Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 28 August 2022, by Major Michael Ramsay
We had a good time at the Rally Day: Picnic
in the Park the other day. It was a really great mix of the parts of our Salvation
Army group in the Valley. Many of you here today, of course, were there on
Friday. There were a number of volunteers and their families; there were a
number of staff and their families; there were a number of children we know
from kids’ club and other places; there were customers from the store; there
were some of our friends who use or have used our services over the years. It
was even an outreach as some people just dropped by and I even saw one or two
people I know from the community as well: it was great. It was really great to have
people from these different parts of The Salvation Army family here have an
opportunity to do something together and maybe get to know each other a little
better.
For the second year in
a row this Picnic in the Park doubled as our Rally Day. Rally Day is a
word we use in The Salvation Army to celebrate the end of Summer and getting
ready for the upcoming fall programs. When we get all the final dates set with
all the different people involved, when we know, we will let everyone know when
everything is happening. Some of the events already starting are Della’s
groups: Wednesday coffee time, Friday morning walks. We just started coffee
time after church again after a couple of years absence.
Before Covid we used to have a Monday hiking group too. I was reminded of this yesterday as Susan, Heather and I when to Fossli Park. That was a place that we went to with our group before covid.
This year’s fall
programs do feel a little strange. As with much of the word, we are still
getting into the swing of things after 2 plus years of Covid. We need to update
our phone and other contact lists as people have changed, just as circumstances
have. Some of the typical church activities like Bible Study we haven’t done in
a long time – it will seem very strange to do this again, a good strange but
strange, nonetheless. Other things have changed a few times over the last 2
plus years – sermons have become much shorter as have services. Somethings –
just like with many other organizations and businesses - we have even forgotten
how to do parts of them. You see this with all the community events that are
starting up here and all over our world after a couple of years break: people
have forgotten how to do things we used to do all the time. We are getting back
to normal and maybe it is a ‘new normal’ but it doesn’t quite feel normal yet.
We read from Chapter 3
of Ezra this morning. In the book of Ezra people are beginning to return to the
way things were after a minimum 20-year break. We know how difficult it is
trying to remember how to do things after a two year break, imagine returning
to your old job after a 20 year break and trying to remember how to do
everything or imagine returning to your church and having to set up the church
calendar after a 20 year break or imagine returning to your old town (along
with a few hundred other people) after a 20 year break and trying to find your
old house, your old job, and trying to remember the way you used to do
everything. Now, that 20 years is a minimum number. People who were the first
to be deported could have been in exile from Jerusalem for anywhere from between
48 and 70 years, the full length of the exile.
This is what the book
of Ezra-Nehemiah is: people trying to return to normal or a ‘new normal’, as we
say now, but trying to make it as close to the old normal as possible – but
instead of trying to pull everything together after a 2-year gap, they are
trying to pull it together after a, in some cases, 70 year gap.
Now, I know that you
haven’t all had the luxury of reading and reading about Ezra this week, so I’ll
remind you of a bit more of the context and background. Israel was conquered by
the Assyrians ca. 720 BCE and Judah was conquered in 597 BCE (586 BCE, the
Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed) by the Neo-Babylonians/Chaldeans. By the year
539 BCE the Persians in turn had conquered both the Assyrians and the Chaldeans
and this sets up the events in the books of Ezra-Nehemiah that tell the story
of the exiles returning home from Babylon to Jerusalem, returning to the new
normal.
Ezra and Nehemiah are
two books in our Bible but they were actually written on one scroll called
Ezra-Nehemiah and these two books, this scroll talks about many of the problems
that the Judeans had returning to the new normal. In reading the book you get
the feeling that some people may have thought that they could just go back to
the way things were before, some people seemed to have an idealistic view, some
seemed tentative, some practical, and others were afraid, very afraid.
All of these responses
reminded me of people in our world, our country, our community, and our
churches today. Now that the precautions and the measures adopted for Covid-19
are coming to an end, some people seem to hope that everything will return to
an idealistic version of the old normal, the way things used to be – at least
the good parts of the way things used to be. Some people remember times when
all the churches in this country were full. Some people in The Salvation Army
remember days of large bands and even large junior bands. Some people remember
this and some people remember that. The longer ago the memories the more fondly
we remember them too – but - at the same time we can’t quite remember the ways
we used to do things just 2 plus years ago just before covid-19 struck.
Sometimes it seems like we (or at least I) can’t even remember what we did
yesterday.
The passage that stuck
out to me as I was reading and re-reading the opening chapters of Ezra was
2:70-3:3:
The priests, the
Levites, the musicians, the gatekeepers and the temple servants settled in
their own towns, along with some of the other people, and the rest of the Israelites
settled in their towns.
When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices.
The people settled in their own homes – they
returned to the new normal even though some of the people were very afraid;
they met together and made sacrifices to the Lord. My friends there are some
uncertain times still ahead here as we worship the Lord and as we return to our
new normal. As we re-start Bible studies, coffee times, kids club, and other
things, it will be a new normal. It won’t be they way things were 2 years ago;
it won’t be the way things were 20 years ago or 70 years ago but we are
returning to this new normal of worship and service and I invite you all to
join us in whatever way you can as we figure out together exactly what is this
new normal way of serving God in this time and place.
I want to share one more story with you today. This is from when Susan, the kids and I were in Victoria recently. I have always liked a picture my father-in-law had of Tommy Douglas and himself leaning on a fence.
This is a great picture. Susan told me
a little bit about the picture the other week. This picture was apparently taken
at Susan’s grandma’s farm. She invited Tommy Douglas to visit one day when he
was on the Island and he did. When he was there he had a good conversation with
Susan’s dad – and it was during the conversation that Tommy Douglas convinced Bob
Skelly to enter politics. Susan’s dad then went on to be a leader of the party
and the longest ever serving MLA for this riding. It is a great picture. There
is another poster at their place of Tommy Douglas with a quote that says,
“Courage, my friends, it is not too late to make a better world”. And that reminds me of a quote – almost the
dying words of Jack Layton, “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is
better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful
and optimistic. And we'll change the world.”
I think this is a very
important reminder and a great encouragement for everyone and especially for us
as we embark on our new normal. It is my hope that as we go forward in this new
church season, we will remember “My friends, [that] love is better than anger.
Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving,
hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.” For “it is never too late
to make a better world”
Let us pray.
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