Exodus 17:8-13, Hebrews 10:32-37: Thank you for holding my arms

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 14 September 2025 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

Busy time at The Salvation Army! And only getting busier now until Christmas is done! Yesterday was the Toy Run. We were blessed to be able to prepare and serve chili and hotdogs. We were blessed to be able to pick up a cube van full of toys. We were blessed to say the prayer and ask the blessing before the riders rode.

 

Last weekend was the fall fair and the parade. Thank you to everyone who helped out. We were blessed to be able to have  a booth and we were blessed to have a float and our mobile kitchen (CRU) and a number of walkers in the parade. Thank you!

 

The weekend before that was Salmon Fest. We were blessed to be able to run the bullhead derby and we were blessed with rods and lures to be able to hand out to kids who were fishing.

 

We, of course, were blessed to help our community and Parksville / Qualicum with the fire relief as well this summer.

 

Next up: in a couple of weeks we have Men’s Camp and the Thanksgiving food drive. We are blessed to be able to take a number of men from here (some who stay with us in our shelter and eat at the Bread of Life) to camp. They get a chance to be a part of everything as equals and as friends. And a number of them have been saving up and looking forward to it for months.

 

That same weekend we are blessed to raise funds and food for people in the community through the Thanksgiving Food Drive. We also just finished collecting and distributing school supplies for families in need. And of course, a Thanksgiving meal is upcoming too! – served both at the Bread of Life Soup Kitchen and off The Salvation Army food truck to the homeless and housing insecure. We are blessed to be used by God to do a lot for this community.

 

October 4^th, we have a booth at Co-op Days. That day we are also officiating the wedding of Logan. He is a young man who works at the Bread of Life and whose family was a part of The Salvation Army for generations.

 

October 18^th is Della’s memorial service.

 

There has been, is still, and will be a lot of work involved in all of these things that we are blessed to a part of: planning work, doing work, and emotional work.

 

All of this is added to our everyday work of church and CCM/ care homes, soup kitchen, food bank, food truck, shelter, staffing, thrift store, etc., etc., etc.…

 

I know many of you and others work selflessly around the clock and around the calendar. I praise God for you and all He does through You.

 

The scriptures we read today and the scriptures we will read and the whole canon of scripture really tells us, along with other things, that we are to continue to serve and love God by allowing Him to serve and others through us.

 

Sometimes that is difficult.

 

This week as our team was still dealing with the passing of a teammate and friend, as our team was dealing with an assault that affected many, as our team was grieving employees who may not be returning – suddenly – after years of being part of our team. This week I have spoken with a few people who are faced with their own mortality.

 

This week I had to speak to city council.

 

I was told I didn’t need to speak. I was told there wouldn’t be public input. I was told that we wouldn’t need letters. I was told I didn’t need to be there. I shouldn’t have acted as if I believed the things I was told. I was there to get a permit!

 

I sat and I listened for a large portion of an hour as people told me and themselves bad things that we allegedly do or contribute to in our community. (You can watch the City Council meeting on-line.) Some of what was said was lies or at least intentionally misleading, some was mistaken, conflated and confused; some was angry; and one or more councillors slapped us with a backhanded compliment, a Marc Antony type soliloquy, or even put Brutus’ dagger in our back (Thanks Dustin!). I had to listen to this.

 

I had to answer to this. I had no notes. The public wasn’t supposed to be able to speak. I was told that I didn’t need to speak. I was told I didn’t need to be there. And then… I was asked why there was homelessness in our community, why it is getting worse, and what AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT IT!?!

 

I was only there to renew a permit to continue feeding and sheltering people in our community and now I was being asked to solve homelessness before they would consider renewing our permit to serve the homeless.

 

I wanted to say a bunch of things. I was tempted to tell them that was their job to solve homelessness! My job is to protect and provide for the people you forsake! I was tempted to tell them that if they didn’t close down the Port Pub, the trailers, and RB’s playground throwing all those people out on the street, then all those people would not be out on the street! I was tempted to tell them that if they provided supportive housing and involuntary treatment then there wouldn’t be homelessness! I was tempted to tell them that if they built homes and let people stay in them then there wouldn’t be homelessness!

 

I was tempted to say. “You are blaming us because people are sleeping in doorways, defecating and urinating in planters, and leaving drug paraphernalia on the streets; and your solution is for us to close our shelter tossing 25 to 45 more people onto the streets with no place to sleep or defecate!”

 

We have bathrooms, beds, and no in-and-out privileges at night. We keep our people safe. We are the only dry shelter in our whole community. We are the only safe place for sober addicts. We offer jobs, volunteer work, meaning, purpose and family for people. We feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and befriend those with no friends. I was tempted to close it all down! And tell City Council to see how they like it now that there are 25 to 45 more people on the streets with no safe place to go! I was tempted… but I didn’t.

 

Instead I spoke of the great work that the LORD is doing through all of you. I was and am very thankful for the support of our mayor, Sharie Minions; Councillors Deb Haggard and Charlse Mealy. I know that another councillor who shall remain nameless is our enemy (as he always speaks and votes against us) and I am still smarting from Dustin’s knife in our backs. I left the City Council meeting upset. I did not sleep that night.

 

Do you ever get to the point where you just want to quit? Do you ever get to the point where you ask “what is the point? Why am I doing this?” I was getting to that point.

 

Susan pointed to our prayer meetings, our check-ins, our prayer / grace before meals as a part of how we are serving our Lord and our neighbourhood and pointed out that the Enemy will fight against those willing to be a part of the Lord’s kingdom and His transformative power in this age and in the age to come. Last week Tim read from Isaiha 61. We have been a part of two separate TSA Corps based on that chapter of the Bible – especially Verse 4.

 

I know that the LORD’s will will be done.

 

Sage Haven, Island Health, Agro Hope, CAT, Ineo, and others have already written or offered to write letters. I imagine another councillor or two will vote along with Sharie, Deb, and Charlse to support the vulnerable in our community. I have had many people reach out to me this past week, thank you: the Lord used and is using you to sustain me on top of all the other things He is using you to do.

 

Today I want to encourage you. We are all working so diligently for the LORD and the most vulnerable in our community. Please keep it up and please don’t give up!

 

I think of the story of the Hebrews in a battle during Moses’ time. The people were fighting hard. God used Moses to encourage His people. As Moses held his staff above his head, the Hebrews would prevail, when this burden became too heavy and his arms, his staff and his encouragement waned; the Hebrews started to falter and fall. God then provided people to uphold Moses’ arms so that God would still use Moses to encourage God’s people to win the battle.

 

Friends, many of you are fighting in life’s battle on behalf of Jesus and the Kingdom of God everyday – by serving at the soup kitchen, shelter, seniors homes, church, store, food bank, prayer and Bible studies, and even more.

 

I do see a big part of the blessing of my job to stand up here and elsewhere to hold up the staff of the LORD’s encouragement in the face of adversity. Please hear me now:

 

Hebrews 10:36-37: You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For,

“In just a little while,

He who is coming will come

and will not delay.”

 

1 Peter 3:8: ...all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.

 

2 Corinthians 12:9: The Lord says, “…My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

 

And Psalm 55:22: Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.

 

I thank the Lord for all of you that come alongside me and hold my arms each and everyday through prayer and conversation and listening on top of everything else you do; you are a vital part of this battle that is our life’: the battle to live in, to live for, and to grow the Kingdom of God for now and forever.

Amen.

 

www.sheepspeak.com

Exodus 12:24-28: Remember the Plan

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 17 August 2025, Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 06 July 2014 which was based on an earlier version presented 01 July 2012 by Major Michael Ramsay.

 

This is the 2025 Version, to see the 2014 Version click here: 

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2014/07/exodus-1224-28-remember-today.html

 

To see the 2012 version, click here:

 https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/06/exodus-1224-28-remember.html 

 

Our team has been working away with the fires. The other week our team was in Qualicum feeding people. This week we were coordinating our fire response here – concerned about a possible evacuation and how to get all our people out. I spoke with the City, ACRD, media, and TSA EDS quite a bit – planning for possible evacuations, etc.  The TC called us on Friday morning, along with the DC and others to thank us for our work. With all the work with the fires the past weeks I was reminded of a fire story I heard a few years ago from a member of my Rotary Club in Swift Current Saskatchewan. Dave told us this story of a family vacation in Acapulco in 1968:

 

Dave and his wife were on holiday in Mexico. They check into their hotel. They are near the ground floor and there are these little lizards - Geckos or something else – climbing all up the walls; so they speak to the hotel and ask to be moved as far away from the lizards as they can, up to the top floor. They do move up to the top floor. This turns out to be a mistake. In the middle of the night, they are woken up as people are running through the halls screaming. Some girls from Quebec tell them what was happening: the hotel is on fire. The stairs, they are concrete for the top few floors and then wood beneath and the wooden stairs are ablaze. The girls from Quebec jump over the railing from the 10th storey or more up and plunge all the way down. Dave and his wife and his two sons, aged six and nine, are trapped. Without thinking they run to the elevator but the door closes with people inside it just before they get there. Actually I think Dave may have even gotten his hand in the closing door but they don’t catch the elevator, which is good because we know what happens to people in elevators in a fire. Dave and his family are trapped. They try to tie sheets together to scale down the outside of the building but as Dave is heading over a balcony, it is good that he has an arm linked through the railing because someone unties the sheets. He then climbs down the side of the balcony and swings onto the balcony below. His wife then drops one of his children for him to catch and then the other and then she scales down as far as she can, then falls and Dave catches her legs and pulls her in. They do this until the third story or so of the building when they run out of balconies. Dave then throws one child down onto a straw thatched roof, hoping that will break his fall. He sees the boy fall through the roof and run away; so he throws the other son down who makes a new hole as he crashes through the thatched roof. He runs to safety. His wife jumps next and Dave is able to scale a palm tree to the bottom. They are injured but they survive. It was quite a tale to hear. They survived by the grace of God but others on their floor who leapt over the railing or who took the elevator did not.

 

What had happened was, apparently there was a dispute between two ownership groups – one local and one foreign – the foreign group was residing in the hotel on that day and some local people had attacked the hotel with Molotov cocktails – hoping to collect insurance, I believe.

 

It was quite something to hear. There is more to his story too. One of his sons had a piece of the thatched roof he fell through stuck into his foot. The other had a twig protruding from his neck with blood spurting out. They were okay though. There was another miracle in this story. Dave and his wife recognize this as a miraculous salvation. When Dave and his wife were climbing down the balconies to escape the flames, they left somewhere her straw purse with their passports, money, plane tickets, and the like. The next day Dave went back and began looking in this burned-out hotel building for this straw purse. God saved it for them. It was on a balcony on a burned-out floor but this straw purse with its contents was still there. God protected it and God protected them. God was there for them in the midst of this ordeal.

 

It is the same with the Hebrews in our text today and with us. This week we have been planning for if we have to evacuate (due to the fire) the people who sleep at the TSA shelter and eat at the Bread of Life Centre. There are a lot of moving parts to consider in evacuating our 70 to 90 regular diners plus sleepers. Even mores so, can you imagine what it is like for Moses and Aaron as they plan to evacuate up to a million people from Egypt?!  And we have the fires to consider but they had a number of plagues (like covid maybe) only they just kept coming and each one was more awe-inspiring than the previous one.[1]

1.     The Nile turning to blood (7:14–25)

2.     Plague of frogs (7:25–8:11)

3.     Plague of lice or gnats (8:12–15) [2]

4.     Plague of flies or wild animals (8:20–32)

5.     Plague of pestilence (9:1–7)

6.     Plague of boils (9:8–12)

7.     Plague of hail (9:13-35)

8.     Plague of locusts (10:1–20)

9.     Plague of darkness (10:21–29)

I still remember vividly the closest thing to a plague of darkness I ever experienced: when we lived in Swift Current. I still recall that darkness that swept over a corner of the city: at noon it was all of a sudden as dark as night. I have not seen anything like that before. It was an ominous and fear-provoking as the blackness approached – you could see it coming toward you and you could see blue skies fleeing from its presence. We went to pick up Rebecca for lunch from school (she was in grade 3 or 4. I think). There was a tornado warning. The school had announced that the children were not to go outside. Some students, of course, were pressed up against the windows to see what was happening, others were in tears hiding safely under their desks. Today many in our community are concerned about the fires. The feelings of fear and awe, of terror and wonder, that people were having today and on that day are probably a reflection of the intensity of the emotions that would be swirling around the Hebrews like a funnel cloud as they experience the power of God through the first nine plagues and as they prepare for the final plague, the tenth plague: The Angel of Death (11:1–12:36).

 

It is in the context of them huddled in their houses preparing for Death’s arrival that our pericope is found. In the opening 13 verses of this chapter, God tells Moses and Aaron exactly what is about to happen. Just like a Forest fire evacuation alert or order: ‘Get ready’, God warns them, ‘the Angel of Death is coming’.

 

Now I have been in a lot of conversations this week with The Salvation Army, the city, ESS. And just like we have emergency disaster plans that we are to follow here in Alberni and in The Salvation Army when disaster strikes, God in our text is giving Moses and Aaron their instructions as to how to save themselves and their families when the Angel of Death strikes at Goshen, in Egypt. I don’t know if anyone here has ever huddled in a storm cellar or has been forced to take shelter or head beneath deck on a boat being tossed about in a storm, but I imagine that it is the same feeling. The people take all the right steps and now they are just waiting hoping and praying for Death to pass.

 

Today, with the fires raging near town, each one of us is supposed to have a ‘go bag’ ready as the fire might be coming. There are things we need: passports, documents, pictures, water… make sure your car has gas and if you don’t have a car that you have another way out of town! I have binders full of the city’s and the Army’s plans of what we need to follow in the event of a disaster: flood, fire, road closure, … God in Exodus gives Moses and Aaron a disaster preparedness plan (including the go bag directions) for the impending strike by the Angel of Death. It looks like this. Picture with me - you and your family – you have received your disaster preparedness plan from your leaders. Disaster is going to strike, you are fearful (even more than now with the fire near) and you are in awe as you await the Angel of Death who you know is coming to claim many on this very night. On this very evening as Death is approaching; this is the plan:

·       You are to take a lamb or a kid to share as a meal with everyone in your household. If there aren’t enough of you in a household to eat a whole lamb, you must share it with your closest neighbour (12:3-4);

·       The animal must be 1 year-old and without defect (v.5);

·       You have already been taking care of the animals for 14 days in preparation for this day – now everyone in town is to go and slaughter the lamb at twilight (v.6);

·       You will then – this is important – take some of the blood and put it on the sides and the tops of the doorframes of the houses where you will eat the lambs (v.7);

·       Then you will eat the meat roasted over a fire with bitter herbs and bread without yeast and you must eat it all. You may not leave any of it until morning! If there are leftovers, you must burn them (vv. 8-10);

·       When you are eating this meal, you are to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on, and your staff in your hand (v. 11). In our language today: you are to have your coats, hats and shoes on and your car keys in your hand. You are to be ready to go. You are to eat it in haste because it is the LORD’s Passover.

 

God tells Moses and Aaron that as the people follow this plan they will survive the impending strike by the Angel of Death. Then God tells them, ‘You must never forget this night. You must remember how I saved you.’ I imagine this evening must be as clear to those who experienced it as the images were to Dave and his wife of that night climbing down the side of the building – and Dave’s wife, she’s afraid of heights. I imagine that every time they think about this night, they remember every feeling that was racing through their heart and mind and I imagine that they’ll never forget it.

 

I remember when I was in Nipawin, SK and a building exploded right behind The Salvation Army downtown. My office shook. It felt like a truck had struck it. With others, I headed outside to see what had happened, I saw injured or dead or dying people lying on the ground as the flames began to engulf the downtown. My children and everyone around on that day have stories surrounding those moments. We all here today remember Covid! I imagine each of us have had times like these that will never leave our minds.

 

The thing with these events as real as they are to us, they are not as real to people who don’t actually experience them and as time passes people tend to forget the important lessons that come from them. I had the honour of speaking at a 70^th anniversary of D-Day memorial. For hundreds and thousands of soldiers present on June 6, 1944, as long as they lived, this is a day they never forgot; but if I were to guess I would say that less people across this whole country officially commemorated the anniversary than lost their lives on that one day. Remembrance Day and the Legion remind us of the horrors of war, lest we forget. It is no coincidence that as more and more of our veterans pass away, that there are more wars in our world than before – and wars the involve the Superpowers too. People forget and then another generation experiences the same horrors.

 

As the Hebrew families of our text are sitting in their houses awaiting the impending calamity, God tells Moses that they are never to forget this day.[3] They are to remember it forever. They are to tell their children and their children’s children. This should a permanent feature in their school curriculum, so to speak. It should be like our annual Remembrance Day ceremonies and there are some elements that must be observed. As far as the Passover remembrance ceremonies, they are to incorporate some of their Emergency Disaster Preparedness Plan into a ceremonial dinner, and they are not have any yeast in the house for seven days prior and they are to eat only unleavened flat breads. Then God tells 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.

 

One reason that the people were to remember this was so that they would not forget what the Lord had done for them in the past and another reason is to wait for a future deliverance. As this ceremony developed over the generations, it came to incorporate an act of ceremonially ‘looking for Elijah’. This is because tradition later stated that Elijah must return before the Messiah is to come.

 

Now Elijah did return and the Messiah did come and when he did Jesus the Messiah celebrated this very important Passover remembrance with his disciples and he uttered the very important words, “Do this in remembrance of me.” 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 lost 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 saved us; His people, all His people, He saves us all through the Blood of the Lamb.[4]

 

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.

 

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, and this is why every year we celebrate Good Friday and Easter. That is why we are here today: because just as God offered salvation to all His children from the Angel of Death and the plagues; so too He offers salvation to all of us from Sin and Death and relief in everything that is plaguing us. As that is the case, it is my hope and my prayer that if any of us have not yet implemented our eternal disaster preparedness plan, that we would delay no longer and that we would all experience that salvation both today and forever more.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Cf. Walter C. Kaiser Jr., The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/I. Divine Redemption (1:1-18:27)/E. The Passover (12:1-28)/1. Preparations for the Passover (12:1-13), Book Version: 4.0.2. for more detailed list.

[2] R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 2), S. 113: In the evening: literally ‘between the two evenings’. Jewish scholars are not agreed as to the exact meaning. The phrase is also used of the time for the regular evening sacrifice (Exod. 29:39) and of the time for lighting the lamps in the meeting-tent (Exod. 30:8). The orthodox piety of Pharisaic Judaism understood the meaning as being between the time in the afternoon when the heat of the sun lessens (say 3 or 4 p.m.) and sunset. Other groups preferred the time between sunset and dark, or other similar explanations.

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

Exodus 20:22-27, Matthew 25:31ff, and James 2:14-17: The poor need equal rights! Freedom must be for all; not just the rich!

Presented to TSA AV Ministries, 18 August 2024 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

If something is a right, it is incumbent upon a society to provide that right. 

• Psalm 82:3 - 'Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. '  

• 
  

• Proverbs 31:8-9 - 'Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. 

• 
  

• Psalms 69:32-33: “Let the oppressed see it and be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the Lord hears the needy, and does not despise his own who are in bonds”  

• 
  

• Psalms 140:12: “I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy, and executes justice for the poor”  

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• 1 John 3:17: If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? 

 

Last week I wasn’t here. I was at the Summer Rain Christian Music Festival. I spoke on the Saturday night. I mentioned that all the messages in past years at Summer Rain have been about evangelism and Salvation. I began my time by asking people to raise their hands if they knew Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. They all raised their hands (or should have).  I then asked if there was anyone in the crowd who wasn’t yet saved, who wasn’t yet a Christian, who didn’t know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. No one. Everyone present was already a Christian. I then said. ‘Wow, that must be a new record. I preached at an evangelistic meeting for 1 minute and everyone was saved; so, everyone can go home now’. I preached anyway. 

 

The previous time I spoke here (2 weeks ago) we spoke about Joseph being trafficked as a domestic servant. I shared about the Vietnamese workers at San Group who were staying in deplorable which –thankfully- we were able to be a part of helping them flee. I used the same illustration in my message last week at the Summer Rain Christian Music Festival. I did so, this time, in the context of James 2:14-17:  

 

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” 

 

I told the story of how 15 of the 16 workers were saved for now and we hope and pray that God will send someone to provide them the opportunity to be saved forever. I encouraged us all to be available for the Spirit to use to save people for eternity and also for the here and now. Why would we want to go through all of life’s problems without God’s support when His love and encouragement is readily accessible to each and every one of us? I encouraged the congregation to think of people they could help and point to Salvation for forever and now and exhorted them to avail themselves of the opportunities provided in the upcoming week to do just that. I asked them to see who God placed on their heart and pray for them. We then prayed. 

 

After I finished speaking about Salvation in the here and now and for eternity, drawing heavily on the example of the Vietnamese workers, I walked through the crowd and was directed to a specific lady – Loan. Loan is a Christian lady; Loan is from Vietnam; Loan is a God-fearing Christian lady. She knows the freed workers. She has been praying for them. She had been witnessing to them. She is already following up with them so that they can be freed not only for now but also forever. She was teary-eyed that this message was an encouragement for her from God – speaking specifically about what she was praying about. How could I know that she -or anyone- who could follow up the now salvation with the message of eternal salvation with these workers would be present at the Summer Rain Christian music festival? We met again on Tuesday. She told me how she just happened to go to Summer Rain. That wasn’t her plan. It was God’s. God then used her further as after our conversation on Tuesday we was able to reach out to our MP and TSA in Victoria again and help get the ball moving again so these workers can hopefully get an open Visa and Loan shared with me how she is continuing to be a witness to the workers so that they me be saved forever – like was said at Summer Rain. 

 

This is important: both the ‘forever’ salvation and the ‘now’ Salvation has been really on my heart lately. I do think that the two are inextricably linked. Salvation isn’t only about the future – it is about the future. But it isn’t only about the future! It is also about the now. Our salvation is at hand. This can have a couple of different repercussions.  

1. it means that since life isn’t always as planed here; when we are saved to a salvific relationship with Christ, we can draw on His strength, His peace, His forgiveness, His love in our time of need and share that with everyone we know and  

2. it really means - like James 2:14-17 encourages us and as Matthew 25:31ff warns us - that as Christians it is our God-given responsibility to help save people here and now. God saves people unto eternity. We need to look after the poor, the widow and the immigrant; the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, those needing clothes, those who are sick, and those who are imprisoned. We must. If we are saved, we will. 

 

I have been thinking about this a lot and I think we can used by God to ‘save’ others in the ‘now’ sense, from serious situations - like human trafficking, like, poverty, like discrimination, and exploitation – in a number of different ways: 

1. We can do this on our own, helping others as the Lord presents people and opportunities to us; 

2. We can donate to organizations such as The Salvation Army that seek to help people everyday; 

3. We can volunteer for organizations such as The Salvation Army that seek to do this; 

4. We can live out our salvation by lobbying the government or otherwise organize our society to save people in need! 

 

Baptist Minister and Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas introduced Medicare to Saskatchewan after he almost lost his leg as a child due to injury, infection, and poverty. Medicare has been one wonderful way of taking care of the poor and the marginalized in our society. I can go to the hospital tonight and not have to be concerned about whether or not I can afford it. Even our poorest and most marginalized members of society can go to a doctor anytime they need and they can be saved from much turmoil and suffering because of that. 

 

In my lifetime there has been much debate about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada. In my lifetime, that superseded the Bill of Rights. In my lifetime, the courts have weighed, and the population and politicians have debated, over and over again what is a right and what is a privilege.  I submit that everything that a society deems as a right, it is incumbent upon that society to provide(!) otherwise we are actively denying people what we declare to be their rights! Everything that is a privilege, however, let the rich and the powerful charge the rest of us whatever they want and suffer the eternal consequences of becoming more rich and more powerful – but really(!) everything that a society declares a right, we as a society have the responsibility to provide that right to everyone regardless of race, religion, creed, or – especially as a Christian, socio-economic status. That is what it means that something is a right! Rights are not for sale. Freedoms are supposed to be free! Freedom should not only be available to the wealthy. A society is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable members. 

 

Earlier this summer I read a book, Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality, by Ed Broadbent, now deceased, former leader of the NDP in Canada. He introduced me to a word that I was not familiar with, ‘decommodification’. Decommodification in this context means that if something is meant for everyone than we shouldn’t be able to withhold it from people who don’t have money. A prime example of how this can work is Medicare – every Canadian citizen (not our guests or foreign workers with closed visas tragically) has a right to go to the hospital and to see a doctor. They don’t need x amount of dollars or the correct kind of medical coverage. Every person (who is a citizen) regardless of anything – even funds – has access to medical care. Education until Grade 12: When what was required to be a productive member of society, receive gainful employment, and real opportunities in life was a grade 12 education; our society decided to provide that for everyone. In my lifetime every Canadian was granted access to kindergarten – not $10 a day kindergarten, not cheques to people hoping they will spend it on kindergarten – everyone no matter how rich or poor was allowed to go to kindergarten.  Now that university is needed for many jobs, as Christians we should probably lobby for the decommodification of university education and probably (given the number of single parent or dual income families) daycare as well. If it is a right; it is only right that we provide it. If it is a freedom, it needs to be freely accessible. If we are Christians, we must not, we cannot, we will not further marginalize the poor! 

 

In my own life I have worked a lot with people in the courts and people in the prisons. You know one thing that people in the courts to some extent and in the prisons to a large extent have in common – they are poor.  

 

I have worked in the circuit courts in Nipawin, Tisdale, Swift Current, and Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. I have sat in court rooms with people in Toronto, Victoria, and Vancouver. I have worked with Restorative Justice in Nipawin, Swift Current, and here in the Alberni Valley. We even ran the Alternative Measures programs for adults and youth in Southwest Saskatchewan, hosted free legal clinics, and ran a transition through incarceration program where during the up to six years I was involved in the program we only had one repeat offender. I have visited people in prisons in BC and SK and volunteered at Stony Mountain federal penitentiary for 2 years in Manitoba with The Salvation Army when I was in Training College. 

 

The Bible tells us that justice needs to be applied evenly. It tells us that favouritism must not be shown to the wealthy. Our legal system needs to be de-commodified. And instead of focussing on punishment which only leads to resentment, an education in criminality, and a high rate of recidivism; from the moment a person is sentenced to whatever they are sentenced, we need to take into account that they are going to be released back into society after x amount of time, decide what we want them to be like when they are released and work to make that a reality – for them AND for everyone else.  

 

Right now prisons produce more hardened criminals who make new criminal connections while in prison. When a person is given a time-out from society why aren’t we providing them with job training and then releasing them to jobs, so they don’t need to steal or sell drugs or rely on welfare? When a person is convicted why don’t we provide them with detox, rehab, and stabilization for the 2 years, 10 years, 6 months, 2 weeks, however long they are sentenced to serve? Why don’t we let them work off their debts to their victims and let their victims experience the healing and wholeness that comes from forgiveness – instead of asking the victims to harm themselves by harbouring hatred and unforgiveness for victim impact statements as we do today? 

 

And referring again to decommodification, why do we discriminate against the poor? I have met many single dads who cannot afford a lawyer, so they have to quit their jobs in order to get legal aid. And then the legal aid assistance they get in many communities is so substandard that they might as well just throw themselves on the mercy of the courts and hope for the best. But the rich person can hire a team of 6 to 8 dedicated lawyers and in that way buy their freedom, assure themselves preferential treatment, and avoid the punishment by-and-large that is meted out on the poorer member of society. 

 

It is the same with dental care. 

It is the same with universities. 

It is the same with housing. 

It is the same with visas. 

It is the same with childcare. 

 

If something is a right, it is incumbent upon a society to provide that right. As Christians we are told to not discriminate against the poor. It is important and it is necessary that as part of our salvation we work towards this. For each of us, as individuals, James 2:14-17:  

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” 

 

And for us as a society, Matthew 25:41-46: 

41 “Then He will say to [THE NATIONS] on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” 

 

For, Matthew 25:40, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 

 

May we be among the righteous.  

 

Let us pray. 

 

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• Psalm 82:3 - 'Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. '  

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• Proverbs 31:8-9 - 'Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. 

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• Psalms 69:32-33: “Let the oppressed see it and be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the Lord hears the needy, and does not despise his own who are in bonds”  

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• Psalms 140:12: “I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy, and executes justice for the poor”  

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• 1 John 3:17: If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? 

 

• Exodus 22:20-27: 

You shall not oppress or afflict an immigrant or a foreigner, for you were once foreigners residing in the land of Egypt. 

You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely listen to their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.

If you lend money to my people, the poor among you, you must not be like a money lender; you must not demand interest from them. If you take your neighbour’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this is his only covering; it is the cloak for his body. What will he sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will listen; for I am compassionate.