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.
---
[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.
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