Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 03 July 2022, by Major Michael Ramsay
I was at a board meeting for the Neighbourlink Society: a group that provides food for children in the schools. Many of the people on the board have been friends for years. They were telling a few good stories. John and Carol are very good friends. John was giving Carol a hard time about her cooking because apparently shortly after she fed him a grilled cheese sandwich he had a heart attack – he was saying, ‘don’t let Carol make anyone any food’. Carol then told us more of the story. John was coming over to mow her lawn and after he had a lunchbreak, he headed outside to finish the work… and he did have a heart attack. They called the ambulance. It was quite significant. Carol was quite concerned. They took him to the hospital and then they actually had to fly him out by helicopter. You have to really understand the humour of these two for the rest of the story. As he was going up in the helicopter with his family and everyone around Carol yelled out, ”and don’t think I’m paying you! You didn’t finish the job!” The paramedic with John, in the helicopter, apparently said “I wouldn’t want to work for her” and then they heard her yell, “and don’t think I’m going to give you a reference”. John and Carol were laughing hysterically as they were recounting the story – especially as no one else there, at the hospital, at the time (including his adult son, I believe) realized that it was a joke. This made them laugh all the more.
This then got the stories going. One of them was telling the story of when their husband was in the hospital. A friend of theirs came to see him. Now he was in one of those rooms with more than one bed and there was a curtain drawn around his bed; so the friend went up to the other bed and thinking it was Fred (or whatever the husband’s name is) said, “Oh my goodness – Fred you look so bad I don’t even recognize you!” Fred's family then poked their heads out of where they were and said, “cut that out, come over here...”
Another lady told a story about when her mother went to the hospital to see her father and she leaned over to give him a big kiss only to realize that the fellow she kissed wasn’t her husband.
John then relayed the story of when he came up behind his friend and blew in his ear, for a joke, only to find out that it wasn’t his friend at all. It was some complete stranger’s ear he was blowing into. That gentleman did not receive that gesture very well at all. Board meetings can fun...
Friday was Canada Day. The Salvation Army had a float in the parade. It was a lot of fun. In light of the fact that it was just Canada Day, I thought that we would look at the verse from the Order of Canada (and more) today. Can anyone tell me:
• What is the motto of the Order of Canada? desiderantes meliorem patriam, meaning "they desire a better country"
• Where does it come from? Hebrews 11:16
The Motto of the Order of Canada comes from Hebrews 11:16, “they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”
Pierre Eliot Trudeau when he established the Order of Canada applied this verse to our nation but of course this verse refers to more than just our nation or any nation. It is great that he wanted to apply these Christian ideals to our country, just as an earlier generation had applied the Christian ideals of Psalm 72:8 to our nation – with the hope that our country would always take care of the poor and those on the margins. But to fully ascribe this verse to our nation, of course, would be a case of mistaken identity not entirely dissimilar from our opening stories. This verse and this passage (though extended) obviously isn’t actually referring to Canada. It is referring to someplace else. The second part of the verse, where it says that God has prepared a city for them… to what city is the author of the Hebrews referring? The new Jerusalem.
• Hebrews 12:22, “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God” (cf. 13:14)
• Revelation 3:12 “Him who overcomes (I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it.) I will write on him the Name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.”
• Revelation 21:10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
At the eschaton – the end of everything – the New Jerusalem, as referred to in Hebrews, Revelations, Philippians, and Thessalonians (where it mentioned the saints going to meet the Lord as He comes down) among other places, the city prepared for God’s children will come down from heaven to earth.
Philippians 3:20 says this, “… our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,”
Let us read again from Chapter 3 because this Friday we have just celebrated Canada Day and today, like all Sundays, we are celebrating on the Lord’s Day with our fellow citizens of Heaven. Let’s read some encouragement from Heaven, where as Christians, our primary citizenship resides. How should we, who will be resurrected, live out our time here in Canada as dual citizens of Heaven? While we are living here, we are actually primarily citizens of Heaven and the new Jerusalem which will descend from Heaven. Philippians 3:15 through 4:1 says this:
15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained [our citizenship in Heaven].
17 Join together in following my example, brothers [and sisters], and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!
We have just had Canada Day this week and there are many good things and other things about celebrating Canada Day. I always used to love Canada Day – the parades, the picnics, the celebrations, some places have fireworks. Last Canada Day was quite somber as I spoke at the legion in light of both Covid-19 and the discovery of probable graves at the IRS and all the controversy around our government lowering our flag and not knowing how to raise it appropriately. This year it was good to celebrate again the many good things that we experience as part of Canadian community but there is more to life than that. There is much more. You see, even as good as the best parts of being Canadian are, we do have a dual citizenship and our other citizenship is Heaven and so even as we rejoice in the things God has done in and through Canada – and there are many good things, Hebrews 11:16, we are still longing for a better country—a heavenly one. For God is not ashamed to be called our God, for he has prepared that city for us.
That is our hope.
Let us pray.
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