Romans 8:22-24: Unseen Hope

Unseen Hope. Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 01 January 2023, by Major Michael Ramsay

 

Romans 8:24 “…Hope that is seen is no hope at all; who hopes for what they already have?”

 

We have just had Christmas. Many children (and adults) hope for gifts. Many of us hope that family will be able to visit us over the holidays or that we will be able to visit them. Officers often hope for a day or two off on boxing day or shortly thereafter. We also hope that we will raise enough funds on the kettles; we hope that we will be able to provide for the communities for which we are responsible. In the myriad things we do at Christmas time and all year long we hope that we are able to provide comfort and support for those in need.

Hope is what drives us. Hope is what helps us continue. Hope is what gives us strength. I know there were a few days during the Christmas campaign where I myself was very down. I was not all that hopeful. First I was sick, then life and circumstances arose and I was so down that people could tell just from my body language and my voice as I spoke in normal conversation. Then it is amazing how seemingly little things can change everything. I received an unexpected unrelated encouraging message from a friend and everything changed. I had hope. I had something to look forward to… it changed everything. I walked down the hallway with a spring in my step and there was hope that we would be able to what needed to be done and we did.

I find it very interesting. Actually accomplishing something is wonderful. Awards and accolades are great. I was blessed to have The Salvation Army publish my book Salvogesis' Guidebook to Romans Road this year and I was so humbled to be awarded awarded the Citizen of the Year here not that long ago for 2020 and I am always grateful to put on my Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Medal (that I was awarded in 2012) for Remembrance Day or other such events – but the thing about any accomplishment or award is once you have achieved it, it is done; the meaning fades. The longer ago you have achieved something, the more it is just a memory like any other memory. Once you have something or have achieved something, it is immediately in the rear-view mirror. Dwelling on it pulls you back rather than propelling you forward. Hope, on the other hand, is what we have when we are waiting, when we are expecting something. It is hope that drives us on.

We have just come through the Christmas season. Advent is in part about waiting for the celebration of the birth of the Messiah. We know that the Judeans were waiting for a military ruler to deliver them from their occupiers and establish a kingdom forever. We know that the Samaritans were waiting for a teacher, a philosopher king who would instruct them in all things. In Jesus we had those hopes realized and more. Jesus was born the Son of God, the Prince of Peace. We celebrate the realization of that hope on Christmas Day.

But Jesus did not leave us without hope for the future when he fulfilled the hope for the coming Messiah. Christmas is a celebration of the incarnation of God but Advent is also about our hope as we wait for Jesus to return. On Good Friday we mourn Jesus’ death and on Easter Sunday we celebrate His resurrection. When He died, He fulfilled the Abrahamic and other covenants and when He rose again, He defeated death; so that we now can have eternal life.

This is our hope. The world has not been made anew yet and we have not received our glorified bodies yet but we will when Christ returns. This is our hope, the bodily resurrection and eternal life with Christ our Saviour. This will be realized with the return of Christ. This is our hope: that we and all those we know and love and hopefully even all those we don’t may be resurrected to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now, of course, what we are talking about is Salvation. And Salvation is for the future but it is not exclusively for the future; it is for now as well. In that regard we have a duty to share our hope with others so that they have a reason to continue striving, continue working, continue loving.

It is so easy to give up and then life will just destroy you. We have all seen people without hope and – if you are like me – you may have also had stretches where your hope was faint to say the least – but hang onto that hope, God can use it to pull you through anything. You have all heard what I think is now just called ‘Spirituals’ (I can’t really keep up on the ever-changing acceptable language; so if I have used an outdated term, please forgive me; I am not trying to harm anyone). The music that was sung by the people enslaved by the United States of America and their descendants. They sang of the future over the metaphorical River Jordan, of heaven, for that is how they continued, continuing on – hoping for heaven. Singing praises to our Lord filled them with hope from God that helped them through some horrific circumstances.

Now, of course, we can hope for more than just a future Salvation. We can have glimpses of that future hope of Salvation while living out our Salvation here and now. Life is tough still for many people today in the world. Life is tough still for many people in the US, descended from slaves or not. Life is tough for many people in Canada and life is tough for many people in BC and life is tough for many people in the Alberni Valley here. Life is tough for some of us in this room, right now.

There are many miserable things in life but Christ can and will be with us in the midst of them and hope in Christ can and will help us persevere through each individual challenge in our life as it arises until our ultimate hope is fulfilled.

The Canadian Salvation Army’s motto is ‘giving hope today’ and that is what each of us are called to do and we can do and what we do do, in many ways in our community. Some of the many ways you, as part of our team here, are giving hope today is through:

·       Providing hampers and toys at Christmas time to families who wouldn’t have been able to provide for their children otherwise; this act is a glimpse of the hope we have of the future where no children will be without anything.

·       We give hope today by providing meals year-round from groceries at the food bank, plated dishes at the Bread of Life or served from the food truck. This is a glimpse of the hope we have that there will be a time when no one goes hungry while others suffer the ills of excess, like they do today.

·       We give hope here today by providing clothing to those who need clothing through the thrift store (with the dignity of letting people pay for them) and/or our community and family services (for those who cannot afford it); this is a glimpse of the hope of a future when either, like Eden, we don’t have to even worry about our clothes or, like Exodus, the clothes we have won’t ever wear out.

·       We give hope today by providing shelter from the bad weather through our EWR shelter and our ongoing shelter that we should be opening very soon – we hope. This provides a glimpse of the hope that one day everyone will have a safe place to rest for eternity, as Hebrews says we can enter His rest, God’s rest.

·       We give hope today by providing church services here and at the seniors’ homes. This provides a glimpse of the hope that there will be a day when we can praise God like the Seraphim and maybe even sing along to an angelic choir to our hearts content.

·       We give hope today by providing prayer and emotional and spiritual support to all those in need here and in our community; we look forward in hope to a day when all those who grieve and mourn will be comforted as it says in the scripture.

·       We give hope today by being there for one another – visiting, calling, texting, sending cards of encouragement. We hope for that day when there is no more isolation, no more loneliness and despair, only family, friends and the love of God.

·       We give hope today by praying for each other as we do both individually and at church every Sunday. This is a glimpse of the hope we have that in the new heavens and the new earth, as it says in scriptures, there will not even be a temple or a church building because we won’t need one; we will all, always be in the very real presence of our God. This is our hope!

So, with this in our hearts and our minds, my friends as you are able, I encourage you to continue to offer comfort and support and love to one another and to help others here in our community (and in other aspects of your life) knowing that the comfort we are providing today is only a foretaste of the hope that we have for the future, and that when Jesus returns that hope will be fully realized, and what a glorious day that will be!

Let us pray

 

www.sheepspeak.com

www.facenook.com/salvogesis

 

Luke 2:1-20: Nightshift and Northern Lights Live in Bethlehem

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 25 December 2022 (Christmas Day) by Major Michael Ramsay

  

Tonight, Last night, every night we have people working 9pm to 9am – overnight - at the Emergency Weather Response shelter. I don’t know if everyone here is aware that as well as all of the things that we do here at Christmas time and year-round and all the things that we do down at the Bread of Life and Kuu-us, The Salvation Army also runs the EWR shelter attached to the Bread of Life building. We have just been authorized to turn it into a permanent shelter too; so, in the next few months we will be doing renovations and adding bunk beds, hiring new staff and all kinds of fun stuff… And last night and tonight we will have staff, employees working there overnight.

 

Has anyone ever worked an overnight shift? In my experience, they are not a lot of fun. In my experience, they are not the shifts that people normally clamour for. In my experience, anyone with any experience and education usually tries to be ‘promoted’ off the night shift. Sometimes you get some great workers for the overnight shift – like we do here right now – but I think that is the exception, rather than the rule.

 

These are the folks, however, who God invited to Jesus’ birth: night shift workers! I do wonder whether they walked off the job and left all the sheep to be eaten or wander away or whether they came traipsing down to the manger with a whole flock or flocks of sheep with them. And what would our team do? Would they just leave the homeless people sleeping? Would they kick them out, or would they all come down to see the birth of the Saviour?

 

Anyway, these shepherds are working that night and this Angel, a messenger of God shows up – I am not sure how many visitors they normally get during the night but this must have been quite something.

 

It says this angel appeared before them and then the Glory of the Lord shone all around them. Have you ever seen the Northern Lights? I imagine it was somewhat like that. I remember the first time that I ever saw the Northern Lights, we were camping at Birds Hill Park just outside of Winnipeg, MB. It was really quite something. I have seen pictures of the Northern Lights, I have seen paintings of the Northern Lights, I have heard stories of the Northern Lights – but nothing in my experience had prepared me for the appearance of the Northern Lights. They were amazing. The whole sky looked to come alive. It looked at first like a cavalry charge of giant horses coming at me from every side. I was completely in awe as I saw the sky come to life. Now imagine if when experiencing this, when completely surrounded by and engrossed in this, you start to notice that these lights aren’t just dancing lights, they are dancing angels, singing angels, a choir of angels, messengers of God, backing up the message of God proclaimed by the Angel who was speaking to these folks working the night shift looking after possibly someone else’s sheep.

 

The Angel tells these nightshift workers the Good News that the Saviour has been born and that they will find the baby wrapped up and lying in a manger.

 

The shepherds are in awe; they are afraid; they must be enthralled. They listen to the Angel Choir that must have looked more brilliant than the Northern Lights and must have sounded even better than the Northern Pikes. They listen to this choir sing praises to God. When the angels leave, when the show is over, they decide to go into town (hopefully with their sheep in tow) to find the Messiah, the Saviour of the World, the Christ Child in a manger.

 

They had this special invitation. They accepted this special invitation. They went. They saw the baby Jesus in the manger. They experienced the baby Jesus’ birth, probably meeting mom and dad and whomever else happened to be there by apparent accident and actual design. They then go away and tell everyone they know, everyone they see, about what they have experienced with the Christ Child.

 

2000+ years later we are all invited to do the same thing. We are invited to experience of the joys of spending time with our Saviour. We are invited to share the story we have heard about the birth of our Saviour. We are invited to share our experiences with Jesus our Saviour. My friends as I am sure the shepherds will never forget the joy of the night that they met their Saviour, I trust that we will never forget the joy of the night each of us met our Saviour and I hope and I pray that this Christmas and this year upcoming we will be able to share that joy with everyone we meet – so that they too may experience the joys of being in the presence of our Saviour, the Saviour of the world.

 

Let us pray.

 

Luke 2:1-20: Nine Months and More (Christmas Eve Message)

Presented on-line by Major Michael Ramsay of The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 24 December 2022

This evening is Christmas Eve. This is when we celebrate the eve of the birth of our Saviour in a manger in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago. There are many things closed tonight and more tomorrow. We hope and we think that we are all prepared for that. Christmas Eve is a time when we hope and think that everything is prepared for tomorrow: stockings are stuffed or ready to be stuffed, presents are made or bought, wrapped and placed under the tree or ready to be placed under the tree, meal plans and/or travel plans are made. Christmas Eve is a time of anticipation.

2000+ years ago, the evening before Jesus was born (whatever evening that was) it must have been a time of great anticipation – at least for Mary and Joseph and whomever happened to be with them. Mary was very pregnant and about to give birth to her first child. Any moms (and even dads) who can remember the birth of their first child, think of your own anticipation and the plans you had made in anticipation of that day. When Rebecca was born, we had our baby bags packed and were already to drive a few minutes up the road to the hospital and it was a good thing we were prepared because almost as soon as Susan and I arrived at the hospital, so did baby Rebecca. When Susan was born, her parents were out of province; they were in Calgary, Alberta at a Premiers’ Conference. I can’t imagine what it was like for them being in a strange place, a strange province, a strange city when your especially first baby arrives.

Mary and Joseph were in a strange city when their baby arrived and they weren’t at a Premiers’ Conference. They weren’t in a fancy hotel and they didn’t have access to a modern hospital. They were in a stable, maybe with friends or travel companions, probably with animals and later to be joined by shepherds working the night shift. Christmas Eve is when we remember their waiting and their anticipation. Christmas Eve is when we remember how they must have felt after a day’s travel -by foot mostly- when she was fully pregnant; Christmas Eve is when we remember how they must have felt after a time of looking for accommodation for the night at the inn and possibly elsewhere and finally winding up in the stable. Christmas Eve is when we remember the relief and/or anxiety that they would have had at their accommodation and the relief and/or anxiety as well as the definite anticipation that they would have had as Mary went into labour waiting for the birth of the baby who would also be their Saviour and ours.

Christmas Eve is when we remember not only waiting for the arrival of their first-born child. Christmas Eve is when we remember waiting for the Saviour of Israel who is the Saviour of the World. We are celebrating that anticipation. And as we are filled with all the excitement of the commemoration of the incarnation of God and recalling the impending birth of Jesus, we are also eagerly awaiting His return. For this Jesus, who was born in a manger 2000+ years ago, is the Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace, who will return and when he does as Isaiah tells, His government will never stop ruling and being peaceful.

Let us Pray

 

Hebrews 11:6: The Faith in/of Advent.

 Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries on the Second Sunday of Advent, 04 December 2022, by Major Michael Ramsay

  

The second candle of Advent is faith. The four candles are (according to the source I am using): Hope, Faith, Joy, and Peace. Advent is about waiting. It is about people waiting for the Messiah, the Christ to come the first time (as we now know He did, as a baby in a manger in Bethlehem) and it is about us waiting for Him to return, as we are now.

When people began waiting for Christ to come the first time, they did not know when He would come; they did not know how He would come; they did not know exactly where He would come (similar to us now waiting for His return) – but when the signs of His pending arrival started to appear, people started to notice and as people started to notice they started to tell others and as they told others more people began to notice the signs. (aside: all the miracles recorded in the Gospels are just recorded signs themselves that point people to the Advent of Christ). The more people notice the signs, the more they share the good news of Jesus’ arrival, the more people can experience the Good News of Christ in our lives. (The word ‘gospel’ by the way simply means, ‘good news’). In the season of Advent, today, we remember that period of waiting to hear and experience the Good News of Christ coming the first time and we apply the memory of His birth in a manger to bolster our faith (as our candle today reminds us) that just as Christ came once to save us, He will return again to have dominion, to rule, to reign forever. He will be, as Isaiah 9:6 says, “…Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Price of Peace; of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end…”. (That by the way was a line from a play that I needed to memorize as a child in church)

The candles of Advent remind us of what we need to be able to wait for something we so desperately want and something we so desperately need. We need Hope: Hope that that for which we are waiting will make things better; we need faith, faith that it will actually come; we need the joy of anticipation that pushes away despair in our situation; and we need peace – the peace that surpasses all understanding. It is only when we have this Hope, Faith, Joy, and Peace that we can possibly make it, that we can endure the waiting of Advent.

Advent Calendars are a great glimpse of what waiting this way is like: everyday you open a number and there is a small gift, a picture, a prelude to the greater gifts of Christmas. They are appetizers for the main course of Christmas Day. The stores sell Advent Calendars with chocolates in them; Susan often makes Advent Stockings with devotions, Scriptures, candies, and other goodies in them for us; when I was young, my mom made us Advent Calendars that would often have parts of Lego or toys in them – each day you would get a new piece of Lego and add it to your creation and at the end you would have a present; when I was a child I used to like to make Advent Calendars by drawing 24 little pictures on one piece of paper and then cutting doors out of a second piece and taping them together for people to open one door at a time. Last year I made on-line advent calendars for my children where they would click on the door and it takes them to an image, a story, or a song online. I re-did them this year.

These different advent calendars are all like the gifts that Jesus gives us everyday in our lives. The daily miracles we experience in the midst of everyday reality, the successes, the joy, the comfort, the love, that God shows us – these things we can experience each one as a new door being opened on an eternal Advent Calendar, knowing that at the end of all time (the eschaton, Maranatha!) we will experience the big gift of Christ’s Ultimate Kingdom, where that is what there is, the Hope, Faith, Joy, and Peace that make up of the Love of God.

The Advent Candles are like a mini-Advent Calendar with only four or five doors. Behind today’s door is Faith. Faith gives us something very important as we wait for Christ to return. It gives us the ability to wait because we have the knowledge that what we are waiting for will come. No one waits for something that the don’t in some way believe may come. As a child in a Christmas concert, we performed a musical called the Music Machine. I actually sang the one and only solo I ever sang in my life in it – the song about self control. I still remember parts of that song and other songs from that performance (and all those practices, many, many years ago); I remember one song from the Music Machine called, “Faith’ The chorus of that song sings Hebrews 11:6, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." And this whole song is based on Hebrews Chapter 11, in which verse 1 and 2 define faith in this way: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for."  

This is the Candle that we have lit today. We have lit the Candle of Faith that it will be all right, we will get through. This Candle is a symbol of the confidence we have in Christ’s return based on both our knowledge of and relationship with Him and our knowledge of His coming before. This faith can be used to transform not only the future but also the present.

In Bible Study we spoke a little bit about the Greek word in the New Testament for ‘Faith’ and I won’t put anyone on the spot by asking what it is or what it means: the word means more than just belief. The word means action as well. It means BOTH ‘faith’ in someone or something AND ‘faithfulness’ of someone or something. And as we faithfully serve Christ, He can and will transform us and our world even as we are eagerly awaiting His ultimate return.

Let me share you some stories from the kettles and more. This week from the kettles, I heard a lady tell me of her father and how he served in the War and how God through The Salvation Army was on the front lines giving them whatever they needed, free of charge, without asking anything of them. I heard the story of another man, when he was a boy, his folks were trapped in their addiction, their house burned down, God through The Salvation Army found them a new place, furnished the place and walked with the family so that the cycle of addiction was broken and the children were free to not only live their own life but to help their children and now grandchildren live their lives free of addiction and even poverty.

And I will never forget one Christmas season when I was at a lunch with a number of Executive Directors of various non-profits in the community we were serving at the time. One told me of a Barbie the Army gave her when her family was in need – she still has the Barbie. Another told me of a hamper she received as a child and a third ED of a local branch of a major non-profit told me a similar story. These gifts from God, given through The Salvation Army, transformed these children’s lives: they all grew up to serve God and others. These actions of love, these actions of faith: providing the most basic things for people in need, was transformative. They broke generations of poverty, addiction, and created lives of service and salvation.

My friends this is what God is doing for us and through us by His faithfulness; so, as we leave this service today, let us go out boldly in service, in faith and faithfulness proclaiming His Gospel and then He may use even us to transform this world even now as we eagerly await His ultimate return (at the eschaton) and which point the whole world will be make anew. Maranatha! Let us pray.

  

 

Psalm 116:3-4, Isaiah 2:4: Remembrance Day Address 2022

Presented to the Alberni Valley Community, 11 November 2022, by Major Michael Ramsay, Legion Branch #293 Chaplain (Padre)

  

Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God. Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth forever more.

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, time stands still for a moment; and we remember those who died, not for war, but for a world that would be free and at peace.

 

Psalm 116:3-4:

The cords of death entangled me,

the anguish of the grave came over me;

I was overcome by distress and sorrow.

Then I called on the name of the Lord:

“Lord, save me!”

Isaiah 2:4:

He will judge between the nations

and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

nor will they train for war anymore.

 

Almighty God. You are our refuge and strength; we humble ourselves in Your presence, and, remembering the great things you have done for us, we lift up our hearts in adoration and praise. As you have gathered us together this day, we give You thanks for all who served their country in time of trial.

In remembrance of those who made the supreme sacrifice, make us better men and women, and give us peace in our time, O Lord.

 

Today I have my facemask from the Legion with me. You probably can’t see it that well. It is red with a poppy on it. We lost a few legion members throughout covid-19. Most people in our community lost someone during covid-19. Do you remember the fear when the pandemic began? Do you remember the empty streets? Do you remember the flags we used to have in front of City Hall to mark the dead in BC from the pandemic? Every week we used to address this community from that spot mentioning the tragedy as the number of flags, each representing a casualty grew. Can you imagine if in 1914 or 1944 we added a flag for every casualty of war?

In World War One, 650 000 Canadians gave their lives and our whole country only had around 7 million people. 1401 from BC alone gave there lives and of the only 1600 people who lived in the Alberni Valley, 116 – 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: he was only 15 when he enlisted.

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

The poet Charles Samuel Bannell, 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.

From our roll of honour at the legion: Private William Stewart, PPCLI, fought in the battle of Frezenberg during the 2nd Battle of Ypres. He is buried in Ypres, Belgium. He was 26.

Private William Clarke, Son of Daniel and Laura Clarke, of Alberni, British Columbia. Served in the 7th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry. In 1916 he was buried in Belgium at age 19.

And then after so much loss, more was to come: the Second World War. Port Alberni again answered the call and contributed greatly to the war effort. There are many who served. There was Flight Lieutenant David Ramsay. He was awarded the Belgian Cross of War in 1940 and on April 28th, 1944, he was given another cross, this one on his grave. He was 23 years old.

There was also Jim, Jack, John, Joe, Leo, Leonard, Nick and Dorothy Schan. Seven brothers and one sister (4 connected to Pt Alberni) all enlisted in the military during the 2nd World War. No family is believed to have contributed more soldiers to Canada's war effort.

And then there was Edward John Clutesi, born to be hereditary chief of the Tseshaht First Nation, instead he gave his life for us in August 1944, in France, at age 26.

Hugh Patterson, the uncle of one of our Legion Members, has his name on the honour roll of those who never returned from the Second World War.

I have a story to read. This one was handed to me on a piece of paper from another legion member. It is about another war in another country from another time.

There was a captain with an invading army. Through the night he heard the cries of a wounded soldier in the distance. He didn’t know whether the solider was on his side or the other. He eventually decided to risk his life to try to find and save the soldier. He got to the soldier and the soldier was indeed one of the enemy but -in a cruel twist of events- the soldier was also the captain’s own son. He did not know his son was fighting for the other side. One can only imagine. His son died. He requested a military funeral but that was denied. He was eventually allowed to have a single bugler and the captain asked the bugler to play notes that were written on a paper in his son’s pocket. That is the story of the origin of the American version of ‘the Last Post’: music composed by a deceased confederate soldier and played for the first time at a funeral performed by the enemy who killed him -who also happened to be his family who loved him.    

Many of us have friends and family who left our community and our country only to be buried overseas or to come back missing their friends who had. My grandfather served in World War 2 and my grandmother’s brother, who left the family farm to serve, never did speak of the day they were surrounded by the enemy.

We have spoken briefly today to honour some of those many young people who were loved by others here in our community and who lived and died in the wars. There are many more stories: of Canada’s then 11 million people, 45 400 of them died in World War II. In World War I, from our population of just more than 7 million people, 61 000 gave their lives. If you were alive then, someone you knew and probably someone you loved, died in the war. We are here to remember them today and we are here to remember all of those who have died since that war, the war to end all wars – and in the many wars that have followed.

Shortly after the world war my grandfather was stationed in Pembroke, Ontario. One day, he sawed off the butt of his rifle and made a cribbage board out of it. Many of his comrades followed suit hoping that was now the best use for the rifles.

We can only hope and pray that one day the real War to end all wars will finally be fought and we will learn war no more. For it is only as we remember the tragedy of war and the stories and lives of those who serve that we can possibly be willing to fight for peace so that one day our young men and women will no longer be compelled to go overseas to lay down their lives for us. Let we forget. Lest we forget.

 

Let us pray: Almighty God, as You have gathered your people together this day in hallowed remembrance, we give You thanks for all who laid down their lives for our sake, and whom You have gathered from the storm of war into the peace of Your presence. Let the memory of their devotion ever be an example to us, that we at the last. Being faithful unto death, may receive with them the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Romans 14: ‘Don’t Condemn, Don’t Despise!’ ‘But the Weak Eat Only Vegetables!’

 Presented to TSA Corps 614 Regent Park, Toronto, 29 May 2016 and 06 November 2022 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

This is the BC 2022 version, to view the Toronto 2016 version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2016/05/romans-14-dont-condemn-dont-despise-but.html

 

Today, I want you to remember one thing about Romans 14 and that is, ‘Don’t condemn, don’t despise each other’.

 

As many of you know, our kids are vegetarians: 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. We were encouraged to try each of the disciplines as we read the book. Susan began exploring vegetarianism – for her it was about stewardship of God’s earth as much 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 the tanks at the store. I was trying to get everything on the list Susan gave me and contain a 2-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.” Is this what Paul was writing about in Romans… contemporary vegetarianism? Does it mean that all vegetarians are weak people who should be more like us strong meat eaters?  No. It isn’t

 

But let’s try to figure out what this verse is saying by exploring the context. When first preparing for this sermon, 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 since some Jews – the Essenes – didn’t eat much meat and were very strong in keeping Sabbath laws, maybe when they became Christians, they were the weak vegetarians and Sabbath-keepers to whom Paul is referring. The problem with this is that the Essenes wouldn’t have interacted with others. They 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 – so this wouldn’t apply to them.

 

Others have suggested that the weak vegetarians were not Christian Essene Jews but simply everyday regular Christian Jews or Gentiles.[3] Paul in his other letters speaks a lot about meat sacrificed to idols. In the first century they didn’t have Save-On. Buy-Low or QF. Butcher shops and marketplaces in the Roman Empire were often located right inside pagan temples. When someone brought an animal to be butchered for eating, it would be offered as a sacrifice. The leftovers from sacrifices could often be sold in the market alongside other butchered meat; so some Christians didn’t want to risk eating 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 these are the ‘weak’ folk is – in contrast to his many of his other letters - Paul doesn’t specifically deal with meat sacrificed to idols at all.

 

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 even 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 vegetarians are who Paul refers to as weak but we do know that ‘eating only meat’ is 1 of 3 attributes of the weak that he addresses, the three items are:

.

1.     Romans 14:2: Some believe in eating anything, but the weak eat only vegetables.

2.     Romans 14:5: Some (the weak) consider one day to be better than another.

3.     Romans 14:21: It is good to not drink wine

 

We talked about the uncertainties around not eating meat. There was also the same uncertainties around judging one day as better than the others. 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 this is what Paul is saying doesn’t really matter.

 

This passage may refer to – or at least be extended to – the Sabbath as well. 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.

.

Next there is 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.

.

‘Don’t condemn, don’t despise!’ This is the main part for 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 or do anything on Saturday 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 proceed to 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? To this day, some Christians still refuse to buy anything on Sundays. I remember my college church group, 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 holy, remember that God made all of the days and so as such, every day is the Lord’s day. So 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.

.

.

Let us pray.

.

www.sheepspeak.com

www.faceboo.com/salvogesis

 ---

[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.

Acts 17:11-12 and 2 Timothy 3:14-17: A-Mainz-ing Grace.

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 30 October 2022 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

Today, as well as All Hallows Eve eve, it is also Reformation Day Eve. The Reformation is acknowledged to have started on 31 October 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, in what is now Germany.

 

When Covid-19 struck the world – at least when the panic and the initial measures were taken, when they started closing borders and not allowing people outside, we were in Germany. Germany was our first stop in our planned trip. We were hoping to see Denmark and other places but most of Europe was closed before we would have a chance but one place that we were able to see before the great lockdown was Mainz in Germany. (Here are some pictures of our time in Mainz) Do we know what is an important artifact relating to the Reformation that is in Mainz? It is something that actually came into being sometime between 1450 and 1454, a few years before the Reformation: The Gutenberg Bible! (show pictures)

 

Acts 17:11-12: Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 1s a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

 

In that same spirit and more, centuries later, the Gutenberg Bible had a profound effect on history in general, printing, and the Reformation itself. The Gutenberg Bible is named after Johannes Gutenberg, the person who printed it. Textually, the Bible had quite an influence on future editions of the Bible. The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42, not to be confused with the B52s) was the earliest major book printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution", as it is called, and the age of printed books.

 

We were able to see some of two original Gutenberg Bibles and plates in the Museum in Mainz while we were there on one of the very last days that people were allowed indoors in Europe (except for in Sweden). As a result, the museum was quite empty and we were able to have a good long look at things.

 

The museum is primarily dedicated to Johannes Gutenberg. Gutenberg was native of Mainz and not that long ago, he was named "Man of the Millennium". At the heart of the exhibition in the museum are the two copies of the Gutenberg Bible in the walk-in vault. It was quite interesting. we were able to see comprehensive information about his life, work, and inventions, as well as their reception and consequences. The museum itself was founded more that a century ago, in 1900, by citizens of Mainz. It was very interesting.

 

The Gutenberg Bible is an edition of the Vulgate and contains the Latin version of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament.

 

In 1448, Gutenberg took out a loan from his brother-in-law Arnold Gelthus, quite possibly for the printing press and/or related paraphernalia and in 1455 Gutenberg completed his 42-line Bible. About 180 copies were printed, most on paper and some on vellum. Making the Bible available to more people than ever so we can all examine the scriptures thoroughly.

 

Then, about a year later, some time in 1456, there was a dispute between Gutenberg and Fust, and Fust demanded the money he invested in the project back, accusing Gutenberg of misusing the funds. The court decided in favor of Fust and gave him control over the Bible printing workshop and half of all the already printed Bibles.

 

Gutenberg's printing technology, however, continued to spread rapidly throughout Europe and later the world. The Gutenberg Bible was the first printed version of the Bible. This arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered society and the church. The Catholic Encyclopedia describes Gutenberg's invention as having made a practically unparalleled cultural impact in the Christian era. The relatively unrestricted circulation of information transcended borders, and captured the masses in the Reformation making the Word of God available to many.

 

This is important because scripture is vitally important as 2 Timothy 3:15b-17 records, “Holy Scriptures…are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The printing press put this information directly into more people’s hands than ever before and as a result was a major spark to the Protestant Reformation, which started 505 years ago tomorrow. Scriptures are important.

 

The Salvation Army’s spiritual grandfather, John Wesley put a strong emphasis on the Scriptures,[1] he said: “I want to know one thing - the way to heaven, how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach me the way, for this very end He came from heaven; He hath written it down in a book. O give me that Book! At any price, give me the Book of God. I have it; here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri! [a man of One Book!]”[2] Wesley noted that all scripture is given by God (2 Tim 3:16-17); the Scriptures are infallible and thus profitable for each of us to engage[3] and even more they are “a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the Day-star arise in your hearts.’ (2 Peter 1:19)”, if we want to share in this experience Wesley said we should search the Scriptures![4]

 

On this Reformation Day Eve, it is important to note that the Scriptures were of the utmost importance to all the Church Reformers. Ulrich Zwingli, in his work, On True and False Religion, stated that the true source of all religion is the Word of God. “The Reformation as a whole was based on this principle.”[5] He said, “there is no law or word that will give greater light to the inward man than the Word of God.”[6] He insisted that the word of man must always be subject to the Word of God rather than the other way around[7] as he perceived was happening in his day and which can certainly be argued is happening in ours. We must remember, only humankind can come to know God and ourselves through the Word of God; it is the Word of God, which sets us apart from the plants and the animals.[8]

 

Like Wesley and like Zwingli, The Salvation Army holds a very important role for the Scriptures in our theological tradition. Our very first doctrine –my personal favourite- reads, “We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.” We hold that they are the primary authority, the ‘final court of appeal’ for the Christian that supersedes all other claims and that “as we search the Scriptures, we enter into dialogue with them and experience the transforming power of the message.”[9]

 

This is – or should be – I believe, true of all Christians. What about us here today? How familiar are we with the Bible which, these days, is very easily accessible? How many of us spend time reading the Bible on our own? How long does it take to read some of the letters in the New Testament? An hour or less?  Not very long. How many of us set that time aside? We can easily read a New Testament book or an Old Testament story while we are having our morning coffee or our afternoon tea.  It doesn’t take long. How many of us read our Bibles with our children, grandchildren, or great-grand children as the case might be? It needn’t take very long and the blessings are eternal and amazing.

 

2 Timothy 3:14-17: “… continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

 

2 Timothy 3:15 - the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Romans 1:16, the Gospel itself “…is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”

 

Susan has shared her testimony here before. I won’t retell her whole story for you now other than to remind you that as a university student she came to know the Lord through reading the Scriptures to prove those Christians wrong. 

 

Romans 1:16, the Gospel “…is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”

 

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

www.facebook.com/salvogesis

---

[1] Captain Michael Ramsay, John Wesley’s Means of Grace compared with Ulrich Zwingli as seen through a Salvationist Lens. Presented to William and Catherine Booth College, October 2008. Available online: http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_History_TSA.htm#Wesley1

[2] John Wesley, in The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. (London: John Mason, 1829), Thomas Jackson, editor, V:ii,iii. Cited in Arnett, William M. “John Wesley and the Bible,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 3, no. 1, (Spring 1968): http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan_theology/theojrnl/01-05/03-1.htm

[3] John Wesley, The Means of Grace, III.8-9

[4] John Wesley, The Means of Grace, III.10

[5] Courvoisier, Zwingli: A Reformed Theologian, (Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1963), 27.

[6] Ulrich Zwingli, Clarity and Certainty of the Word of God (Zurich: 1524), cited in Bromiley, 67.

[7] W.P. Stephens, The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), 52-53.

[8] Courvoisier, Zwingli: A Reformed Theologian, (Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1963), 28.

[9] The General of The Salvation Army. Salvation Story: Salvationist Handbook of Doctrine: (London: Salvation Books, 1998), 8-9.