Presented to the Alberni Valley Ministerial Lenten Service, 01 March 2026, at Arrowsmith Baptist Church by Major Michael Ramsay
The
topics I chose from our Lenten list for today are “God has rescued us from the
Dominion of Darkness”; “He has Freed Us from the Power of Sin”; the Kingdom of
God is at hand. Do we believe that? Do we live that?
In
theology we use the term ‘prolepsis’ to refer to the time when the Kingdom of
God begins, which is now, the time between the resurrection of Christ and His
return at the eschaton. This is the time in which we are living and as
Christians it is our responsibility to be willing instruments of God to display
what it means that He has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has
Freed Us from the Power of Sin, that the Kingdom of God is at hand. But do we
even actually believe that He has already done this? And if He has why does it
not seem that the Sin and Darkness still reign?
We
know the parable of the bridesmaids (holy ones) in the Bible who needed to keep
their lanterns lit – because lit lanterns were to be there when the Bridegroom Jesus
returns? That is us now. In the darkness of our world, do we have our lanterns
lit? He has already rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has already freed
us from the Power of Sin, are we living like it – or are we sitting in the
darkness, with our lanterns out, like those who aren’t part of His Kingdom
The
Bible repeatedly tells us what a holy people, sanctified nations, the Church
looks like, what we as Christians will be working towards in our country, our
world, our city and our congregations, if indeed we are Christians. Psalm 146,
among many other passages, declares what God’s Kingdom is like and what His
servants, if they are serving Him, will work towards.
5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
he remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
8 the Lord gives
sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord.
If we
are His people, He will do this through us. If we are citizens of His Kingdom,
then that my friend is what we will do. if indeed He has rescued us from the
Dominion of Darkness; freed us from the Power of Sin, and if the Kingdom of God
is at hand, like Jesus claims. Jesus, Luke, Isaiah, the Bible speaks about a
salvation society as one where the sick are healed, the captives are free, the
hungry are fed, the lonely are visited, the perpetrator is forgiven,
relationships are healed. Isaiah 2:4 speaks of Salvation as where:
He (The Lord) will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
In our
world, in our country, in our province, in our city there is still conflict,
abuse, addiction, poverty, homelessness, murder, mental illness, hate,
violence, unforgiveness... darkness…and we still pick up our swords. But He has
rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has freed us from the Power of
Sin, the Kingdom of God is at hand now! Jesus said (recorded in Luke 4, citing
Isaiah 61:4) that the time is now! What if we didn’t have to wait until we die,
or until Christ returns, to experience a world without all of this? What if
Christ was right and he wasn’t lying to us? What if the Kingdom of God is
actually at hand? What if the Church (and our churches) is actually the body of
Christ and what if we actually do this? - feed the hungry, free the prisoners,
etc.?
It has
been said that poverty isn’t a matter of scarcity: God has provided more than
enough for the whole world; poverty is a matter of distribution. Countries,
organizations, and people with resources simply do not share. I understand that
the payroll of the NY Yankees alone could feed and clothe the world – how many
sports teams are there in Canada and the US alone? Baseball? Hockey? Football?
I often watch the games with my daughter … Is that what we choose instead of
feeding a starving child?
Swords
and Plowshares: America is seemingly always at war with someone and Canda is
whenever they tell us to be. They just invaded Venezuela, are threatening
Greenland and Cuba and are positioned to attack Iran again. I read an article
about a bombing of Iran a few months ago. It was a very small American attack –
nothing like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. etc. They only used four planes: each
plane cost one billion dollars, the missiles they launched each cost 1 million
dollars. How many American children could they feed, shelter and educate for
that? Not even considering the money they (we) are spending killing people in Palestine
and the Ukraine War.
They
(we) would rather spend money killing other people’s children than providing
the needed care and education to save their (our) own children. It seems that
they (we) would rather their (our) children die in poverty than pass up the
opportunity to kill their (our) enemies’ children. Jesus says we will forgive
our enemies; Isaiah says God’s nations will beat swords into ploughshares. Jesus
has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has freed us from the power of
Sin, the Kingdom of God is at hand! So why are we instead beating ploughshares
into swords. I pick on the US because I read the article about them and they
are the world’s only remaining superpower: Israel, Britain, France, China,
Russia, India, Canada, etc., etc. etc.… it all applies. Our countries: if we
are sheep nations rather than goat nations, if we are saved, we will beat our
swords into ploughshares and we will put more effort into saving people than we
do in killing them. Afterall, He has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness;
He has freed us from the Power of Sin, the Kingdom of God is at hand – but are
we part of the Kingdom of God or do we prefer this Dominion of darkness? Do we
serve Him or do we still serve darkness and sin?
Psalm
146:7 says, “The Lord sets the prisoners free”; you can also see this sentiment
in Zechariah 9:11, Psalm 68:6, Psalm 102:20, Isaiah 42:7 and elsewhere. Jesus,
as recorded in Luke, quotes Isaiah 42 letting people know that the time to set
the prisoners free, if we believe that Jesus is Lord and His Kingdom is at
hand, is now. I think this is important. I think we do need to do what the
Bible tells us to do. I was reading one African Liberation Theologian’s essay
(I believe it was Bongajalo Goba) in Hammering Swords into Plowshares, a
book dedicated to the Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He said that one main difference
between capitalist western churches and the Universal Christian Church is that
western churches either spiritualize everything (for example: God doesn’t’
really want us to let people out of jail, that is just a metaphor for something
else…maybe being free from our personal bad habits) or they try to say that the
things that God tells us to do as a society are only in the future and God will
do it later; it is not our responsibility (we shouldn’t try to give sight to
the blind now; we shouldn’t end hunger or homelessness now – even though we
can!- God will do that when Jesus returns). But the real Church including the
churches in the third world, realizes that when God tells us to make it so that
no one is hungry; no one is lonely; no one is homeless; no one is thirsty, and
no one is in prison; He is telling us to do it now! The is no excuse: He has
rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has Freed Us from the Power of
Sin, the Kingdom of God is at hand – so we should act like it. We are not
supposed to go on propping up systems that are opposed to the expressed will of
God and just say “oh well, when we all get to heaven we will all be okay” -both
me who has so much and my neighbour who doesn’t. When we all get to heaven what
a day of rejoicing that will be.
I have
been really convicted and cut to the quick with the sentiment I shared at the
Summer Rain festival in the Summer: Jesus speaks about a salvation society as
one where the sick are healed, the captives are freed, the hungry are fed, the
lonely are visited, the perpetrator is forgiven, relationships are healed. In
our world, in our country, in our province, in our city there is still
conflict, abuse, addiction, poverty, homelessness, murder, mental illness,
hate, violence, unforgiveness… Really, what if we didn’t have to wait until we
die to experience a world without all of this? What if Christ was right and he
wasn’t lying to us? What if the Kingdom of God is actually at hand? What if the
Church (and our churches) is actually the body of Christ and what if we
actually do as he has commanded us?
In
2025, I read the books Wrongfully Convicted by Canadian lawyer and
Founder of Innocence Canada, Kent Roach and Just Mercy: A Story of Justice
and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, an American lawyer who has spent his
career working with death row inmates. The horrors that people suffer behind
bars in the USA are as bad as you imagine and even worse. Think of the TV shows
you have seen and then place yourself or your loved ones in the place of the
prisoners being abused by prisoners or guards, or judges, or whomever. When I
studied Restorative Justice from Simon Fraser University more than a decade
ago, we read stories of inmates who were actually lost in American prisons – it
came time to release them and they had no idea where they were.
I have
a story relating to that – when I was just a new Salvation Army Officer, I was
appointed to the small town of Nipawin, Saskatchewan. One Sunday a congregation
member asked me if I could go see another congregation member, Zerah. “Sure” I
said. “He is in cells” they said. Apparently, shortly before we had arrived to
town Zerah had gone on an arson spree, lighting the town on fire. I spent the
next weeks and months meeting Zerah whenever he was in town for the circuit
court. In between court dates they would ship him off to prisons in Prince
Albert or Regina – his court cases were in Nipawin, Carrot River, or Tisdale. I
would meet him in whatever community courthouse the circuit court was meeting
on that day of the week.
One
time I was in the court room in Carrot River and they called Zerah’s name to
stand before the judge. No answer. They called it again. No answer. The judge
said, “We will need to issue a warrant for his arrest for not showing up for
court.” At this point I popped up from my seat and awkwardly raised my hand. I
was in uniform; he asked me, “do you know where Zerah is?” “Yes. He is in
prison in PA” I said. Everyone in the courtroom laughed. I didn’t. The judge
didn’t. “Then we better not issue a warrant for his arrest” the judge said as
he instructed the bailiff to try to find Zerah and figure out how they lost him
in the system. Eventually they did find Zerah in prison; but can you imagine if
I wasn’t there? This warrant issued from the bench would be on his record. They
lost Zerah in prison.
Did
you know that quite a few people in U.S. jails, federal and state prisons have
never even been convicted of a crime? What percentage of people in US jails do
you think have never been convicted of a crime? These stats are before the
current ICE storm btw. 80%! 80% of people suffering all that they are suffering
in prison have never been convicted of an offence and some of them never will
be and some of them will have their convictions overturned on appeal. I didn’t
find the stats for Canada but, from experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if they
are similar.
A
member of our church in Toronto when he immigrated to Canada from Dubai about 15
years ago, they held him and his sister in jail until they processed them – I
am not sure how many months they were in jail. He was separated from his sister
(she was put in a different jail). I wound up going to the consulate with him
to figure out a whole bunch of things – this is Canada.
I
spoke to my friends in Stony Mountain Penitentiary when I was there for two
years. They told me that the prison organized the wings by gangs: the Indian
Posse had one wing, the Hells Angels another. They set the rules. They told me
that you never make eye contact with anyone. It was hard not to be part of a
gang. We put people who have never been convicted of a crime through this and
more in Canada – we almost make them join a gang and/or get abused in prison.
And then they can lose you in this system, like they did Zerah. Can you imagine
if it was the day of your release and no one knew where you were to release
you?
In
2023, in Canada, 61 people died in custody.
According to StatsCan, from 2017-2020 there were 169 deaths in our
prisons: there were 20 suicides, 11 confirmed homicides, 19 drug overdoses and
many other natural and suspicious deaths. In 2019 alone in the USA 143 were
murdered while in the care of the State.
But
God has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has Freed Us from the
Power of Sin, the Kingdom of God is at hand. We, the Church, are called to free
the prisoners; we, the Church, are supposed to be good stewards of the money
God entrusts us with as well. The estimated total court spending in Canada for
2014 was $1,614,017,311. That is not even including the incarceration and other
costs! We could provide everyone the mental health and addiction support they
need in this country for that amount of money. The average hotel cost across
this country is $211.00 per night. The daily average cost of keeping someone in
prison here is $326.00 per night which works out to $9780.00 per month. We
could afford to put everyone in a hotel and give them the mental health and addiction
help they need for less than putting them in prison – and there are lots of
safer cheaper ways to contain someone. The average rental cost in Canada is
$2200 / month which works out to $74 a day (as opposed to the $326 /day that it
costs to put someone in a cage!); the average mortgage in Canada (including
Vancouver, etc.) is just $2100 a month which works out to just $70 a day. We
can feed and house people for a lot cheaper than that – with all the supports
to keep themselves and others safe too! So why do we lock people in prisons? It
doesn’t help them. It doesn’t help us! – oh and btw I read that over 70% of
those in Canadian prisons are diagnosed with mental health conditions.
Instead
of locking someone up to be tortured in the cages we call prisons, we could
send them somewhere safe and secure for the mental health and addiction support
they need – for a lot cheaper! This would help them and reduce or eliminate recidivism,
keeping society safe – we just choose not to! Derek, one of our regular friends
at the Army and the Bread of Life, every time he gets out of jail he is
healthy-ish, well fed and not visibly fighting his demons for a week or so –
but when they toss him out of prison they toss him out on the street with no
support; so his own mental health demons torment him so much until he hurts
himself and others in unimaginable ways and then winds up back behind bars
where he suffers everything that one suffers there. That doesn’t make society
safe. That doesn’t make Derick safe.
That
doesn’t need to be the case. My friend Zerah was eventually sentenced to mental
health care and weekly injections for his schizophrenia instead of jail and he
was able to contribute to society. Why don’t we help everyone who needs help
like that? Why do we torture people like we do Derrick instead? Why? Just
because Zerah ‘lucked out’ and had a compassionate judge? Because he had a TSA
Officer with him the whole time? We are called to set the captives free. There
is no reason for anyone to be tortured in a cage, let alone the 80% of the
people we are doing this to who have never been convicted of a crime, 70% of
whom have mental health issues. How can we punish people with mental health and
addiction issues for acting in manners consistent with their mental health and
addiction issues?
Of the
over 35 million people in Canada today, 35 485 of us are locked in cages,
prisons. There are homeless people right here on the streets of our town today.
In BC addiction is more in your face than anywhere else in Canada. I did not
see as many people on the streets in Regent Park, Toronto, Canada’s first
ghetto, as I did in front of the OPS here when I first arrived.
Matthew
25:31ff says that the sheep nations, the ones that are saved are ones who feed
the hungry, water the thirsty, visit the lonely, sick and imprisoned, house the
unhoused stranger…. God has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has
Freed Us from the Power of Sin, the Kingdom of God is at hand; so are we sharing
His light? Are we a saved nation or do we have unhoused, hungry, lonely people
in prison and on the streets? Do we care? Are we the church doing our part? Are
we members of the Kingdom of God fighting to overthrow the powers,
principalities and systems of this world? Or are we the bridesmaids whose lamps
have gone out long ago?
Who
here professes Christ as our saviour? When we look at Matthew 25:31ff – even
the goat nations that don’t go to spend eternity with our Lord do that! Matthew
7 says that not everyone who calls Jesus Lord is saved. Salvation is more than
that. I read a poem that was shared at a ‘poor persons conference’ in Albergue
years ago. Here is a modified excerpt:
I was hungry
and you formed a … club
and discussed my hunger.
Thank you.
I was imprisoned
And you crept off quietly
To your chapel in the cellar
And prayed for my release
[Thank you]
I was sick
And you knelt
and thanked God
for your health
[Thank you]
I was homeless
And you preached to me
Of the spiritual shelter of
The love of God
[Thank you]
I was lonely
and you left me alone
to pray for me.
[Thank you]
You seem so holy;
So close to God
But I’m still very hungry
And lonely
And cold…
Theologian
Albert Nolan asks, “How can one speak about the church as the body of the
crucified Jesus of Nazareth when church people are so healthy, well-fed and
have no broken bones?” Are we complicit
with the systems of this world or are we fighting to expand the Kingdom of God?
What can we do? How can you and I at least, beat our swords into ploughshares?
How can you and I, at least, act like sheep? First, we must advocate for real
change! (to de-commodify our nation and the world for starters) Then we must do
it!
Now
there is a glimmer of hope. This Thursday, as every Thursday, there was a prayer
meeting at the Bread of Life Centre. Friends who eat with us there, friends who
sleep there, friends who live and visit us there – they pray. You should see
the tears. You should hear the testimonies. The Spirit is moving (preaching
Good News through the poor); God is transforming lives.
I saw
a Christian friend, cleaning weeds from the sidewalk downtown this week; Nathan
is leading community dinners and eating regularly at the soup kitchen with us.
He has even joined us at the shelter for a time. John, Carol, Sally and others
are part of Neighbourlink Read and Feed Society reading to children and feeding
them in the schools. Pastor Bruce at the Elim team are making meals and serving
them from the food truck each and every week for years. People from Arrowsmith
are opening a Christian recovery centre in town. Volunteer chaplains for the
Legion, the fire departments and/or the RCMP are here. This is Kingdom of God
stuff! This is what it looks like when we are saved!
When I
was in the Cypress Heath region, people were dying in the hospital without the
congregations or their pastors even knowing they were there. People were not
getting any support. The Lord used His people to set up a chaplaincy program
where a pastor would everyday visit everyone in the hospital and reach out to
the pastors of the other churches when their congregation members were in the
hospital.
When I
was in Southwest Saskatchewan it was put on hearts, the number of people going
to prison over and over again – and the number of victims of crime who never
had the opportunity to face their accuser and never had the opportunity to be
free of unforgiveness. Before my time, God used TSA set up restorative justice there
where the victim and offender were able to see each other, the victim would be
able to have their questions answered and the victim would be given the
opportunity to be freed from unforgiveness which can kill us all.
During
my time there, God used His people to set up a transition through incarceration
program where we sat with the offender (and victim) in court, kept in touch
with them in prison, set them up with a place to stay, a job, a social group
that was different than the one they had when they went into prison. Of all the
people we sat with only one person ever re-offended. Societies can be changed.
God does transform lives and He will transform the world. God has rescued us
from the Dominion of Darkness; He has Freed Us from the Power of Sin, the
Kingdom of God is at hand! (We do need to get rid of prisons altogether! In the
Kingdom of God people aren’t locked in cages!)
Since
I have been in town here, I have seen God use ministerial to save the Bread of
Life Centre and use His people to set up the shelter at there, providing food
and shelter 24 hours a day, seven days a week through staff, volunteers, and
community partners (including the ministerial association and various churches)
past and present. (We do need to provide supportive housing; there is no
homelessness in the Kingdom of God)
I have
seen God rescue human-trafficked individuals from town here – whisked them away
to the TSA in Victoria where they can be helped and saved temporally and
hopefully eternally.
God has
rescued us all from the Dominion of Darkness; He has Freed Us from the Power of
Sin, the Kingdom of God is at hand. My friends, this is what the kingdom of God
looks like; this is what Salvation looks like. It is people being transformed
as they come to know our Lord and Saviour; it is societies being transformed as
they come to follow our Lord and Saviour. Are you a part of God’s
transformative church in our society? Do you want to be? Do you want to help
those in need through your congregation? You can. Do you want to offer food and
prayer to people on the food truck? You can. Do you want to serve people at the
food bank or the soup kitchen? You can. Do you want to lead a Bible Study
somewhere: your church, your home, at the shelter, the Bread of Life? You can.
If service, study, or hospitality are not your gifts… maybe you would like to
organize an event? Maybe God has given you two coats and you can donate one to
the Thrift Store - so that it can either be given to someone in need, or sold
to someone in need so that they can have the dignity of selecting and
purchasing it themselves, and/or sold to generate funds for services to those
in need? Maybe you don’t think that you have anything to offer but maybe beyond
your tithes to your local congregation, God is leading you to feed the hungry
in your own community in some way. There are a million ways or more to serve
and be used by God to transform our whole society into a salvation society where
everyone is welcome to participate! Pray! He will tell you how He can use you
to serve. After all, He has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has
Freed Us from the Power of Sin, the Kingdom of God is at hand!
I
often think of Randall from my time in Toronto. He is blind. I think he grew up
in quite an abusive home. He lived in 220 Oak, the worst building in one of the
worst areas of Toronto. Randall is a soldier in our Salvation Army. Randall
played music. He was a blind man carrying a tuba (or baritone) on his back, his
white cane in his hand, finding his way on subways, busses, and through the
roughest most crime ridden areas of Toronto by himself to play music at
churches, funerals, Christmas kettles, anywhere he went he shared the gospel in
music. And every Friday morning at 7am he would join me and others as we walked
around regent park and prayed for people living in the neighbourhood that was
once North America’s first ghetto. This is Salvation and it begins now and
continues on forever. I have friends of mine from my time serving at Stoney
Mountain Penitentiary in Winnipeg who, even though they were behind bars, led
people to a saving relationship with our Lord who then brought that Salvation
they found behind bars to the outside world – He for now and forever set the captives
free! God can use each and everyone of us to change this world, to grow His
Kingdom!
Most
of our employees at The Salvation Army are what in contemporary vernacular we
call ‘piers’ or people with ‘lived experience’ – most of us come from
backgrounds of addiction, abuse, homelessness. I can’t tell you the number of
people we have working with us right now who have their first ever jobs and
they are in their 30s 40s and 20s, parents, people who God is using to do
wonderful, amazing things.
God
will transform Our world – He promises whole new heavens and a whole new earth.
The question for us is will we be a part of it? Are we a part of it? He wants
us to be. And many of us here are serving God through Breakfast clubs, street
outreach, community meals, cleaning sidewalks, reading to children, other service
projects, through our congregations or some other way as the Lord leads.
This
is good for He has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has Freed Us
from the Power of Sin, the Kingdom of God is at hand; So, let us ask to the
Lord where and how He would like each of us to live out our salvation, to be a
part of His Kingdom? Let us ask Him how He can use each of us to point our
neighbour to salvation both now and forever? As the Lord is leading you to help
out in your church, go talk to your pastor today while it is still on your
heart. As the Lord is leading you to help at the soup kitchen, shelter,
foodbank, food truck, or other ways, you are welcome to chat with me today. As
we all share the Gospel of Christ in word and deed, then the Lord can and will
save us all and He will use even us to transform our society into His Kingdom,
to make our whole world anew because He has already rescued us from the
Dominion of Darkness; He has freed us from the Power of Sin, the Kingdom of God
is at hand
Let us
pray
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