if they don't that might put the lives of all the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem at risk. Peter and Barnabas may have been asked to prove that Christian Jews are loyal to Jerusalem by distancing themselves from Christian Gentiles.

On the West Coast, where I am from, we are very conscious about what happened to Canadians of Japanese origin during WWII. In Saskatchewan, from where we just moved, we know what happened to Canadian families of German decent when war broke out. When Susan, the girls and I first visited Ontario as a family a few years ago we visited a museum in Niagara and read about what happened to the Italian-Canadian families in Ontario. I read about one family that had to burn all of their clothes of a certain colour to try to protect themselves, their friends and their family from their own Canadian government. I read of one Italian-Canadian family where -even though one son voluntarily was serving in the Canadian Army- the other son was shipped off to internment camps and the family was broken up. I read of one Canadian family of Italian ancestry where the Canadian government came to take the father away on his young daughter's birthday. He asked to be allowed to stay at least until the candles were blown out. The men from the Canadian government said 'no' and they took him away - this loyal Canadian - at his daughter's birthday party.

It is very likely that Peter and Barnabas believe that if they, as Jewish Christians, associate with Gentile Christians in Antioch, then the Jewish nationalists will do similar sorts of things or worse to the Christian Jews back home - after all the early Christians really are Gentile sympathizers. As Paul repeatedly says, there is no Jew or Greek in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:22, 10:12; Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11). Peter and Barnabas could be moving away from the non-Jewish Christians -as referred to in our text today- in order to save the lives of the Jewish Christians back home. Does that make sense?

Now what I am about to say is really important. It seems a reasonable enough thing for them to do this to protect Christian Jews from persecution by Jewish nationalists but Paul says – rightfully so - that it is NOT reasonable. Paul says - rightfully so - as recorded in our pericope today - Paul says that giving up your freedom in Christ for even this reason of trying to save lives is hypocrisy (v.13)! And Paul will go on later in this very letter to express his anger in some of the most brutal language you'll ever read in scripture. This hypocrisy bothers Paul so much that this is the only one of his letters that does not even begin with the customary polite greeting. Paul is in essence saying to Peter, Barnabas, the Galatians; and by extension, Canadians, Salvationists, and all of us here today that if for whatever reason we turn our backs on our faith and fellow servants in the Faith - whether for seemingly trivial purposes such as rules, pride, prejudice, popularity or for really serious reasons such as to protect yourself, to protect your friends, to protect your family, to protect their lives or to protect your life; it is still denying the essence of your faith. It is exactly the same.

Peter, who is used by God to accomplish so much in the world; Peter, who is the rock upon which Christ was to build his Church; Barnabas, one of the most courageous, one of the most heroic, one of the most determined followers of Jesus Christ, one of the most ardent proclaimers of the resurrection and the Gospel of Salvation; when these men turn away from practicing the freedom of their faith; when these men turn away from helping and associating with their Christian brothers and sisters; when these men turn away from sacrificing everything for the proclamation of the Gospel; then they in essence turn their back on our Lord. They - no matter how noble their purposes - are just like the teenager denying her father for her own personal reasons. And their actions hurt our Heavenly Father just as much. Peter and Barnabas, of course, do repent and return to being used by God for the proclamation of the Gospel of Salvation.

Are we ever tempted to fall into the same trap as they did? Are we ever tempted to act like we are not Christians? Are we ever tempted to not associate with fellow Christians? Do we ever talk to people in church but dodge them on the street? Do we ever deny that we have anything to do with the Church or others who do? Do we ever hide our faith by not saying grace at the restaurant? Do we ever dodge questions about whether or where we go to church? Are we ever embarrassed about some of our behaviours that show to the world we are Christians? If we turn our backs on our Christian brothers and sisters, if we deny our Christianity and if we deny our Lord and Saviour before people then - no matter how good our reasons might seem to us for doing so - reasonably, Jesus will also deny us. If we turn our backs on Christ we will no longer be facing him who is reach out to us, wanting to hold us in his loving embrace.

With this being the case: from this day forward let us all commit to carry our cross; from this day forward let us all commit to love God; from this day forward let us all commit to love our neighbour; and from this day forward let us all commit to put nothing before God and the proclamation of His Gospel of Salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord; so that at the eschaton, at the parousia, at the resurrection; we will join Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and all the saints for eternity with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Let us join them in serving our Lord today.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, Acts 10:1-11:18: It's All In Who You Know, Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 02 June 2013. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/06/acts-101-1118-its-all-in-who-you-know.html

[2] Cf. Flavius Josephus, ‘The Wars of the Jews’ in Complete Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by William Whiston, A.M. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregal Publications, 1971.

[3] Cf. Charles B. Cousar, Galatians (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox, 1982), 56-57

2 Corinthians 2:10-11: Forgiving

Presented to 614 Regent Park, Toronto; 09 August 2015 by Captain Michael Ramsay

 It has been great starting to get to know everyone here a little bit. It has been great getting to know the wonderful ministry that the Lord is doing through everyone at 614. As many of you know Susan, the kids and I have spent the last decade on the prairies and loved every moment of it. That being said we have been very much looking forward to being a part of what God is doing with 614 again. Now I say 'again' because as many of you know, Susan and I 'went into the work' from 614 Vancouver. This past week, I actually stumbled across an old brief (bulletin) I made in 2004 for 614 Vancouver. We saw amazing miracles there as we were involved in street combat (prayer walks), cell groups, running a community house, and other ministries in Vancouver's DTES. It is neat because a lot of my 614 Vancouver memories have come flooding back as I am getting to know everyone and the ministry at 614 Regent Park in Toronto.

Now I had no direct experience with 614 Regent Park in those days but I actually met Major Geoff Ryan once when I was at CFOT (seminary) in Winnipeg. One day he came and spoke to us cadets and Geoff Ryan actually led a chapel session. As part of that we had the opportunity to receive bread and non-alcoholic drink and Geoff quoted Jesus as saying 'this is my body' and 'this is my blood'. It was a very powerful chapel for many of my session mates. But…this was not without a little bit of… controversy… which, I wound up in the middle of… I grew up in a Baptist church and this ceremony that Geoff led us in was almost exactly how we would celebrate communion at times. Now, this WASN'T a communion service because -of course - The Salvation Army doesn't administer communion (and if they did it wouldn't be in this way) but at that point I didn't know the finer details about what constitutes the forbidden administration of communion in the Army tradition and what doesn't.[1] (Later, of course, I have seen similar ceremonies across the Army world called 'Love Feasts' or some other names BUT then, to me, a simple cadet, it seemed just like a communion service.)

Now… I used to have quite a popular web log when blogs were popular, where people would read my daily musings on-line and so after that chapel service at CFOT I updated my blog…as I always did… and I wrote something like, 'at CFOT chapel today Major Geoff Ryan administered communion to the cadets.' Tip: if you ever want to get into a lot of trouble in The Salvation Army world - and deservedly so -  then that is how to do it.

The CFOT principal saw the blog and she -quite rightfully - almost blew a circuit. TSA does not offer communion and I had just blogged for all of my readers plus whomever else, that Geoff Ryan had given the cadets communion at HER college. As the principal later rhetorically asked me, 'Can you imagine me having to explain to my boss, the Territorial Commander, why cadets are saying that I am giving communion at CFOT?!' She was obviously more than a little concerned that I had posted such a thing. And on top of that she was at chapel that day and didn't see the ceremony as a problem. It was not communion in Army tradition, doctrine, or experience - it just appeared that way from the viewpoint of my Baptist history; so she probably thought that I was trying to cause trouble for her and/or Geoff. She was mad and rightfully so. Now, PTL, Susan happened to stop by her office about another matter and was able to explain my - and some of the other cadets confusion - before I met the full weight of her response. (I, of course, immediately deleted the entry when I realized my error.)

Now that being said, CFOT had a new field instructor at the time and as I was walking past, he called me into his office and started actually yelling at me loud enough for people to hear and rumours to grow. Our new field instructor was a fan and/or a friend of Geoff and he thought that I was attacking Geoff Ryan and trying to impugn his reputation or something like that -which I wasn't- so he really did let me have it.

I admit I had had enough now. I was quite contrite about my error and - if I hadn't already called or emailed, even Geoff Ryan (who had no idea about any of this storm) then I was about to. I had had enough and then it was time for next class…and guess what next class was? Field class. I was sitting in the field instructor's class and I was trying to be on my best behaviour. I didn't even want to make eye contact at this point. This communion scandal, where I had mistakenly read the elements in the ceremony in the chapel as a part of a communion ceremony, I wanted it all behind me but you know how sometimes you just say things and you wish that you hadn't. The field instructor - no doubt still angry because of me - was having an argument with one of my fellow cadets and at one point he said, 'if it walks like a duck, if it talks like a duck…' and I couldn’t help myself, I pipe up and say, '…it's communion'. The class laughed. The instructor didn't. I put my head on my desk/table.

So that was my first in-person introduction to Major Geoff Ryan, Corps 614 Regent Park, and the somewhat unrelated fallout. I am sure he knows or remembers nothing of the event but I certainly do. And I did apologize fully to everyone involved and I believe and I hope they all accepted my apology because my CFOT principal then is now my DC. Actually my then field instructor is also in this division. I made a mistake and a bad decision that led to a need for forgiveness and forgiveness is what our pericope today is about.

This is an interesting pericope. Scholars like to guess as to the nature of the sin and/or event that transpired here and whether it is referred to elsewhere in scripture or not. We do know a few things from the immediate context. We know that someone in the church family has done something to cause some people some grief. We also know that most of the people who were affected directly or indirectly by whatever transpired took some action; referred to here as a 'punishment';[2] we know that if Paul was not directly involved in this whole mess that someone has brought it to his attention and Paul here is recommending to the grieving parties that indeed they should forgive the person who hurt them. He goes on to get as close as I think Scriptures gets to formalizing the 'forgive and forget' concept. Vs 10, he says, "if you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven - if there [even] was anything to forgive - I have forgiven them in the sight of Christ for your sake."

This forgiveness is key and -of course- forgiveness is central to the whole Christian faith. This is one of the things that actually demarcates a Christian. This is one of the things that shows the world that indeed you are a Christian. It is part and parcel of being a Christian. To be a Christian is to be a forgiven and a forgiving person. As we pray in the Lord's Prayer, 'forgive us, as we forgive those who sin against us.' And immediately after praying this (Matthew 6:14-15) Jesus says, "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." Forgiveness is very important.

The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians puts it this way for us to understand just how important is forgiveness: Verse 10, 'If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him...',  Verse 11, 'in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.'

This is very important for us today in general, I think. Our world, our culture and our very country is surrounded by hate and un-forgiveness right now. An election campaign has been called and the latest round of attack ads against real and imagined enemies has been launched. Our nation since just prior to the turn of this century has left our traditional role as peacekeepers fatally wounded on the field of history. And as this has happened, I have even had to stop watching the news at times as our own country's politicians and media continually promote more fear, hatred, mistrust, scorn, and derision; instead of Christian love and forgiveness in order to justify our own acts of aggression towards people in other countries.

This hate and un-forgiveness is reflected in our entertainment industry: I don't even have cable but even I have seen shows this century where sometimes I cannot even distinguish -by their actions- the 'good guys' from the 'bad guys'. Both sides are equally pursuing retribution and in most shows we are supposed to cheer for the 'good guys' because someone has decided their un-forgiveness and revenge is 'justified' whereas their opponent's is not.

This aggression and un-forgiveness translates into our own life where we feel we can no longer trust politicians, police, churches, officials, or even people in general, or even other people specifically.[3] We have more locks on our doors, we have more alarm systems, we have people who turn the other way when they see others in crisis. We start to call for retributive rather than restorative justice.[4]Our hearts - like Pharaoh's- start to become hardened.  And we know where that ends. But do we know where this begins?

This spiral - if not always than almost always - begins with un-forgiveness. This past week the world marked the 70th anniversary of some of the worst crimes ever committed against humanity - the intentional slaughter hundreds of thousands of innocent people by atomic bomb detonation and radiation. Did you know that the US picked the time and place to drop the bomb based on when Japanese mothers dropped off their children for school so that they could kill the greatest number of women and children? Did you know that almost certainly even up to 3 whole weeks before the first atomic bomb, the US had already received the Japanese offer to surrender? Did you know that they then dropped a second bomb before they eventually accepted the offered surrender. Did you know that after the US dropped those two bombs they dropped even more atomic bombs on islands in the Pacific Ocean continuing right up into the late 1950s so that some islands are still uninhabitable to this day? This week Japan remembered this as they have for 70 years: campaigning not for revenge and retribution but for peace and forgiveness. There is this one story, related by Bishop Mary Ann Swenson at official remembrance ceremonies about a little girl named Sadako:[5]

Sadako was two years old when the atomic bomb struck one mile from her home. Soon she began to experience the devastation of radiation disease. Her response was to set about making a thousand paper cranes, because one crane symbolizes a thousand years of peace and happiness. After her death, her classmates continued making cranes; and today there is a statue of her holding a peace crane in Memorial Park [ground zero]. In response to unspeakable violence, a powerful cry for peace was born.

We pray for that peace that only comes from being willing to forgive: the peace the surpasses all understanding. Think about your own life. Think about what upsets you the most. Think about what or who makes you really angry. Think about what or who it is that if it is introduced into a conversation your mind starts wandering, frustrating your thoughts and incapacitating you from ministering to others. This is what un-forgiveness can do. Paul says that holding a grudge, failing to forgive people is a way that the devil can beat us.[6]

Here's a quote I want you to remember: 'un-forgiveness is a self-inflicted wound.' Un-forgiveness is the devil convincing you to turn your weapons ('Hoopla', Armour of God) on yourself. When we fail to forgive someone we do them no direct harm at all - not that we should want to do them harm. When we fail to forgive someone we do them no direct harm - that person may not even know that we are upset with them. When we fail to forgive someone we do them no direct harm - but we do hurt ourselves. When we fail to forgive someone it is ONLY ourselves that we hurt. The person you are mad at has no idea what you are thinking about them right then; the person you are mad at is not distracted from his or her work by YOUR un-forgiveness; the person you are mad at is not being made ineffective for the Kingdom of God due to being preoccupied with anger, bitterness and un-forgiveness - you are. The person I refuse to forgive is not being made ineffective for the Kingdom of Heaven by my un-forgiveness, I am. Un-forgiveness is a self-inflicted wound.

This is what Paul is talking about when he says, Verse 10, 'If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him...', and Verse 11 'in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.'

Satan outwits us by keeping us angry at our fellow Christians so that we are not even able to grow in the love of Christ let alone work together to build the Kingdom of God; one by one the enemy can pick us off - no - one by one the enemy can convince us to pick ourselves off by bottling and/or blowing up from un-forgiveness.[7]

Now I know that many people here today have been hurt and are hurting. Do you know what the first thing some people told me when I told them how excited I was to be here at 614? It was, 'there is a need for a healing ministry there'. People kept telling me the people here, we need to heal. And when I arrived and asked many here about our recent history, do you what you told me? You told me we need healing. We need healing. There is so much that has happened to each of us individually in our lives, yes, but there is also a lot that has happened collectively. Some of us are still carrying grudges or bitterness and many of us are hurting. Now I don't know what your hurt is from. It could be from many things that have happened in general or to you personally but I do know that if that real hurt is magnified, re-opened, or exploited by our own un-forgiveness than the devil can win by keeping us hurting, long after the cause of our hurt has passed into history.

So today if indeed we are continuing to hurt ourselves -by picking at the real wounds inflicted upon us- through our un-forgiveness, today I invite us to tell the devil that we will not let him do that to us anymore. Today I invite you to throw off the yoke of the enemy, remove his influence and power over you by forgiving our enemies and those who have done us wrong - and as we do, I promise, as you resist the devil in this way, he will flee you and then may God use you to continue to do amazing and wonderful things for His Kingdom. 

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com  

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[1] Cf. International Doctrine Council, The Salvation Army in the Body of Christ, (IHQ, London, UK: Salvation Books, 2008.

[2] Cf. Issiaka Coulibaly, "the purpose of punishment is restoration" in Africa Bible Commentary (Nairobi, Kenya : Word Alive Publishers, 2010)1427

[3] Cf. NT Wright, 2 Corinthians,( Paul for Everyone: Louisville, USA: WJK, 2004), 20-21 about the role of forgiveness in community.

[4] Cf. Murray J. Harris, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Corinthians/Exposition of 2 Corinthians/I. Paul's Explanation of His Conduct and Apostolic Ministry (2 Cor 1:1-7:16)/B. Paul's Conduct Explained (1:12-2:13)/4. Forgiveness for the offender (2:5-11), Book Version: 4.0., re. justice

[5] Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, 'Peacemakers for Life'. Presented to the joint Anglican-Catholic Peace Memorial Cathedral, (Hiroshima, Japan: 05 Aug 2015).

[6] Cf. Ernest Best, Second Corinthians, (Interpretation: Louisville, USA: John Knox Press, 1987) p. 23

[7] J. Paul Sampley, The Second Letter to the Corinthians (NIB X: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 2000), 53-54: Paul uses the term forgiveness to refer to reconciliation and the restoration of relationships.