Tomorrow we begin hamper registration at the corps. Hamper
registration and hamper distribution are always an interesting time in any
Salvation Army. We just came from Toronto where Christmas was quite a bit different
than it is here. But the other day as I was readying application forms,
appointment cards and Angels for the Angel Tree I was reminded of one hamper
distribution day we had in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
Our building there is a former elementary school - like it
was here for a bit. It is big and at Christmas time it is full of people; so
it’s Hamper Day 2010 and everything is going well – we have so many volunteers
helping from the community, it is great.
In the morning I receive a phone call: someone is asking if
he can register for a hamper that day. I explain to him that not only do we not
register people for hampers on hamper pick-up day but that the deadline for
registering was three weeks ago. He is way too late. He is persistent though. He
is bound and determined to get a hamper this day. He tells me that he
was speaking to our community ministries worker earlier in the week. He tells
me he has health issues. He tells me this. He tells me that. He is like the
persistent widow in the parable of that name (Luke 18:1-8). He is so bound and determined that eventually I
do give in and tell him he can come in person later in the day – after
the others have gotten their hampers and after he goes through the full
registration process with our worker over the telephone, of course, which he
does. This man really is bound and
determined to get something today.
Later in the day, when his time comes, he arrives at The
Salvation Army. He still has to wait. The person taking tickets calls me to the
door. I come when I can. She rightly holds him up because this man doesn’t have
a ticket and his name isn’t on the list – remember he just registered in the
morning by phone, which isn’t typically allowed but he is bound and determined to get something today. As I am speaking with
the volunteer and the man, another volunteer pulls me aside and asks me to have
a coffee with this same fellow while we process the others. We have our coffee
while we wait; he registered late, it makes sense that he has to wait. We talk.
This fellow has spent some time on Vancouver’s DTES; my wife and I were urban
missionaries there years ago. We are chatting about this and that and how he is
bound and determined to get
something this day – well, he does get something that day: the police
show up and he gets… arrested; he is bound
- and it is determined that he
will stay in the cells that day and over Christmas.
What happened? One of our volunteers saw him and identified
him as a man whom they suspect defrauded their business. If he had not been so
persistent about his hamper then he never would have got what was apparently
coming to him that day. He seemed to want his hamper so much that when he was
arrested, his first words as they were leading him out of The Salvation Army
were, 'Can I still get my hamper?' I offered to keep it for him until he gets
out after Christmas and I did go to visit him in the cells over Christmas.
We actually got to know each other a little bit through the
process. We kept in touch when he was in jail, and afterwards we helped him
find a job and a place to stay when he was released and through this experience
we actually developed a whole transition program in Saskatchewan where we would
sit with people in court, keep in touch when they are in jail and then help
them with a place to live and get employment when they are out. It was quite
successful but often at Christmas Hamper time I do think of this fellow who was
so bound and determined to get his hamper that he was bound and it was
determined that he would be arrested at that day for stealing quite a few
things from town.
Yesterday was a big day here. Thank you so much to all of
you who were able to come and lend a hand and/or just partake of the day. We
had pancakes served by Kiwanis. We had sausages donated by Hertel Meats. The
Bulldogs were there playing with the kids. The ADSS Cheer Team was there; the
ADSS band played for us; Alberni Kids Can Rock did a great job.
Todd Flaro was the MC. Chief Counsellor Cynthia Dick
represented the Tseshaht First Nation. Patty Edwards spoke on behalf Scott
Fraser, the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and our MLA.
Counsellor RON PAULSON spoke from the city. The High School Principal spoke and
even our Member of Parliament, Gord Johns was unexpectedly there. He had said
earlier that he wouldn't be able to make it but he did it was great. Our boss
and her husband were also there - Majors Tiffany and Les Marshall. And so was
Sally Ann, the Salvation Army mascot. It was a great time. Thanks to everyone
who helped out. It was a lot of fun and did good to raise awareness as to what
exactly God does for this community through The Salvation Army.
One of our Scriptures today is about another ceremony. The
ceremony in the Scriptures today was very well attended even more well attended
than the Remembrance Day Ceremonies we also had at the Glenwood Centre a couple
of weeks ago. And it probably just as honoured with tradition and precise
ceremony. At Remembrance Day many of us had a chance to lay wreathes, we were able
to read from the Bible and I was able to address the large crowds present. In 1
Kings 6, like 2 Chronicles 6, it records some of the ceremony at the dedication
of the temple: 2 Chronicles 5:11-6:4:
The priests then
withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated
themselves, regardless of their divisions. All the Levites who were
musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east
side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres.
They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and
musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied
by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in
praise to the Lord and sang: “He is good; his love endures forever.”
Then the temple of the Lord was filled
with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the
cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.
Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said
that he would dwell in a dark cloud; I have built a magnificent temple for you,
a place for you to dwell forever.”
While the whole assembly of Israel was
standing there, the king turned around and blessed them. Then he said: “Praise
be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hands has fulfilled what he
promised with his mouth to my father David.
Now our kick off was great and Remembrance Day was very good
but I imagine this ceremony with the Temple Dedication was over the top. There
is so much going on and then at one point God Himself shows up in a dark cloud.
Can you imagine that what if yesterday (or November 11th) when we were at the
Glenwood doing our thing all of a sudden God showed up inside of or in the form
of a cloud. Can you imagine if God came in and filled the whole Glenwood and it
became so cloudy inside that we all had to stop what we were doing and run
outside. Can you imagine if in the middle of the church service here today God
shows up in the form of or inside of a cloud and he fills this room so thick
with the fog that we have to go outside to get away from the cloud. And it says
the priests even had to stop their service. That would be quite something.
Solomon, of course, acknowledges this and maybe makes a
serious mistake (but cf. 1 Kings 8:27, 2 Chronicles 6:18). Verse 6: Then
Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; I have
built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.” Solomon,
even though he said this, knows that God cannot be contained in this temple and
Solomon acknowledges that himself and God later rebukes Solomon telling him
that if Israel leaves God then they will no longer be with him - but Israel
seems to forget this. Israel starts to believe that God actually lives in the
'House of God'. Israel, Judah and especially the city of Jerusalem gets to the
point where they figure that they can sin as much as they want and do whatever they want to each other, no longer
loving one another, because they are invincible. They get to the point where
many believe that God is contained in this temple, like a genie in a lamp and
so as long as they hold the lamp nothing can happen to them. They were sadly
mistaken.
Then the unthinkable happened, in 586 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar
of Babylon, after a long siege sacked the city, destroyed the temple and wiped
out the Kingdom of Judah forever. People did not know what to do, their faith
was shaken. They thought they were invincible. They thought God was contained
in the Temple. They put their faith in this building instead of in God. When
the Temple was destroyed they thought God was beaten. And then they were led
off to captivity.
Do we ever treat God as a genie who we can control to do our
bidding? Are our prayers to God sometimes like Aladdin rubbing a lamp? Do we
sometimes order God around or take him for granted? Do we maybe drive home from
here on Sundays after service and leave Him in Church? Do we ever ignore Him
all week long and just expect that He'll be here to do our bidding? Or are we
like those who have fallen prey to the prosperity heresy who tell God what to
do and expect Him to do it at our command?
God isn't like that. God is here in this building but this
isn't the only place He is. And God will give us what is best for us not
because we instruct him to do so but because He loves us. God is God. He is the
God of the universe and He is the King of the world and He is coming back and
when He does He will set everything right. Do we believe that?
Psalm 93 says:
The LORD is king,
he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed, he is girded with strength. He has
established the world; it shall never be moved; your throne is established from
of old; you are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods
have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. More majestic
than the thunders of mighty waters, more majestic than the waves of the sea,
majestic on high is the LORD! Your decrees are very sure; holiness befits your
house, O LORD, forevermore.
So today, let us leave here in
the full confidence that we serve the eternal King, the wonderful counselor,
and the Mighty God and Prince of Peace whose government will never cease being
peaceful.
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