Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 06 Nov. 2011
By Captain Michael Ramsay (Chaplain, RCMP F Division)
Galatians 5:19-25: The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
2 Timothy 2:14-16: Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarrelling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.
Philippians 4:8-9: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Ephesians 5:1: Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children…
The Message today is entitled ‘Imitators not Innovators’ and its theme runs through the entire New Testament. This week I was on a couple of courses. Monday and Tuesday of this week, I was part of a class being trained on Violence Threat Risk Assessment by J. Kevin Cameron; he is the fellow who led the crisis response team following the 1999 school shooting in Taber, Alberta. I was there with many high school teachers and school personnel, the Fire Chief, City RCMP sergeant and others. Thursday and Friday of this week, I was taking ICS 300 and there were the Fire and the RCMP personnel again. (This course was taught by Fire Chief Denis Pilon.) Incident Command System 300 is a course that teaches different groups how to interact in an emergency disaster. Recently The Salvation Army has assigned me some new responsibilities in that area in the southern province so I thought it best to keep on top of these things. It is important to practice and think about what skills we will need to survive and thrive in an emergency. Philippians 4:8 records, “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…think about such things.” This is important because we tend to imitate what we surround ourselves with. 2 Timothy 2:16-17a, “Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene…” Kevin Cameron of the Canadian Centre for Threat Assessment said that the vast majority of people are imitators not innovators.[1] Ephesians 5:1 says, ‘Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children’ (cf. Matthew 5:44–45, 48; Luke 6:36; 1 Peter 2:21).[2]
Let me share with you information from our course about some of the things that the children in our schools are imitating. There is a 1999 movie starring Brad Pitt called Fight Club. The premise is that people get together and organize secret fighting matches between combatants. Did you know that, among other things, from this movie that adults and youth across this country and the USA have started setting up fight clubs? We watched Youtube clips of kids, some young and some obviously not fighters, being egged on into brutally beating each other in front of the camera cell phones. We saw one clip of girls surrounding another and even kicking her in the mouth when she was down. The whole time people, instead of helping, people have their phone cameras on, and they post these scenes on the Internet. As this goes on-line it becomes even scarier because it can perpetuate the violence cycle even further and faster because indeed most people don’t create; most are imitators not innovators.
There is even worse than this still. We saw one clip of two boys punching, kicking, and fighting each other in the classroom, being videoed and the images put on-line. At the end of this scene you can see the students watching and involved: they are quickly running away. What do you think happened? Why were the kids in the classroom running away? The teacher came? No. The Vice Principal came – the teacher was in the classroom filming this event. The teacher set up a fight between two of his students and put it on-line. This is reminiscent of the two teachers who not that long ago thought that it would be appropriate to partake in a lap-dance in front of the student body in a Winnipeg school. These students and teachers were imitating what they have seen on TV and the Internet and then they put this on the Internet for others to imitate – the cycle of inappropriate behaviour and the cycle of violence spreads quickly.[3] 2 Timothy 2:16-17a, “Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene…” (See also. Romans 1:20–32; 1 Corinthians 6:9–10; Galatians 5:19–21); Philippians 4:8 records, “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…think about such things.” Ephesians 5:1 says, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children”
Cameron says, “Most people are imitators not innovators.” We are all susceptible to our environment (cf. Romans 1:20–32; 1 Corinthians 6:9–10; Galatians 5:19–21; cf. also Matthew 5:44–45, 48; Luke 6:36; 1 Peter 2:21). Especially, one deemed an empty vessel: “A person who is not connected to a healthy mature adult will search for people or things to identify with. A person who feels empty will try to fill themselves up with something [sic]. In VTRA [Violence Threat Risk Assessment] the question is, ‘What are they filling themselves up with?’”[4] I think most of us have gone through times in our lives when we would fit the definition of an ‘empty vessel’ – someone searching for something to fill ourselves up with (We used to call this a ‘God-shaped void’) - what happens when we find something other than God to fill the void in ourselves with? When searching for something for which to fill ourselves, most people are imitators not innovators – so who and what then are we imitating?[5]
Did you know that most school shooters spend a great deal of time researching other school shooters and how they do it before they commit their crimes? This is how they try to fill the void. This is what they seek to imitate. The school shooting in Taber, Alberta happened only weeks after the Columbine shootings in the United States of America. The largest spree of mass shootings in the US happened after CNN reported on the 1992 Dawson College shooting in Montreal, BQ. People who were near the edge, looking for something with which to fill their painful emptiness with saw on the news what happened in Montreal, picked up their own guns and imitated what they saw on CNN. Most of these empty vessel shootings, by the way, were committed by men not boys; adults not children. Most people – adults and children alike - are imitators not innovators; Ephesians 5:1, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children” Concentrating on, Philippians 4:8, “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…think about such things.”
I saw a clip in our Threat Assessment course from the video game Grand Theft Auto – I’m not sure which version. In this video game, the character you play not only steals cars as the name suggests. The characters look realistic and one can make his/her character have relations with a prostitute and then beat her to death. Did you know that some parents have let their children as young as six years old play this game? Parents have let their children’s friends play this game when they come over to their house. One lady, who heard this information at a course, volunteered that her husband plays this game with her child. This is scary because most of us are imitators not innovators. We can only imitate what we see and this is the kind of stuff our post-Christian North American society is saying we should be able to fill our minds with. Is it any wonder that North America has more mass murderers than the rest of the world combined? Timothy 2:16-17a, “Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene…” Most people are imitators not innovators; therefore, Ephesians 5:1, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.”[6]
I think sometimes we think that some of the things that we see on TV and some of the things that we do on the Internet and in video games, they can’t harm us. I think we can be tricked into thinking that they are harmless. You have all heard, I’m sure that many people have watched the movies we mentioned, many people have played the video games we mentioned who did not turn into the murderers that I was studying this week. This is important: these games, these TV shows, the Internet and even news casts – they don’t force people to kill themselves and other people. What they do is they push people, who are struggling to fill the empty vessel within themselves, over the edge. People are imitators not innovators and the only things they can imitate are what they see. Like we said off the top, most school shooters spend a lot of time researching how their predecessors committed similar violent crimes. People are imitators. What are we as a culture giving them to imitate and, we as Christians, what are we imitating and what imitating are we modelling for our other brothers and sisters? Before I quit drinking to be a soldier in The Salvation Army, I can’t tell you the number of times that I was involved in barroom ministry that by the end of the evening turned into considerably more barroom than ministry, if you know what I mean. Most people are imitators not innovators; therefore, Ephesians 5:1, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children”
Sometimes too do we think that no one will see us if we are at home supposedly by ourselves partaking in a little self-indulgence in some of these things that we are talking about today? In the other course I took this week, the ICS 300 course, we were reminded that nothing we say or do is private. Media can zoom in on us from a great distance away these days and share what we say and do with the whole world. The fire chief told us a story about how one fire fighter told another walking out of a fire that he thought they should have used a different sized hose than the one they did. A TV camera picked this up from a distance, read their lips, and then someone successfully sued the department for using the wrong hose – which they didn’t, by the way. How much more can are our own actions viewed by God our father too? If the CBC can pick you up from a mile away how much better range does our Lord have? He can pick up even what is in our thoughts and think of the pain you cause him if you choose to fill yourself with all of this stuff that is harmful to yourself and others. Most people are imitators not innovators. Ephesians 5:1, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children”
I have two or three more quick stories to share with you today. We were told this one story of an imitator in these school shootings. He walked into his favourite teacher’s classroom, climbed up on a desk, and pointed the loaded gun at the class with his finger on the trigger. At this point, instead of panicking, instead of diving under desks or heading for the door, the teacher who was standing beside the armed student, said, “Listen up class, I think John has something he wants to tell us.” Listen up class; I think John has something he wants to tell us. At this point the boy broke down and cried. Philippians 4:8: “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…think about such things.” Ephesians 5:1 says, ‘Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children’
God saved them. God is the only one who could save them and God is the only one who can save us (cf. Acts 4:12, Philippians 3:7-11). In the ICS 300 course we heard an audio clip from a six-alarm fire in Toronto. At one point a fire fighter is trapped on a floor when his oxygen tank runs out. He has no air. He had no expectation of survival. He calls for help. He collapses on the floor. For no apparent reason the elevator, which has another fire fighter in it, opens directly on that floor. The fire fighter in the elevator notices his colleague collapsed as his feet and drags him into the elevator and away to safety. The official line is that we don’t know how it happened that he was saved. The truth is, we all know how he was saved. God saved him. God is the only one who could save them and God is the only one who can save us. Ephesians 5:1 says, ‘Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children’
I have one more story about someone who is more and more every day imitating our saviour. We at The Salvation Army in Swift Current here are developing a programme to help people who are sent to prison from our community to transition back into this community. I have one friend who I sat in court with through his trial, visited in the cells, kept in touch with when he was away in prison and made contact with immediately after he was released. I spoke to him just the other night. Do you know what the Lord is doing in his life? He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. He has taken not one but two anger management courses; he was telling me an anecdote of how he held his tempter in a serious situation the other day. He has a job. He has a place to stay. He is starting to eat healthy. He is keeping active. He is going to a church. He is keeping in touch with me and he is keeping in touch another pastor in town. He is getting tapped into a community of believers. He is praying and he is being blessed. As He is spending time with God, God is changing him from the inside out. He is indeed, Philippians 4:8, concentrating “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…think about such things.” For we are all primarily imitators not innovators and my friend is being an imitator of Christ and as he is, God is indeed transforming his life. Ephesians 5:1 says, ‘Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children’. And as we are, God will indeed transform our lives from the inside out as well.
Let us pray.
[1] Kevin Cameron, Violence Threat Assessment (VTRA) Level One Training Guide (Canadian Centre for Threat Assessment and Trauma Response: 2011), 38.
[2] Cf. Francis Foulkes, Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1989 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 10), S. 144
[3] Donald Guthrie, Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 164: "Whenever men waste time on trivialities they merit the same condemnation. But the more serious aspect is the effect upon others, for this method of futile argument only ruins those who listen."
[4] Kevin Cameron, Violence Threat Assessment (VTRA) Level One Training Guide (Canadian Centre for Threat Assessment and Trauma Response: 2011), 38.
[5] Cf. Ralph P. Martin, Philippians: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1987 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 11), S. 179
[6] A. Skevington Wood, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Ephesians/Exposition of Ephesians/III. Practice: The Application to Christian Life (4:1-6:20)/C. Christian Behavior Patterns (4:25-5:2), Book Version: 4.0.2: "Paul invites his readers to imitate God. What follows elucidates his meaning. A child will show himself to be a true child by wanting to grow up like his father. In the same way, God's precious `children (tekna, those born from him) will be eager to copy him, as he enables them. This was the teaching of Jesus himself."
Posts
