Our building there was a former elementary school - like it used
to be here for a bit. It was big and at Christmas time it was full of people. In
the morning of the day we give out the hamper, I receive a phone call: someone
is asking if he can register for a hamper that day. We REALLY try to avoid
that. It is too busy and isn’t fair to anyone else; so I explain to him that
not only do we not register people for hampers on hamper pick-up day but that
the deadline for registering was three weeks ago. He is way too late. He is
persistent though. He is bound and determined to get a hamper this day.
He tells me that he was speaking to our community ministries worker earlier in
the week. He tells me he has health issues. He tells me this. He tells me that.
He is like the persistent widow in the parable of that name (Luke 18:1-8). He
is so bound and determined to get
something THAT day that eventually I do give in and tell him he can come in
person later in the day – after the others have gotten their hampers and
after he goes through the full registration process with our worker over
the telephone, of course, which he does. This man really is bound and determined to get something
today.
Later in the day, when his time comes, he arrives at The
Salvation Army. He still has to wait. The person taking tickets calls me to the
door. I come when I can. She rightly holds him up because he doesn’t have a
ticket and his name isn’t on the list – (remember he just registered in the
morning by phone, which isn’t typically allowed) but he is bound and determined to get something today. As I am speaking with
the volunteer and the man, another volunteer pulls me aside and asks me to have
a coffee with this same fellow while we process the others. We have our coffee
while we wait; he registered late, it makes sense that he has to wait. We talk.
This fellow has spent some time on Vancouver’s DTES; my wife and I were urban
missionaries there years ago. We are chatting about this and that and how he is
bound and determined to get
something this day – well, he does get something that day: the police
show up and he gets… arrested; he is bound
- and it is determined that he
will stay in the cells that day and over Christmas. (That was our first time
that someone was arrested on hamper day at the Army.)
What happened? One of our volunteers saw him and identified
him as a man whom they suspect defrauded their business. If he had not been so
persistent about his hamper then he never
would have got what was apparently coming to him that day. He seemed to
want his hamper so much that when he was arrested, his first words as they were
leading him out of The Salvation Army were, 'Can I still get my hamper?' I
offered to keep it for him until he gets out after Christmas and I did go to
visit him in the cells over Christmas.
The fellow and I actually got to know each other a little
bit through the process. We kept in touch when he was in jail, and afterwards
we helped him find a job and a place to stay when he was released and through
this experience we actually developed a whole transition program in
Saskatchewan where we would sit with people in court, keep in touch when they
are in jail and then help them with a place to live and get employment when
they are out. It was quite successful but often at Christmas Hamper time I do
think of this fellow who was so bound and determined to get his hamper that he
was bound and it was determined that he would be arrested at that day for
stealing quite a few things from town.
Yesterday was a big day here. Thank you so much to all of
you who were able to come and lend a hand and/or just partake of the day. We
had pancakes served by Kiwanis. We had sausages donated by Hertel Meats. The
Bulldogs were there playing with the kids. The ADSS Cheer Team was there; the
ADSS band played for us; Alberni Kids Can Rock did a great job.
Todd Flaro was the MC. Chief Counsellor Cynthia Dick
represented the Tseshaht First Nation. Patty Edwards spoke on behalf Scott
Fraser, the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and our MLA.
Counsellor RON PAULSON spoke from the city. The High School Principal spoke and
even our Member of Parliament, Gord Johns was unexpectedly there. He had said
earlier that he wouldn't be able to make it but he did and it was great. Our
boss and her husband were also there - Majors Tiffany and Les Marshall. And so
was Sally Ann, the Salvation Army mascot. It was a great time. Thanks to
everyone who helped out. It was a lot of fun and did good to raise awareness as
to what exactly God does for this community through The Salvation Army. ///
One of our Scriptures today is about another ceremony. The
ceremony in the Scriptures today was very well attended - even more well
attended than the community Remembrance Day Ceremonies that The Salvation Army
was also blessed to lead and that we also held at the Glenwood Centre a couple
of weeks ago. And Solomon’s ceremony was probably just as laden with tradition
and precise ceremony. At Remembrance Day many of us had a chance to lay
wreathes, we were able to read from the Bible and I was able to address the
large crowds present. In 1 Kings 6, like 2 Chronicles 6, it records some of the
Solomon’s ceremony at the dedication of the temple: 2 Chronicles 5:11-6:4:
The priests then
withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated
themselves, regardless of their divisions. All the Levites who were musicians—Asaph,
Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the
altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were
accompanied by 120 priests sounding
trumpets. The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and
thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the
singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang: “He is good; his
love endures forever.”
Then the temple of the Lord was filled
with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the
cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.
Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said
that he would dwell in a dark cloud; I
have built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.”
While the whole assembly of Israel was
standing there, the king turned around and blessed them. Then he said: “Praise
be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hands has fulfilled what he
promised with his mouth to my father David.
Now our kick off was great yesterday and Remembrance Day was
very good but I imagine this ceremony with the Temple dedication was over the
top. There is so much going on and then at one point God Himself shows up in
this dark cloud. Can you imagine that? What if yesterday (or November 11th)
when we were at the Glenwood doing our thing all of a sudden God shows up inside
of or in the form of a cloud? Can you
imagine if God came in and filled the whole Glenwood and it became so cloudy
inside that we all had to stop what we were doing and run outside? Can you
imagine if in the middle of the church service here today God shows up in the
form of or inside of a cloud and He fills this room so thick with the fog that
we have to go outside to get away from the cloud. It says even the band had to
stop playing; the priests had to stop their service. That would be quite
something.
Solomon, of course, acknowledges this and maybe makes a
serious mistake here too (but cf. 1 Kings 8:27, 2 Chronicles 6:18). Verse 6:
Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; I
have built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.”
Solomon, even though he said this, knows that God cannot be contained in this
temple and Solomon acknowledges that himself and God later rebukes Solomon
telling him that if Israel leaves God then they will no longer be with him -
but Israel seems to forget this. Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem start to believe
that God actually lives in the 'House of God'. Israel, Judah and especially the
city of Jerusalem gets to the point where they figure that they can sin as much
as they want and do whatever they want to each other, no longer loving one
another and serving God, because they are invincible. They get to the point
where many believe that God is contained in this temple, like a genie in a lamp
and so as long as they hold the lamp nothing can happen to them. They don't
need to care for their brothers and sisters. They don't need to love God as
evidenced by loving their neighbours. They… were sadly mistaken.
The unthinkable happened, in 586 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylon, sacked the city, destroyed the temple and wiped out the Kingdoms of Israel
and Judah forever. People did not know what to do, their faith was shaken. They
thought they were invincible. They thought God was contained in the Temple.
They put their faith in the myth that they had God locked in the temple like a
pet in a cage, like a genie in a bottle, like their captive. But He wasn't: He
is a living, loving, and a free God and they were the ones led off to
captivity.
My questions for us today are: Do we ever treat God as a
genie who we can control to do our bidding? Are our prayers to God sometimes
like Aladdin rubbing a lamp? Do we sometimes order God around like a servant or,
just as bad, take him for granted? Do we drive home from here on Sundays after
service and forget God? - leaving Him in Church? Do we ever ignore Him all week
long and just expect that He'll be here on Sunday or come to do our bidding
when we summon Him? Are we like those who have fallen prey to the prosperity
heresy who tell God what to do and are bound and determined to see Him to do it
at our command?
God isn't like that. He isn’t a genie, or a slave, or
someone to just be taken for granted. God is here in this building but this
isn't the only place He is. And God will give us not what we want always but He
will always give us what is best for us - eternally
speaking, not because we instruct him to do so but because He loves us. God
is God. We can’t keep him in a box or a building or a theology or a tradition.
We shouldn’t ignore or try to cage Him. He is the God of the universe and He is
the King of the world and He is coming back and when He does He will set
everything right. Do we believe that?
Psalm 93 says:
The LORD is king,
he is robed in majesty; the LORD is
robed, he is girded with strength. He has established the world; it shall
never be moved; your throne is established from of old; you are from
everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their
voice; the floods lift up their roaring. More majestic than the thunders of
mighty waters, more majestic than the waves of the sea, majestic on high is the
LORD! Your decrees are very sure; holiness befits your house, O LORD,
forevermore.
God loves us; so today, on this
last Sunday before Advent, let us leave here in the full confidence that we
serve the eternal King, the wonderful counsellor, and the Mighty God and Prince
of Peace who will rule forever more and whose government will never cease being
peaceful. Let us go from here today and continue to serve the living God in all
we do.
Let us pray
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