Exodus 12:24-28: Remember the Plan

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 17 August 2025, Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 06 July 2014 which was based on an earlier version presented 01 July 2012 by Major Michael Ramsay.

 

This is the 2025 Version, to see the 2014 Version click here: 

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2014/07/exodus-1224-28-remember-today.html

 

To see the 2012 version, click here:

 https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/06/exodus-1224-28-remember.html 

 

Our team has been working away with the fires. The other week our team was in Qualicum feeding people. This week we were coordinating our fire response here – concerned about a possible evacuation and how to get all our people out. I spoke with the City, ACRD, media, and TSA EDS quite a bit – planning for possible evacuations, etc.  The TC called us on Friday morning, along with the DC and others to thank us for our work. With all the work with the fires the past weeks I was reminded of a fire story I heard a few years ago from a member of my Rotary Club in Swift Current Saskatchewan. Dave told us this story of a family vacation in Acapulco in 1968:

 

Dave and his wife were on holiday in Mexico. They check into their hotel. They are near the ground floor and there are these little lizards - Geckos or something else – climbing all up the walls; so they speak to the hotel and ask to be moved as far away from the lizards as they can, up to the top floor. They do move up to the top floor. This turns out to be a mistake. In the middle of the night, they are woken up as people are running through the halls screaming. Some girls from Quebec tell them what was happening: the hotel is on fire. The stairs, they are concrete for the top few floors and then wood beneath and the wooden stairs are ablaze. The girls from Quebec jump over the railing from the 10th storey or more up and plunge all the way down. Dave and his wife and his two sons, aged six and nine, are trapped. Without thinking they run to the elevator but the door closes with people inside it just before they get there. Actually I think Dave may have even gotten his hand in the closing door but they don’t catch the elevator, which is good because we know what happens to people in elevators in a fire. Dave and his family are trapped. They try to tie sheets together to scale down the outside of the building but as Dave is heading over a balcony, it is good that he has an arm linked through the railing because someone unties the sheets. He then climbs down the side of the balcony and swings onto the balcony below. His wife then drops one of his children for him to catch and then the other and then she scales down as far as she can, then falls and Dave catches her legs and pulls her in. They do this until the third story or so of the building when they run out of balconies. Dave then throws one child down onto a straw thatched roof, hoping that will break his fall. He sees the boy fall through the roof and run away; so he throws the other son down who makes a new hole as he crashes through the thatched roof. He runs to safety. His wife jumps next and Dave is able to scale a palm tree to the bottom. They are injured but they survive. It was quite a tale to hear. They survived by the grace of God but others on their floor who leapt over the railing or who took the elevator did not.

 

What had happened was, apparently there was a dispute between two ownership groups – one local and one foreign – the foreign group was residing in the hotel on that day and some local people had attacked the hotel with Molotov cocktails – hoping to collect insurance, I believe.

 

It was quite something to hear. There is more to his story too. One of his sons had a piece of the thatched roof he fell through stuck into his foot. The other had a twig protruding from his neck with blood spurting out. They were okay though. There was another miracle in this story. Dave and his wife recognize this as a miraculous salvation. When Dave and his wife were climbing down the balconies to escape the flames, they left somewhere her straw purse with their passports, money, plane tickets, and the like. The next day Dave went back and began looking in this burned-out hotel building for this straw purse. God saved it for them. It was on a balcony on a burned-out floor but this straw purse with its contents was still there. God protected it and God protected them. God was there for them in the midst of this ordeal.

 

It is the same with the Hebrews in our text today and with us. This week we have been planning for if we have to evacuate (due to the fire) the people who sleep at the TSA shelter and eat at the Bread of Life Centre. There are a lot of moving parts to consider in evacuating our 70 to 90 regular diners plus sleepers. Even mores so, can you imagine what it is like for Moses and Aaron as they plan to evacuate up to a million people from Egypt?!  And we have the fires to consider but they had a number of plagues (like covid maybe) only they just kept coming and each one was more awe-inspiring than the previous one.[1]

1.     The Nile turning to blood (7:14–25)

2.     Plague of frogs (7:25–8:11)

3.     Plague of lice or gnats (8:12–15) [2]

4.     Plague of flies or wild animals (8:20–32)

5.     Plague of pestilence (9:1–7)

6.     Plague of boils (9:8–12)

7.     Plague of hail (9:13-35)

8.     Plague of locusts (10:1–20)

9.     Plague of darkness (10:21–29)

I still remember vividly the closest thing to a plague of darkness I ever experienced: when we lived in Swift Current. I still recall that darkness that swept over a corner of the city: at noon it was all of a sudden as dark as night. I have not seen anything like that before. It was an ominous and fear-provoking as the blackness approached – you could see it coming toward you and you could see blue skies fleeing from its presence. We went to pick up Rebecca for lunch from school (she was in grade 3 or 4. I think). There was a tornado warning. The school had announced that the children were not to go outside. Some students, of course, were pressed up against the windows to see what was happening, others were in tears hiding safely under their desks. Today many in our community are concerned about the fires. The feelings of fear and awe, of terror and wonder, that people were having today and on that day are probably a reflection of the intensity of the emotions that would be swirling around the Hebrews like a funnel cloud as they experience the power of God through the first nine plagues and as they prepare for the final plague, the tenth plague: The Angel of Death (11:1–12:36).

 

It is in the context of them huddled in their houses preparing for Death’s arrival that our pericope is found. In the opening 13 verses of this chapter, God tells Moses and Aaron exactly what is about to happen. Just like a Forest fire evacuation alert or order: ‘Get ready’, God warns them, ‘the Angel of Death is coming’.

 

Now I have been in a lot of conversations this week with The Salvation Army, the city, ESS. And just like we have emergency disaster plans that we are to follow here in Alberni and in The Salvation Army when disaster strikes, God in our text is giving Moses and Aaron their instructions as to how to save themselves and their families when the Angel of Death strikes at Goshen, in Egypt. I don’t know if anyone here has ever huddled in a storm cellar or has been forced to take shelter or head beneath deck on a boat being tossed about in a storm, but I imagine that it is the same feeling. The people take all the right steps and now they are just waiting hoping and praying for Death to pass.

 

Today, with the fires raging near town, each one of us is supposed to have a ‘go bag’ ready as the fire might be coming. There are things we need: passports, documents, pictures, water… make sure your car has gas and if you don’t have a car that you have another way out of town! I have binders full of the city’s and the Army’s plans of what we need to follow in the event of a disaster: flood, fire, road closure, … God in Exodus gives Moses and Aaron a disaster preparedness plan (including the go bag directions) for the impending strike by the Angel of Death. It looks like this. Picture with me - you and your family – you have received your disaster preparedness plan from your leaders. Disaster is going to strike, you are fearful (even more than now with the fire near) and you are in awe as you await the Angel of Death who you know is coming to claim many on this very night. On this very evening as Death is approaching; this is the plan:

·       You are to take a lamb or a kid to share as a meal with everyone in your household. If there aren’t enough of you in a household to eat a whole lamb, you must share it with your closest neighbour (12:3-4);

·       The animal must be 1 year-old and without defect (v.5);

·       You have already been taking care of the animals for 14 days in preparation for this day – now everyone in town is to go and slaughter the lamb at twilight (v.6);

·       You will then – this is important – take some of the blood and put it on the sides and the tops of the doorframes of the houses where you will eat the lambs (v.7);

·       Then you will eat the meat roasted over a fire with bitter herbs and bread without yeast and you must eat it all. You may not leave any of it until morning! If there are leftovers, you must burn them (vv. 8-10);

·       When you are eating this meal, you are to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on, and your staff in your hand (v. 11). In our language today: you are to have your coats, hats and shoes on and your car keys in your hand. You are to be ready to go. You are to eat it in haste because it is the LORD’s Passover.

 

God tells Moses and Aaron that as the people follow this plan they will survive the impending strike by the Angel of Death. Then God tells them, ‘You must never forget this night. You must remember how I saved you.’ I imagine this evening must be as clear to those who experienced it as the images were to Dave and his wife of that night climbing down the side of the building – and Dave’s wife, she’s afraid of heights. I imagine that every time they think about this night, they remember every feeling that was racing through their heart and mind and I imagine that they’ll never forget it.

 

I remember when I was in Nipawin, SK and a building exploded right behind The Salvation Army downtown. My office shook. It felt like a truck had struck it. With others, I headed outside to see what had happened, I saw injured or dead or dying people lying on the ground as the flames began to engulf the downtown. My children and everyone around on that day have stories surrounding those moments. We all here today remember Covid! I imagine each of us have had times like these that will never leave our minds.

 

The thing with these events as real as they are to us, they are not as real to people who don’t actually experience them and as time passes people tend to forget the important lessons that come from them. I had the honour of speaking at a 70^th anniversary of D-Day memorial. For hundreds and thousands of soldiers present on June 6, 1944, as long as they lived, this is a day they never forgot; but if I were to guess I would say that less people across this whole country officially commemorated the anniversary than lost their lives on that one day. Remembrance Day and the Legion remind us of the horrors of war, lest we forget. It is no coincidence that as more and more of our veterans pass away, that there are more wars in our world than before – and wars the involve the Superpowers too. People forget and then another generation experiences the same horrors.

 

As the Hebrew families of our text are sitting in their houses awaiting the impending calamity, God tells Moses that they are never to forget this day.[3] They are to remember it forever. They are to tell their children and their children’s children. This should a permanent feature in their school curriculum, so to speak. It should be like our annual Remembrance Day ceremonies and there are some elements that must be observed. As far as the Passover remembrance ceremonies, they are to incorporate some of their Emergency Disaster Preparedness Plan into a ceremonial dinner, and they are not have any yeast in the house for seven days prior and they are to eat only unleavened flat breads. Then God tells them, Exodus 12:24-27:

“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

 

One reason that the people were to remember this was so that they would not forget what the Lord had done for them in the past and another reason is to wait for a future deliverance. As this ceremony developed over the generations, it came to incorporate an act of ceremonially ‘looking for Elijah’. This is because tradition later stated that Elijah must return before the Messiah is to come.

 

Now Elijah did return and the Messiah did come and when he did Jesus the Messiah celebrated this very important Passover remembrance with his disciples and he uttered the very important words, “Do this in remembrance of me.” This is, I think, a big reason why God wanted the Passover ceremony etched so deeply in the minds of humanity for so long because just as when the Egyptians lost their firstborn sons, God saved His people through the blood of the Passover lamb; so when God gave up His firstborn son –Jesus Christ – He saved us; His people, all His people, He saves us all through the Blood of the Lamb.[4]

 

This is the most important event in the whole history of the world: The death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God, through the giving of His only begotten Son has made it – just like with Exodus and the Angel of Death – so that none of us need to perish but all of us can have salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is important to remember.

 

This is why we come to church, this is why we go to Bible studies, this is why we pray, and this is why we read our Bibles; this is why we have our Mercy Seat, and this is why every year we celebrate Good Friday and Easter. That is why we are here today: because just as God offered salvation to all His children from the Angel of Death and the plagues; so too He offers salvation to all of us from Sin and Death and relief in everything that is plaguing us. As that is the case, it is my hope and my prayer that if any of us have not yet implemented our eternal disaster preparedness plan, that we would delay no longer and that we would all experience that salvation both today and forever more.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Cf. Walter C. Kaiser Jr., The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/I. Divine Redemption (1:1-18:27)/E. The Passover (12:1-28)/1. Preparations for the Passover (12:1-13), Book Version: 4.0.2. for more detailed list.

[2] R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 2), S. 113: In the evening: literally ‘between the two evenings’. Jewish scholars are not agreed as to the exact meaning. The phrase is also used of the time for the regular evening sacrifice (Exod. 29:39) and of the time for lighting the lamps in the meeting-tent (Exod. 30:8). The orthodox piety of Pharisaic Judaism understood the meaning as being between the time in the afternoon when the heat of the sun lessens (say 3 or 4 p.m.) and sunset. Other groups preferred the time between sunset and dark, or other similar explanations.

[3] Thomas W. Mann, “Passover: The Time of Our Lives.” Interpretation 50, no. 3 (July 1, 1996): 240-250. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 28, 2012), 241-242: The Passover narrative is arguably the most important section of the entire book because it is primarily here that the experience of exodus is communicated not simply as a moment in historical time (in the past) but as a perennially recurring moment in the present life of those for whom the story is sacred.

[4] Norman Theiss, "The Passover Feast of the New Covenant." Interpretation 48, no. 1 (January 1, 1994): 17-35. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 28, 2012), 17: In the eyes of the first three evangelists and Paul, Jesus construed his last supper with the twelve disciples as the fulfillment of God's plan to inaugurate a new Passover meal. In this new meal, Jesus interpreted his death as a new Exodus in which the new people of God were liberated from all that enslaves them and freed to serve God in holy living.

2 Corinthians 9: 12-15: Thanks be to God!

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 10 August 2025. (Also presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 12 October 2008 and Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army 28 April 2013) by Major Michael Ramsay

 

This is the 2025 Alberni Valley version.

 

To view the 2008 / 2013 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/10/2-corinthians-912-15-thanks-be-to-god.html

 

Bette, Travis and others have been helping this week with the Wesley Ridge / Cameron Lake Fire Evacuation Services in Parksville and Qualicum. They left here Sunday after church and have been there most days this week. They have served between 70 and 150 meals for each meal, serving 1 to 2 meals each day. Since I have been in town Alberni Valley Emergency Disaster Services has supported emergencies here (fires, road closures, pandemic, etc.) and in Kamloops and Smithers / Prince George. EDS is something that I have been involved in quite a bit in my time in The Salvation Army. This week I ran across some of my notes from my first international deployment to help with Emergency Disaster Services.

 

September 2008, Hurricane Ike struck Galveston Island. More than 1 million people were evacuated from that part of Texas and more than 72 people were found dead as a result of the storm and the flooding. I was part of the first deployment of relief workers. Bodies were still being found when I left. After I left new problems developed in the way of mould and mildew. I heard from the crews that replaced us that the smell was almost overwhelming as soon as they stepped on the Island. People also began to notice the divide between the rich and the poor: which neighbourhoods were getting their garbage picked up and who was having their power restored, etc…

 

Homes were destroyed. Businesses were destroyed. When we were there, the sewers, the water, and the phones were not working. People were housed in shelters both on and away from Galveston Island. Many still had no place to go. Power remained out for a long time afterwards in some of the parts where we were posted. The power outage means that even for families that did not lose their stoves and refrigerators – and most did. There were many refrigerators destroyed and lying on the side of the road for pick up – they were unable to keep or cook any food. They didn’t have food and they didn’t have water.

 

Food and water: this is a big part of what The Salvation Army does. We had around 30 food trucks (CRUs) from which we helped to serve around 75 000 hot meals every day and give the people water and ice. Ice was very important. It was around 90⁰ F during our time there. And the food: many people told me that without The Salvation Army they wouldn’t have eaten at all. They wouldn’t have survived. We thank the Lord for the service that the volunteers were providing to God and this community. We prayed for them that as they continued to serve down there even after we left, the Lord continued to bless greatly the volunteers and the populace alike.

 

2 Corinthians 9:12-15: This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

 

I would like to share with you some of the testimonies and miracles that we have to be thankful for from our time on Galveston Island almost 2 decades ago.

 

I was part of the mobile Emotional and Spiritual Care team for most of my time down there. For my first four or five days I served on a canteen as an ESC Officers. I thank the Lord for all that he did through our crew. There were four of us on our canteen: myself Wilfred, John, and Jose.

 

John left his family back in Illinois to join us. Someone close to him was once an executive director of some firm but over the past few years he had been struggling with addiction. While he was away, she slipped. His children are grown and at least one of them has moved home again with his own young family. There were numerous struggles on the home front as those close to him struggled. When John heard some of the stories about the problems at home he was grieved but He prayed and experienced the Lord’s grace. He shared the testimony that his grown son called ‘daddy’ for the first time on the phone. The Lord protected John’s family. He blessed me and so many people on Galveston Island through him. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

Jose was also on our canteen. He came from Virginia, but he was born in Mexico. When he first came to the US, he spoke no English: now he is bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish. This was a real blessing because in this part of Texas there are many people who don’t speak any English at all and they were hit very hard by Ike. In the first few days he translated prayers for me into Spanish. By the time I left, he was leading prayers for people in need. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

There are many stories from our time down there. I can’t possibly share them all with you today. We don’t have enough time. I want to share a couple of very significant stories however.

 

I heard more than one account of a contemporary miracle paralleling that of the fish and the loaves. Our canteens were instructed to make sure that they gave away all of their food before they came in for the night. They did not want food returned when people were going without. One canteen had some food left. It was getting late so they were seeking out someone to give their last container of food to. They prayed. One person then saw a line of about 12-18 tired and hungry looking construction workers so they headed over to offer them food. They were really appreciative.

 

As they were feeding these men, a number of school busses filled with people pulled up. It is my understanding that they served over 800 meals at that location – no one went away hungry. Feeling blessed by what the Lord had done they started to clean up. (Now there was a non-believer, a Red Cross worker on their canteen with them today). Someone picked up the container from which they fed the 800 meals and read from the side of it, ‘serves 90 meals’. The Lord fed more than eight times that number and no one went hungry. The Red Cross worker who was helping them on the truck that day began to cry. He said that he had never believed in God – until now. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

This same canteen was used by the Lord to lead many more people in prayer to Christ. There were also some very exciting open airs that led to many more accepting Jesus’ gift of eternal life. There were many miracles in the midst of suffering. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

We met families who lost everything: their homes, their businesses, their possessions. I met one man who cried as he watched the machines scoop up all his destroyed possessions that he had to throw out. He praised the Lord that he just lost his things but it still hurt to see all the tokens of his memories scooped up into the back of a dump truck.

 

Parts of the city of Galveston were under more than 10 feet of water. I spoke with one Lady who lost everything on the first floor of her house but praised the Lord because all her children’s things were unharmed on the second floor – so at least they were comforted and had something to do while their parents worked to clean up the mess and fix the house.

 

Many people relayed how they had lost all their possessions but praised God that they had escaped with their lives. This is really quite something because in 1900, a similar hurricane hit this same Island and claimed 8000 lives. Many people praised the Lord for the contemporary early warning systems. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! There was plenty of warning. No one needed to die. Everyone was saved who chose to leave the Island. Some, however, rejected their salvation.

 

There is a story of one 19- or 20-year-old who stood on the waterfront, intentionally defying the storm. He was swept away to his death. I met a man who lost his home and his business and praised the Lord for his insurance, but he wondered why his brother chose to stay behind and die. How does he deal with the fact that his brother rejected salvation?

 

This is really the same for us today here. We thank God for His indescribable gift! We praise Him that the early warning for the end of times hurricane was sounded 2 millennia ago. We praise the Lord, that he gave his life so that everyone can be saved - but the sad thing is that some will reject this salvation.

 

Jesus died on the cross and rose again so that we need not perish in that eschatological hurricane. The sad thing is that some refuse to call on the Name of the Lord. Some live their whole lives without the knowledge and comfort of God. Some ignore the early warning system. Some defy God. Some refuse to be saved. Some friends and family are like that man’s brother. Some friends and family are like that 19- or 20-year-old – just awaiting death. It is sad. It is tragic. Some suffer all the things that we all suffer and more and don’t experience the peace of God that can sustain us all.

 

But there is good news. It is my understanding that though 75 may have lost their lives needlessly, over 200 have been saved eternally through this event. I have heard story upon story of people who have heeded the early warning system, who have accepted Christ and who have been saved. Praise the Lord. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

I want to share the story of Scott and the story of Paul. Scott was a canteen worker from central Texas who had accepted the Lord not too long before coming to Galveston and Paul is a twelve-year-old boy.

 

Scott was working on of one of our canteens.  Paul lives in an apartment with 10 other people and is familiar with the neighbourhood activities of gangs and drugs.  This boy saw our canteen near his home and wanted to help.  He approached Scott and volunteered to help.  Scott welcomed him with open arms and very quickly made an impression on Paul - he kept coming back. Scott even gave him T-shirt and hat.  The look on Paul’s face was worth a million dollars or more.

 

The evening before Scott was to return home from his deployment, I had the opportunity to give him his exit interview. During this interview we began speaking about Paul, whom I had met a couple of days previous. Scott told me that he had prayed with Paul on a number of occasions and that Paul was asking about Jesus. I asked if Paul had asked the Lord into his heart. Scott said ‘not yet’ and asked me to help him do that.

 

The next day, Sunday, Scott, Paul, and a number of other volunteers working on the canteen eagerly awaited our arrival – Paul was ready to ask the Lord into his heart.  We arrived and I encouraged Scott to lead Paul in the ‘sinners’ prayer’.  After a simple confession of sin and profession of faith, Paul was welcomed into the family of God.  We then sang a verse of Amazing Grace and Scott presented Paul with a Bible.

 

While we were celebrating Paul’s proclamation of salvation, two apparent ‘good-ole boys’ rolled up in a pick-up truck with their radio blaring Hank William’s “I Saw the Light.”  They were angels. They were messengers of God who had come to celebrate with us, then they were gone.

 

In the midst of all the turmoil and all the suffering God was there. In the midst of all our troubles and all our sufferings, God is here. He offers this same salvation to us here on Vancouver Island today that he offered to them on Galveston Island in Texas in 2008.

 

So today we all here have the same choice that faced the people of Galveston Island. We can either defy the storm and perish like the nineteen-year-old boy or we can heed the warning; we can see the light, choose to be saved, turn our eyes upon Jesus, experience everyday of our life with him, and celebrate with the Angles sent from God in Heaven. We can all experience the comfort of Christ for now and forever through whatever storms come our way. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

Let us Pray.

 

www.sheepspeak.com

Psalm 146: Set the Captives Free (Now)!

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries by Major Michael Ramsay, 03 August 2025

 

We have a lot of scripture readings again because I want to chat some more about a truth that this is a common theme throughout the Bible: “Set the captives free!” Most of the time when we, in church, read about the captives being set free it is in the context of the Kingdom of God. The Gospels say that the Kingdom of God is at hand. In theology we use the term ‘prolepsis’ to refer to the time when the Kingdom of God begins, which is now, the time between the resurrection of Christ and His return at the eschaton. This is the time we are living in now and as Christians it is our responsibility to try to make this time as close to what the world will be like when Jesus comes back at the end of time – which is perfect.

 

The Bible repeatedly tells us what Christian nations look like, what we as Christians need to work toward in our country. Psalm 146 is example of how we can be a part of God’s Kingdom:

 

Psalm 146

1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul.

2 I will praise the Lord all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,

in human beings, who cannot save.

4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;

on that very day their plans come to nothing.

5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord their God.

6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth,

the sea, and everything in them—

he remains faithful forever.

7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed

and gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets prisoners free,

8     the Lord gives sight to the blind,

the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,

the Lord loves the righteous.

9 The Lord watches over the foreigner

and sustains the fatherless and the widow,

but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

10 The Lord reigns forever,

your God, O Zion, for all generations.

Praise the Lord.

 

Verse 7 says, “The Lord sets the prisoners free”; you can also see this sentiment in Zechariah 9:11, Psalm 68:6, Psalm 102:20, Isaiah 42:7 and elsewhere. Jesus, as recorded in Luke, quotes Isaiah 42 letting people know that the time to set the prisoners free is now. I think this is important. I think we do need to do what the Bible tells us to do. I was reading one African Liberation Theologian’s essay (I believe it was Bongajalo Goba) this week in Hammering Swords into Plowshares, a book dedicated to the Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He said that one main difference between capitalist western churches and the Universal Christian Church is that western churches either spiritualize everything (for example: God doesn’t’ really want us to let people out of jail, that is just a metaphor for something else…maybe being free from our personal bad habits) or they try to say that the things that God tells us to do as a society are only in the future and God will do it; it is not our responsibility (we shouldn’t try to give sight to the blind now; we shouldn’t end hunger or homelessness now – even though we can!- God will do that when Jesus returns at the end of time). But the real Church including the churches in the third world realizes that when God tells us to make it so that no one is hungry; no one is lonely; no one is homeless; no one is thirsty, and no one is in prison; He is telling us to do it now! We are not supposed to go on propping up (western capitalist ‘democratic’) systems that are opposed to the expressed will of God and just say “oh well, when we all get to heaven we will all be okay” -both me who has so much and my neighbour who doesn’t. When we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be.

 

I have been really convicted and cut to the quick with the sentiment I shared at the Summer Rain festival: Jesus speaks about a salvation society as one where the sick are healed, the captives are freed, the hungry are fed, the lonely are visited, the perpetrator is forgiven, relationships are healed. In our world, in our country, in our province, in our city there is still conflict, abuse, addiction, poverty, homelessness, murder, mental illness, hate, violence, unforgiveness… What if we didn’t have to wait until we die to experience a world without all of this? What if Christ was right and he wasn’t lying to us? What if the Kingdom of God is actually at hand? What if the Church (and our churches) is actually the body of Christ and what if we actually do this?  

 

Recently I read Wrongfully Convicted by Canadian lawyer and Founder of Innocence Canada, Kent Roach and this week I have been reading Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, an American lawyer who has spent his career working with death row inmates. The horrors that people suffer behind bars in the USA are as bad as you imagine and even worse. Think of the TV shows you have seen and then place yourself or your loved ones in the place of the prisoners being abused by prisoners or guards, or judges, or whomever. When I studied Restorative Justice from Simon Fraser University a decade ago, we read stories of inmates who were actually lost in American prisons – it came time to release them and they had no idea where they were.

 

I have a story relating to that – when I was just a new Salvation Army Officer, I was appointed to the small town of Nipawin, Saskatchewan (Go Riders!). On Sunday a congregation member asked me if I could go see another congregation member, Zerah. “Sure” I said. “He is in cells” they said. Apparently, shortly before we had arrived to town Zerah had gone on an arson spree, lighting the town on fire. I spent the next weeks and months meeting Zerah whenever he was in town for the circuit court. In between court dates they would ship him off to prisons in Prince Albert or Regina – and I think his court cases were in Nipawin, Carrot River, or Tisdale. I would meet him in whatever small community courthouse the circuit court was meeting on that day of the week.

 

One time I was in the court room in Carrot River and they called Zerah’s name to stand before the judge. No answer. They called it again. No answer. The judge then said, “We will need to issue a warrant for his arrest for not showing up for court.” At this point I popped up from my seat and awkwardly raised my hand. I was in uniform so he knew I wasn’t Zerah; so he asked me “do you know where Zerah is?” “Yes. He is in prison in PA” I said. Everyone in the courtroom laughed. I didn’t. The judge didn’t. “Then we better not issue a warrant for his arrest – that would look pretty bad” the judge said as he instructed the bailiff to try to find Zerah and figure out how they lost him in the system. Eventually, they did find Zerah in prison; but can you imagine if I wasn’t there? This warrant issued from the bench would be on his record. They lost Zerah in prison.

 

I was reading some research this week. Did you know that quite a few people in U.S. jails, federal, and US state prisons have never even been convicted of a crime? What percentage of people in US jails do you think have never been convicted of a crime? 80%! 80% of people suffering all that they are suffering in prison have never been convicted of an offence and some of them never will be and some of them will have their convictions overturned on appeal. I didn’t find the stats for Canada but, from experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are similar.

 

A member of our church in Toronto when he immigrated to Canada from Dubai about 10 years ago, they held him and his sister in jail until they processed them – I am not sure how many months they were in jail. He was separated from his sister (she was put in a different jail) and quite concerned about her. I wound up having to go to the consulate with him to figure out a whole bunch of things – this is Canada.

 

I spoke to my friends in Stony Mountain Penitentiary when I was there for two years. They told me that the prison organized the wings by gangs: the Indian Posse had one wing, the Hells Angels another. They set the rules. They told me that you never make eye contact with anyone. It was hard not to be part of a gang. We put people who have never been convicted of a crime through this and more in Canada. And they can lose you in this system, like they did Zerah. Can you imagine if it was the day of your release and no one knew where you were to release you?

 

In 2023, in Canada, 61 people died in custody.  According to StatsCan, from 2017-2020 there were 169 deaths in our prisons: there were 20 suicides, 11 confirmed homicides, 19 drug overdoses and many other natural and suspicious deaths. In 2019 alone in the USA 143 were murdered while in the care of the State.

 

We, the Church, are called to free the prisoners; we, the Church, are supposed to be good stewards of the money God entrusts us with too. The estimated total court spending in Canada for 2014 was $1,614,017,311. That is not even including the incarceration and other costs! We could provide everyone the mental health and addiction support they need in this country for that amount of money. The average hotel cost across this country is $211.00 per night. The daily average cost of keeping someone in prison here is $326.00 per night which works out to $9780.00 per month. We could afford to put everyone in a hotel and give them the mental health and addition help they need for less than putting them in prison – and there are lots of safer cheaper ways to contain someone still. The average rental cost in Canada is $2200 / month which works out to $74 a day (as opposed to the $326 /day that it costs to put someone in a cage!); the average mortgage in Canada (including Vancouver, etc.) is just $2100 a month which works out to just $70 a day. We can feed and house people at the Bread of Life, Tiny Homes, or a shelter here for a lot cheaper than that too – with all the supports to keep themselves and others safe! So why do we lock people in prisons? It doesn’t help them. It doesn’t help us! – oh and btw I read that over 70% of those in Canadian prisons have diagnosed mental health conditions.

 

Instead of locking someone up to be tortured in the cages we call prisons, we could send someone somewhere actually safe and secure for mental health and addiction support – we just choose not to! Derek, one of our regular friends at the Army and the Bread of Life, every time he gets out of jail he is healthy-ish, well fed and not visibly fighting his demons for a week or so – but when they toss him out of prison they toss him out on the street with no support; so his own mental health demons torment him so much until he hurts himself and others in unimaginable ways and then winds up back behind bars where he suffers everything that one suffers there. That doesn’t make society safe. That doesn’t make Derick safe.

 

That doesn’t need to be the case. My friend Zerah was eventually sentenced to mental health care and weekly injections for his schizophrenia instead of jail and he was able to contribute to society. Why don’t we help everyone who needs help like that? Why do we torture people like we do to Derrick instead? Why? Just because Zerah ‘lucked out’ and had a compassionate judge? Because he had a TSA Officer with him the whole time? We are called to set the captives free. There is no reason for anyone to be tortured in a cage, let alone the 80% of the people we are doing this to who have never been convicted of a crime. And how can we punish people with mental health and addiction issues for acting in manners consistent with their mental health and addiction issues?

 

And… why am I asking us this question? And to 25 people here who actually do a lot for people in our community? What do I want us to do? Are we able to go speak with Judge Wolf and ask that he never sentence someone to incarceration again? – maybe; I wouldn’t object to that. Do I want a volunteer to start a court worker program here like we had in Saskatchewan that helped keep people out of prison? - maybe; I wouldn’t object to that. Am I asking us to write letter or speak in person to Josie (our MLA) and Gord (our MP) and ask them to change the legislation so that we try to help heal our community heal rather than punish the sick and even innocent people this way; maybe. I wouldn’t object to that.

 

I guess the main thing I am asking us is to keep our eyes open; keep our ears open. Remember that Jesus and the Bible does command us set the captives free and we as members of the church are asked to do that, just as we are asked to forgive one another like we have spoken about the previous few weeks. So today, I ask that we please just leave here knowing and believing that our world can be changed and it can be changed now; there are other solutions, let us look for them; let us pray for them, and let us fight for them. Jesus tells us to set the captives free.

 

Let us pray

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