Presented to 614 Warehouse pm service, 22 October 2017 (abridged version in the am) by
Captain Michael Ramsay
Hello everyone. It is good to be back, I missed church here and the many friends that we have around here over the previous few
weeks. While I was away we experienced some interesting things:
- We
went to Wye Marsh and were able to walk around the woods there. They had
some owls that lived there. What were the kinds of owls there, Heather? It
was great. They even talked to us. Heather was having some great
conversations with many of them as they all clamoured for her attention.
There was one owl that looked like Gonzo - do you remember Gonzo from the
Muppets? - He was neat. If I would hold out my arms he would hold out his
wing. It was a lot of fun.
- Of
course, we were able to join you here at Warehouse for Thanksgiving. That
was a blessing. We also had a Thanksgiving dinner and other dinners at
home that Susan and the girls made and decorated.
- I
was blessed to be able to say grace and ask the blessing as I addressed
the gala to celebrate Toronto Kiwanis Club’s centennial celebrations.
- We
had some good family times. I went to the Argos game with my kids - yes,
we are all in green. You can take the person out of Rider Nation,
Saskatchewan but you can't take Rider Nation out of the person.
- I
finished writing another book - now I just need to get it edited and
complete all the requisite Army paperwork.
- I
got caught up with old friends Majors Stephen Court and Danielle
Strickland. They are great Godly people. They sent us into the work and
are always a great help when things are difficult.
It has been a difficult time. It is interesting. When things
are difficult you learn who your friends are and maybe you learn who your friends
aren't. Times away can really be eye openers. Thursday and Friday, we were at
The Global Leadership Summit. It was a great conference streamed at THQ; we
learned a lot. There were very many good speakers. One lady - Juliet Funt (her
dad hosted that show, Candid Camera many years ago; remember that show) – she spoke
about something called 'white space', the strategic pause of even a mere moment
but with intent. Over the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to more than pause,
to pray, and to reflect quite a bit.
How we use time away - especially
difficult time away is very important. How I used that time was very important.
I was upset. I know some here know what it like to be upset. I know some of us
here know what it is like to be betrayed, to be falsely accused and to
anxiously wait to finally be exonerated. I have spent a lot of time in court
rooms and prison ministries in the past. I know how our hearts and our minds
can become consumed with all kinds of bad thoughts when life's circumstances
seem to be bad and some people around us seem to be bad and other people and
institutions and processes that we have mistakenly placed our trust in also
appear to be bad. I know it can be very anxious when after a person is cleared,
they are thrust back into an environment where they must face their accuser. It
is tough. I know this.
I don't
know how much attention people pay to the sermons I have preached over the years here but one key theme to which I keep returning is
forgiveness. It is central to Christianity, to following Christ, and it is the
most powerful way for us to remove hate and fear from our lives. Hate and
unforgiveness kill us and unforgiveness, as I have often said, is a
self-inflicted wound. So-and-so may have hurt you when they did that terrible
thing to you but you hurt yourself over and over again when you do not forgive
them. They aren't necessarily hurt by your unforgiveness. They might not even
know you are mad at them but if every time you think about that person if your
heart hardens, your mind tightens, and you stomach and back ache, then your
unforgiveness is killing you. We actually have the power to forgive and be
released from the pain we are suffering but it is not easy.
Let me
share with you another story were heard at the Global Leadership Summit at THQ this
week. This one is from Immaculee Ilibagiza. She says, “Forgiveness is possible
in every situation”; she says, “God is always right; whatever our Lord tells us
to do is right. And God tells us to forgive.” Immaculee is a Rwandan and she is
a Tutsi. Does anyone here remember the Rwandan genocide?
In the late
20th Century people in Rwanda were required to carry racial ID cards stating
whether you are a Hutu, Tutsi, Pygmy, or another race. This is reminiscent of
South African Apartied, American segregation, or the star Jews had to wear
during WWII. In 1994, the president of Rwanda's plane was shot down and this
unleashed the brutality that had apparently been building up for years. She
remembers now hearing radio programs promoting hatred and violence against the
minority Tutsis by the majority Hutus for years before the genocide but she
never thought much if it. We hear wakkos spreading hate on our TVs, radios, and
social media every day and every minute here now. Everybody seems to hate somebody
for something. She didn't think much of it then - just a few Hutus publicly hating
Tutsis. But then with the death of the president it unleashed a genocidal wave
that wiped out about a million lives in about 90 days. The people on the radio
were calling for Hutus to track down their Tutsi neighbours and not only report
on them but to actually kill them. I remember reading the horror stories in the
news at that time of neighbours hacking apart neighbours with machetes.
Immaculee
remembers her mother, her father, and her brothers sent her away when this
began. They wanted her to be safe. The sent her to hide in the house of a Hutu
pastor. She remembers that she was put in a bathroom, 3ft by 4ft, and told not to
leave the room and not to make any noise. She remembers saying or thinking, 'I can't
stay here it is too small; Then two more girls came to live in that room and
then two more and then more and then soon the room was jam-packed with girls
and they couldn't leave in the daylight and they couldn’t make any noise at all
- if anyone knew they were there they could, they would, be killed.
Immaculee
remembers one day a death squad came to search the house. A chain of people
surrounded the house so that if they found any Tutsi in the house they couldn't
escape. Then the searchers came into the house. They searched in closets, they
searched in the halls, they searched in the ceiling, they searched in the
floor. They even searched in suitcases in case someone might be trying to hide
a small child in one. They were looking for Tutsis and if they found one,
even a child, they would kill her.
She
remembers when searchers were close to their hiding place, a part of her wanted
to run out and defy them and a part of her wanted to remain hidden. She is Catholic
and she prayed, "God, if You are who You are, please don't let them look
in this room" and then she fainted. When she came to, the evangelical Hutu
pastor who was harbouring them said that they were by the door when one searcher
said, ‘Mr. So-and-So, you are a good man, you wouldn't have anyone in your
house’ and they left.
They stayed
three months jam packed in that washroom. They had nothing to do so they asked
that a radio be placed where they could hear it and on it they heard day after
day the government inciting people to hate and kill them and day after day
people were. One government official even encouraged the Hutu to kill Tutsi
children saying, "the child of a snake is still a snake," Hate is
powerful, When you hear people plotting to kill you and your loved ones it is
easy to grab onto hate and try to get through this time by hating your enemies
and plotting a real or imagined vengeance at the expense your soul. Now to make
her soul an even more fertile ground for hate to grow, on her first night of
the 90 nights she spent in that washroom, pressed up against all of the others,
she heard the news that her mother, and father, and brothers, were hacked to
death.
Whether in
that room or afterwards I do not remember, she had her Rosary beads with her.
When God answered her prayer and the searchers did not come in her room she
knew God was real more than she ever knew before and so she would pray her
Rosary prayers all the more. One of the prayers on the Rosary is the Lord's
Prayer. She would pray it regularly but then she would get to the part that
says please forgive our trespasses (our sins) as we forgive those who
trespass (sin) against us. But surely God didn't mean me? How can I forgive the
sins of what has been done to me? How can I forgive my enemies – when they
killed my mother, my father, my brothers, and my family? She got to the point
where because she knows God is real and He knows everything, she wouldn't even say
those words in the Lord's Prayer – forgive us our sins as we forgive others -
she would skip them over because she didn’t want to forgive them but then, of
course, all-knowing God knows she is skipping those words. She came to realize
this and so she opened her Bible to find some relief from this conviction to
forgive her enemies. She opened her Bible and it said:
- Pray
for your enemies, so she closed it and opened it again,
- Pray
for those who persecute you, close,
- Forgive
your enemies!
And then she remembered God, Jesus on Cross: do you remember
what some his last recorded words are - about those who have put him up on that
cross to die? Jesus said, "Father forgive them" and then Jesus said
"for they do not know what they do". Jesus forgave his enemies. Jesus
says, "Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you. Do not
condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."
Jesus himself told us to forgive others as we want to be forgiven.
Immaculee
says, “Forgiveness is possible in every situation and God is always right;
whatever our Lord tells us to do is right. God tells us to forgive.”
And if
Jesus forgives those who put him on a Cross to kill him and if Immaculee can
forgive those who killed her family and extended family and the people she
loves then surely we can forgive those who hurt us.
In the
conference we were at, Bill Hybels invited us to think of a person who has
recently hurt us. He invited us to think of someone who when we think of them
our muscles tighten and our hearts harden. He asked us to forgive them and
free ourselves from the pain of unforgiveness. I know that is not easy because
the person I still need to forgive was in the same room that afternoon.
The speaker invited us to make up with our attackers and I
will keep trying. And when I forgive them in my heart then maybe even I can forgive
them with my words, for forgiveness is possible in every situation; God is
always right; whatever our Lord tells us to do is right. God tells us to
forgive.
Let us pray
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