A devotional thought presented originally to River Street Cafe, Regent Park Toronto, Friday 17 June 2016
Read
Genesis 4:3-8
There are consequences for giving into sin.
It really is crouching at the door, just like God warns Cain before he strikes
his brother.
Sin is like a house cat patiently hiding in
the grass waiting for a bird to land in front of it. If you have ever watched a
cat stalk its prey, you will know that as the moment of attack comes closer and
closer, the cat becomes more and more excited: her limbs start twitching, her
ears press back against her head, her eyes grow wide, and then when she can’t
control it any longer, her tail starts to wag and she pounces on her
unsuspecting prey.
This is what Sin is like with Cain. In his
anger, he is like that bird landing in the cat’s backyard. God warns him not to
stay in his anger or he will be caught by sin but Cain is too blinded by his
dejection. Like a bird focusing on a worm or some other prey below, he is so
focused on his anger that he ignores God’s warning not to stay in his anger.
He instead defies God. God warns him to take flight from his anger and thoughts
of vengeance before it is too late. God tells Cain - take your eyes off that worm
- that the cat is about to pounce! God tells him that ‘… if you do NOT do what
is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must
master it.’ But it is too late; Cain strikes out at Abel and sin grabs a hold
of Cain. Cain seems to feel that striking out at Abel will relieve his feelings
of dejection from his perceived rejection; he feels that striking out in anger,
releasing his rage will satisfy his urges - but alas that is not true. Sin is
crouching at his door, Cain steps out onto the front porch of misplaced
vengeance and it is already too late; sin springs into action and Cain is
caught.
Do we ever get caught in this trap? Do we
ever get so focused on our own selfish feelings that we do not notice that
that is exactly what the devil and sin want us to do? Do we ever get so
focused on our perceived rights, rather than our God-given responsibilities;
do we ever get so caught up in our own world, becoming angry with others and
striking out at them, that in the process we leave ourselves vulnerable to the
devil and sin?
This passage is warning us about taking our
eyes off of our Lord and instead focusing on our own selfish feelings and it is
warning us against over-reacting and striking out against our brothers and
sisters.
So, let us remember when we are tempted to
walk out on that porch of selfishness, superiority, self-pity, retribution and
spite; when we are tempted to walk out on that porch of jealousy and rage, let
us remember that sin is crouching at our door and it desires to have us but we
don’t need to blindly fly into its path like an unsuspecting bird focusing only
on its own prey.
Instead we can open our eyes, pray to
God, and master sin rather than being mastered by it.
Last night Britain voted to leave Europe. England and Wales want to go; Scotland and N.Ireland want to stay. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, has resigned. “Any kingdom divided against itself will be
ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall...”
“...If Satan is divided
against himself, how can his kingdom stand?” (Lk 11:23, Mt 12:30) Jesus says,
“He who is not with me is against me.” Jesus has been accused of exorcising
demons by demonic power (Lk 11:15, Mt 12:24, Mk 3:22). A conviction of
witchcraft was punishable by death. Jesus answers this charge by saying that
not only is He innocent but also it is impossible to drive out evil with evil
as is charged. Only good can drive out evil. Therefore since Jesus can drive
out evil, He is good; thus if you oppose Him than you, by definition, are evil.
“He who is not with me is against me.”
Today are we with him or against him?
Jesus casts out demons while telling this story of a divided house and even a parable of an haunted house. Sin, in
this parable, has many parallels with addiction. Any of us who have ever
struggled with addiction know that each time one becomes clean and then slips
up, it becomes more difficult to become clean again and remain that way. The
metaphorical demons of addiction, like literal demons and sin, return stronger
(with more friends) each time. It doesn’t need to be that way. Jesus can clean
our houses and when Jesus cleans our house we can let Him keep it clean too
(TSA d.6, d.10)!
So what can we do? We can do nothing to
clean the house: Jesus defeated sin and death between the cross and the empty
tomb (TSA d.6) but looking at Luke 11:27, we notice a woman who calls out to
Jesus, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.” To which
Jesus reponds, as we should to the deliverance He has offered us, “blessed
rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it (Lk 11:28).” “He who is
not with me is against me”
This is the choice set before us today.
We can ask Jesus to sweep our life clean and He will. We then need to choose
who we will serve. We can serve ourselves, our own desires; we can serve the
Enemy by inviting demons to haunt our lives again or we can serve the Lord and
live life abundantly (TSA d.6 d.8). Today we must decide, are we with our Lord
or are we against him?
Please remember too that any of us can
ask our Lord Jesus to clean our haunted houses. Even if He has already cleaned
it once or one hundred times and we have messed it up again. While we still
have breath in our body, we can invite Him back into our lives to clean us up,
sort us out and we can continue receiving the Lord’s blessing of eternal life,
Luke 11:28, “blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” As
we do this, we will continue in the blessing of the Holy Spirit. This is
holiness and this holiness is available to all but we must make a choice (TSA
d.10).
Today the choice is yours: are you with Jesus or against Him?
[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, Luke 11:14-28: The Haunted House. Originally presented to Swift Current Corps 31 October
2010. http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2010/10/luke-1114-28-matthew-1225-29-parable-of.html
A devotional thought presented originally to River Street Cafe, Regent Park Toronto, Friday 10 June 2016 by Captain Michael Ramsay and the Arthur Meighen Centre, 15 June 2016 by Sarah-Grace Ramsay
Read Luke
6:26-31
Every volunteer in Martin Luther King Junior’s movement
for freedom was required to sign the following pledge.
I HEREBY PLEDGE MYSELF – MY PERSON AND BODY
– TO THE NON-VIOLENT MOVEMENT. THEREFORE I WILL KEEP THE FOLLOWING TEN
COMMANDMENTS:
MEDITATE
daily on the teachings and life of Jesus
REMEMBER
always that the nonviolent movement in Birmingham seeks justice and
reconciliation – not victory.
WALK and TALK
in the manner of love, for God is love.
PRAY
daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free.
SACRIFICE
personal wishes in order that all men might be free.
OBSERVE
with friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy.
SEEK to
perform regular service for others and for the world.
REFRAIN
from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart.
STRIVE to
be in good spiritual and bodily health.
FOLLOW
the directions of the movement and of the captain of a demonstration.
I sign this pledge having seriously
considered what I do and with the determination and will to persevere.
God used the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther
King Junior to change a country and to change our world. God used him to
peacefully initiate reconciliation. Here is a key note: This was done in the
power of Jesus. When Martin Luther King Jr. was violently killed by his enemies,
his friends refused the temptation to respond in kind. They gave up their right
for vengeance and thus reconciliation was possible. MLK, just like Bishop
Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela after him, followed Jesus and Jesus' teaching on peace and
reconciliation and whole countries and our whole world were changed because of
it. Just think, as we follow Jesus and His teaching on peace and reconciliation how much He
will change our societies, our communities, and even our very lives. www.sheepspeak.com
Presented to TSA Corps 614 RegentPark, Toronto, 29 May 2016 by Captain Michael Ramsay. Presented to TSA Alberni Valley, 06 November 2022 by Major Michael Ramsay
Today, I want you to remember one thing about Romans
14-16 and that is, ‘Don’t condemn, don’t despise each other’. What is the one
thing I want you to remember?
.
As many of you know, Susan and the
kids are vegetarians: Rebecca and Sarah-Grace are quite devoted to the cause. I
have a story about how that all began. Susan tells the story a little
differently but this is my recollection.
.
Many years ago, Susan and I were
studying Richard Foster’s Celebration of
Discipline while we were part of 614 Vancouver.
We were encouraged to try each of the disciplines as we read the book. Susan
began exploring vegetarianism – for her it was is much about stewardship of God’s
earth as anything else. If you ask her another time, I am sure she will quite
happily tell you more about this. .
While we were studying Celebration of Discipline and after
Susan had experimented with vegetarianism for a couple of days, I went grocery
shopping with a 2 or 3-year old Rebecca and a 1 or 2-year old Sarah-Grace. That
wasn’t always so easy. To help them settle, I would often tell them that if
they co-operated I would let them watch the live trout or lobsters in their
tanks at the store. I was trying to get everything on the list Susan gave me
and contain a two year-old who wanted to wander here, there and everywhere – the
one year-old was firmly secured in the shopping cart, so caging the two year-old
there was not an option; thus I let Rebecca look at the trout swimming around
as I was getting everything near there in the store. Then as I was putting a packaged
fish in my shopping cart, Rebecca looked at the package and asked, ‘Where do
fish come from?’
.
When I told Susan that story at
dinner it led to future discussions with Rebecca and from then on Susan was
very good at encouraging Rebecca in her vegetarianism. Rebecca, in turn,
encouraged Sarah-Grace who was even younger and for a couple of years Sarah-Grace
would say that she too was a vegetarian but her favourite vegetable was
sausages.
.
Romans 14:2: “Some believe in eating anything but
the weak eat only vegetables.”
.
What is the one thing I said I want us to remember
today? (Don’t condemn, don’t despise each other)
.
Romans 14:2: “Some believe in
eating anything but the weak eat only vegetables.” Is this was Paul is writing
about in Romans… contemporary vegetarianism grounded in a respect for the
environment or a view of animals as friends or pets? Does it mean that all
vegetarians are weak people who should be more like us strong meat eaters? No.
.
Let’s try to figure out what this
verse is saying by exploring the context a little bit. But first, what is the
one thing I said I want us to remember today? (Don’t condemn, don’t despise
each other)
.
This week, I read a lot of
Biblical scholars and historians’ writings about these ‘weak’ vegetarians,
hoping to gain some insight into why these Christians were not eating meat.
Some academics think that these vegetarians were Gentiles.[1] Some
think that since some Jews – the Essenes – didn’t eat much meat and were very
strong in keeping Sabbath laws, maybe as they became Christians, they were the
vegetarians to whom Paul is referring. The problem with this is that the
Essenes kept very much to themselves. They were like the Hutterites in the
Canadian prairies or even the Amish.[2] They
wouldn’t be a part of society as a whole – especially Roman society; they would
keep very much to themselves.
.
Others have suggested that these
people were not Christian Essene Jews but simply everyday regular Christian
Jews.[3] Paul
in his other letters speaks a lot about meat sacrificed to idols. In the first
century they didn’t have Loblaw’s, Sobeys or Safeway. Butcher shops and market
places in the Roman Empire were often located
in pagan temples. When someone brought an animal to be butchered for eating, it
would be offered as a sacrifice. The leftovers from various sacrifices could
often be sold in the market alongside other butchered meat; so some Jews and even
some Christian Jews didn’t want to risk eating any meat that had been
sacrificed to an idol so they just didn’t eat meat at all.[4] The
problem with this idea is that – in contrast to his other letters - Paul
doesn’t specifically here deal with meat sacrificed to idols and the other mentioned
areas of abstinence aren’t generally associated with Jewish culture (but cf.
the Nasserite vow) and if they are, they aren’t tied to not eating meat.
.
So then who are these 'weak' vegetarians to whom Paul is referring? …Basically the answer is… we don’t know.
Some of the best scholars disagree with each other and none of them make an
overwhelmingly compelling argument. But we do know that they weren’t like PETA
or today’s vegetarians who think of eating meat as eating a pet or even a
friend. There is no record of that concept in the ancient world. And they probably
were not like Christian vegetarians today who refrain from eating meat as a way
of being good stewards of the earth. We don’t really know who these people are
that Paul refers to as weak but we do know that ‘eating only meat’ is 1 of 3
attributes of the weak he addresses: .
Romans
14:2: Some believe in eating anything, but the weak eat only vegetables.
Romans
14:5: Some (the weak) consider one day to be better than another.
Romans
14:21: It is good to not drink wine
What was that one thing that I said I wanted us all
to remember about today? (Don’t condemn, don’t despise each other)
.
We talked about the uncertainties
around not eating meat. There was also the same uncertainties around judging
one day as better than the other. Jews had a lot of feast days. This could be
what this passage is talking about. Maybe the Jewish Christians were still
celebrating all of the old Jewish feast days and the Gentiles couldn’t or
didn’t want to keep up with all of that. Maybe some Jewish Christians were
saying that is what is important and maybe this is what Paul is saying doesn’t
really matter. This may refer to – or at least be extended to – the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is Saturday and some Jewish Christians would still celebrate the
Sabbath in synagogue on Saturday before they would get together with other
Christians on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Paul might be saying that this is what
doesn’t matter.[5]
Everyday for the Christian is supposed be Sabbath. That might be part of what
he is talking about but what is the important thing he is focusing on that I
want us to remember for today? (Don’t condemn, don’t despise each other)
.
Next there is the drinking. Paul
says that just like weak Christians don’t eat meat, they also don’t drink and
we have no idea what this is all about but we do know that Paul says here in
Verse 21 that it is GOOD not to eat meat or to drink wine. What is the
important thing he is focusing on that I want us to remember for today? (Don’t
condemn, don’t despise each other)
.
‘Don’t condemn, don’t despise!’
This is the main part about all of these things. For some reason the here
called ‘weak’ people, they didn’t eat meat or drink wine, and they held some
days as more important than others. These people apparently thought that
everyone should act like they do. They thought that because they were right in
their own estimation not to drink or eat meat that nobody else should. Paul
says in Verse 3 and elsewhere that these people were getting a little - what we
would call it in my day? - ‘holier than thou.’ Paul calls these ‘holier than thou’
people, weak. He tells them that they are not to condemn people in the church
here (v.3). Paul says if they aren’t your employees, they don’t have to answer
to you. They serve God so they answer to Him (v.4). If we insult each other
like this, Paul says, then we are really insulting Christ (15:3) and that is
never good. To the holier than thou group, Paul says, ‘Stop it! ‘You’re not the
boss of them.’[6]
‘Don’t condemn others!’ .
Then to the others – to the
so-called ‘strong’ Christians, Paul says, ‘smarten up!’ They’re not to judge
you but you DON’T despise them. How easy is it for people to ‘write off’
others? How easy it is for us to simply despise people as hypocrites and have
nothing to do with them? Paul says don’t be so selfish![7] Christ
died for those people I just called weak just like he died for you supposedly
strong people. Because of this, Romans 14:7-8, we aren’t supposed to just live
for ourselves and do whatever we like; we are supposed to live for Christ and
live for others.[8]
If your friend doesn’t drink, don’t go out for dinner with them and order a
pint of beer or a glass of wine. That’s just mean. Don’t tempt them to do
something that might be very bad for them. Don’t despise them because they
don’t drink. Don’t put a stumbling block in their way.
.
Paul also says it really doesn’t
matter if some people observe every special day in the church. To bring this
into a bit more of a contemporary context: does anyone remember ‘fish Fridays’?
In the Roman Catholic Church when I was a kid anyway, they would not eat any
meat but fish on Fridays. So – as an evangelical - if you were going to go out
to a fish ’n chips restaurant, it would be wise to pick a different day than Friday;
they were just packed.
.
Also, does anyone remember when
there was no Sunday shopping? It was very recently on the prairies. To this day,
some Christians still refuse to buy anything on Sundays. I remember my college
church group even on secular Vancouver Island,
decades ago, would have spaghetti lunches at one point so that we wouldn’t go
out for lunch on Sundays. The Apostle Paul is saying none of this matters; so
stop despising your friends who want to keep these days as holy. And for those
of you that are just keeping one day as holy, remember that God made all of the
days and so as such, every day is the Lord’s day. . What is the one thing that we need
to remember today? (Don’t condemn and don’t despise others!’)
.
To the weak Paul says, ‘don’t
condemn!’ To the strong Paul says, ‘don’t despise!’ This is so important. We
are not supposed to fight with each other. We are supposed to help each other; we
need to stop our bickering.[9] If you
flip to Chapter 16:17-20, that we read earlier, you will notice what Paul says
about all this and about all of us: .
I urge you, brothers and sisters,
to keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offenses, in opposition to
the teaching that you have learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve
our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they
deceive the hearts of the simple-minded. For while your obedience is known to
all, so that I rejoice over you, I want you to be wise in what is good and
guiltless in what is evil. The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your
feet.
In other words, don’t bud into things that are none
of your business! Don’t cause trouble! Don’t despise or condemn one another!
Instead encourage each other in obedience, be wise in what is good and be guiltless
in what is evil and then God will crush Satan under our feet. Jesus died on the
cross and rose again not so that we will despise and condemn each other; quite
the opposite. He died and rose again so that we may live and that we may live
our life abundantly. So to that end I encourage us all today to encourage each
other, uphold the week, and support the strong in Jesus Name. .
What was the one thing we should remember today?
(Don’t condemn and despise others!’) .
[1]
Paul J. Achtemeier, Romans.
Interpretation: (Atlanta, Georgia: John Knox Press, 1985), 214
[2]
W.E Vines, “Week in Faith”, in Vine's
Word Studies of New Testament Vol. III. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal
Publishers Inc., 1939), p. 166.
[3]
NT Wright, Romans for Everyone Part 2: Chapters 9-16 (Louisville, US:
WKJ, 2004), 95.
[4]
Cf. Michael Ramsay, 1 Corinthians 6-10:
In Tents Storm of Life: Everything is Permissible but Not Everything is
Beneficial. (Swift Current The Salvation Army: Sheepspeak, 01 June 2014)
On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/05/1-corinthians-6-10-in-tents-storm-of.html
cf. also N.T. Wright, '1 Corinthians' in Paul
for Everyone, (Louisville,
Kentucky: Westminster John Knox
Press, 2004), 98.
[5]
Cf. William Hendricksen, Exposition of
Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, NTC (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic:
1981), 458.
[6]The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance
of the Bible, 2919: ‘Krino’, (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing,
1995), 51.
[7]
Cf. N.T. Wright, The Letter to the Romans
(NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 475.
[8]
Cf. Alan Le Grys, The Expository Times
122 (11). ‘11th September: Proper 19: Vision and
Reality’.(August 2011), 549
[9]
Cf. John Stott, Romans, (Downers
Grove, Ill., IVP, 1994), 369.
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