Salvogesis

The Winter Solstice is the darkest day of the year. There is less light and more darkness than any other day of the year. Sometimes I think that our world or our country is near its own Winter Solstice where it is only spiritual darkness all of the time. Crime in Canada is as high as it ever was. In our own neighbourhood here there is death and violent crimes seem to occur weekly if not more regularly. According to the CCVF, it is so bad in our country now that many people are losing any faith in the authorities’ ability to stop even violent crime and so in many cases charges aren’t even being filed anymore. Even economic crime is on the rise in Canada with Reuters reporting that 56 percent of companies surveyed (more than half of them) reported falling prey to white-collar crime. And – of course – near the darkest night there is pornography, which horribly is North America ’s most lucrative pastime. In the US , pornography revenue –as we have said before- is more than all money ...

Last post we spoke about the justice that comes with salvation and how it is our responsibility as servants of the Lord to be just (Psalm 72:1-7) [1]  and verses 5-10 of Psalm 146, which we read a little bit earlier, tell us how and what this holiness looks like when we do put our trust in the Lord. These verse 5-10 are actually the verses of the psalm that are associated with the third week in advent this year but I was struck by verse 3: “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.” So that is what we will talk about today. Trust is an interesting thing and it is important. I love wearing my uniform, it is a symbol of trust and as we who are wearing them continue to deal openly and fairly with people, it continues to grow as a symbol of trust in the community. The trust that we wearing the uniform garner for it comes in direct proportion to our service to the Lord while wearing it. God has been able to use me to help diffuse many varied and difficult situa...

Canada’s motto, “A Mari usque ad Mare” is Latin for “from sea to sea.” It comes from Psalm 72. Where, in verse 8, it declares, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea.” That is a key underpinning of our society and of our founding identity, the idea that God himself, through the Canadian government, shall have dominion from sea to sea. This is neat. It is not some accident or coincident. It is intentional. Our country is intentionally founded on the Word of God. And another interesting thing - Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, the father of Confederation that proposed the name for our country and that that name - the Dominion of Canada - be based on this Scripture would have made a great Salvationist. He wasn’t one but he would have made a good one. Tilley was a Sunday-school teacher and lifelong temperance advocate; he was one of the so-called "Smashers", who tried to introduce prohibition to New Brunswick in the 1850s . [1] This is an important, relatively recent histori...

Today is the third Sunday in Advent and in Advent we have the Advent wreath, of course. I don’t know if you know some of the significance of the Advent wreath. One key point is that it is traditionally made from evergreens. We’ll talk a little more about the evergreen  in a little bit. First we will talk specifically about Psalm 122, a psalm of David. Psalm 122 is the psalm associated with the first week of advent this year and this is the Psalm that we will be looking at today. Psalm 122:1 records- I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go up to the house of the LORD.” Let us go up to the house of the LORD: It is always exciting when people wish to go up to the house of the LORD, to go to church, to come to the corps - either new friends from out-of-town visiting with their family at Christmastime or when we have visitors from other churches to do Advent Reader Exchanges and that sort of thing. It is good too when people haven’t been in church for a while decide to come...

Now after others got their answers, soldiers who have also come to be baptised by John are eager to know what is required of them. Like the tax collectors, the soldiers know they need to give food and clothes to the poor - but they don’t own toll booths; they don’t own franchises. They aren’t rich. Quite the opposite: while the tax collectors were apt to get rich from this 1st Century inflation-less microcosm of market-driven free enterprise, the Judean soldiers were likely to get poor from it; so, what should they do when they are saved from the impending wrath? Verse 14, John says, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” This sounds easy enough doesn’t it: don’t extort money from people, don’t falsely accuse people, and be content with your pay. Easy? Maybe. These soldiers weren't Romans; they were Judeans just like the tax collectors and just like most of the rest of the crowd. These soldiers worked for the Romans just like the tax collec...

After John answers questions from the crowd about what one should do to be saved from the coming wrath (v.7), tax collectors who are part of this crowd say in essence, “yes, we all know that: everybody who is saved will give food and clothes to those in need. But what specifically should WE, saved tax collectors, do when we make this public confession through this baptism that we have come here to make today?”[4] Verse 13, “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” John tells them. Now this sounds easy but let’s take a little look at the way things ran back then. It was not all that different from the way things are run today. These tax collectors were probably Jewish toll booth operators working for the Romans. Their job was to collect tolls and they made their money from surcharges applied to the tolls. The Romans used an early franchise system of sorts to collect these taxes.[5] They pseudo-privatized their toll booths. Much like fast food restaurants, big chain stores, an...

John, ‘the Baptist’ as he is called, is a celebrity preacher in 1st Century Palestine. He is on a speaking tour into all the country around the Jordan (Luke 3:3). People are making an effort to see him. In order to see John in those days you can’t just hop the TTC or catch a ride. You have to walk, by and large, and you have to walk and long way; you probably have to take at least one day off work. Picture this scenario with me. Pick some famous person you want to see; they are coming near Toronto – maybe a couple of hours away - and you have been given free tickets. (Who might that be?) You take time off work or cancel your plans for the day to go see them. Now imagine that they are a celebrity preacher. Major Danielle Strickland of The Salvation Army was recently named one of the most influential Christian speakers. Imagine she comes to town. Big crowds come to see her and not just Salvationists but all kinds of us. Let’s say we get a bus full of people and we all take the day off ...

In this passage that we have just read, Matthew’s version of the Christmas story, we are faced with three responses to the miracle of the birth of Christ, the coming of the Messiah, that of Joseph (his legal father), Herod (the king of the Jews), and some magi (astrologers, astronomers, magicians or wise men, traditionally ‘we three kings’). Magi Magi are astrologers, astronomers, or wise men (cf. Daniel 2:2,10; Acts 8:9; 13:6,8). Our word ‘magic’, interestingly enough comes from the same root as ‘magi’. In Acts 13:6,8, this same word, ‘magoi’, is actually translated ‘magicians’[9]. In the Christmas story traditionally these magi are commonly known as ‘we three kings’ (ca. 225 CE Tertullian called them kings[10]). Now – of course – there is no mention as to how many of these magi there are in this story. The Bible mentions that they bring three different kinds of gifts – gold, frankincense, and myrrh – but does not mention how many magi there were (Matthew 2:11). The word ‘magi’ is pl...

In this passage that we have just read, Matthew’s version of the Christmas story, we are faced with three responses to the miracle of the birth of Christ, the coming of the Messiah, that of Joseph (his legal father), some magi (astrologers, astronomers, magicians or wise men, traditionally ‘we three kings’) and Herod (the current king of the Jews). Herod Herod is a regional king. He works for the Romans and he is known throughout history as ‘Herod the Great’. Herod the Great is the political leader at this time and in this place. He is a politician of his era and as such is involved in all the political intrigue of his era in all the ways that political intrigue is carried out in his era (cf. Josephus, Bellum ii.10–13; cf. also Josephus, Antiquities xvii. 224, 229, 250, 304, 307, 340).[6] He is a king but his job is no more secure than that of a contemporary politician in a minority government and Herod defends his title and his job no less vigorously than our present day leaders: i...

In this passage that we have just read, Matthew’s version of the Christmas story, we are faced with three responses to the miracle of the birth of Christ, the coming of the Messiah, that of Herod (the king of the Jews), Some magi (astrologers, astronomers, magicians or wise men, traditionally ‘we three kings’) and Joseph (his legal father). Joseph First we have Joseph: Joseph is a carpenter/stone mason. He is from the tribe of Judah and – of course – a famous ancestor of his is King David. Matthew records a few things about Joseph: we are told in our text today that Joseph, Verse 19, is righteous. In our world today when we think of a righteous person… if someone were to tell you that a person is righteous… if someone were to say that a visitor that we have here today is a righteous woman or man, what would we think that they would be like? They would pray, read the Bible, love God and love their neighbour (cf. Luke 10:27). All of the above would probably be true of them and more. ...

Advent is about waiting. We remember waiting for the birth of our saviour millennia ago even as now we await his return anytime soon. And when He returns what a day that will be. Our Scripture reminds us that when Jesus comes back, we will no longer be subservient to the brutal politico-socio-economic systems we are today where one becomes rich as over 25 000 children die each day even though the Lord has already provided more than enough resources for the whole world to be fed and clothed and otherwise taken care of many times over. These systems of oppression will end. The rulers of this world will be brought low. We will no longer see a situation where people become millionaires for appearing on a screen or playing baseball while others cannot afford to clothe themselves. In our world today there is also pornography, which horribly is America’s most lucrative pastime. In the United States, pornography revenue is more than all money made from professional football, baseball and bask...