Psalm 93 & 2 Chronicles 5:11-6:4: Cloudy Days

This is hamper registration and distribution time at the corps. Hamper time is always an interesting time in any Salvation Army across this country and we’ve been a part of few. The other day as I was readying application forms, appointment cards and Angels for the Angel Tree, I was reminded of one hamper distribution day we had in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

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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Psalm 116:3-4, 2 Samuel 18:6-8, Isaiah 2:4: Bells of Peace

Presented to Royal Canadian Legion Alberni Valley Branch # 293, dignitaries, and members of the public on the occasion of the community Remembrance Day Ceremony marking the centennial of the end of the First World War, 11 November 2018, by Captain Michael Ramsay, RC Legion Padre.

Today at 11:00 we marked the 100^th anniversary of the end of WWI. We remember the peace that soldiers and others died still longing for. We remember.

                   

We remember: at 11:00 on this day 100 years ago church bells spontaneously rang out across Europe celebrating peace after 4 horrible years of war in which 888 246 fatalities were suffered by the military of the British Empire of which Canada was an integral part. This sad number does not include our allies, our rivals, innocent civilians and others. Our family members and our countrymen lived, served, and died in this, the ‘Great War’, the ‘war to end all wars’, the ‘First World War’.
  

When World War One broke out Canada was a very small and sparsely populated country of just over 7 million people. Most were farmers, fishermen, foresters or involved in other primary industries. Many boys and young men left their family and work here to serve in the war there. I have read stories of bankers and teachers and minors and scientists and athletes and farmers and very young people from across this country and Newfoundland who put their jobs, their careers, their parents, their girlfriends, their new wives, their young children, and their whole lives on hold until they returned home from the war - only many never did return home from the war. They were never to be seen again by their wives, their children, their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers.
  

Almost 7% of the total population of our country – 619 000 Canadians served in this war and 66 976 Canadians never returned. That was almost 1% (0.92%) of our country's whole population and it was almost 1-out-of-every-5 boys aged 16-24: meaning that in a community the size of Port Alberni now, 170 people would have been killed in the war. If you lived in Canada then, you would know more than one person who did not return.

Canada contributed greatly and sacrificed much in the First World War. Our soldiers’ many achievements on the battlefield culminated in three months of victories that led to the end of the war: this was known as “Canada’s Hundred Days.”

Canada’s efforts at Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, and elsewhere earned our army the reputation for being the best troops on the Western Front. Because of this Canadian soldiers were given the responsibility of being at the forefront of the attack. This earned faith of our allies came at a great price. In the last 100 days of the war alone, our Canadian soldiers suffered usually more than 100 casualties each day.

During the last 100 days of WWI, Canada’s 100 Days, more than 6,800 Canadians, First Nations, and Newfoundlanders were killed and approximately 39,000 wounded. And just 2 minutes before 11am on November 11^th, 1918. Just 2 minutes before the world would the end ‘the war to end all wars’ and our service people would be able to come home to their families that missed them and love them, 2 minutes before 11am, Nov. 11^th 1918, Canadian Private George Lawrence Price was fatally shot in the left breast. He did not return home.

Here, in the Alberni Valley, of the only 1600 people who lived here at the time 116 of them – more than 17% of our population – signed up to go overseas in just the first few months of the war alone.

We know about Cyril Woodward who was only 15 when he enlisted.

We know about the Redford boys - 3 brothers who enlisted from our area.  Edward, 29, was wounded in a non-combat incident with a shell that killed 2 of his companions. His brother William, age 19, was wounded in combat and sent home and their brother Douglas at age 20 was killed in action – never to see home again.

And then there is the poet Charles Samuel Bannell from the area. In November of 1916 he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and less than a year later, on Oct 30th, 1917 he was killed in action.

And we know About George Bird Jr. He attended the school in the basement of the Watson home on Argyle St. He was a member of the swim club, played soccer; enjoyed hiking, fishing and hunting. He worked at his father’s mill until he got a job as a clerk at the Royal Bank of Canada in 1907. Then, November 25, 1915, at the age of 24, George Bird Jr. enlisted the military. He took part in the capture of Vimy Ridge and other significant battles of the war and a year and a half later, on June 5, 1917 he died of wounds sustained in battle.

There are many stories from the Alberni Valley and around the world of the young people who served, lived, and died as they left their families, their communities, and their lives behind to march out of their country and into the horrors of war.

Today in the Scriptures we read briefly about the horrors of a war in which there were 20 000 casualties, one of which was King David’s own son.  Lest we forget the tragedies of war. Let us not forget.

And in the Christian faith, of which I am a minister, we remember Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, who laid down his life for us all.

Today, on the centennial of the conclusion of the First World War we have shared some stories of the many young people who lived, died and served from Alberni Valley. But the First World War was sadly not the last world war.

When the second World War broke out, Canada was a country of 11 million people and we sent more than one million of our family members to serve in the military and of those more than 100 000 sustained casualties; 45 000 gave their lives. Many of us have friends and family who marched out of our community and our country to offer their lives up in service to us. My own grandmother’s brother who left the family farm to serve overseas never did speak of the day they were surrounded by the enemy in the war. We who have not served in that way can’t possibly even imagine what he and others experienced on that day.

My own grandfather returned home to Canada from California where he was working when war broke out so that he could serve God, King and country in the Second World War. He signed up with a number of his friends. I believe he was the only one of them that signed up together that day who lived to see the end of the war.

I have these cards from my family members who served in both world wars. These are some of my treasured possessions. This one from April 2, 1917 says:

Dear Sister, Just a line to let you know that I am alive yet, and hope to continue the same. Tell Albert when he gets time to drop me a line. Bye, Bye, Love from Frank.

These are some of my cherished possessions. I look at these and I remember my family. I remember all those that risked their lives for us. I remember. I hope I never forget. I hope my daughters never forget. I hope we never forget. Let us never forget their sacrifices and let us not sacrifice the peace that they won for us. Let us not forsake them and let us not forget them.

This evening at dusk across this country, Bells of Peace will be ringing. They will be ringing to remember the people who gave their lives while still hoping for peace. They will be ringing as we remember how the church bells rang out across Europe on this day 100 years ago celebrating the peace that we had been praying for.

Today we remember our brothers and sisters, our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents, our comrades-in-arms; all who are veterans lived and some died so that we would not have to live through the horrors of war again.

It is said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. This evening the bells of peace will be ringing out across this country reminding us of the terrible price of war. Today we are wearing poppies as a pledge that we will never forget our friends, our family, our loved ones, and our veterans who offered their lives in service to us. Let us not forsake them. Let us not forget. Lest we forget. Lest we forget.

Let us pray.