Thanksgiving: The Secret to Survival (Philippians 4:4-7, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Ephesians 5:19-20, Colossians 3:17)

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 12 October 2021 (Thanksgiving) by Captain Michael Ramsay

 

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. Thanksgiving in Canada is to a “day of general thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.” [1] When we were on the prairies, this took on a whole new meaning to me. We came to know a little more what was meant by planting season and harvesting season and we could even tell you what kind of combine you were driving based on the colour of the vehicle. Thanksgiving for the harvest was a real part of life.

 

            Today, in the context of what is going on in the world and in the Army, I want to spend a little bit of time chatting about the power of a spirit of thanksgiving in our lives. It really is something that God can use to get us through even the darkest of times. This is what a spirit of thanksgiving looks like:

 

• Philippians 4:4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
• 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
• Ephesians 5:19-20: Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Colossians 3:17: And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

 

For those of us who were here last week, I shared a lot of the anguish and personal struggles that I am still having relating to Covid-19, Vaccine Mandates, The Salvation Army, my responsibilities to God, the Army, and the people under my care.[3] There is more as well.

 

            The previous few weeks have been tough and I know that the past year and a bit has been tough on a lot of people. Orange shirt day the other week was very significant. We marked the truth of a very real tragedy.

 

            The pandemic is not seemingly getting any better. It is still here. People are getting sick. People are dying. People are being discriminated against. People are being persecuted. Community is being destroyed. People are being laid off.

 

There are people who may need to be laid off, put on leave or even fired here. Employees and volunteers are not around. I can’t even hire the people I need to hire now. In some cases people can’t afford to work. I know of one person who is not working because in order to be able to afford dental, he needs to be on social assistance. He is being removed from being able to contribute to the work force, to society as an employee. I know others who simply because they are unable to be vaccinated are being removed from community in that same very way.

 

The debt that our country has acquired during this plague is beyond what can be even understood in terms of trying to pay it back – and the basic needs we will have to go without in the future if that is ever going to happen is terrifying.

 

Violence is really bad both in word and in deed in our world. Social media hate is choking so many people. And hearing from people who live in the US, I get the impression that the violence is so out-of-control down there that it is dangerous to even be outside in the evenings in many of their metropolitan areas.

 

The opioid crisis in BC and Port Alberni is beyond comprehension. I can go on. I won’t. We all know these are scary times. The question is, in these scary, difficult times, how can we get through it? How can we survive?

 

            In these scary times God, through Paul’s letters offers us some ways we can get through this. Paul talks about a spirit of thanksgiving and rejoicing. He offers us this council about how to get through tough times. He says, among other things:

 

• Rejoice always,  
• pray continually,
• Let your gentleness be evident to all
• give thanks in all circumstances.

 

REJOICE ALWAYS

The first secret to surviving difficult times is to rejoice always. If we can find something to rejoice in each day and if we can focus upon that rather than on all the things pulling us down, our spirit we be lifted up and we can get through it.

 

PRAY CONTINUALLY

Another vital key to survival is prayer. Prayer is extremely important. I can’t tell you the number of people I have had the chance to pray with in this last little while: people who are missing loved ones; people who have lost loved ones; people who are concerned about serious health issues - and then there are those who have come to me in much anguish and tears due to discrimination and persecution for their beliefs and -of course, as we are in a pandemic – there are those as well who are afraid for their lives. I thank all those who have been praying for me as well. With all the things that I have had on my heart and mind, I certainly need it. Prayer is vital to survival. As we pray together, we are joined to God with one another in a bond as strength. Let us not stop praying for one another together.

 

BE GENTLE

That brings us to another very important part of living with a spirit of thanksgiving that is key to surviving our struggles in community and even in the Church and that is to be gentle with one another. This can be difficult. By common consent, we are a divided people right now. Name your issue, people are polarized. People are upset. People are angry. People are afraid. Watch the different news channels, scroll through social media. Society is divided. The church is divided. Even clergy and Officers in our own Salvation Army are divided.

 

 I have prayed many times with my colleagues over the previous couple of weeks – more than ever before. Because of this, relating to one issue (Covid-19 and vaccine mandates) in particular, one Officer has recently arranged the opportunity for all of the Officers in BC to come together in a prayer zoom meeting this upcoming week. I hope we do. Prayer is so important – but there have already been some apparently snarky, seemingly self-righteous responses to even that invitation to prayer. This is tragedy. Officers, spiritual leaders we need to be gentle with one another; congregation members, we need to be gentle with one another; staff members, we need to be gentle with one another; family members, we need to be gentle with one another; friends and social media friends, we need to be gentle with one another if we hope to survive. We need to be gentle with one another. We need to be thankful for one another. We need to be thankful for what God is doing through each and everyone of us.

 

BE THANKFUL

The spirit of thankfulness. This spirit of Thanksgiving is so important to our very survival. When everything around us seems to be crashing down and everyone seems to be unkind and violent in thought, word, and deed; it is imperative that we find what is right and thank God for that!  If we only focus on all the trials and tribulations around us, we will be swallowed up by them. If we just look at the storms of life, we will miss the lifeboat. Mark my words, my friends, the chaos of our world is a turbulent as a storm at sea. You or I may even have been tossed overboard and maybe we are gasping for air trying to survive. If we just focus on the waves of all that is going wrong that is all we will see.

 

If we, however quickly, scan the horizon looking for the things God is sending us that can pull us through, we will be okay. Look around: see the miracles that are happening on a daily basis; see the people God is using for good in the world; notice how He is using you and others to help people; It is only when we look for and focus on the good things that God as provided for our salvation that we can grab a hold of them. This is what will create in us a thankful heart and a joyful spirit, this is what will make it so that we don’t need to be anxious in anything.

 

On this Thanksgiving Day in Canada, I would like to encourage us to look around for the things we can be thankful for, the ways that God is seeing us through the storm and thank Him for them. For if we can thank the Lord for what He is doing in those beside us while the whole world seems to be in chaos, if we can thank the Lord for the daily miracles that we see, if we can thank the Lord for each other and what the Lord is doing through each and every one of us than we might just get through this.

 

Let us pray

 [1] Quote from an act of the Canadian parliament 31 January 1957

BENEDICTION:

Philippians 4:4-7: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 

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Colossians 3:11, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26ff: Hate: the Division; Love: the Unity.

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 29 August 2021, by Captain Michael Ramsay

 

• Colossians 3:11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 

• 1 Corinthians 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 

• Galatians 3:26ff So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 

It is election season again. Is it me or are these things coming around way too frequently these years? It seems like only yesterday, or last year anyway that we just had a provincial election, and I am sure that next year we are having another municipal election and now we are in the middle of the second federal election since we have lived in this riding, and we have only been here for three years. That seems like a lot of elections. 

 

There are some very positive things about elections. We do get to see and chat with our Members of Parliament and interview their rivals. Both our incumbent MP, and his most competitive challenger, have helped on the Salvation Army food truck in the previous two weeks. This is great because they have an opportunity to meet those in most need in their prospective riding and those of us on the truck are able to have their ear and speak to the issues that matter most to the people the Salvation Army serves. 

 

Susan, the kids and I have lived across the country. We have lived on NDP Orange Vancouver Island, the Tory Blue Prairies, and in Liberal Red Toronto and here we are again back on the ‘left coast’. I have learned some very important things from this. One thing I have learned is that not every Liberal/ Tory/ Green /NDP (pick your least favourite party) is evil. It is true. There was a time when I thought that if you supported a particular political party, you must be either an idiot or a very bad person. I was wrong.

  

In Swift Current, I had the opportunity to get to know our Conservative MP a bit – he was, I believe, a good solid Christian. He came to speak at the Swift Current Salvation Army’s Centennial celebrations, and I had a lot of respect for him.  

 

In Toronto we worked very closely with the staff of the Liberal Cabinet Minister who represented our 'work' riding – I didn’t get to know him well, but we did work with his office and his assistants. One of his key people, Roz, I believe, even worked for the Salvation Army before she worked for his office. She and his other staff were a great help with some immigration issues that faced a number of our people, as well as various other things.  

 

Since we have been back on Vancouver Island, our NDP MP has been a great advocate for some of our initiatives. And, of course, he and I went to high school together in Victoria many years ago and this riding is also Susan’s dad’s old riding; so, we have a few points of connection. 

 

Honestly, it has been a much greater revelation than it should have been that there are great people who are members of all the political parties - even whatever party you may dislike the most. There are many great people in politics who we have gotten to know over the years. In Swift Current, the mayor’s grandma was part of our corps. And, of course, here the mayor’s husband is part of our team. There are many great people running for each of the parties. And I don’t think that God (or conversely the devil) has more influence over one party than the next so please don’t let the devil trick you into thinking he does and thus gain some measure of control over you. 

 

Christians, people who honestly serve Jesus, people who regularly read their Bibles, people who pray every day – even more than we or you do, they will vote for a member of that political party that you cannot stand or even understand! And they may even be a member of said party.

 

On election day, you are of course able to vote for whomever you want, for whatever reason you want to vote for them – but please don’t become a victim of the present campaign. Don’t become collateral damage. Don’t let yourself be manipulated by being worked up into a rage or worked down into helplessness. Don’t let the devil mess with your mind and your emotions. He wants to mess you up. MLK jr said, “don’t let any man drag you so low as to make you hate him.”  The devil wants to make you hate Trudeau, O’Toole, Singh, or your local MP. Don’t do it! Genesis 4:7b “Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Once we are divided by hating others, the devil can make us do all kinds of things that drag us into self-destruction and the destruction of others. Ephesians 4:27, “do not let the devil get a foothold.” He can divide us and destroy us.  

Therefore, we need to remember that in the Christian Church, Colossians 3:11 paraphrased: there is no Liberal or Conservative, NDP or Green, Libertarian, People’s Party, Bloc, separatist or nationalist but Christ is all, and is in all. 

 

Paul wrote in the 1st Century:

• To the 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” and,  

• To the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” and, 

• To the Galatians, 3:26, 28,29, So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ...There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

 

Why did Paul write this same thing to different people in different congregations in different cities? Paul wrote this because among his friends and colleagues, there were divisions that were threatening to tear them and the whole church apart. People in Paul’s group, Paul’s friends, were letting the devil into their churches. 

 

How were they letting the devil into their churches? They were holding the door open by identifying first as Jews or Gentiles, circumcised or uncircumcised, slave or free, men or women and only later as Christians – and then they would inevitably wind up fighting amongst themselves about these important things. So, you would have people who were previously united in the purpose of telling others the Good News of how Jesus can save them in and from their struggles who were now focusing INSTEAD on the election type issues that were important in the first century.  That is not to say that the issues aren’t important; it is to say that we need to solve the issues as members of the same team, God’s team. And God’s team is unified in loving Him and others and trying to serve Him and others – even if we have different ideas about how to do that, we need to work together as a team united under His leadership. That is what the Church is.

 

People invited the devil into the churches in the First Century by caring more about the issues that divide them than about the only real solution, which unites them – the love of God and Jesus Christ. This division threatened to destroy the whole First Century Church before it even had its footing. As Jesus said, recorded in Mark, “A house divided against itself cannot stand” (Mark 3:25; also Matthew 12:25, and cf. Luke 11:17) and Matthew, “no one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13). This is what the devil was trying to do – he was trying to make them care more about an issue (as important as it may be) than about God and their neighbour so as to divide them. Divide and conquer. 

 

The devil is doing the same thing today. You can actually see him prey upon good, solid people, trapping them in their own hatred for others who hold opposing ideas. We Christians invite the devil into our lives and our churches by fighting with each other instead of praying for each other and serving together. And friends this is a tragedy.

 

God has used you who are here in this room and others who are part of our group (as we are part of His Church) to do some great things for others and for the Kingdom during Covid; and friends God has used you and those who have come before you to do some amazing things in this community for over 70 years. Don’t let the devil mess things up by dividing us! 

 

• 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” 

• Galatians 3:26, 28,29, So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ...28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise

• Colossians, 3:11, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” 

 

So Friends I implore us today to put our differences aside. If the devil has got a hold of our lives in anyway by making us hate one another, we can pray now and God will deliver us from that hate.  The Enemy is trying to divide us. For when we are divided we will fall but when we are united in Christ we will stand firm and we will stand forever. So rather than hate the world into destruction, let us love the world into salvation. And then the world will know we are Christians by our love. 

 

Let us pray.

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[1] Martin Luther King Jr, A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr (Ed. James M. Washington (HaperCollins: New York, NY, 1986)

[2] Cf. NT Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters (Louisville, Kentucky, USA.: John Knox Press, 2004), 179.

[3] Samuel Ngewa, Galatians 3:26-4:11: Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya:Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 1448: All categories have become one because they are united in Christ.

 

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)