Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 19 September 2021, by Captain Michael Ramsay
A
few interesting things happened in the previous week or two – well, lots of
things actually – but one or two things I’d particularly like to share today.
You
know of course that The Salvation Army has a drug and alcohol policy: we don’t
drink or do drugs at work (or soldiers anywhere, anytime). I recently needed to
print out our drug and alcohol policy and go over it with some of our volunteers,
staff, or community partners. Apparently one or two folks may not have remembered (even
though they all read it when they were hired or started volunteering) that they
can’t use drugs at work with our clients. You'd think that would be self-evident, a ‘no-brainer’
as they say. We don’t want to harm people and we do want to help people, but
good, well-meaning folks actually needed to be reminded that they shouldn’t use
drugs with our clients. There are many reasons for this and God gave us an
object lesson, an example of being sober so we can help others out; as well as a lesson about the very real dangers of drug use, this week.
On
this past Sunday, Rees, one of our employees, the one who saved the dog’s life
a week or two previous, saved a person’s life as he was walking to work. The
person overdosed outside of the OPS, the safe injection site; there was no one
there who called 9-11; there was no one there who tried to revive him; there
was no one there who was helping him; maybe he didn’t use inside the site, who knows?
Rees saw the person on the sidewalk and Rees saw he was starting to turn blue.
He stopped. He gave him some Narcan. He called 9-11. God used Rees to save his
life. Praise be to God.
And
thanks be to God as well for this gentle reminder of this self-evident, ‘no-brainer’ that we should be sober when at work and when heading to work – like Rees
was – so that we can be used to help others.
Paul,
Barnabas, Silvanus, Apollos, or whoever dictated Hebrews concludes this letter
or sermon with this gentle reminder of some very important points for anyone who serves Jesus to
remember as we go about our daily lives.[1] The first four of which should be self evident for all
Jesus’ followers so that we are available to serve God and others.
1) He says that we should have genuine affection for one another, for fellow Christians. If you see me on the street tomorrow you shouldn’t duck and hide
(as tempting as it may be!); wave and smile instead; do not try and run away
before I notice you. We shouldn’t try to avoid one another; we should genuinely
look forward to seeing each other. We are, after all, all on the same team – or
at least we should be.
2) Then he says that not only should we be happy to see each other and genuinely
care about one another; we should also be nice to strangers, to people who aren’t
part of our group here. (This may be referring to Christians you don’t know –
such as itinerant preachers – but it should certainly apply to any stranger.)[2] This week, a fellow who is
a stranger to us but well known to the Parksville Salvation Army came in here
seeking help. Nichi and Leslie were right there helping. They called me from another
part of the building and I called Major Norm in Parksville and we prayed together
offering support and other help as we were able.
If there is some way you can build a relationship with a stranger that
is great. I love to go down to the Bread of Life many days for lunch. I often
have conversations with people on the street – the fact that I almost always
wear my uniform or logo-ed gear helps a lot! When needed, I also
direct people to opportunities for them to help others or to be helped as the case may be.
3) Paul, Barnabas, Silvanus, Apollos, or whoever dictated this letter or
sermon to the Hebrews, gently reminds us that even more than genuinely looking forward to
seeing each other, and being sociable to strangers; we should remember those
who are in real need in our community. Pray for those who are mistreated in
society. The letter/sermon here particularly mentions prisoners. As awful as
our prisons are today – and they are awful – in the First Century Roman Empire,
friends of the prisoners had to provide their food and basic necessities
themselves;[3]
so if you didn’t have any friends or if your friends were ashamed or afraid to
be associated with you… Today, who are those with no friends and support? Who
are those who are in real danger or jeopardy? How can we help them? How can we remember
them? You can chat with people up here – I think we might start our coffee
times up here again soon; we can have lunch at the soup kitchen; we can help
out on the food truck – that is a great way to get to know those who are
mistreated. And of course, we can all pray for those in need.
4) Paul, Barnabas, Silvanus, Apollos, or whoever dictated this letter or
sermon then says that as well as genuinely looking forward to seeing each other,
being sociable to strangers, and remembering those who are in real need in our
community; we need to pay special attention to our marriages. He mentions two
ways. 1) don’t commit adultery with outsiders and 2) don’t the two of you do
anything immoral.[4]
Honour one another.
Just like how this week, we had to actually put in writing that our staff and community partners may not do drugs with our clients, something that one would think would be self-evident, these first four items are what Paul, Barnabas, Apollos, or whoever dictated this letter or sermon thinks are the self-evident. He gently reminds us that all Christians should honestly and almost instinctively:
- look forward to seeing each other,
- be sociable to strangers,
- remember those who are in real need in our community,
- and pay special attention to our marriages.
And
then Paul, Barnabas, Silvanus, Apollos, or whoever dictated this letter or
sermon, tells us something a little more tricky. He says that, just as we are
to genuinely care for each other and love strangers, we are NOT to care for and
love money in the same way (cf. 1 Tim 6:10). This plays out a couple of
different ways. 1) We as individuals aren’t supposed to love money and 2)
corporately, as a society we aren’t supposed to love money. The church, we know,
is not a building, it is a community, a society and it is (or should be) a
society that does not love money.
There
was a meeting of the ACRD’s Emergency Support Services this week. These are some
of the people who help in emergencies in our community. The Salvation Army has
an MOU with the ACRD to provide various services, so I was there. The meeting
was at the Beaver Creek Firehall. It was great to get a tour of the building,
see the fancy expensive trucks, and hear what the fire chief and others had to
tell us before our regularly scheduled meeting.
One
thing that came out of the side conversations was how much our society’s love
of money is adversely affecting volunteer fire departments, service
organizations, and even employment in our country. When the Beaver Creek Fire
Department was founded, they were able to staff the department entirely with
volunteers from Beaver Creek and they were able to acquire enough resources to
keep it going. As a result, a team could be ready to respond to a fire in 5
minutes or less. Now it takes them much longer as they have to wait for people
to come from all over the valley to assist at a fire in Beaver Creek. There aren’t
enough local volunteers. Even if people are interested in volunteering, now
qualifications and equipment are so expensive (and/or take so long to get) that
they are having trouble getting enough people and money to keep it going at all.
I wouldn’t be surprised if volunteer fire departments started closing around the
country the same way that service groups and other volunteer organizations are
quickly vanishing from our landscape.
Currently,
at a time when people in our country are spending more money on leisure activities
than in any previous era – trips, sporting events, lessons – people are
spending less and less time volunteering and working together. The more a society
orients itself towards money, the more the gap between the rich and the poor
grows. The larger the chasm between people grows.
Property
is a prime example of this: a realtor friend pointed out to me that housing has
now become primarily a commodity, an investment and as a result more and more
people can’t afford housing. The most recent homelessness count results were
published just recently – I read them this week. Did you know that the
percentage of actual homeless seniors right here in Port Alberni (this doesn’t
include people who live in shelters, slum housing, or on someone else’s couch)
has literally doubled from 9% to 18% of the homeless population? A society cannot
be oriented towards money and at the same time be oriented towards God and our neighbour
(cf. Mt 6:24-34; Lk 6:13).[5] These are anchored in
opposite directions. We cannot love both God and money. Corporately, how are
our churches oriented? We need to be aware of this. Are we church members –
like the Scriptures say - content with what we have?
This
brings us to the individual aspect of this very important point. Do each of us
here love God and people more than we love money (cf. Dt 31:6, Ps
118:6-7)? Do we spend more time acquiring, spending, and saving money or do we
spend more time loving God through helping others? As Christians, we are not to
look forward to getting money; we are not to be sociable in order to get money;
we are not supposed to serve others with the intent of getting money, etc. He gently reminds us, we
are supposed to be content with what we have. We are supposed to love our
spouses, each other, and our neighbours – we are not to love money![6]
If
you can give something to someone who will actually benefit from receiving it,
instead of selling it to them for money; give it to the person. Hebrews 13:5-6 contrasts
loving each other and loving money. The Bible says that if you love God, you
will love your neighbour and the Bible says that if you serve money, you do not
serve God (Mt 6:24). And then Paul, Barnabas, Silvanus, Apollos, or whoever dictated
this letter or sermon gently reminds us that for perfect peace and harmony, for
salvation, we really must be content with what we have.
This
contentment is simple, but it is also very important – especially since we live
in a capitalist society, a society that by definition has chosen to serve
money. Our motivation, what we love, our reason for doing something should
never be to get a paycheque and pay-off. Our motivation should always be to
serve God and our neighbour. Here is a gentle reminder, Hebrews 13:1-6, that as followers of Jesus we will,
- look forward to seeing each other,
- be sociable to strangers,
- remember those who are in real need in our community,
- pay special attention to our marriages,
- and be content with what we have
Friends, this is key to being able to survive, to being able to be saved in our world today.
We need the church and we need to be the church. And this is what the church is,
it is a group of people who
- look forward to seeing each other
- be sociable to strangers,
- remember those who are in real need in our community,
- pay special attention to our marriages,
- and be content with what we have
So this is my encouragement today: May our group of people here be a people who continues to do just this for as we are, we will experience God’s salvation in our lives and He will use us to be a transformative influence in our community for now and forever more.
Let us pray.
[1] Cf.
Thomas G. Long, Hebrews (Interpretation: a Bible Commentary for Teaching
and Preaching: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1997), 1.
[2] Cf
Tesfaye Kassa, ‘Hebrews 13:1-21: Practical Evidence of Faith’ in Africa
Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 1532 and Simon
J. Kistemaker, Hebrews, NTC (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic: 2007), 408
but conversely cf. Fred B. Craddock, The Letter to the Hebrews (NIB 12:
Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1998),162 which contends that ‘strangers’ are itinerant preachers or other Christians
who aren’t part of one’s own congregation. While this is possible, I concur with
Tesfaye Kassa’ and Simon J. Kistemaker that the term as broader than that.
[3] Fred
B. Craddock, The Letter to the Hebrews (NIB 12: Nashville, Tenn.:
Abingdon, 1998), 163
[4] Leon
Morris, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis
CD-ROM:Hebrews/Exposition of Hebrews/IX. Christian Living (12:1-13:19)/F. Love
(13:1-6), Book Version: 4.0.2
[5] Fred
B. Craddock, The Letter to the Hebrews (NIB 12: Nashville, Tenn.:
Abingdon, 1998), 164
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