Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 10 September 2022, by Major Michael Ramsay
We dropped Sarah-Grace off in Victoria on Friday. She is starting her third-year classes at UVic this year. She got the keys to the new apartment she is renting - for the school year anyway. It is nice. It’s big and near UVic. She seems to have a nice roommate as well: Arora. She is a fellow Salvationist who goes to the Citadel and plays in the band. It was a real blessing to be able to find a place and a roommate like that: a miracle and blessing, for sure.
We had a good week away this week. We were at what used to be called ‘business camp’ or ‘Officer Camp’, I believe; now it is called ‘Leadership Camp’: It was good.
It was great to see many of our fellow Officers and other leaders in the division. It was good to connect with old friends and it was strange to see just how many new faces are in the division/province. The Salvation Army is usually really good at providing opportunities for leaders to connect, network, learn, and worship together – probably better than most organizations. However, due in large part to Covid-19, we have not been able to get together for a long time. This explains why there seemed to be so many new faces and I think a lot of the Officers have missed that contact with one another. The Salvation Army really is a family. Metaphorically speaking, yes, but also literally; I mean it actually is a family – so many people are related.
Rena and Tim have 1 Officer son and 1 Officer-type son (they explained all the designations at camp. I am not sure I understand them all; what title/rank are your sons? Jeremy (Amanda) is a Lieutenant and Neil (Jen) is a…?) Also there was other family to this corps at Gibson’s, we saw Holly at camp. Holly is part of the camp staff and she is the Greunhauges granddaughter. She helped lead worship among other things. I did go up to her and introduce myself. So many people are related in our organization and many of those who aren’t are still very family-like.
Our scripture today speaks to family. Specifically, 11: 11:13 says this: “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” [Matthew says “good gifts”]
This passage specifically speaks about a father’s relationship to his children and how much he loves them. These words obviously strike a chord with me. I was able to see all three of my children this week. It was a real blessing. There are not many weeks when that happens anymore. On Monday Heather and I travelled over to the camp together and were able to spend time playing cards on the way and at the camp we were able to paddle board and even just hang out a bit, which was great. Sarah-Grace and Susan came later that day. On the last day of camp Sarah-Grace and I got up at 5am or so and spend the next almost 24 hours together. We went to a concert.
For back in Christmas 2019, Grandma had bought Rebecca, Sarah-Grace and I tickets to a big concert in Seattle: it wasn’t until now, 32 months later that we actually got to go to the concert! More than 2 and half years later the concert finally happened! It kept getting postponed because of Covid-19. We were wondering if the concert was ever going to happen – and not just because of Covid-19. The bands we went to see were not young people. Many of them started performing in the 1970s or at the early 1980s. I am sure (other than the opening bands) all of them are way more than eligible for pensions or seniors discounts anyway and many of them have health problems. We weren’t sure if they would all be alive or healthy enough to perform.
We also weren’t sure what we would be doing after a 32 month, a 2-and-a-half-year gap. I could have been posted anywhere across this country in that time and not be able to go. Either of my daughters could be working or going to university anywhere in the world or anything else could have happened in our lives and we may not be able to go. The concert was in a foreign country so any number of things could have happened with that tool.
We did get to go and it was a good concert. It was a lot of bands I knew as a teenager or a young man. The performers were mostly amazingly fit and did a really good job. One musician, Brett Michaels, even played an harmonica, a mouth organ solo; he was almost as good as Reinhart – not quite but almost! The concert was very good – and very long. The concert itself was 7 hours! This made for an exceedingly long day. Like we said before, Sarah-Grace and I were up about 5am, we picked up Rebecca around 8am, drove across the border and into Seattle in plenty of time for a 4:30pm concert and then drove back home after 11:30pm, after fighting with all the concert traffic and slow going at the border, we finally got back to Rebecca’s house around 3:30am. It was a full day. It was a good day. It was one I was looking forward to spending with my daughters for a long time – 32 months!
God loves us all, just as I, or any other father/parent here loves their own children, and He wants to spend time with all of us just as we like spending time with our children. This passage in Luke is speaking about prayer (Matthew presents this quote as part of a collection of other sayings in Chapter 7). This Chapter in Luke opens with the Lord’s Prayer. Prayer is one key way in which we are able to spend time with God. We can come to God when we are distraught and tell him our problems, concerns, worries, like we would a confidant. We can tell Him what we need and what we think we need and He will hear us. He loves us even more than we parents love our children. He will never give us bad gifts when we ask for good gifts – and I would go even further, I would say He would never give us bad gifts when we ask for bad gifts and even more: he would never give us less than what is best for us, even if we unknowingly are asking for such. God loves us so much that He wants us to come to Him about all of this stuff. Parents: think about how you feel if your child (adult or otherwise) has a difficulty that you are able to help them with but they never come to you. Your heart breaks for them; you can help. Think of how much comfort you want to offer your children when they are going through difficult times – God wants to offer you this comfort as well. This passage in Luke specifically mentions that God will send us the Holy Spirit: God, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter!
This is what this passage is saying. God knows how much His disciples (whom Jesus is specifically addressing here) love their children and God knows how much you and I, who are parents, love our children; God says to us, that even as much as we – wicked, evil, less than perfect parents, anyway - love our children and will give them good gifts as we are able, so God loves us so much more that He will give us good gifts, yes, as Matthew records, but even more. As Luke records, God will give us His Holy Spirit, the comforter Himself. God loves us more than even we love our family, biological and otherwise. He wants us to spend time with Him in prayer and otherwise.
It was a real blessing to spend time with our extended Salvation Army family at Leadership camp this week and learn what we needed to learn. I think there was a lot of teaching after I left. Before I left there were some great Salvation Army family moments. Sure, there was some complaining; sure, there was some hesitations about restructuring and other things; there were certainly some seeking confirmation that the Army and/or our leadership and/or their colleagues still love them (we do!); there were a few questions; and sure there were not always the complete answers but I think we all left not only having learned something but having experienced the comfort of God through our colleagues, our friends, and our leaders. I think this comfort was something that many officers really needed and I praise the Lord for it.
I was also very thankful that I was able to chat about my book, Salvogesis Guidebook to Romans Road (www.facebook.com/romansroad) this weekend. I was quite humbled to be asked to present. It is quite an honour for me to be able to address my colleagues like this. During my talk we had an opportunity to share how God had spoken to us, how the Holy Spirit had moved in our lives, and more – all related directly to sharing the Gospel and Salvation God encouraged me (and us) greatly through this! After I had an opportunity to present, Officers and others came up to me sharing experiences of when they saw others come to know the Lord and experience His Salvation and this is exciting and this relates very much to our pericope today.
Salvation is this: Salvation is spending time with God in prayer and otherwise. Salvation is like us as a child paddle-boarding or playing cribbage with God; Salvation is like us as an adult getting a ride to our new home as He helps us get everything set up, and comforts us in our anticipation of what is to come; Salvation is like us going to a concert and cheering, laughing, and playing with our Father in Heaven. Salvation is being in a relationship with God as a son or daughter is with a loving parent. Salvation is being able to come to God and know that He will give you all you need, that He will love you and that He will comfort you and Salvation is knowing that He will be with us all throughout everything here and now and the extra bonus beautiful thing about this Salvation is that it does not end when our time here on earth ends, it will continue on for eternity.
Let us pray.
Referenced Materials:
[1] Craddock, Fred B. Luke (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky, USA: John Knox Press, 1990)
[2] Culpepper, R. Alan. Luke (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995)
[3] Hendricksen, William. Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke (NTC: Baker Academic: Grand Rapids Michigan, 2007)
[4] Isaak, Paul John. Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010). Luke 11:1-13 Prayer and God's reign: 11:5-13 The Habit of Asking, Seeking, and Knocking
[5] Leifeld, Walter L. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Luke/Exposition of Luke/V. Teaching and Travels Toward Jerusalem (9:51-19:44)/B. Teachings (10:25-11:13)/3. Teaching on prayer (11:1-13), Book Version: 4.0.2
[6] Lenski. R.C.H. The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel (Augsburg, 1963).
[7] Ramsay, Michael. Salvogesis Guidebook to Romans Road (The Salvation Army: Vancouver Island, 2022)
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