New Life's Resolutions! (Ephesians 4:1-32)

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries by Major Michael Ramsay, 07 January 24 and 04 January 26

 

This is the 2026 version, to view the 2024 version, click here: 

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2024/01/new-years-resolutions-ephesians-41-23.html

 

We had New Year’s when we were away. New Year’s is often a time of reviews or quizzes. Today I have a Bible memory quiz for us. I am going to read or recite a verse, and you tell me the reference. Let’s see how we do:

1.     For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (Jn 3:16)

2.     In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

3.     But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)

4.     For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Ro 6:23)

5.     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

6.     The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. (Ps 23:1)

7.     In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, (Ephesians 4:26)

 

I picked the Ephesians 4:26 verse because we used to talk about it almost every week in Sunday prayer meeting. it is one of Reinhard’s favourite verses. Does anyone have favourite verses? If so, call them out now…

 

Thursday was New Year’s Day. This is often a time of resolutions. Did anyone make any resolutions? I had one friend who said that they would give up drinking for January – and then they thought about it a while and declared that they would give up drinking on Wednesdays in January. This year I resolve to keep up my daily Bible readings (as I have done for many years) and exercises – mostly stretches. The older I get the more I need to stretch. I was injured during covid and walked with a limp for well over a year and it was through my exercises that God made it so that I could walk without a limp again. It is the same with exercising our spiritual disciplines - like prayer and study. They strengthen us so that we do not get injured spiritually, eternally. These are some of my (not new) resolutions.

 

If you are looking for some resolutions for the New Year or your life in general, Paul in Chapter 4 of Ephesians has some good suggestions. He says, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Therefore let us resolve to, Ephesians 4:2-3, “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Let us:

1.     Be completely humble and gentle (4:2a);

2.     be patient, bearing with one another in love (4:2b);

3.     Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (v.3).

 

These are three very good resolutions. The first one is to be humble and gentle. We know what it means to be gentle. It means to speak calmly and quietly. It means to not use aggressive language such as ‘You Statements’; we know what those are, right? …Things like ‘You did this” or ‘You said that’ or even ‘you always say this’ or ‘you never do that’; often such statements can be accompanied by finger pointing or other non-gentle, non-verbal accessories. A gentle person also doesn’t interrupt people. Sometimes excited, even well-meaning people can do violence to others by cutting them off mid-sentence. Paul says we should resolve instead to be gentle with one another.

 

Paul says we should be humble. Humility helps us be gentle. When we are humble, we don’t come across as if we always have the right answer – we may actually have the right answer, but we don’t come across as if the other person’s perspective doesn’t matter. A humble person will often let the other person speak, validate their opinion, before sharing her own wisdom in an affirming rather than a demeaning or arrogant manner. Paul says, be completely humble and gentle with one another.

 

Paul also exhorts us to resolve to be patient with each other, bearing with one another in love. Sometimes this means we let someone finish talking and not cut them off just because we think we know what they are saying. Sometimes it means that we let someone complete a task, even if they are not as proficient at it as we are. You know how it feels when every time you try something it seems like it is not good enough – they either take over from you or criticize you. Paul says, ‘don’t do that’, 4:2b: rather be patient, bearing with one another in love.

 

Ephesians 4:3: ‘Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.’ This is important. Many times we argue about things that are adiaphoron, matters of spiritual indifference. It is really important to understand that whatever deep-seated matter we are arguing about: sports, politics, religion, theology, whether its pronounced tomato or tomato... as Christians we need to not be distracted by these things. It is really important, however, that we stick together on the matters of significant importance such as salvation for here and now and forever, and the rest we can work out in gentle conversation and study as we make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

·       Ephesians 4:21-24: “when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

 

4:21-24 is a great New Year’s and New Life verse – now is a great time to put on a new self as we are all created to be like God him/themself. Paul suggests some more resolutions too:

·       Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of one body.

·       Ephesians 4:26&27: “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

·       Ephesians 4:28: Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

·       Ephesians 4:29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

·       Ephesians 4:30-32 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 

Ephesians 4:25: Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of one body. This is a good resolution for us all. Speak truthfully to each other. Don’t share a rumour. Don’t gossip. Don’t share wrong information. Don’t guess. This can actually be a temptation. I know that I have overheard many conversations where a person, well-meaning even, says something just straight up wrong. Paul tells us to resolve to slow down when we are chatting with one another and make sure that what we are saying is true. Put off all falsehood.

 

Paul also says, Verse 26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry”, Verse 27, “do not give the devil a foothold.” Alan often remembers this verse. Rheinhart used to remind us of this all the time in prayer meeting. How long have he and Christa been married? 70+ years? Rheinhart tells us that one secret to a good marriage – and probably any relationship is to not let the sun so down while you are still angry. Resolve to settle your dispute or at least calm down before the sun goes down. If you don’t, by morning you may find that things have already been blown far out of proportion – or worse – you may find that the issue never gets resolved. In that case it will nibble away at you forever or until you get divorced. Really, in your anger, don’t sin and don’t go to bed while you are still angry at anyone.

 

Paul also says that, Verse 28, anyone who has been stealing must resolve to steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands so they have something to share. I find this interesting. He not only says that we should resolve not to steal; we should also resolve to make something useful to share with others. I think that is important. It is not just that we shouldn’t take something from someone; that isn’t it. We should actually go out of our way to make something for someone else. This does two things – one it gives purpose to the one who had nothing to do but steal and two, it helps out someone else who themselves can then do something useful for others. We all have agency – take it from no one. I encourage us to always contribute and to help others to contribute.

 

Paul says we should resolve to not let any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths - only what is helpful for building up others. When we are chatting with one another, let us encourage one another, even when in disagreement, pointing out the value and benefit of each other and encouraging one another to continue to use their gifts to help out each other.

 

Let us resolve this year and always to not grieve the Holy Spirit. Verse 31, let us get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. And 32, Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 

Forgiveness my friends is a key to so much in life. It is when we fail to forgive that we can be consumed by bitterness, rage, and anger which can lead to brawling, slander, malice and all the rest. Paul asks us to be kind and compassionate instead and it is only through forgiveness that we can do this.

 

We know what forgiveness is, right? Forgiveness is NOT something that we do for or to anyone else. I often hear people say, I can’t possibly forgive him or her for this terrible thing they did. Whether you forgive something or not has absolutely nothing to do with the person who hurt you. Also, protecting yourself, others, or themselves, from the person has nothing to do with forgiveness. Forgiveness is a state of heart and a state of mind. You can forgive someone and still protect everyone involved. We do need to remember though that when someone does something awful to us – lying, stealing, anything – they do that thing once. When we refuse to forgive, we hurt ourselves with that very same pain each and every time we fail to forgive. A person does violence to you once – you do violence to yourself each and every time you fail to forgive. Whether you forgive someone or not has nothing to do with them at all. Failing to forgive someone is like being so mad at someone for hitting you on the head that you hit yourself on the head over and over again until they have learned their lesson – the only one you are guaranteed to be hurt is yourself. Paul says, don’t do that. Instead, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 

Ephesians 4 has some great New Life resolutions for us: be humble, gentle, patient, honest, and unified in the Spirit; don’t sin even when angry; don’t steal; speak nicely to each other, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, and malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgive each other, just as in Christ, God forgave us. My friends, let us resolve to encourage one another in this way, not only in the new year but also in our new lives forever; let us resolve to love one another.

 

Let us pray.

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2 Timothy 1:3: Let Us Pray

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 09 Oct. 2011 and The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 23 Nov. 2015 by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay

 

This is the November 2025 version, to view the October 2011 version, click here:

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/10/2-timothy-13-let-us-pray.html

 

2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” I have a story about thanking God… or talking to Him anyway.

 

A golfer, now in his golden years, had a lifelong ambition to play one hole at the famous Pebble Beach in California, the same way the pros do it: The pros drive the ball out over the water straight onto the green that is on a spit of land that juts out off the coast. It was something he had tried hundreds of times without success. His ball always fell short, into the ocean. Because of this he never used a new ball on this particular hole. He always chose an old one with a cut or a nick in it.

      This one time when he came to Pebble Beach to try again and he arrived at that particular hole, he teed up an old, cut up ball and said a silent prayer. As he was about to strike the ball a loud voice from the heavens says, “Wait! Replace that old ball with a brand new ball.”

      The old golfer did but he still had some misgivings. He still lacked faith a little bit that he would ever see his ball again despite the fact that the Lord seemed to be implying that he was going to finally achieve his life-long ambition of avoiding this water trap, just like the pros. Hesitantly, the old golfer stepped up to the tee one more time, this time with a brand new ball and as he did, he heard the voice again from above: “Wait. Step back. Take a practice swing.” He did.

      The voice boomed again, “Take another practice swing.” He did. Then, after a moment of silence, the Lord finally said, “put the old ball back on the tee.”

 

2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” Here the golfer can thank God that He spared him his new golf ball.

 

We are going to be looking at 2 Timothy today in our lead up to the Advent Season this year. Paul probably wrote this letter while he was in prison in Rome in the mid-60s CE. Now, this imprisonment was different than other imprisonments that Paul suffered. Previously Paul was under house arrest – an electronic monitoring type of situation, albeit before electronics of course - where Paul had a fair bit of leniency in his imprisonment. Now, however, he is in a dungeon. Tradition has it that this is Paul’s final imprisonment; He will only leave the dungeon for the grave. Paul will die via capital punishment here in Rome and he is now awaiting that conclusion.[2] The conditions in the dungeon were probably not as bad as those for people today in Guantanamo Bay – I doubt that the Romans were actively torturing him like the USA does there - but Paul’s experience may not be entirely dissimilar and probably even worse than prisons in this country. It certainly is not the house arrest that Paul had experienced earlier.[3] This is what life is like for Paul as he is writing this letter to his friends.

 

In his letter, one can see that Paul is obviously lonely. He misses his church family (2 Timothy 1:4). He is remembering in this letter his church family in Ephesus,[4] especially Timothy and Timothy’s mother, Eunice; and Timothy’s grandmother, Lois (2 Timothy 1:5). Paul wants to see them again. He misses them. Paul, as he expresses his loneliness in this letter, is in all likelihood having feelings not entirely dissimilar to the feelings experienced by Officers and others who are moved from community to community in the Army (cf. Romans 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:6 and Philippians 1:8). We are separated from those we love and with whom we have together served the Lord.

 

Paul, the apostle, is reaching out in this letter to his friends and church family and look: what is one of the first things that he tells them? He says, “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers” (2 Timothy 1:3).

 

Paul says that he thanks God day and night as he constantly remembers them. The Authorized Version reads, “without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.” Without ceasing (Greek: adialeipton) Paul remembers his Christian brothers and sisters in his prayers (cf. Romans 1:9-10; Philippians 1:3; Colossians 1:31; Thessalonians 1:2; 3:6). The Greek word used here, adialeiptos (unceasingly), is a powerful word and is found elsewhere in Paul’s writings only in Romans 9:2 (cf. Romans 1:9-10; Philippians 1:3; Colossians 1:31; Thessalonians 1:2; 3:6).[5] Paul in this letter is saying that whenever – day or night - the Lord brings Timothy, Eunice and Lois to his mind, Paul prays for them.[6]

 

Paul knows the power of prayer. Paul in another letter to this same church in Ephesus states about prayer that after we have put on the full amour of God that we are to – Ephesians 6:18-  “…pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

 

Prayer is a powerful thing and even when Paul is imprisoned, he still has access to this power of prayer and he is not afraid to use it. 2 Timothy 1:7: “for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.”

 

This is important for us to remember. We need to constantly remember our Christian brothers and sisters in prayer. We should continue to uphold them in prayer. We should also pray for all the saints, as Ephesians 6:18 records.

 

We all know what the Bible means when we read the word ‘saint’ in the New Testament, right? In the New Testament a saint is NOT a dead person through whom God does miracles. ‘Saint’, when we read the term in the New Testament just means, ‘Christian’.[7] The word literally means ‘holy’ or ‘holy one’ and ‘saint’ was what Christians were commonly called in the first century (cf. TSA doc. 10).[8] When we read the word ‘saint’ in the New Testament, in our mind we should probably hear the word, ‘Christian’. We should pray for all the Christians and we should, like Paul, pray for people without ceasing day and night, whenever the Lord brings them to our thoughts (cf. for ex. Acts 9, Romans 15, 1 Corinthians 16, Philippians 4:21-22, Colossians 1).

 

When Susan and I were urban missionaries in Canada’s poorest postal code, on Vancouver’s downtown eastside (DTES), with The Salvation Army’s 614 Corps, they began a War Room there. The War Room was a prayer room. We had a room in a slum hotel that looked out on that infamous corner of Main and Hastings Street in the DTES of Vancouver. There were people praying in that room overlooking that intersection, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for more than a year anyway. We would each sign up for 3-hour shifts of prayer in the War Room. I often took the 5am – 8am shift. At first a 3-hour prayer shift seemed like a long time but by the end of each shift one inevitably wondered how the time passed so quickly. It was a wonderful time and place to commune with God. Some would take one prayer shift in the War Room a week, others one shift a day, others sometimes more. Twenty-four hours a day, morning and evening, day and night, someone would be praying in that War Room in that slum hotel on Vancouver’s DTES and wow what a blessing that was. 2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.”

 

Like we said before, prayer is a powerful tool and even when Paul is imprisoned, he still has access to this power of prayer and he is not afraid to use it. 2 Timothy 1:7: “for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” The Apostle Paul when he was in a dungeon awaiting execution, with a clear conscience, day and night would remember the saints in prayer. Paul, while he was in the dungeon, he was praying for the saints, the Christians, the other believers. Paul, while he was in jail awaiting execution, was praying for all those on the outside that the Lord was bringing to his mind.

 

This is important. We need to uphold each other in prayer. There are many things that need prayer. It is good to pray that in our own lives, that we follow the will of God and it is also important to pray for others. We have members of our corps who have been sick and or away; as we pray for them, God will use our prayers to use them to do His will. Prayer is a powerful tool and the church that prays together stays together. Prayer is a powerful tool and we should not be afraid to use it. We have a lot that we as a congregation are facing: City Hall TUP; Christmas hampers, Christmas services, kettles, meals, and more; We have emotional and spiritual care matters. We have so much we are facing – all of us and each of us: health and more.

 

We have all heard of as well, if we have not experienced ourselves, the power of prayer for salvation in people’s lives. How many people have we led in a prayer of confession of faith after family has been praying for them for years? We know the story of St. Augustine, of course; this was his story. His mother, St. Monica, prayed for him for many years before he came to the Lord and then the Lord used him to influence the church even unto this very day. Prayer is a powerful tool and we are to use it to uphold our Christian brothers and sisters day and night as the Lord brings them to our minds. This is important. We need to pray for each other.

 

A few years ago now, then General Linda Bond, the international leader of The Salvation Army called us all to pray as an Army. She has asked us to pray Thursday mornings for half an hour from 5am – 8am. This was a great practice.

 

Today you are welcome to pray here anytime when the building is open or you are welcome to pray in your home or you are welcome to pray wherever the Lord leads you to pray. Wherever you pray, let us here, as a church family, like Paul, let us, 2 Timothy 1:3, thank God, whom we serve, as our forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day we constantly remember each other in our prayers.

 

Let us pray.

 

---

[1] But cf. James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 776-781 on authorship and date.

[2] R.C.H Lenski, Interpretation of 1 Timothy, (Interpretation of Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon: Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964),474.

[3] Walter W. Wessel and George W. Knight III, Introduction to 2 Timothy in NIV Study Bible (ed. Kenneth Barker; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002),1882

[4] James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 781.

[5] Donald, Guthrie: Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 140

[6] W.E. Vine. ‘That without Ceasing’. In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939),; cf. Expositors

[7] Cf. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, ‘40: Hagios’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), p.1.

[8] John D.W. Watts. 'Holy.' In Holman Bible Dictionary, general editor Trent C. Butler. Nashville, Tennesee: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991), 660. Cf. G.B. Stevens in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary. Cited W.E. Vine. 'Holiness, Holy, Holily.' In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), 557.Cf. Paul Minear, Interpretation 37 no 1 Ja 1983, p. 22: In his death and resurrection, Jesus' holiness or sanctification became the measure and standard of all holiness, whether of places, times, things, or persons. (Key passages which reflect this are John 10:36; 17:17-19; I Cor. 1:2; 6:11; Heb. 2:11; 10:10; 12:14-24; 13:12-14.)"

Deuteronomy 15:1-11: Poor No More!

 Presented to The Salvation Army, Alberni Valley Ministries, 16 January 2022 and 16 December 2025, by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay

 

This is the 2025 version, to view the earlier version, click here:

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2022/01/deuteronomy-151-11-poor-no-more-count.html

Deuteronomy is an interesting book. It begins with probably a recap for the children of the generation who left Egypt. It begins on Mt Sinai and the opening story is that of most of the Israelites declining the gift of the Promised Land – until it is too late. It then records their desert wanderings and various battles as well as Moses’ prohibition from entering the Promised Land; It then lays out a number of laws outlining how God’s people are to live, the most famous of which are the 10 Commandments listed in Chapter 5. Can anyone tell me what are the 10 Commandments?

 

1.     “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

2.     “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3.     “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

4.     “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

5.     “Honour your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

6.     “You shall not murder.

7.     “You shall not commit adultery.

8.     “You shall not steal.

9.     “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

10. “You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbour’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s.”

 

There are a whole lot more laws than these, of course. The next few chapters of Deuteronomy delineate a few more, elaborate on them, give us more details, and/or reasons for them. In Chapter 9 we read the famous episode of the Golden Calf and in Chapter 10 we have the second printing of the 10 Commandments. We then have a number more chapters elaborating upon and explaining the laws. Chapter 15, which we are looking at today, relates very much to Deuteronomy’s version of the Fourth Commandment – keeping the Sabbath Day holy.[1] In Deuteronomy the reason for this commandment is different than the reason specified in the Exodus account (Ex 20:8-11); in the Deuteronomy account the reason for the Fourth Commandment is that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They are not to make perpetual slaves of each other. Furthermore, when they enter the Promised Land, Deuteronomy 15:4, “there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, He will richly bless you.” But then by Verse 11 it is noted that even so, “there will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”[2]

 

Matthew 26:11 (Mark 14:7, John 12:8) Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 15:11 in saying, “the poor will always be with you”

 

As this is the case, Ignacio Ellacuria says, in essence, the great salvific task is to evangelize the poor so that out of their poverty they may attain the spirit necessary first to escape their indulgence and oppression, second to put an end to oppressive structures, and third to be used to inaugurate a new heaven and a new earth, where sharing trumps accumulating and where there is time to hear and enjoy God’s voice in the heart of the material world and in the heart of human history.[3]

 

I think that is very important. We need to evangelize the poor. We know what the word evangelize means, right? It comes from the Greek word ‘euangelion’, which means ‘good message’ or ‘good news’.[4] We need to share the good news with the poor. Jesus, as recorded in Luke 4:18, in his very early sermon in the synagogue in his very own hometown quoted the prophet Isaiah – Isaiah 61:1 - in this very sentiment. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”

 

What is this good news? What is this ‘euangelion’? This good news is that we can be saved from eternal death. We can be bodily raised from the dead to eternal life and even more.[5] We can have the Spirit of God on us now in our very lives. By the power of God, we can start to experience a new life this very day – renewing our heart and transforming us from the inside! That we can all have this is good news – especially for the poor! And there is more: for just as salvation isn’t just for the future it also isn’t just for the individual; it is for all creation (Romans 8:19-22).

 

And in our society today, as in almost all, if not all societies throughout history, the group that consistently experiences being excluded from the society of the privileged is the poor. Today in Canada we talk a lot about indigenous history and the TRC. Today out of the United States, BLM is still a significant movement. Today there is still much talk about identity politics. Today there are many people discriminated against. The people who have been primarily victimized in these and all other groups are the poor. The consistent target of exclusion in our society – and our world - is and has always been the poor.[6]

 

In the USA which experienced some of the worst slavery and anti-black history in the whole world, this century already they had a rich, powerful, privileged black man ruling their nation while many black and other people still suffer horribly under the curse of poverty and exclusion from society.[7] The Church however is inclusive society and while some of the poor and disenfranchised are already experiencing the blessings of the Good News of eternal salvation, sadly many are still waiting to experience solidarity in the totality of salvation – that of mind, body, soul, and circumstance. A just society, a Christian society is one where everyone will have access to community. A just society, a Christian society is one where the poor and the wealthy will experience solidarity in their salvation. A just society, a Christian society is one where the rich will no longer risk their eternal rewards by withholding material necessities from the poor, as it says in Matthew 6:19-24.

 

John Sobrino tells us that God can use the poor to unleash the solidarity that can be salvific for both the poor and the nonpoor, where “poor people and nonpoor people are mutually bearing one another, giving to each other, and receiving from each other. This kind of solidarity goes beyond mere unilateral [one-way] aid, with its intrinsic tendency toward imposition and domination. [This kind of Christian Solidarity] … can resolve the ambiguity and root out what is harmful in the falsely universalizing concept of globalization.”[8] Bishop Desmond Tutu and President Nelson Mandala referred this as ‘Ubuntu’ which literally means, ‘a person is a person through other people.’ [9] Solidarity is not a one-way street where some dominate others. Salvation is not a one-way street where some dominate others. A Christian society is one where we share resources and bear one another’s burdens (Acts 2:42-47).

 

Ignacio Ellacuria writes that we need to work to create such a society that can replace our civilization of capital, our civilization of wealth, with its the closed and competitive individualism. This needs to be replaced with....[10] A Society of Love: Societies based on wealth (capitalism) can never be Christian (Matthew 6:24) as they exclude the poor.

 

When Jesus was born, lived, died, and rose again He began ushering in His proleptic Kingdom. We know what ‘proleptic’ means, right? It means both now and not yet. The Kingdom of God has begun. It will culminate in Jesus’ return. The Pentateuch records what God’s Kingdom will look like. Deuteronomy 15:4: “there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, He will richly bless you.” Deuteronomy was speaking specifically about the penultimate Promised Land but as with so many other texts, its culmination comes only in the Promised Land of the Kingdom to Come. This Kingdom is coming now and as we work to make this Kingdom a reality, we prove our citizenship in it (Philippians 3:20).

 

The Church is Christian society. As citizens of Heaven, it is important that we no longer objectify others and exclude them from society. The society of Jesus is inclusive. We need to not only allow but also invite our neighbour to participate in society – No more excluding the poor or anyone else! We need to give every person every opportunity to be part of our group. We need to allow every person to serve. Do not force anyone to just be served. Allow everyone to help. Do not demean some by considering them unable to assist. We must empower every person to help others.[11] We must! The Kingdom of God is about inviting others to be part of a society of Jesus, where we love and serve one another. This is the society we are to be building as we await Christ’s return.

 

Today, I encourage you to look for an opportunity to invite someone to serve our Lord alongside you. For those who work and volunteer here, I invite you to not only give out clothes to others who need clothes but allow someone in need to help you; for those who work here, allow someone who has enjoyed a meal with you at the soup kitchen to clean tables or do dishes alongside you. For all of us who are here today, ask someone you serve what is their opinion – ask someone who may not otherwise think that you even care about their opinion, what is their opinion – and then listen to what they say! And honour them by engaging them! For all of us who are here today, ask someone to pray for you; pray for someone else and then ask them to pray for you! When you do this, you involve others in the community of Christ; When you do this, you involve others in the society of Jesus. When we do this, we invite others to be a part of the Kingdom of God.

 

This week let us look for opportunities not to merely serve others but to invite others to be a part of the Kingdom of God by inviting them to serve God right alongside us. Only then will we all have an opportunity to truly be part of the society of Jesus.

 

Let us pray

Isaiah 53:5, Matthew 9:10-12, Micah 6:8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10: HMCS Merciful: Stone Catcher Cruise.

 Presented to TSA Alberni Valley, 30 August 2025 by Major Michel Ramsay

 

 My parents took Susan, our kids and I on an Alaska cruise to celebrate their 60^th anniversary. It was great. We were able to see wonderful scenery in Glacier National Park and elsewhere. We were able to see whales – so many whales – and other wildlife. It was good celebrating with family. It was fun to do the activities on ship and explore Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan. The girls and I really enjoyed the trivia – especially music trivia - nights. We even won two of the contests and received plastic tulips as a prize! Heather and I were able to be part of a show in Skagway where they invited us up on stage. We also met some very interesting people – One lunch I sat with a lady from Japan who studied at Regent College in Vancouver and is currently working on her PHD on Malachi – she spent 10 years translating Bibles in Uzbekistan. It was certainly providential to have her sitting next to me at lunch one day. She told me how one of the Bible translators working with her, an Uzbek, was not a Christian. They weren’t allowed to proselytize; however, during their time immersing themselves in the Bible; he gave his life to the Lord.

 

Many things from this trip could be possible sermons. The beauty of nature and creation is always a good theme. And launching from the testimony of the Bible translator, one could easily speak about Doctrine One of The Salvation Army (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) or Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes..."

 

One thing that is a natural analogy is the nature of cruises in general. There are so many people on the trip from all over the world. I met people from Germany, Japan, Columbia, Philippines, South Africa, the UK, the US and elsewhere. People were from different walks of life and different ages. This reminded me of the Kingdom of Heaven and how, Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

 

I was also reminded that as is pointed out in Ecclesiastes 9:2-3: 

 “All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

As it is with the good,

so with the sinful;

as it is with those who take oaths,

so with those who are afraid to take them.

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun:

The same destiny overtakes all.”

 

It doesn’t matter what people do on the cruise – there were more activities than one could possibly do even if they wanted to do them all. Some people could have spent the whole time in their rooms; some people could have gone on every shore excursion - dog sleds, helicopters, hikes – or visited every museum or saw every show. Some people could have eaten and drank so much that they couldn’t move whereas others could have spent their time doing abs workouts and Tai Chi. I could easily make the point that this is what life is like. We all board the cruise ship of our life and we are all going to get off – the revivalist would then ask us this question, when your temporal cruise ends, what will your eternal destination be? This is important. I myself am drawn to holiness / social justice themes these days; concentrating on what you do while you are on the cruise of life rather than where you will exit the ship because I truly believe that Salvation is a relationship (with God) rather than merely a final destination.

 

About that: I have shared with you this summer many books I have been reading: about Truth and Reconciliation, and prison reform and other social justice issues. If I have gone overboard (pun acknowledged) I do apologize. I do believe that we are called to live holy lives serving God, showing love, mercy to our neighbour. One book I have been reading is ‘Just Mercy’ by Bryan Stevenson, a death row lawyer who helps people who can’t afford lawyers in the USA. He shared a number of stories about his clients: some guilty, some innocent; Some who were spared execution; some who weren’t. I read stories of children who lived 40 years in prison to finally have their sentence overturned and be released. There is one amazing story of Walter, who was wrongfully committed and was almost executed but they were able to save him. There were also hair-raising stories of people who could prove they were innocent but were still executed. There was one story of a man who never matured beyond the equivalent of a young child who was convicted of murder and spent most of his years in prison in solitary confinement and who truly believed that when/if he was released, he would go to live with his lawyer. One execution, that of Mr. Dill, hit the author, his lawyer, quite hard… (288-289)

On the phone with Mr. Dill, I thought about all of his struggles and all the terrible things he’d gone through and how his disabilities had broken him. There was no excuse for him to have shot someone, but it didn’t make sense to kill him. I began to get angry about it. Why do we want to kill all the broken people? What is wrong with us, that we think a thing like that can be right? I tried not to let Mr. Dill hear me crying. I tried not to show him that he was breaking my heart. He finally got his words out. “Mr. Bryan, I just want to thank you for fighting for me. I thank you for caring about me. I love y’all for trying to save me.”

 

This next part really resonates with me in my role as a Salvation Army Officer. I truly feel sometimes as the Mr. Stevenson writes:

When I hung up the phone that night I had a wet face and a broken heart. The lack of compassion I witnessed every day had finally exhausted me. I looked around my crowded office, at the stacks of records and papers, each pile filled with tragic stories, and I suddenly didn’t want to be surrounded by all this anguish and misery. As I sat there, I thought myself a fool for having tried to fix situations that were so fatally broken. It’s time to stop. I can’t do this anymore.

For the first time I realized that my life was just full of brokenness. I worked in a broken system of justice. My clients were broken by mental illness, poverty, and racism. They were torn apart by disease, drugs and alcohol, pride, fear, and anger. I thought of Joe Sullivan and of Trina, Antonio, Ian, and dozens of other broken children we worked with, struggling to survive in prison. I thought of people broken by war, like Herbert Richardson; people broken by poverty, like Marsha Colbey; people broken by disability, like Avery Jenkins. In their broken state, they were judged and condemned by people whose commitment to fairness had been broken by cynicism, hopelessness, and prejudice.

I looked at my computer and at the calendar on the wall. I looked again around my office at the stacks of files. I saw the list of our staff.... And before I knew it, I was talking to myself aloud: “I can just leave. Why am I doing this?”

It took me a while to sort it out, but I realized something sitting there while Jimmy Dill was being killed at Holman prison. After working for more than twenty-five years, I understood that I don’t do what I do because it’s required or necessary or important. I don’t do it because I have no choice. I do what I do because I’m broken, too.

My years of struggling against inequality, abusive power, poverty, oppression, and injustice had finally revealed something to me about myself. Being close to suffering, death, executions, and cruel punishments didn’t just illuminate the brokenness of others; in a moment of anguish and heartbreak, it also exposed my own brokenness. You can’t effectively fight abusive power, poverty, inequality, illness, oppression, or injustice and not be broken by it.

We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent. I desperately wanted mercy for Jimmy Dill and would have done anything to create justice for him, but I couldn’t pretend that his struggle was disconnected from my own. The ways in which I have been hurt—and have hurt others—are different from the ways Jimmy Dill suffered and caused suffering. But our shared brokenness connected us.

… We have a choice. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. Or we can deny our brokenness, forswear compassion, and, as a result, deny our own humanity.

I thought of the guards strapping Jimmy Dill to the gurney that very hour. I thought of the people who would cheer his death and see it as some kind of victory. I realized they were broken people, too, even if they would never admit it. So many of us have become afraid and angry. We’ve become so fearful and vengeful that we’ve thrown away children, discarded the disabled, and sanctioned the imprisonment of the sick and the weak—not because they are a threat to public safety or beyond rehabilitation but because we think it makes us seem tough, less broken. I thought of the victims of violent crime and the survivors of murdered loved ones, and how we’ve pressured them to recycle their pain and anguish and give it back to the offenders we prosecute. I thought of the many ways we’ve legalized vengeful and cruel punishments, how we’ve allowed our victimization to justify the victimization of others. We’ve submitted to the harsh instinct to crush those among us whose brokenness is most visible.

But simply punishing the broken—walking away from them or hiding them from sight—only ensures that they remain broken and we do, too. There is no wholeness outside of our reciprocal humanity.

 

Like me, Mr. Stevenson says:

I frequently had difficult conversations with clients who were struggling and despairing over their situations—over the things they’d done, or had been done to them, that had led them to painful moments. Whenever things got really bad, and they were questioning the value of their lives, I would remind them that each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. I told them that if someone tells a lie, that person is not just a liar. If you take something that doesn’t belong to you, you are not just a thief. Even if you kill someone, you’re not just a killer. I told myself that evening what I had been telling my clients for years. I am more than broken. In fact, there is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can’t otherwise see; you hear things you can’t otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.

All of sudden, I felt stronger. I began thinking about what would happen if we all just acknowledged our brokenness, if we owned up to our weaknesses, our deficits, our biases, our fears. Maybe if we did, we wouldn’t want to kill the broken among us who have killed others. Maybe we would look harder for solutions to caring for the disabled, the abused, the neglected, and the traumatized. I had a notion that if we acknowledged our brokenness, we could no longer take pride in mass incarceration, in executing people, in our deliberate indifference to the most vulnerable.

 

My friends, I almost wept as I read all of this; because this is what my life as a Salvation Army Officer often feels like. I see so many people broken, needing mercy, and it makes me cry when we as a society, or I, as a person, don’t offer it.

 

I read one part in this book where Mr. Stevenson’s client was being released after many years of wrongful imprisonment and he said he should have felt happy – but he felt angry that Walter, his client, had to suffer for many years and even though he was released, his years can never be returned to him. My heart was in my throat. I have felt that anger on behalf of our friends here and at the Bread of Life as they receive justice delayed, knowing many will not even experience that. I have like Mr. Stevenson felt I wanted to quit some days.

 

He tells another story. This one is about a lady he encountered in a courtroom. The first time she was ever in court was after her young grandson, whom she loved more than anything else, was murdered. Mrs. Macmillan prayed to the Lord repeatedly. She sat through the whole trial of the three young men convicted of killing her son. When they were sentenced to die in prison, she cried. A lady came to comfort her asking which one of the convicted boys she was related to – none, the victim. They sat together for two hours in silence. Mrs. Macmillan then began coming regularly to court. She said,

          “It has been wonderful, Bryan. When I first came, I’d look for people who had lost someone to murder or some violent crime. Then it got to the point where some of the ones grieving the most were the ones whose children or parents were on trial, so I just started letting anybody lean on me who needed it. All these young children being sent to prison forever, all this grief and violence. Those judges throwing people away like they’re not even human, people shooting each other, hurting each other like they don’t care. I don’t know, it’s a lot of pain. I decided that I was supposed to be here to catch some of the stones people cast at each other.”

 

She is referencing the woman caught in adultery and how the Lord required that they let the woman go. Mr. Stevenson said to a congregation once, “But today, our self-righteousness, our fear, and our anger have caused even the Christians to hurl stones at the people who fall down, even when we know we should forgive or show compassion…we can’t simply watch that happen…. we have to be stone-catchers.” Mrs. Macmillan doesn’t have the power of the Lord or the judges to release people but she can catch the stones we throw at each other. We can all do that. We are all called to do that.

 

Mr. Stevenson recalls again the night his friend was killed:

 

On the drive home, I turned on the car radio, seeking news about Mr. Dill’s execution. I found a station airing a news report. It was a local religious station, but in their news broadcast there was no mention of the execution. I left the station on, and before long a preacher began a sermon. She started with scripture (1 Corinthians 12:8-10).

 

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is sufficient. My power is made perfect in your weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

 

I turned off the radio station, and as I slowly made my way home, I understood that even as we are caught in a web of hurt and brokenness, we’re also in a web of healing and mercy. I thought of the little boy who hugged me outside of church, creating reconciliation and love. I didn’t deserve reconciliation or love in that moment, but that’s how mercy works. The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the undeserving. It’s when mercy is least expected that it’s most potent—strong enough to break the cycle of victimization and victimhood, retribution and suffering. It has the power to heal the psychic harm and injuries that lead to aggression and violence, abuse of power, mass incarceration.

 

Today, I confess to you that this is a burden on my heart. I feel for all our employees who are struggling with addiction, mental illness, and trauma; my friends who steal from our Thrift Store to feed their addiction. Our folk at the Bread of Life and The Salvation Army shelter who have left us to go to prison, the hospital or the funeral home. My heart breaks for the many people struggling whom I know personally and who we live and work alongside everyday. I just hope that I will always remember to extend the mercy that I know that I don’t even deserve to everyone I meet. After all, we are called to be stone-catchers. It is my prayer that we will all do just that and show just mercy.

 

Let us pray.