Romans 5:3,4: Hope and an Angel on the Downtown Eastside.

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on April 20, 2008
Swift Current Corps on August 09, 2009
Corps 614 Regent Park on May 15, 2016

Alberni Valley on February 16, 2025
By Captain Michael Ramsay

This is the original, to view the 2025 version click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2025/02/romans-534-hope-and-angel-on-downtown.html 

As many of you here know when our children were just little (not that they’re so big now), we sold our home and our businesses and moved into North America’s poorest postal code - Vancouver’s downtown eastside - as full-time urban missionaries with The Salvation Army.

We have shared with many of you the excitement from our time there as we saw people who were turned from their addictive, destructive ways of life; transformed into new creations by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was exciting to open up our home and our lives to the miracles that indeed the Lord is still performing today and were, oh, so evident in that environment. We met people who have been cured of cancer, cured of AIDS, and completely cured of diabetes. We have seen and experienced the power of God (cf. Romans 1:4, 1:16, 11:23, 15:13, 15:19-20) first hand.

Our time there, as you can well imagine, wasn’t always rosy though. I remember one day – one morning, I was mugged. I knew better but I wasn’t paying attention. It was early in the morning and I was right on Main and Hastings – the most infamous intersection in this most infamous neighbourhood and I was on the pay phone with Susan who was out of town at the time.

Someone came running up behind me, grabbed my briefcase and tore down Main Street. In the briefcase was my laptop and all the information for the summer school programme I was running for the kids in the area; so, like anyone mugged in the depths of skid row, I’m sure, I…well, I chased the mugger.

I followed him down Main Street through Chinatown across busy streets and around the myriad of mazes that are Vancouver’s back alleys. Scaring rats, jumping over sleeping street folk, I pursued my assailant. When I was within reach of him… I fell right in front of a bus and though I escaped from in front of the bus with my life, the mugger escaped with my briefcase, my laptop, and the programme files for the kids.

It was when I was walking back, completely distraught and despondent from this incident, that I experienced the miracle that happened: I encountered an angel, a messenger of God, in the back alleys of Vancouver’s storied downtown eastside. I can still remember vividly; he looked like a ‘dumpster diver;’ he prayed with me and he offered me these words of encouragement from Romans 5:3,4 “...but let us also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Inside I sighed. I knew he was right. God gave me these words to encourage me.

When the Apostle Paul recorded these words circa 55 AD in his letter to the Romans, he himself had already seen much suffering - he has already spent so much time under arrest, so much time in prison and even now he will be ultimately killed for his faith and tradition suggests that he was even beheaded by the Romans themselves.[1]

In the first few verses of what we now know as Chapter 5 of Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul was not only warning the Romans about the persecution and suffering that was coming for him but he was also warning them about the suffering that was coming for them and ultimately the suffering that may be coming for us as we do the Lord’s bidding as well.

Now you’ll notice from our text today, that not only are we to endure our suffering but Paul says, depending on your translation, we are to rejoice and even boast in our suffering (cf. Phil 2:17; 1 Pet 4:6, 4:13). 1 Thessalonians 5:18 states that we are even to give thanks in all circumstances (cf. Phil 4:11) and Paul in Philippians 4:4 says, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.’

So this is important: we aren’t supposed to lick our wounds when we suffer for doing the Lord’s work but we are to rejoice. Now we should think about what exactly God and Paul are saying here in the Bible for a moment because it does go against a lot of popular culture and indeed seems to oppose the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’ that is ever so prevalent in our affluent North American culture.

This prosperity heresy - the idea that wealth, health and prosperity come to those whom God loves but trials, tribulations and suffering on this earth come to those whom God hates - this prosperity heresy was apparently alive and well in Paul’s day as well but just like it was a lie then, it is not true now.[2]

Paul says that we should rejoice in our suffering because - if indeed our suffering is for the gospel of which Paul is not ashamed (1:16) -our suffering will produce perseverance (endurance) and you know what perseverance (endurance) is good for right? It gives us the ability to get through more suffering and difficult times and you know why God gives us that ability to get through more suffering and difficult times, because we’ve got more difficult times to get through still. So as we rejoice in our perseverance through these times we can rejoice because we will be ready for – the even more difficult times that are still to come but there is even more than that.[3]

Paul says that through this perseverance we will also develop character. And what is character? Character is what you get when you survive suffering (joyfully?)

Here are some comics that give us Bill Waterson’s perspective:[4]




Character is what you get when you survive suffering (joyfully?)

…in my home growing up the phrase ‘It will build character’ was the answer to the question. “Why should I do that? It’s not fair? Why do I have to …rake the leaves, mow the lawn, clean my room, take grade six band? ...It will build character. Well more or less this is what Paul is saying.

Paul, however, really does say that we should enjoy our character building experiences. (They are a means to the strength of the Lord.) In Philippians 1 Paul says that whatever happens, everything will be okay indeed as living is Christ and even to die is gain because there is the resurrection ahead. We have nothing to lose right? To die is gain and to live, to live is Christ! (Phil 1:21).[5]

Now Paul had a lot that was building his character between all his time in jail and the Roman Christians had great opportunity to develop character as they faced the lions in the Coliseum[6] and my mugging on the downtown eastside wasn’t our first experience with loss nor was it our last but it was directly related to our work for the Lord and this period was extremely significant in our lives and its results echo to this day in our souls.

When I was mugged and my laptop containing all the information for The Salvation Army’s tutoring ministry was stolen it was only the beginning. My foot was also injured, my hands were inexplicably painfully swollen, my eye was injured (so painfully that I couldn’t even get up for days) and it was later re-injured too- I required surgery; Sarah-Grace, who had recently turned 2, suffered seizures in front of our eyes, our car stopped working, a person in our home was struggling with heroin addiction, the police visited our home and encouraged a roommate of ours to leave, my in-laws’ computer and camera were stolen on subsequent nights spent in our home and this last event unleashed a revealing chain of attacks straight from the Enemy and his servants. We were serving the Lord, openly and abundantly and we were suffering as we did so and there was more to come (cf. Mark 3:20-35).[7]

And knowing all this was still to come, after my mugging the Lord sent His messenger - the angel in the form of a downtown eastside resident - to encourage me to endurance, to perseverance. He told me specifically from Romans 5:3,4, to “...rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

So what is Paul saying about suffering here? He is saying we have to rejoice in it but is he talking about any kind of unpleasant event? Any suffering? Not necessarily. The Greek word here (thlipseis) refers to, more literally, ‘pressure’ that is applied to Christians from the world, from God’s opponents (cf. John 15:18, 16:20).[8] John Stott writes that Thlipseis is “almost a technical term for the suffering which God’s people must expect in [these] last days.”[9] This suffering is something that we can expect as we do the will of God in the last days before the end.[10] When we serve the Lord, there is opposition both spiritual and practical and though the war is won, the battle rages fierce.

As we fight in this battle that is our life, there are people, powers and principalities who oppose us. As we fight in this battle, it develops our perseverance, it develops our character, we become like battle-hardened veterans experienced in engaging the foe.[11] We are no longer green. Our character is being built. We know that we can endure. We know that we may live up to what has already been obtained (cf. Phil 3). We can be bold for the gospel (cf. Phil 1). We know we can be counted on to persevere through even more of whatever opposition, whatever pressure the enemy throws our way. We know we can, like Paul says here, we can have hope - because God will never leave us nor forsake us.

Jesus Christ himself suffered and he rose again on the third day. Jesus Christ himself endured and he is the reason for our hope? What is this hope? This hope through Jesus Christ is indeed in the power of the gospel which is the power to transform us all (1:16), our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ who will never leave us nor forsake us and our hope through the cross and the empty tomb, our hope is in the resurrection of the dead.

Paul knows, as we know, that when our bodies fade away it is not the end. Indeed we will be in paradise with our Lord. Indeed there is the hope of the ultimate resurrection of the dead. We will rise again.

And as the Lord has conquered Sin and Death, He will indeed continue to conquer our own sins that lure us to death and we can have confidence, we can have faith, we can have hope in the resurrection.
But even more than that - now I know that there are some serious struggles that each face us each here today. The other day there were some serious losses in Nipawin here as a father and son perished and a family lost their home in the explosion and resulting fire. There is uncertainty in our daily lives. (The explosion from the leak could have happened in any of the downtown businesses.) There are questions and we don’t necessarily realise what the Lord is doing but no matter how bleak things seem we can still have that hope.

Now our pets are often a source of comfort to many of us. Our cats and dogs offer us comfort when we are in times of need. The family whose house was lost in the explosion, they had a dog. The dog didn’t escape. The house exploded and fell in on him. The fire raged and ravaged the site all day and in the night. In the morning at just before 7am when I was bringing the firefighters and SaskEnergy people their coffee, we heard it – barking. The dog was barking. You should have heard the firefighters cheer. You should have seen the excitement on their faces. They pulled the dog from the rubble and he wasn’t even hurt, not a bit. The Lord saved the dog. This provided hope for the fire fighters, hope for the SaskEnergy guys, hope for the Emergency Operations Centre staff, and comfort and hope for this family who had already suffered such loss. The Lord provides hope in our suffering.
We have received serious, vocal, practical and even litigious opposition from the Enemy through people very close to us not only when we were on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside but also when we were in Winnipeg’s North End and now that we are in Nipawin and Tisdale. We have had to consciously protect even our children from harm as the foe is relentless. The enemy continues to attack us through whatever Thlipseis (pressure) he can muster.

The Enemy does and will attack those of us here that serve the Lord. There is pressure but we must not give in to the temptation to surrender to the pressure. We must not surrender. Instead we must boast in our sufferings, experience our new found endurance and character so that we too will continue to experience the faith, the joy, the hope that is in Christ Jesus.

Let us all, as Romans 5 says, “...rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” And this hope will never disappoint us (v.5).

Let us pray.
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[1] Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible - commentary on Acts 28:31. Cited on-line 14 April 2008: http://www.biblestudy.org/question/sauldie.html Cf. also http://misslink.org/chapel/askaminister/bible/paul.html
[2] Cf. The entire book of Job. See also Paul J. Achtemeier, Interpretation: Romans. John Knox Press, 1989. P 92. and John Phillips, Exploring Romans. Moody Press, 1969. P.90.
[3] Cf. RCH Lenski, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. P 338.
[4] From http://enthronedarkness.blogspot.com/2005/06/building-character-yet.html
[5] Cf. Michael Ramsay. “Be Bold for the Gospel: a look at Philippians 1:1” in The Journal of Aggressive Christianity. Issue No. 54: April – May 2008. Available on-line: http://www.armybarmy.com/jac.html Cited 16 April 2008.
[6] Tactius: "Nero punished a race of men who were hated for their evil practices. These men were called Christians. He got a number of people to confess. On their evidence a number of Christians were convicted and put to death with dreadful cruelty. Some were covered with the skins of wild beasts and left to be eaten by dogs. Others were nailed to the cross. Many were burned alive and set on fire to serve as torches at night." Cited On-line. 16 April, 2008. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/rome_and_christianity.htm
[7] Cf. Michael Ramsay. “On the Job Experience.” Available on-line: www.sheepspeak.com/job.htm. Cf. also Michael Ramsay’s “The Family of God.” Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/02/mark-320-35-family-of-god.html
[8] RCH Lenski, p. 336.
[9] John Stott, Romans, IV Press 1994, p. 140.
[10] NT Wright, NIB X: Romans. Abingdon Press, 2002. P. 516: “The NRSV’s ‘endurance’ and the NIV’s ‘perseverance’ both bring out aspects of the same idea, which is not so much of a pressing ahead in adversity as simply staying put without dismay”
[11] RCH Lenski, p. 336.

Mark 4:35-41: We Stand in Awe of You

Presented to Tisdale Corps on March 30, 2008
and Nipawin Corps on April 6, 2008

Alberni Valley Ministries, 19 May 2024
By Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay

When we were in College back in Winnipeg, on Friday nights I used to help out with the street outreach at the Weetamah corps. We would walk around the streets at night to see who we could offer a warm meal, a hot chocolate or a place to stay down at the shelter (the Booth Centre) for the night. We then tell them about Jesus.

Now these nights usually go quite late -until 1 or 2 in the morning sometimes – and so at the end of a long week at the college, I am just exhausted and really quite look forward to my one day of sleeping in – Saturday morning.

Well this one Saturday about 6am or so – four or less hours after I crawl into bed – Rebecca (who was then only 4) and Sarah-Grace (who was 3 at the time) come bounding into our bedroom.

“Daddy, what’s a trout?” Rebecca, as a four year-old, asks me as she and her sister climb on my bed. “What’s a trout?”

(aside: You know what it is like when you try to respond to someone but you really don’t want to wake up – that is what it is like)

“What’s a trout?”
“A fish, why do you ask”
“A fish?”
“Yes a fish”
“Oh”
“Like Nemo…”
“Short of, I think Nemo is a Clown fish”
“Oh.”
“Daddy,” asks Sarah-Grace, who has been standing there the whole time, “what’s a trout?”
“A fish”
“Like Nemo”
“No”
“Daddy”
“Yes, Sarah-Grace”
“What’s a trout?”
“A chipmunk. A Chipmunk!” I snap back with all the composure of one who has not had enough sleep.

The girls run out of the room laughing, none the worse for wear. I put my pillow over my head and just try to get back to sleep wondering just what that was all about and why I was woken up for a question that no one seemed to want the answer to anyway.

At this point, in comes Susan. Slowly and today with the calm demeanour of the caring mother and wife. I know I have spoken a little harshly to my daughters, so I listen intently as she lifts the pillow from my head and gently asks me, “Michael, What’s a trout?”

Looking back at the story of Jesus calming the storm recorded in Mark 4:35-41, I imagine that it must have been about the same feeling for Jesus as he was awakened from his sleep. The disciples are waking up Jesus with a simple request for him but they (unlike my daughters) are panicked. The storm had come up. They wake Jesus and ask –verse 38 – “Teacher, don't you care if we drown?”

How could they ask that? Really. Not only because they should know he does care but also because this is later in the same day as he has healed a man with leprosy (Matthew 8:1-3), taught about the Kingdom of Heaven and even told and explained many parables directly to his disciples.[1] He has just finished also, as Matthew 8 tells us, healing the Centurion’s servant, healing Peter’s mother-in-law and healing many others.

Here’s the thing. The disciples believe he can save them – or they would not have asked –verse 38 - "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" What they don’t know, however, is how or even if he wants to – as verse 41 makes clear in their astonishment in the fact that even the waves obey Him. The disciples don’t know how or even believe that Jesus will save them. They are panicked. Jesus notes, Verse 40, that the disciples don’t have faith[2]. They don’t have faith.

Today, do we have faith? Real faith? Not just a belief that Jesus can do things but a faith that Jesus will do what is best for us viz. a viz. His Kingdom. In our world today, we are faced with many storms as indeed other boats on that same see with the disciples that day faced that same storm: People nowadays face debt, families face deep personal divides and struggles, divorce, adultery, custody fights; we face all kinds of things.[3] Sometimes we face new experiences that aren’t unexpected. Sometimes we are totally surprised. We know that God can save us. Sometimes, isn’t it true though that we don’t have faith that He will save us? Sometimes we do seem to treat God as if he can’t; Jesus, as if he is sleeping and in need of a good waking up before he even bother to help us, if he can.

Sometimes do we feel like he doesn’t know that the storm we are in is really serious? Sometimes does it seem that He won’t care if we drown in our struggles? Sometimes, in our personal struggles, do we try to wake him with – like it says in verse 38, “don't you care if we drown?” Sometimes, do we in a panic, barge in on the Lord. -“God please do something quick. I’m going to be fired or my marriage is falling apart or my family hates me or I don’t have any money to pay the bills: Do something…if you care…if you can!

There was a time in my life when I was certainly tempted to try to wake the Lord in this way. I owned many businesses before I became an Officer in The Salvation Army. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun but in the early days, there were times that I really did not know if we would make it. Money was tight. Sometimes I didn’t know if we would be able to keep my promises to my staff and my customers. Sometimes I would send my salespeople out as more like bill collectors and if they didn’t come back with the funds we needed I would not speak kindly to them and then tell them to go home for the day. And then when I am alone, my fervent attempts to wake up God could begin… ‘Help, I’m drowning,” I would cry. Save me…if you care…if you can!

Now I should make it clear that neither I nor the text here is saying that we shouldn’t go to the Lord when we are in this trouble. It is saying that we should go to the Lord but that we should go to the Lord in faith believing that He actually can and will save us. Mark spends a lot of time talking about the interaction between God’s miracles and our faith. When we approach the Lord we must do so in faith. We must believe in and trust the Lord. In our requests and storms we must, like James 1:6-7 says, believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That [person] should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. We must go to the Lord with faith.[4]

Jesus did save the disciples from the storm, it says (Aside voice:) This is significant, as Williamson notes: "in the original text, Jesus speaks only two words at this point..."Be quiet! Be still. The simplicity and brevity of his command express the assurance of one who is in control."[5] Just as Jesus has always saved me from my crises (aside voice:) though not always the way that I think He will, He will always come through and always continue to save us.

A prime example of this sort of thing is the story of another person caught in a boat in a storm in the Bible – Jonah[6]. You remember the story of Jonah. Jonah has faith. Jonah knows what God wants him to do and Jonah knows that God will do what He says. The only problem is that Jonah doesn’t want Him to. You see, God told Jonah to preach to the people in Nivevah so that they will not be destroyed BUT Jonah wants them to be destroyed. Jonah doesn’t like the Ninivites: they are the paramount superpower of his day and they will eventually destroy his homeland. But in this, he has faith. When the storm comes up, He knows God will calm the storm. He has so much faith that he EVEN suggests that the crew, in this storm, throw him overboard and they do…and of course Jonah and everyone else survives. Jonah grumbled a lot precisely because he does have faith. He knew God would calm the storm. It is very likely that the author here, Mark, has this in mind when he is retelling the story of how Jesus calms the storm.[7]

The disciples, like Jonah, can and should have this same faith in God because, ultimately, somehow, whether we understand it or not, God’s will will be done. He can save us and He does want what’s best for us in His kingdom.

Here, the disciples do eventually realize that, praise the Lord. They are terrified (!) as verse 41 says. The Greek nuances of this word, ‘terrified’, actually refer to a “reverent awe.”[8] They are in awe of Him. They are in complete terrible awe of Jesus – and this is good.

Notice this: Jesus is right in the storm with the disciples. They are not alone. They know, from what that have seen already that He can save them and now as they see Him do it they are in a full “reverent awe.” They can have faith in Jesus as they face life’s storms. They don’t need to panic. They can be calm because Jesus has calmed the storm and because Jesus can calm any storm.

And Jesus can still calm any storm; so today we can still have faith as we face life’s storms. I know some of us here are going through some particularly serious family problems: Jesus is God. God is in control. And unlike when my kids wake me up with the same question over and over again, (slow down and emphasize:) God can always be patient and forgiving. WAVES MAGAZINE, one particularly stressful business I owned, always went to print. I never lost my house or office or anything except maybe my self-composure over it. My staff, in this business AND my other businesses always got their paycheques and more. The Lord provides even and especially where we cannot. We can have faith. And as with the disciples and just like with Jonah, where God saved him and the Ninivites, it is not always as we anticipate that He will but we can have faith.

We don’t need to panic: He has provided. He is providing. I have faith. I am in reverent awe (M.C.). We don’t need to panic; somehow, someway, our storms too will all be calmed. We can stand in awe and have faith in Jesus.

You know that you can have that peace, that reverent awe as well. When the waves of life’s storms are crashing over our bow, we don’t need to panic. When we approach the Lord, we can stand in awe of Him and have faith that he will save us.

I know that many of us in this room are going through some significant struggles with family and friends, marriage breakdowns and custody struggles. The storms at times seem overwhelming but Jesus can calm the storms. Any who are caught in the midst of the storms right now, I encourage you to come up to the mercy seat and pray in faith.

Amen.

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[1]The parable of the Sower, the lamp under a bushel, and the parable of the growing seed (Mark 4:1-20, 21-25, 26-35) He explained all these in private to the twelve.
[2] (cf. 7:18; 8:17-18, 21, 32-33; 9:19 for other similar rebukes)
[3] CBC News. “1 in 5 Canadians don't plan to retire: StatsCan” n.p. [cited 05 06 06] On-line: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/03/27/womenretirement060327.html employment opportunities change or diminish as indeed do people’s savings gambled away on the stock exchange
[4] Like is recorded in James 1:6-8: when [one] asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That [person] should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”
[5] Lamar Williamson Jr., Mark. (Interpretation: Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1983), 101
[6] Jonah is a prophet in ancient Israel around 740 –750 BC during the time that Assyria is the area’s superpower. God tells Jonah to preach salvation to the people living in their capital city, Nineveh. Jonah does not want to do this. He knows that the Ninevites will repent and be saved. He doesn’t want him to – he doesn’t like the Ninivites, after all they are the paramount superpower of his day and committing all the violent acts that superpowers tend to commit in foreign lands - and shortly after their salvation, in 722, God will actually use them to destroy Israel, the northern kingdom. But Jonah has faith that the Ninevites will be saved - he never doubts - he just doesn’t want any part of it, so he boards a ship and runs away in the opposite direction.
[7] Robert A. Guelich, Mark 1-8:26. (WBC 34A: Dallas Texas: Word Books, 1989), 266
[8] Ibid.

Mark 16:1-8: Dead or Alive: what do you believe?

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on March 23, 2008 (Resurrection Sunday), the Swift Current corps of The Salvation Army on April 08, 2012, and 614 Warehouse Mission in Toronto on April 01, 2018 by Captain Michael Ramsay

To view the 2012 version click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2012/04/mark-161-8-dead-or-alive-what-do-you.html

Christ has Risen (He has Risen Indeed).

So this is it. This is the most important day in the Christian calendar. This is the day we celebrate the risen Christ. This is exciting indeed. This is how Jesus defeated sin and death by dying and rising again on the third day. Today is the celebration. Today is exciting. Do you know what these are? (My daughters’ medals) They are medals, right? These are medals that my daughters were awarded this year in soccer and skating.[1]

Rebecca did a really good job her first year in skating. Sarah-Grace’s soccer team was in two tournaments this year. In the first one her team won bronze. In the second one her team won silver: they played really well and we were all so proud. You should have heard some of the dads cheering. It was a lot of fun; we celebrated. Everyone is looking forward to the next tournament when we can go for gold.

This is what Easter (Resurrection Day) is all about.[2] It is all about celebrating the victory of Jesus through the death and resurrection and more than that: it appears, in Mark Chapter 16, that they were celebrating an unexpected victory[3] – a come from behind win if you will. Look at 16:1, “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body.”

Luke 23:56 tells us that they prepared these spices before the Sabbath[4] began but waited until after to anoint the body; so what is the purpose of anointing the body? Some have suggested that it has to do with an embalming practice of sorts but, of course, the Jewish people never practiced embalming;[5] however, it does still have to do with a burial rite of the first century Palestinians. The women went there to see a dead man. They don’t believe he’s alive.

Listen to their conversation en route too. On the way to the grave, on the way to the tomb what are they talking about? What’s on their minds? Are they discussing the possibility of the resurrection? Are they wondering if…maybe…could he have risen from the dead? No. The text doesn’t even accord them enough faith to doubt here. What it records that they are concerned with here is the rock in front of tomb. Who’ll roll it away they wonder? Right? Look at Verse 3; it says that the women asked each other, “Who’ll roll away the stone?” They think they are going to see a dead man sealed in a tomb. They don’t know he’s alive. They don’t believe.

Now this is somewhat disappointing, isn’t it? As we have been reading through Mark together these last few weeks in preparation for this celebration of the resurrection, Mark has revealed to his readers on a number of occasions that Jesus repeatedly told his followers that indeed he is going to be raised from the dead (8:31, 9:9, 9:31,10:34,15:29). And as it says in 9:10 and 31 that the disciples anyway heard exactly what he was teaching but they just did not understand and what they should have understood, they just did not believe.[6] After all, how can someone raise from the dead?

Now then the women are heading to the tomb like many of us head to either a graveside or a memorial service in our day and age. They head out to pay their last respects to a man – to a man that they had so much respect for, so much love for, so much hope for, for a man that they had faith in but now as they walk the road to the tomb, they do so, perfume in hand, worrying about the stone and who will move it from the grave. They do not believe that he has risen. They do not believe.

Do we ever get to a point where we do not believe any longer? Do we ever get to the point where we, by our actions, head out to bury Jesus? The world had told us through Time Magazine that ‘God is dead.’[7] John Lennon relieved himself on nuns[8] and the rock group Oasis still not too many years ago now, announced to the world, like Lennon before them, that they were even more popular than Jesus.

We have a system of government in this country where we assume that 50%+1 of the population says is correct at least 50%+1 of time and we are told that is good enough system to put our faith in and we, in this country, have an economic system that says that you deserve more liberties as you gain more money. Many assume that these are the only things that we can believe in: popular opinion and money. But if Christ has raised then this is not true…If Christ has raised from the dead then it is Jesus who we should believe in.

The world also tells us that we have to ‘look out for number one’ and make sure that we are happy before we can even give consideration to our neighbour. ‘We are the master of our own destiny’; ‘we have to first be true to ourselves’; and then ‘we can only rely on ourselves’: this thinking, this make believe, this trap, is based on the assumption, the lie that Jesus is not alive and God is not looking out for us. It is based on the fallacy that he is not involved in our world; these belief systems are based on the false assumption that Jesus Christ is dead. This trap that we have to rely on ourselves, this trap of trusting ourselves rather than God, this trap of disbelief in the power of the resurrected Christ, this trap is very dangerous.

Do we ever fall into this trap? Do we ever act as if we don’t believe he’s alive? How do we do here today at recognising that God, Jesus is actually alive and that it is he who we should be serving rather than ourselves? How do we make our daily decisions: do we base them on our finances and our own fleeting whims or do we base them on what God tells us? Do we ignore Him as if God is dead or do we serve a lord who is alive?

Do we make our decisions through praying and reading the Bible? When we are planning for retirement and have to move money here or there, do we pray about how or if we should invest? Do we look in the scriptures? What about for those of us in school? How do we decide what classes to take or what school to attend? Do we pray and fast? Do we believe that Jesus will help us? Do we act as though we believe he is alive or do we ignore him as if he were never raised from the dead?

What about us parents and grandparents? How do we decide to raise our children? Do we consult the Bible when making real every day decisions? Do we pray with our children when they have a serious issue on their mind? Do we help them in this way; do we believe in Jesus – or do we leave our family to their own devices and our decisions to our passing whims and fancies?

In our everyday real, tangible Monday to Friday and Saturday and Sunday lives, do we expect that Jesus is alive and he is there for us? Do we believe that he is real and that he wants and will give us what is best for us or do we, by relying on our own devices, act as though he is still dead and sealed in the tomb?

In our Sunday morning church gatherings, when we come here, are we expectantly seeking the risen Lord or are we doing nothing more than visiting the tomb to remember a dead Messiah, hoping that somehow through the service someone will roll away the stone so we can anoint his lifeless, powerless body with songs and sermons? Is Jesus dead or alive? Is he risen and active? Is he alive? What do we really believe?

I remember once when I was in my early to mid-twenties. I had a contract at Defence Research. It was an exciting, yet a stressful time. I had some very skilled people working with me and the work sometimes was very precise and there was a lot that my staff could do and this was good because I personally couldn’t be there every day (I had other contracts to tend to as well) but, even though they could be trusted, there were inevitably aspects of the job that they could and should not do. There were aspects of the job that took my personal attention.

Our contract at Defence Research involved the physical relocation of the lab from the west coast of Canada to the east coast. It was very important that everything that was packed up was to be documented properly. There were things that the scientists were working on that, trust me, you just didn’t want to get loose or mixed up in the trip across the country; so we set up a detailed procedure of inventorying everything and after each box was packed I had to personally clear it before it was put on the truck; so I told them never to load the truck when I wasn’t there. Repeatedly, I told them how important it was never to load the truck when I wasn’t there and it was posted on the doors of the warehouse that they must never load the truck when I wasn’t there.

Well one Thursday, when I wasn’t there, the truck arrives. Now some of my staff are quite eager workers still at this point and want to get everything done as soon as possible. They think that they know everything that needs to be done. I had told them not to load the truck when I wasn’t there - but…

I come into work the next day and the warehouse is empty[9] and there is the truck locked up, apparently ready to go and not a single inventory sheet was even sitting on my desk. I was so upset not only because that truck was not supposed to be loaded when I wasn’t there but also because they didn’t keep proper records so that whatever is in the truck and whatever is in every box in the truck now needs to be taken out and re-sorted and inventoried. I am upset. I start to raise my voice as I demand that Troy, the only one of my staff that I can find, I yell and demand that Troy that he open the truck and start taking everything out of there. He opens the truck.

Troy opens the truck: it is empty – except for the rest of my staff who are in there laughing at me because I fell for their rouse. They had played a joke on me; I fell for it.

I was upset because, even though the truck was supposed to be empty, even though we all knew it was supposed to be empty, and we were all told repeatedly that it was supposed to be empty, I didn’t think it would be. . I didn’t believe what I should have believed. I looked around the warehouse at the way things seemed and I didn’t believe that the truck would be empty like it was supposed to be.

This is the same as the empty tomb today in our story and indeed in our world today, isn’t it? The women are undoubtedly upset as they are going out to the tomb where – even though Jesus said he would rise again on the third day, even though Jesus said in effect that the tomb should be empty – the ladies are upset because they expect that the tomb, like I expected that the truck, they expect that the tomb will not be empty.

But, halleluiah, they’re wrong and instead of Jesus’ body in the tomb, and instead of my laughing friends in the back of the empty truck, there is a totally different messenger, who in Luke’s account (Lk 24:5) asks the question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” He has risen.

Now, of course, there is this beautiful irony that Mark ends off with in his story here. As recorded in verse 7, the angel says to the people, “… go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘… you will see him, just as he told you.’” Here they are supposed to tell about this miracle. And in verse 8 it records that the women say nothing to anyone because they are afraid. Do you notice irony? In almost every story we’ve read in Mark so far the people are told not to tell anyone – and what do they do? Tell everyone. Here the people are instructed to tell people and what do they do? Tell no one. Go figure. (Good thing he had multiple post-resurrection appearances!) We all can now believe!

Today – on this Easter Sunday – on Resurrection Day, today, we have a choice to make. We have a very real choice to make. It is this: we can believe that the tomb is empty or not. This changes everything. We can believe that the tomb is empty or that it is not. Is Jesus dead or alive, what do we believe?

As Jesus is alive, if we realise that the tomb is empty and if we recognise that He is our Lord and Jesus is God then whatever difficulties we may have we can bring to him. He will work them out for His good and His Kingdom because He has conquered sin and death so there is no problem that we could have that is too big for him. But if we don’t recognise that Jesus is alive then we are forced to rely on just our own strength and our own passing fancy. So today let’s look in that empty tomb of history and notice that indeed this tomb is empty and today and from now on let’s not come here to eulogize and bury Jesus but to praise Him and serve our risen Lord. He’s alive.

Christ has Risen (He has Risen Indeed)

Let us pray…
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[1] Actually, as Rebecca pointed out in the Nipawin service, I accidentally only grabbed two of Sarah-Grace’s medals.
[2] And, like the next tournament, He’s coming again…though we know not when!
[3] REVD M. Percy, Ripon College, Oxford – in ‘Seeing isn’t believing’ in EXT: Vol. 119, No. 5, p. 238-239 compares the event to looking at an ultrasound image. Sure some people can interpret them. Yes, we believe the doctors but can we make heads or tails of it? Some can but others cannot necessarily without help. (Still others I’m sure can choose not to believe the images are real at all. – MR)
[4] CF. RCH Lenski. The Interpretation of St. Mark’s Gospel. P. 737, for a different opinion: he believes that these indeed may be entirely different spices
[5] W. Wessel: Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Mark, The Resurrection (16:1-8), Book Version: 4.0.2 : it was a single act of love and devotion probably meant to reduce the stench of the decomposing body. Palestine's hot climate causes corpses to decay rapidly. Thus the action of the women seems strange. Perhaps they thought that the coolness of the tomb would prevent the decomposition process from taking place as rapidly as it otherwise would.
[6] They aren’t alone. NT Wright, The Bishop of Durham, http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Jesus_Resurrection.htm ‘Jesus’ Resurrection and Christian Origins’ (Originally published in Gregorianum, 2002, 83/4, 615–635) makes this observation about the pagan beliefs in the ancient world: “whenever the question of bodily resurrection is raised in the ancient world the answer is negative. Homer does not imagine that there is a way back; Plato does not suppose anyone in their right mind would want one. There may or may not be various forms of life after death, but the one thing there isn’t is resurrection: the word anastasis refers to something that everybody knows doesn’t happen. The classic statement is in Aeschylus’s play Eumenides (647-8), in which, during the founding of the Court of the Areopagus, Apollo himself declares that when a man has died, and his blood is spilt on the ground, there is no resurrection. The language of resurrection, or something like it, was used in Egypt in connection with the very full and developed view of the world beyond death. But this new life was something that had, it was believed, already begun, and it did not involve actual bodily return to the present world. Nor was everybody fooled by the idea that the dead were already enjoying a full life beyond the grave. When the eager Egyptians tried to show their new ruler Augustus their hoard of wonderful mummies, he replied that he wanted to see kings, not corpses”
[7] Time Magazine. Cover: ‘Is God Dead?’ Vol 97., No. 14: April 8, 1966. From the article, Toward a Hidden God: “Even within Christianity, now confidently renewing itself in spirit as well as form, a small band of radical theologians has seriously argued that the churches must accept the fact of God's death, and get along without him. How does the issue differ from the age-old assertion that God does not and never did exist? Nietzsche's thesis was that striving, self-centered man had killed God, and that settled that. The current death-of-God group* believes that God is indeed absolutely dead, but proposes to carry on and write a theology without theos, without God. Less radical Christian thinkers hold that at the very least God in the image of man, God sitting in heaven, is dead, and—in the central task of religion today—they seek to imagine and define a God who can touch men's emotions and engage men's minds.”
[8] On Good Friday 1962, no less, after hanging a sacrileges image from his balcony: http://www.kakool.com/content/john-lennon-good-friday
[9] They had moved the cargo to a different part of the warehouse and it turns out that none of it was any the worse for wear in the end.

Mark 8:31-33: Do you have in mind the things of God or the things of man?

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on March 09, 2008
By Captain Michael Ramsay

In the last little while I have performed a few funerals / memorial services both here and in Tisdale. They are all a little bit different, of course. Some have been with the physical remains interred in an urn, others in a coffin and I was a part of one ceremony where the remains of the person were not even present at all. Most people have songs. Many have eulogies. Some people have pictures and I often preach a short homily based on the Holy Scriptures.

Of the ceremonies that I have been a part of in the North East here, none of the passings have really been a surprise and for most of them – even from just a humanistic viewpoint – were a blessing: loved ones don’t need to suffer anymore.

Of course from a Christian viewpoint there is another good part of the memorial or funeral ceremony, the acknowledgement that those that love the Lord will be raised again at the last trumpet and will be a part of the Lord’s kingdom either in Heaven or on the renewed earth.

Even recognizing all of that, you know what, in those last hours, before the dying pass on, when we know the end of their time with us is near and soon they will see the Lord face-to-face – in those last hours – at times we still don’t want to let them go, do we? And because we love them, we fight to keep them here even praying and begging God that they not to leave us.

I think this is some of what Mark is telling us about the Apostle Peter in the Chapter 8. Peter has just had an intimate moment (v.29) with the Lord where he confesses his messiahship and then Jesus tells Peter (v. 31) that he is going to die.

Peter and the Lord are close. Peter is part of his inner circle and he has just proposed to Jesus, verse 29, that he is the Messiah. Jesus acknowledges this truth to Peter, tells him to keep it a secret for a while and then proceeds to explain to Peter and all the disciples there what it is that must actually happen to the Messiah, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed …(sic)”

Peter, then as he has just figured out that Jesus is this ‘Son of Man’, this Messiah, Peter is now hearing Jesus is telling the disciples - that this Messiah must die.

Jesus must die. This is hard on Peter. He loves the Lord. Peter will have none of that talk. He has just acknowledged Jesus as Christ; so, Peter pulls him aside, so as not to ruin the secret that he actually is the Messiah, I’d guess. Peter pulls him aside and starts to rebuke him. The text doesn’t say specifically but he might be saying something here like, ‘Now Jesus, don’t talk like that… we won’t let them kill you…we’ll stand by you and protect you… we’ll be here for you… I’ll never leave you; don’t die on us… don’t leave us…”

This response is very much like many people when they find out that one they love is going to die. Peter has just been told that one he loves is going to die and he can’t accept that. Having just found that out he hasn’t come to terms with it yet. He will miss Jesus and he is focusing on that. This is human enough and it is the first of the stage grief cycle, denial.[1]

Jesus’ response to this reaction of Peter’s is far from comforting here; it is somewhat reminiscent of the way he addresses the Pharisees actually so far in this gospel. Notice this – Peter pulled Jesus aside to speak to him privately when he hears that Jesus is going to die but Jesus responds loud enough for all of the twelve to hear. Turning and looking at his disciples, verse 33, Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me Satan! … You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Jesus doesn’t stop there; he goes on: after he has called Peter ‘Satan’ in front of the disciples, Jesus calls to the crowds, verse 34, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.”

Peter pulled Jesus aside to talk to him and Jesus responds on the spot by calling him “Satan” in front of Peter’s colleagues and then by making a point to the crowds following them. Peter’s actions here are not acceptable to Jesus. What he says is not just some trivial error that Jesus wants to keep quiet. It is rather an issue so serious that Jesus publicly addresses Peter’s comments with the harsh words that he does choose, but why?

What did Peter do that was so bad here that he merited being called ‘Satan’, dressed down in front of his friends, and becoming a catalyst for such a strong speech that is to follow? What did Peter do?

He - verse 33 records - he set his mind on himself, on human things rather than on the things of God. He put himself before Jesus and Jesus’ mission. In effect Peter here is trading in his treasures in heaven for earthy desires - and as Jesus says (verse 37), by setting his mind on the secular rather than the sacred, Peter is indeed choosing his personal desire to have Jesus avoid an early death over his very own soul.

Peter started thinking about what he wanted instead of what Jesus must do.[2] Peter starts thinking about what he wants rather than what God desires. It is this that earned him the epitaph ‘Satan’

That is not all it is though. The severe way in which Peter disagreed with Jesus is significant as well. Apparently the language Peter uses here to speak with the Lord is quite strong.[3] It says that he ‘rebuked’ (epitimoa) Jesus. That is the same language that the Jesus used to silence people (3:12), to control the storm (4:39), and to control and cast out demons (1:25) thus far in Mark’s gospel. This word epitimoa (rebuked) can mean ‘ordered’ or ‘silenced’[4] and it implies here an attempt to take control of Jesus such as that of his flesh and blood family back in Chapter 3 (verse 21) when they referred to Jesus as being ‘out of his mind’[5] and so tried to ‘take charge of him.’

Peter, like Jesus’ mother and brothers before him, Peter it appears is trying to take control of Jesus, trying to impose his will on Jesus. In Peter’s eyes it maybe for Jesus’ own good but when Jesus’ mother and brothers earlier attempted to do the same, Jesus denied them and now that Peter is doing this, Jesus calls him ‘Satan’. (Some theorists even point us back to Satan’s attempts to tempt Jesus in the wilderness here (Matt 4:10).[6]

This is serious. Peter, like Satan in the desert (Luke 4, Matt 4, Mark 1:13); Peter, like Jesus’ biological family (Mark 3), Peter is apparently wanting Jesus to do Peter’s bidding here. Rather than Peter doing what Jesus wants, Peter suggests that Jesus should do what he wants. Peter is, as it says in verse 33, setting his mind not on the things of God but on the things of man and this is fatal…

Are we ever tempted to do this? Are we ever tempted to take control of God? Are we ever tempted to - instead of asking Jesus what we should do for Him in a situation – are we ever tempted to tell Jesus what he should do for us?

Do these prayers ring any bells: Lord, help me win the lottery. God, please let me get this job whether or not I am qualified for it. Please let the Roughriders (or BC Lions) win the cup. Come on, please let me roll a seven. A six of hearts…please, just a six of hearts…

Are there times when – instead of asking and serving God - we ask God to serve us? I personally have heard people imply or outright say that if they are praying in this manner or that or if they are praying for such and such a thing that God is bound, He is obligated to answer those prayers according to the THEIR will.

I have heard this language around faith healing sometimes[7] where people will command God or His Spirit to heal someone and when that language is used in that way it really is an apparent attempt to control God/Jesus and this language always sends a chill up my spine…I wonder, in such cases, do we really have in mind the things of God or do we have in mind -the opposite- the things of men?

Now we need a little clarification: I am not implying that we should never ask the Lord for anything on our minds. No. Mark’s gospel story here is full of people asking Jesus for miracles that indeed Jesus does perform, in many cases according to their faith but Mark’s gospel also has people’s demand for a sign (Mark 8:11) from heaven flatly denied. Jesus is God.

Because Jesus is God, he is not simply easily swayed by our whims and fancies; Heaven is not a democracy where if we have a simple majority of prayers we can overthrow the will of God. Heaven, Praise the Lord, is a kingdom, a monarchy run by an absolute monarch.

This absolute monarch is a loving king. He is a father who wants the best for us and this, I think, is a big reason why he does not always give us what we want – sometimes the things we want, like Peter in our story here, sometimes the things we want when we set our minds on the things of people, are not what is best for us and neither are they what is best for the Kingdom.

Our fleshly desires are sometimes like a little child whose requests is like reaching for a pot of boiling water on the stovetop. God, the loving father, will swipe away her hand – however much that swat might hurt - before she turns the scalding water on herself.

Sometimes our desires are like the child reaching for the pot. Peter in his rebuke of the Lord was certainly like that child. He was reaching for the pot to look into it and see what it would be like if Jesus never did die. Had Peter’s desire not to lose Jesus, had Peter’s attempt to keep him from his death and resurrection prevailed, it would have been like dousing us all in that boiling water. If Jesus never did die and rise again, if sin and death were not defeated, if we could not experience that victory in Jesus, where would we be? In very hot water indeed. Jesus knows better than we do what is best for us.

It is better for us to have in mind the things of God than the things of man. God is a loving God. God did not submit to Peter’s will. Jesus instead swats Peter’s hand away from that pot of boiling selfishness and, sparing him, scalds him instead with a tongue-lashing, “Get behind me Satan! [He says]… You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Sure that may sting, but it stings a lot less than the eternal pain we’d suffer had Jesus succumb to temptation and his task not been accomplished.

God is a loving father. It says, (Luke 11:11-13) "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” He wants what’s best for us. We need to put our faith in him. We have to avoid trying to control God by telling him what to do for us and instead seek his will for our lives. We have to set our minds on the things of God rather than on our own desires.

God will look out for us. It is like my own daughters. I love them so – as much as they may or may not like it at times - I make them tidy up after themselves, so that they won’t have to struggle with the curse of disorganization for the rest of their lives. We teach them to read so that they need not fight illiteracy for eternity. We teach them to pray and read the living Word of God so that they can live forever and prosper, as the Lord permits, in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now these choices to submit to the Lord won’t always be as easy or as clear-cut as the ones we have mentioned here. Verses 34 and 35 of Mark 8 say that we must take up our cross and follow Jesus. A parallel in our world today is to say that we must don our orange jumpsuits and walk down death row, listening to the calls of ‘dead man walking.’ We must seek God’s will not ours – with even our very life on the line.

We have to seek in Jesus’ will; not our own. We have to believe that we will be raised up on the last day with Jesus. We have to seek and be willing to lose our lives for Jesus if we want to gain eternal life. We have to seek Jesus’ will. We have to believe that what he wants for us is better than what we may want for ourselves. We have to have in mind the things of God and NOT the desires of our flesh.

As we finish here today, I am reminded of a comic by Bill Waterson: Calvin and Hobbes.[8] Calvin, in his request, thinks he knows what is best for himself. His loving parent however knows different….




So today we have a choice. We can be like Calvin in our prayers and in our lives and demand that our Heavenly Father give us everything we desire without regard for His will, in which case we will be - Praise the Lord - one disappointed little kid or we can approach the Lord and ask him what is his will and pray for that to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Today, we have a choice, we can chose either the things of God or we can choose the things of man: which we choose?

Let us pray as Jesus taught us to pray…

Our Father who art in Heaven; hallowed be Thy name
Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread and
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
For thine is the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen

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[1] The five stages of coping with dying, abbreviated DABDA, were described by Kübler-Ross in her classic book On Death and Dying in 1969 They are D.A.B.D.A. – Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance.
[2] If he’d gotten what he wanted, we know that it would not be better for him –or for us – as death and sin would have never been defeated and we would be back to square one.
[3] Tolbert, Sowing, 202.
[4] Williamson, Jr. Lamar, Interpretation, 153.
[5] Pheme Perkins, NIB, 626.
[6] Palmer, 624; Lenski, 345; Williamson, 153.
[7] I still believe in faith healing provided that one is following God’s lead instead of the other way around.
[8] Bill Waterson, Calvin and Hobbes. United Press Syndication, 1988.