1 Corinthians 11:23-26, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:18-20: In Remembrance.

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries of The Salvation Army, 15 November 2020 by Captain Michael Ramsay, Padre Royal Canadian Legion Branch 293

 

1 Corinthians 11:23-25: “…the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

 

Remembrance: Wednesday was Remembrance Day in Canada: a day to remember the ‘great’ and subsequent wars. As I have been privileged to do many times before, I was invited to address our community as the Legion Padre. It was very different this year than past Remembrance Day ceremonies. There were only 50 of us allowed instead of the typical nearly one thousand and we had to be outside, masked and social distanced, of course.

 

Covid-19 has affected every aspect of our lives – separating us from friends and family. People have not been able to be with loved ones as they passed on from this life to the next one. People are dying. We hear of outbreaks in different cities and other places where our family is and we worry and we wonder. Rebecca is on the mainland working with vulnerable people and so we follow reports closely. This I think can be a small reminder, a real life object lesson of the large sense of worry and loss and grief and fear that gripped our world, our country, our Island and even our Valley here more than 100 years ago and more than 75 years ago in the world wars. The Second World War ended 75 years ago this year.

 

Lest we Forget. We will remember. Why do we have Remembrance Day? What are we supposed to remember? We remember the people who served. When World War One broke out Canada was a country of just over 7 million people. 619 000 Canadians served in WWI and 66 976 never returned. That was almost 1-out-of-every-5 boys aged 16-24. There were 1 million Canadians who served and the 45 000 lost their lives in the Second World War. We are to remember the people who served and the people who died; why?

 

We are to remember this so that we do not repeat it. We are to remember this so that our children and grandchildren don’t go marching into foreign lands risking both losing their lives and risking taking someone else’s life.

 

I have spoken to veterans who served during D-Day. I remember one fellow when asked if he ever killed anyone, answered, “I don’t know”. He just ran when they said “run” and when he was in a trench or a hole he would just fire his gun without sticking his head up. (Apparently most people just wind up shooting into the air. We seem to have this instinct not to take life but rather to save it). I remember hearing stories of this same person ducking in his trench as a tank passed safely over his head – it was an American tank that almost killed him.

 

I have spoken to veterans, even of our more recent wars, who still have horrible flashbacks and PTSD directly related to not only what they saw and had done to them but also from what they have done. I can’t tell you the number of times people have asked me whether they can be forgiven for what they have done. They can. There are no good guys and bad guys in the trenches, for the most part, just people trying to stay alive.

 

Reinhardt’s father was a prisoner –of-war in England in WW1. I heard stories from American veterans of how they were told to bayonet people rather than take them prisoner. My grandmother’s brother never spoke of what happened the day that he and his comrades were surrounded by the enemy. War is terrible. War is terrifying.

 

If we forget the horrors of war we are more likely to repeat them.[1] If hate is stronger than a desire for peace than we will walk down this road again and again and again... If the population of a country cannot forgive, it is easy for their politicians to throw their people into a position where they either kill someone else’s children or they send their own children to be killed.

 

This is important. In the Legion Chaplain’s manual of which I have become quite familiar over the years are prayers such as this:

O God our Father, we thank you for those valiant hearts, who at the call of Sovereign and country laid down their lives for our cause. We pray that we may uphold the torch entrusted to us. So that their sacrifice may not have been in vain, unite all the peace loving peoples of our world in one holy purpose to defend the peace won and the comradery for which these valiant hearts lived and died. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. In the Name of the great Prince of peace we pray. Amen.[2]

·         God of peace, may the memory of wars strengthen our efforts for peace.

·         Father of souls, may the memory of those who died inspire our service to the living.

·         Builder of the Kingdom of Love, may the memory of past destruction move us to build for the future.[3]

We are to remember the horrors of war so that we do not need to repeat them.

 

Susan, the girls and I have been reading Exodus lately as a family. In the Bible the Israelites and Judeans are called frequently to remember the Passover. There is quite a lot of symbolism – which we won’t look at today – that they are supposed to return to once a year in remembrance how God kept His promise – which he made hundreds of years earlier -  to bring His people out of Egypt (Genesis 15).

 

As the Israelite families were sitting in their houses awaiting the impending visit by the Angel of Death, God told Moses that they were never to forget this day.[4] They are to remember it forever. God told them, Exodus 12:24-27:

“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

 

They are supposed to remember this terrible cost. Moses later put Aaron’s staff and some manna into the Ark of the Covenant with the stone tablets so that people wouldn’t forget, not only how God brought the people from Egypt but also how He sustained them in the desert (Hebrews 9:4). But you know what the Israelites and the Judeans did? Just like we have done with war in many cases – at various times in their history – they seemed to forget.

 

The British Empire, of which Canada was an integral part, instituted Remembrance Day to remember WW1 but we then added a remembrance of WW2 and subsequently applied it to our own peacekeeping efforts and continuing military engagements. Jesus, in the Gospels is shown to open up the Passover (and in 1 Corinthians possibly even every meal that the saints have together[5]) to not only remember how God, through the Angel of Death and the fire-y pillar of cloud, delivered His people into the Promised Land; but to also remember how God through Jesus’ death and resurrection delivered us, His people from our sins into eternal life.[6]

 

Jesus at the Passover Meal uttered the very important words, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Mark 14:22-25,Luke 22:18-20,1 Corinthians 11:23-25).[7] This is, I think, a big reason why God wanted the Passover ceremony etched so deeply in the minds of humanity for so long because just as when the Egyptians gave up their firstborn sons, God saved His people through the blood of the Passover lamb; so when God gave up His firstborn son –Jesus Christ – He also saved us; His people, all His people, He saves through the Blood of the Lamb.[8]

 

This is the most important event in the whole history of the world: the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God, through the giving of His only begotten son has made it – just like with Exodus and the Angel of Death – so that none of us need to perish but all of us can have Salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is important to remember.

 

In the Christian Church we have Good Friday and Easter where we are supposed to remember how Jesus through his death and resurrection provided for us to be a part of His Kingdom of Forgiveness and Peace both for now and forever more. And each Sunday we are supposed to remember Jesus’ resurrection celebrating the fact that now we can all pass from the darkness of hate, sin, and death into the light of forgiveness and eternal life. Even during Lent, when some Christians still fast, did you know that traditionally you are not supposed to fast on Sundays? It is because Sunday is a feast day! Sundays are a celebration! Sundays we remember Jesus’ resurrection and our opportunity to be a part of His Kingdom of Peace!

 

This is why we come to church, this is why we go to Bible studies, this is why we pray and this is why we read our Bibles; this is why we have our Mercy Seat at the corps and this is why we commemorate Good Friday and Easter Sunday/Monday every year. That is why we are here today: because just as God offered salvation to all His children from the passing over of the Angel of Death and the preceding plagues; so too He offers salvation to all of us, this very day, from Sin and Death and from everything that is plaguing us.

 

We remember our service people on Remembrance Day by wearing poppies and we are thankful that people loved us so much that they were willing, as called upon, to lay down their lives for us – as the Chaplain's manual says, not for war but for Peace.

 

Today, a few days after Remembrance Day, and a few days before we enter into the Advent Season, I implore us to remember not only our service people but also let us not forget what our Saviour has done for us. Let us not forget how he delivered us from our sins. Let us not forget – as we said the other week – that He has declared us to be holy saints and let us not forget that He has forgiven us so we now have the ability to be released from the power of hate, sin, and death by forgiving others. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and He lived, died and rose from the grave so that we can live in Peace with Him, each other, ourselves, and the whole world forever more.

 

It is my hope that if there are any of us who have not yet entered His peace yet that we will do so today and -that as we do- we will always remember what He has done for us.

 

Lest we forget.

Let us pray.

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[1] George Santayana, Reason in Common Sense, (The Life of Reason, Vol. 1: 1905). “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

[2] Rev Norman McMillan, Padre Legion Br 514 Caledonia ON, in Chaplain's Manuel of The Royal Canadian Legion

[3] Bishop George Appleton, General Editor, The Oxford Book of Prayer, (Oxford, Oxford UP, 1985), p. 367 in Chaplain's Manuel of The Royal Canadian Legion

[4] Thomas W. Mann, “Passover: The Time of Our Lives.” Interpretation 50, no. 3 (July 1, 1996): 240-250. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 28, 2012), 241-242: The Passover narrative is arguably the most important section of the entire book because it is primarily here that the experience of exodus is communicated not simply as a moment in historical time (in the past) but as a perennially recurring moment in the present life of those for whom the story is sacred.

[5] W. Harold Mare, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:1 Corinthians/Exposition of 1 Corinthians/VII. Paul's Answers to Questions Raised by the Church (7:1-14:40)/C. Worship in the Church (11:2-14:40)/2. The Lord's Supper (11:17-34), Book Version: 4.0.2

[6] Cf. NT Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (Louisville, Kentucky, USA:WJK, 2004), 128 and Simon J. Kistemaker, 1 Corinthians (NTC: Grad Raoids Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 149: 1 Corinthians is probably the oldest record of the observance of this memorial

[7] cf. J. Paul Sampley, 1 Corinthians, (NIB: Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002), 935 for a very good discussion of the intentionality of the use of the phrase,' do this in remembrance of me."

[8] Norman Theiss, "The Passover Feast of the New Covenant." Interpretation 48, no. 1 (January 1, 1994): 17-35. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 28, 2012), 17: In the eyes of the first three evangelists and Paul, Jesus construed his last supper with the twelve disciples as the fulfillment of God's plan to inaugurate a new Passover meal. In this new meal, Jesus interpreted his death as a new Exodus in which the new people of God were liberated from all that enslaves them and freed to serve God in holy living.

Remembrance Day Ceremony 2020

 Presented to Alberni Valley Community at the Field of Honour by Legion Padre Captain Michael Ramsay, Legion Branch#293

1. O CANADA

 

2. INVOCATION: Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God. Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth forever more.

 

At the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month, time stands still for a moment; and we remember those who died, not for war, but for a world that would be free and at peace.

 

3. OPENING REMARKS

·        MC

·        Mayor

 

4. SCRIPTURE READING: A Reading from the 23^rd Psalm.

 

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

he leadeth me beside the still waters.

 

He restoreth my soul:

he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness

for his name's sake.

 

Yea, though I walk through the valley

of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

 

Thou preparest a table before me

in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil;

my cup runneth over.

 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

 

5. PRAYER: Almighty God. You are our refuge and strength; we humble ourselves in Your presence, and, remembering the great things you have done for us, we lift up our hearts in adoration and praise. As you have gathered us together this day, we give You thanks for all who served their country in time of trial.

 

In remembrance of those who made the supreme sacrifice, make us better men and women, and give us peace in our time, O Lord.

 

6. LAST POST

 

7. SILENCE – 2 MINUTES

 

8. REVEILLE

 

9. LAMENT

 

10. ADDRESS: Today I have with me my Grandmother’s brother’s Bible that he was issued when he joined the Royal Navy in the Second World War. This week at a prayer meeting one of our members read to us from a Bible his father received in 1918 as a prisoner-of-war in England.

 

Today things are very different than past Remembrance Day ceremonies. Covid-19 has affected every aspect of our lives – separating us from friends and family. People have not been able to be with loved ones as they passed on from this life to the next one. People are dying. We hear of outbreaks in different cities and other places where our family is and we worry and we wonder. I have a daughter on the mainland working with vulnerable people and so we follow reports closely. 1914-1918 and 1939-44 there was a large sense of worry and loss and grief and fear that gripped our world, our country, and even our valley here more than 100 years ago and more than 75 years ago in the world wars.

 

Today we are standing outside in the cold, the damp, the wind, the rain. 100 + years ago today many of our service people, our family members, were standing and living outside in the cold, the damp, the wind, the rain; in trenches, trembling while they were shooting and being shot at by others who were standing outside in the cold, the damp, the wind, and the rain, equally trembling from the cold, the fear, what they saw, what they felt, and what they did. Many young people went from their home here to serve us and our country there and many never did return home here to see their families again.

 

When World War One broke out Canada was a country of just over 7 million people. 619 000 Canadians served in WWI and 66 976 never returned. That was almost 1-out-of-every-5 boys aged 16-24.

 

In the Alberni Valley, of the 1600 people who lived here at the time 116 of them signed up to go overseas in just the first few months of the war alone.

 

Today we are here to remember them. Today we here to remember those who lived, died, and served in the First World War. This year is the 75^th anniversary of the end of WW2. Today we are here to remember those 1 million Canadians who served and the 45 000 Canadians who lost their lives in the Second World War. Today we are here to remember those who served in the Korean Conflict, the UN peacekeeping missions, other conflicts, and our servicemen and women who are still serving and seeing and experiencing many things that thankfully you and I can probably not even imagine. Our veterans are still passing on from this world to the next. Let us remember them.

 

In the Christian faith, of which I am a pastor, we have a hope for a future where there will be no more wars, no more death, and no more sorrow – only peace. May that day come soon! And let us always remember all those who have lived and died so that you and I could have a chance, even now, to live out our lives in peace and security. Let us remember.

 

We will remember them.

 

11. LAYING OF THE WREATHES

 

12.  BENEDICTION: Almighty God, as You have gathered your people together this day in hallowed remembrance, we give You thanks for all who laid down their lives for our sake, and whom You have gathered from the storm of war into the peace of Your presence. Let the memory of their devotion ever be an example to us, that we at the last. Being faithful unto death, may receive with them the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

  

13. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

 

Colossians 1:1-14: You and I, All Saints Day and Holiness

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries of The Salvation Army, 01 November 2020 by Captain Michael Ramsay

  

Today is All Saints Day. What do we know about All Saints Day? It is celebrated mostly by the Mainline Churches: Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, etc. It is the day after All Saints Eve, All Hallows’ Eve, Hallowe’en and the day before All Souls Day (which we won’t chat about today).

 

I will tell you a little bit what I know about ‘All Saints Day’ – though I must confess that I don't know that much as I grew up in an evangelical church rather than a mainline church - most of my information on this is simply from Doctor Google and Professor Wiki, as well as some proper commentaries, but I am not an expert by any means and I have not had a serious discussion about the Roman Catholic and Mainline understanding of saints with someone who is very well-versed in such matters since I was about the same age as my oldest two daughters are now. This is what I have ‘dug up’ about All Saints Day:

 

On All Saints Day in some places people visit the graves of their dearly departed and leave gifts, flowers, cards, say prayers, or sing hymns. In the USA some churches hand out candies as people come to pray for the souls of dearly departed family members, friends, and even pets. In parts of Austria and maybe Germany they have special bread that they call “All Saints Bread” which they make for their Godchildren. And then there is Portugal…

 

 In Portugal apparently they make something called “Soul Bread” or simply “souls”. Children then go ‘souling’ on All Saints Day. They go door-to-door and collect 'souls', this ‘soul’ bread. (This is not entirely dissimilar, and probably more healthy than trick-or-treating but I must admit that the idea of my kids going door-to-door collecting people’s souls does sound a little creepy to me!) Some people actually have the Catholic or Lutheran Priests bless the ‘souls’ before they are handed out to the children going door-to-door and apparently the children promise to pray for the souls of the deceased relatives of the people who gave them these ‘souls’ to eat. Leftover ‘souls’ are then given to the poor.

 

I think that in Roman Catholic understanding All Saints Day is a day to pray for all those who have ‘gone to heaven’ or at least Christians who have left this life. In Methodism, from which tradition The Salvation Army evolved, it is a time to remember the saints ‘who have gone on ahead’, both the famous ones and the obscure ones. Methodists don’t have the whole canonization process that Catholics do and John Wesley, their founder, was certainly opposed to the worship of saints but they do use the word not entirely dissimilar from the Catholic tradition. Saints in Methodism are Biblical figures and historical Christians who have gone before us: sort of like ‘Heroes of the Faith’, as I understand it.

 

All this -at least to me - is very interesting but do we know who saints are in the Bible? …what the word ‘saint’ actually means? Do we know what a saint really is? In the Bible ‘saint’ is another word for ‘Christian’. It is actually the preferred term for Christians in the NT.

 

The New Testament word for saint is ‘hagioi’ and ‘hagioi’ is actually a variant of the Greek word for holiness, ‘hagios’;[1] so then, every Christian is a saint and every Christian is by definition supposed to be holy.[2] 1 Peter 1:16, God says, “…be holy because I am holy.”

 

Hagios, the Greek word for holiness,[3] Hagios-Holiness-Saint-Christian literally means, from the Bible dictionaries, to be perfect or to be spiritually pure.[4] G.B. Stevens writes, “It is evident that Hagios[-Holiness-Saint-Christian] and its kindred words…express something more and higher than ‘hieros’, sacred, outwardly associated with God;…something more than ‘semnos’, worthy, honourable; something more than ‘hagnos’, pure, free from defilement. Hagios[-Holiness-Saint-Christian] is more comprehensive.”[5] 1 Peter 1:16, God says “…be holy because I am holy” and being holy, being a saint, being a Christian is more than being sacred, is more than being worthy, is more than being pure. Holiness, being a saint, being a Christian in the Bible is more than even being free from defilement. It is being perfect. Holiness is to be like God and God says “…be holy because I am holy!”

 

Doctrine 10 of The Salvation Army says, “We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified [holy], and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Now before any of us begin to fret and say, “well I am not perfect so I am not a Christian” or just as bad “you –Michael, or whoever else- aren’t anywhere near perfect so you aren’t a Christian” remember that as 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 reminds us, God will make us perfect, He will make us holy. When we become a part of God’s love family, we obtain a state of holiness and the closer we come to God the more holy, the more Christ-like, we become.[6] Becoming a Christian means becoming a saint, a holy person: It is all the same, as far as the Bible is concerned. The more time we spend with God the more we will be like Him. Colossians 1:12, which we read from today, says that God has already brought us into the inheritance of the saints.[7] Philippians 3:16 says that we can live up to what we have already obtained.

 

On this All Saints Day, I think this is important because we are all saints here. All of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior are saints; all of us who serve Jesus as our leader and the one who saves us, our rescuer. The passage we read today is from Colossians 1 and this is what Paul writes to the Christians/Saints in Colossae. And Paul gives us the same encouragement that he gave to the 1^st Century Colossians. Paul encourages us, as saints, as Christians, that we have the opportunity to be filled with the knowledge of His will (Colossians 1:9) – we can achieve this by praying to God, meeting together, studying and even just reading our Bibles – This is what we can do and we can be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. And as we are filled with the knowledge of God’s will, as we know what God’s hopes and dreams are for us, we can use this knowledge to accept His invitation to life a life worthy of the Lord. As we are now – each of us – holy saints, God can actually help us to be even more holy (Colossians1:10) and His helping us out like that will please Him in every way.[8] God is certainly pleased when we are experiencing this holy life that comes from, Colossians 1:11, resisting temptation. This is important. When we are Christians, saints temptation doesn’t just vanish but our resistance to temptation strengthens us in the Lord so that we can resist even more of what come our way.

 

I often think of holiness in terms of addiction but we can think of it in relationship to anything that has the potential to drag us down and make us miserable. God is with us when we are addicted and/or struggling with other struggles. God is with us when we are carrying a grudge. God is with us when we are overwhelmed. God provides us a way to be free of the burden of sin and all of these things and everything else that tries to interfere with our salvation, our holiness.

 

My friends, my fellow saints, let me be clear on this: God is never going to give up on you. No matter what you have gone through and no matter what you are going through, God will never give up on you. No matter what you have done; no matter what you compulsively keep doing, no matter what horrible thing you may possibly do, God will not give up on you. God will not leave you. God will not forsake you; so whatever you are going through right now – no matter how hard it is – don’t give up! God has faith in you.

 

You can make it. This is what it means to be holy. Even if you are struggling with something absolutely terrible like addiction, God will not give up on you. Even if you are struggling with something as soul-destroying as not forgiving someone; no matter what you are struggling against, God will not give up on you. He will offer you a way out and He will offer you comfort while you are still in the midst of it trying to get through that way out.

 

God invites us to the peace and security of being holy even and especially in the middle of our troubles. Hebrews 13:5, Deuteronomy 31:6: He will never give up on us and so, Philippians 3:16: we can live up to the holiness that we already obtained when we first gave our lives to Christ and Colossians 1:12: so you and I, we will receive the full inheritance of the saints. On this, All Saints Day, I want to encourage you that each of you who has placed your hope in the Lord are God’s holy saints and He will never give up on you and He is more than able to deliver you from everything that concerns you today and forever more. He will deliver you and He will make you holy, even as He is holy.

 

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[1] John D.W. Watts. 'Holy.' In Holman Bible Dictionary, general editor Trent C. Butler. Nashville, Tennesee: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991), 660. W.E. Vine. 'Holiness, Holy, Holily.' In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), 555.

[2] Ralph P. Martin, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky, USA.: John Knox Press, 1991), 101 Holy ones recalls Israel's destiny as God's elect.

[3] Cf. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, ‘40: Hagios’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), 1.

[4] John D.W. Watts. 'Holy.' In Holman Bible Dictionary, general editor Trent C. Butler. Nashville, Tennesee: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991), 660. Cf. Paul Minear, Interpretation 37 no 1 Ja 1983, p. 22: In his death and resurrection, Jesus' holiness or sanctification became the measure and standard of all holiness, whether of places, times, things, or persons. (Key passages which reflect this are John 10:36; 17:17-19; I Cor. 1:2; 6:11; Heb. 2:11; 10:10; 12:14-24; 13:12-14.)"

[5] G.B. Stevens in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary. Cited W.E. Vine. 'Holiness, Holy, Holily.' In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), 557.

[6] Curtis Vaughan, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Colossians/Exposition of Colossians/I. Introduction (1:1-14)/A. Salutation (1:1, 2), Book Version: 4.0.2 : This suggests that the root idea in "holy" (hagios) is not excellence of character but dedication, the state of being set apart for the work and worship of God. 

[7] Cf. Solomon Andria, Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 1482.

[8] NT Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters (Louisville, Kentucky, USA.: John Knox Press, 2004). 142-147, likens it to new plants growing in a garden replacing the old but acknowledges that we have apart to play in it like ducks following their mother.

Colossians 3:1-15: No Future without Forgiveness

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries of The Salvation Army, 18 October 2020, by Captain Michael Ramsay

 

This week I watched most of the BC Leaders debate with Susan – I wasn’t going to. I don’t really care so much about what the leaders say on TV; I care more about their performance in the legislative assembly. The cynical side of me thinks that they are just guessing what the most popular positions are and then trying to say how good they are at those things while they belittle their opponents. I must say though that I thought this was the least ‘naggy’ and ‘interupty’ leadership debate I have seen in a while. My wife will disagree with me on that. She didn’t care for this debate at all. Myself, I honestly don’t care as much about who the next premier will be as I do about who our next MLA will be as we will inevitably have to work with them around important issues in our community: housing and homelessness, addiction and mental health, etc., so I definitely plan to listen to the debate between Josie, Helen, Graham, and others here.

 

As far as leaders debates are concerned I am always more interested in seeing who wins the media war after the debate than who wins the live engagement. I think that matters more because more people follow the news than bother to tune into a debate. I noticed that our premier felt that he needed to apologize, retract, and/or re-think some of the comments that he made. To me that is good – very good. In my job I deal with people’s apologies all the time. I pray with people who apologize to God and their neighbours. I, myself, apologize when I should. Apologizing is a first step in repentance. You have to acknowledge you did something wrong in order to change and acknowledging that to someone else can be a blessing for both of you as you each get a chance to see into the other person’s heart a little bit.

 

AA, with which I have had a lot of dealing over the years and who rent our space during the week have as their 5^th step to recovery “Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs”. Apologizing is an important step in our own growth in relationship with God and others.

 

I was shocked when I read a Facebook post from a Facebook friend who is a community leader in our town. This person, who I thought actually supported the premier’s party said that he can’t forgive him. The comments went on quite a while with many people weighing in and this person – who I thought was on the same political page as our premier – was determined to use the Premier’s particular turn of phrase to paint our Premier (rightly or wrongly) as a racist. It was a point of no turning back. It was a Rubicon. I was shocked and saddened.

 

There is a lot of racism - straight up, reverse, systematic and otherwise in our world today. There was a lot of racism, systematic and otherwise in NT times too. Our text today repeats a common NT theme when Paul communicates, “Here [in the Christian community] there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” African scholar Solomon Andria writes in the Africa Bible Commentary, “The person in whom this image [of God] is restored is capable of overcoming the racial, religious, and social barriers that separate Greek from Jew, circumcised from uncircumcised, foreigner from locals,  and slave from free…in Christ they are all equally members of the Christian community.” Solomon Andria further says, “This text is highly relevant in Africa, where ethnic tensions still persist, even among Christians.”[1] I would say that applies to North America as well.

 

We can understand that when most people say ‘Black lives matter’ that they mean ‘Black lives matter too”; we can understand that when most people say ‘all lives matter’ they mean ‘all lives matter – even and especially black lives and indigenous lives and barbarian lives, and Scythian lives, and slave lives…’.  If a person says they are colour blind they may be ill-informed but they are probably not trying to offend you. They are probably not saying you are invisible. They are probably using what was once thought of as inclusive language (even if now it is not!) They are probably trying to communicate to you that they care about everyone. As far as the Kingdom of God is concerned, after all, “…there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free…” We don’t need to pick fights over words. We should try to be gentle and inoffensive in the words we use – don’t use the words and phrases we know are going to wind some people up! (And if you inadvertently do, apologize) Also try not to be so offended. A nation where everyone is fragile soon breaks apart – a nation where people constantly throw hate and insults at each other soon shatters. Where there is no forgiveness there is no reconciliation. Where there is no forgiveness there is no future.

 

Also this week I read an interview with Arsene Wagner, he managed Arsenal FC for 22 years. One comment he made about the difference between managing a high profile professional football club when he first did and now was that 20 years ago people paid more attention to the 60 000 people who would be actually watching a match; now they pay more attention to 50 or so people who complain about the match on-line – whether they bothered to buy a ticket to the game or not! That struck me. Is this what we have become? …A bunch of people who would rather complain about something than participate in it?

 

Those who know me know there are a few authors whose ideas resonate with me quite a bit. Tolstoy (a Russian author and former soldier), MLK (an American pastor), Immaculée Ilibagiza (a Tutsi from Rwanda) are three of them. A key part of God’s message which He shares with us through them is the need for forgiveness. Yes, the need for us to be forgiven but even more so the need for us to forgive others: there is no future without forgiveness.

 

Not long ago, I picked up this book from the retired South African Archbishop, Desmond Tutu. Do we know who Desmond Tutu was? He was a key figure God used to liberate South Africans from apartheid. This book is entitled “No Future without Forgiveness”. This I think is one of the key lessons that one can learn from life. This I think is a major part of the secret to living in God’s proleptic Kingdom both for now and forever. There is no future without forgiveness.

 

Desmond Tutu tells this story about his decision to serve Jesus as an Anglican Priest. When he was 12 years old, his family moved to Johannesburg. Tutu and his mom had an encounter with an Anglican priest from England, Trevor Huddleston. Tutu said, “I was standing in the street with my mother when a white man in a priest's clothing walked past. As he passed us [stepping off the path rather than expecting us to do so] he took off his hat to my mother. I couldn't believe my eyes.” It was at that moment young Desmond Tutu decided to be an Anglican Priest. Just think. The power of God in that Trevor Huddleston helped transform a whole nation simply by tipping his hat and greeting someone as his sister in Christ (Trevor Huddleston also did a lot of other work for the Kingdom and to end apartheid!); in the Christian community, Colossians 3:11, “there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

 

2 Corinthians 5:17-19: “… if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

 

I think this is very important. As movements such as BLM emphasize, we do need to recognize the special needs, talents, and gifts of different people in our society (I think this is what is meant by not being colour blind). Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians through his beautiful analogy to the human body, points out that we all have special gifts and abilities and some of us do need to be treated more delicately than others (1 Corinthians 12:12ff). And Paul here and in other letters points out that we need to avoid dwelling on our differences, instead we need to realize that we are all God’s people building His Kingdom here together. Solomon Andria writes in the Africa Bible Commentary, “Christian virtues will restore human relationships. But they can only be shown if we are willing to forgive each other.”[2] There is no future without forgiveness.

 

There were a lot of legitimate grievances between different groups in NT times, just like in OT times, just like today. There were obviously power differences between slaves and masters, challenges between males and females, disagreements between the circumcised and the uncircumcised, and very real culture clashes and overt prejudices between the Jews and the Gentiles and others. There is only one way these systemic abuses, historic and other grievances can be settled. There is only one way Jews and Greeks, male and female, slave and free, black and white, x and y can be reconciled and that is through forgiveness. We can only be reconciled in Christ to God and our neighbour if we no longer hold each other’s sins against each other. There can be no reconciliation without forgiveness. There can be no future without forgiveness.

 

This works – not only in relationship to Heaven, the Kingdom to Come, but also in our day-to-day lives. In the South African version of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission people traded truth for reconciliation. People admitted their guilt even in some horrendous crimes: murder, rape, assault, etc. And instead of being castigated, caged and killed they were forgiven and as a result South Africa has survived and thrived in ways that other nations can only dream of. Bishop Tutu points out that none of this would be possible if South Africa had pursued a Nuremberg vision of justice. It was only possible because they were willing to forgive one another. There can be no reconciliation without forgiveness. There can be no future without forgiveness.

 

Today Canada is as divided as at any time in my life. I have never heard so much hate. Today the churches are more divided than I think the Apostles could ever have foreseen. As long as we keep pointing out flaws of others, as long as we keep taking the sliver out of another’s eye instead of the plank out of our own (Matthew 7:5), as long as we keep talking about people instead of to them, as long as we let ourselves get worked up by others' errors and omissions more than our own, we will never experience freedom in Christ.

 

Here is a key point - one I have made before and one I will make again: Un-forgiveness is a self-inflicted wound. If I don’t forgive you I am not hurting you, I am only hurting myself. You might not even know that I am upset – but I do!

 

Un-forgiveness can get into our soul and drive a wedge between ourselves and our neighbour and even between ourselves and God. Matthew even says that if we do not forgive our neighbour their sins God will not forgive us ours (Matthew 6:15).

 

In South Africa they have a word ‘Ubuntu’ which both Bishop Tutu and President Mandela refer to frequently in their books.[3] It means something like ‘a person is a person through other people’. As John Donne would say, ‘no man is an island unto himself’.[4]  We are all connected and whatever I do to you I feel in myself: Ubuntu. My friends, that is what forgiveness is about. Un-forgiveness is hurting yourself when you are mad at your neighbour. Un-forgiveness is removing yourself from the Kingdom of Love and Forgiveness. Un-forgiveness drives a wedge between you, me and Christ.

 

But Christ died on the Cross and rose from the grave so that you and I can forgive and be forgiven. And forgiveness is receiving God’s healing by loving your neighbour; forgiveness is being restored to His Kingdom of Love and Forgiveness; and forgiveness is the force by which you and I can be reconciled to God and to one another.

 

By forgiving others and accepting Christ’s forgiveness we will become a new creation, Tutu says we will live in a new dispensation. The old pain and suffering of hate and retribution will be gone. Christ can cleanse our soul, remove our sins and grant us the full power to forgive others - even has he has forgiven us. Make it so!

 

Let us pray.

 

Further reading:

N.T. Wright, NT Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters (Louisville, Kentucky, USA.: John Knox Press, 2004). 395.

Ralph P. Martin, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky, USA.: John Knox Press, 1991).

  

Notes:

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[1] Solomon Andria, Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 1482.

[2] Solomon Andria, Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), Colossians 3:12-14: Clothe yourself in virtue, 1482.  

[3] Desmond Tutu. No Future Without Forgiveness (New York, NY, USA, Double Day, 1999)31and Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (New York, NY, USA, Little Brown & Co,, 1994)

[4] John Donne, Meditation 17: Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (London, UK,1614)

Reading Genesis 38 on MMIW Day

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 04 October 2020 by Captain Michael Ramsay. (Similar to talk presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 13 Oct. 2013 and 614 & Warehouse in Toronto, 16 Oct. 2016)

Last Sunday in the Army world we highlighted human trafficking and modern day slavery. Last Wednesday Canadians wore orange shirts to remember the predominately First Nations victims of abuse in residential schools and remind ourselves that every child matters. And today is a day to remember the MMIW which is why I am wearing a red shirt with my uniform.

 

Tamar, in our text today, isn’t an Israelite. Tamar is an indigenous person to the land later occupied by Israel. Tamar is a Canaanite.[1] We remember from the story of Noah that the Canaanites were cursed for generations for the sins of their father, Ham (Gen 9:25-29). Judah, Israel’s chosen son, marries his son to Tamar - this Canaanite woman – which is later prohibited and then his son dies before he has any children.[2]

 

Do we understand what is going on in this story with Judah’s sons, the brothers? In Israel in those days, territorial inheritance was very important and so was having a son to inherit that property. Because of this they had a rule that if a son died without an heir then his younger brother was supposed to have relations with his widow and the child that results from that would be the heir for his brother. That way the older brother would have an heir and his descendants would not lose their claim to a part of Israel.

 

Judah cooperates with this rule and Judah gives his second son to Tamar, the widow of his first son. Judah’s second son however stands to inherit all of his brother’s inheritance if he doesn’t produce an heir; so instead of impregnating his brother’s widow Tamar, he uses ‘protection’ of sorts. He doesn’t complete the job. This makes God mad because Judah’s son Onan was not only hurting Er, his deceased brother, but he was also hurting Tamar, his brother’s indigenous widow, and he was hurting Judah, his father, and he was hurting his whole family’s inheritance.[3] God takes Onan’s life. So now Judah has lost his two oldest sons and his eldest son’s widow Tamar is still without an heir for the eldest son and now the second son is also without an heir.

 

In that place and at that time there was probably not a more vulnerable person in society than a childless widow – especially since she was an indigenous Canaanite rather than an Israelite. A widow without a child has no one to care for her and Judah, while Tamar is in this state, Judah sends his daughter-in-law away. He says that his youngest son is far too young for her and he sends Tamar away without providing the heir that he must provide. Judah puts himself before the command to provide an heir for his son and Judah puts himself before the command to look after the widow in his own household.

 

Judah sends her away. He doesn’t seem to concern himself with her again. His youngest child grows up and Judah never fulfils the obligation to give him to Tamar or to invite Tamar back into his clan where she belongs.

 

Tamar is being the good widow at this point, even though she has been sent away; she has been faithfully living in seclusion while wearing her widow’s clothing for all these years. She then hears that her father-in-law is coming to town so she puts on some nice clothes and goes to meet him. Judah sees her and he mistakes her for a prostitute. Here is an opportunity that appears. Judah owes her a son and Judah thinks she’s a prostitute. Judah decides that he wants to use her services but he doesn’t have any money; so Tamar – thinking on her feet - asks for his signet and cord. A signet is like a signature - it is unique to the individual - so one can see how Tamar is taking advantage of this God-given opportunity.[4] Tamar does become pregnant. Some people find out about this and tell Judah that his daughter-in-law (who is supposed to be celibate) is pregnant. The law says that she should be put to death, especially as this happened, so rumour has it, as a result of prostitution. It is at this point that she lets Judah know that he is the father. Judah then admits his sin, what he has done to her and to his family. She gives birth to twins. Judah takes responsibility for his children, one of whom is the direct ancestor of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Judah even admits that Tamar is more righteous than is he. Tamar is not a prostitute; she merely conceives the children who were promised to her.[5]

 

So why is this story in the Bible? It is important. The fact that a child of this encounter is an ancestor of both King David and Jesus Christ is mentioned more than once, by more than one author, writing at more than one distinct era in history (cf. Ruth 4:18-23, Mt 1:3). Matthew in the New Testament makes a point of mentioning that it is Judah’s son by Tamar who is in Jesus’ line and Matthew and Ruth even tell us which one of the twins he is: Perez. This story is very important in the history of Israel. This story is very important in the ancestry of King David and this story is very important in the ancestry Christ Jesus, so why is it important to us? And what does it mean to us today?

 

I think the key point here lies in who is Tamar: Tamar is an indigenous Canaanite woman. The Canaanites were the cursed descendants of Ham. Tamar was cursed; she is a woman; she is a widow; she is an abused indigenous widow who has been even further marginalized and further taken advantage of by privileged Israelites and she, Tamar, is an ancestor of Christ. You couldn’t be much more on the margins of society than is Tamar and God chose Tamar to be the ancestor of Jesus.[6] God chose Tamar to be in the family line of His only begotten Son. Tamar is loved and she is chosen of God.

 

Jesus in his ministry is always helping the poor, the widow, and the immigrant. Tamar is just that and Tamar is Jesus’ ancestor. God used Tamar – and Judah - to save the whole world - her life and actions led to Christ.[7]

 

Last week we remembered the victims of human trafficking, many of whom in the Canadian context are indigenous, in church. This past Wednesday many of us wore orange to remember the victims of abuse in the residential school system. Today is red dress day where we are encouraged to remember the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women of Canada.

 

God has always had a heart for those who are marginalized. God has always lifted up those who have been kept down. And as God could and did use Tamar, who was abused and marginalized to extremes that some of us can only imagine - so too can God use us. No matter who we are in this life, if we are marginalized and sometimes think that others think of us as nothing or maybe we even at times have thought ourselves to be nothing. Let us remember that like Tamar, God loves us. He can save us and God can use even us to point others to His Salvation both now and forever.

 

Maybe we identify more with Judah. Maybe we have been also like the abusers of Tamar. Maybe we have made serious mistakes and/or committed abusive egregious sins, even as horrendous as Judah; no matter what we have done, God loves us. He can change us. He can save us and God can use even you and even me to point others to His Salvation both now and forever.

 

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

https://www.facebook.com/Salvogesis/

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To view the Saskatchewan 2013 presentation click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2013/10/thanksgiving-at-judahs-house.html

To view the Toronto 2016 presentation click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2016/10/genesis-38-judahs-family.html

 

[1] But cf. John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/VI. The Account of Jacob (37:1-49:33)/D. Judah and Tamar (38:1-30), Book Version: 4.0.2

[2] Cf. Thomas W, Mann, The Book of the Torah: The Narrative Integrity of the Pentateuch, (Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1988), 66-68.

[3] Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1967 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 1), S. 199: The fact that a single Hebrew word suffices for the phrase perform the duty of a brother-in-law (rsv) would confirm that this was a standard practice, even if there were no record of the law in Deuteronomy 25:5ff. Each of the three Old Testament references to this regulation (cf. Ruth 4:5f.) shows that it could be most unwelcome, chiefly through the very fact that the donor himself set great store on family inheritance—but his own. The enormity of Onan’s sin is in its studied outrage against the family, against his brother’s widow and against his own body. The standard English versions fail to make clear that this was his persistent practice. When (9) should be translated ‘whenever’

[4] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), 606.

[5] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis, (John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia, 1982), 311.

[6] Cf. Dorothy Jean Weaver, “‘Wherever This Good News Is Proclaimed”: Women and God in the Gospel of Matthew’, in Interpretation 64, no. 4, (October, 2010) 394-395

[7] cC. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis, (John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia, 1982), 311.