sheepspeak: April 2011

Friday, April 29, 2011

Election Time. Make your choice....

From Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 57, October 2008 – November 2008 (pp. 27-39)

Vote for Jesus: a look at 1 Corinthians 15:1-34

by Captain Michael Ramsay

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

In Canada we have an election coming up again – the third in four years. All the 'experts' admit without a doubt that this one will be... a 'waste of taxpayer money'. Even our Prime Minister, who wants the election, admits that it won't change the working dynamics of parliament but it's a contest; a game like any other and the competitors want to win it.

I have gotten to know a number of politicians around here lately and as I was listening to one speech from a recently elected MLA, it reminded me of 1 Corinthians 15:20ff. Here is a paraphrase of that passage as if by a contemporary provincial politician:

"Our party's leader has indeed been raised high. He is first of a new breed of Premier. You see devastation came to this province from the previous government but the resurrection of the economy comes through our new government. For as with the old leader all of us were as good as dead, so with our new leader all will be made alive.

But each in his own turn: first the Premier, then his party members and supporters, then, by the time of the next election, the whole province that belongs to him. Then the time will come for the next election when, of course, his majority will be so big that it is like he will be handing over the province of Saskatchewan to God himself.

For our leader will by that time have destroyed all dominion, authority, power of the former regime: indeed there will be no more problems in this province at all. And we'll re-elect our leader, our government, and our party again and again, for he will reign forever in order to put all our troubles and crush all our enemies under his feet..."

It is amazing how political speeches have started to sound like scripture or sermons these days. The more I listen to political speeches and the more I watch the news, the more I realise that the world really is crying out for a messiah. The USA – which is also in the midst of an election campaign - every 4 years parades out at least one possible new messiah. Look at how people talk about Obama (particularly before McCain announced his running mate); there is no mention of his past failures, only an almost messianic hope for a bright new future as if he is the One.

For all its strengths, this is one of the main downfalls of western democracies. Every election people are mistakenly looking to parties, politicians, ideologies, platitudes, and other such nonsense to solve our problems - as if that is where our salvation comes from.

most recent JAC: http://www.armybarmy.com/jac.html

Friday, April 22, 2011

Resurrection Sunday and more (April 22-30)

1 Samuel 27 and Psalm 141 and 1 Chronicles 9 and Matthew 10

(Miriam and Aaron)

more on-line comics and rations - http://drwas.blogspot.com/search/label/April%2016-30

Good Friday: Luke 23: Who do you say He is?

Presented to the Community Good Friday Service in Nipawin
at the Apostolic Church, April 10, 2009 By Captain Michael Ramsay
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I remember many years ago when I was starting University. I was a janitor; I worked nights for a big janitorial company in Victoria. They have buildings all over the city and I worked for this company since before I went to university so when I did go back to school, they were kind enough to work around my schedule.

They made me a ‘floater’: now a floater is a very important position because we are given the keys and alarm codes to banks and other important businesses all over the city and our shifts often end late at night or early in the morning. Now break-ins aren’t uncommon in the city so one doesn’t want just anybody walking around some of these buildings in the middle of the night.

I remember one night. I’m on ‘floater’ duty. I have four buildings to clean. The first two buildings take me twice as long to clean as they should so when I get to my third building, it is well passed midnight and I have never been in this building before and I can’t find the light switch anywhere. As a result, I am late turning off the alarm and the thing goes off: it is loud. So while it is still ringing and the place is still dark I bang my leg as I trip over a desk running to turn it off. I turn it off and then the phone rings (the alarm company always calls to see why an alarm is going off to make sure it is a false alarm) so I’m off and running again and this time it is in the other direction -still in the dark - to find the phone before I miss the call and the alarm company phones the police. I get to the phone just in time but not before banging my leg again as I crash into another desk in the pitch black and yelling quite loudly.

I finally get this alarm mess sorted out on the phone but by now my leg that I have bashed twice is killing me as I am limping around the whole building still looking for the light switch in the pitch black. I am very lost in a maze of cubicles and I really can’t see anything and I am not feeling too happy at all when I hear something.

I hear something. I hear something growl…. I hear something growl and bark loudly! This is not good. So what do I do?

Resurrection Sunday: Luke 24:1-12: Why do you look for the living among the dead?

Presented to Swift Current Corps Easter Sunday, 04 April 2010
By Captain Michael Ramsay
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Now I must admit that when I was a kid I used to be quite good at hide-and-seek and I still have a great way to not get caught – Rebecca and Sarah-Grace, cover your ears – you see, when I am hiding and they are looking for me, I keep my eyes open and watch to see where they are or listen to discover where they are looking and as soon as they have looked in a particular spot, I will move from where I am to that spot where they just were, knowing that they won’t look there again. This works really well with a house with an upstairs and a downstairs because as soon as the kids come upstairs, one can make a beeline straight for the downstairs.

Hide and seek: Did you ever play hide and seek? There is one thing that you notice playing ‘hide and seek’ with mostly little kids – younger than my two – but sometimes with older ones as well. It is really quite neat. Most of them when they are hiding, they close their eyes. So when you call out, ‘1-2-3, I see you’ – you will sometimes hear – ‘no you don’t! …I have my eyes closed’ or ‘1-2-3, I see you’ - ‘you can’t; I’m invisible still…I still have my eyes closed.’ This is not totally unrelated from our text today, as people are here wondering why they can’t see Jesus.

In our pericope today the disciples and the women are convinced that they know where Jesus is and what is happening. They look in the spot where they know he went, the tomb for the dead, but Jesus has moved. He is back in the land of the living. And so the angels ask, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

read more: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/04/luke-241-12-why-do-you-look-for-living.html

Friday, April 08, 2011

The Credit Card of Justice and Righteousness (Psalm 72)

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 01 July 2007
by Captain Michael Ramsay

I love Canada Day – (or Dominion Day as we used to call it) – I always have. I love the picnics and all the fun things to do. Every year we used to have a big picnic and fireworks in Beacon Hill Park in Victoria where I grew up. It is a perfect chance to see everyone – so I’m really looking forward to our picnic today in the park – this should be great.

But you know what else I love, I also love the quizzes that come out around this time – I know, who loves quizzes but, hey, I used to be a teacher– lets see how you do…

Who is our head of State?
What is our national animal?
What are our two national sports?
Who was the first PM of Canada?
When did Saskatchewan join confederation?
Upon what passage of scripture was Canada founded?

Answers and the rest of the preach: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/08/psalm-72-credit-card-of-justice-and.html

Gingerbread Cookies of Justice and Salvation (Psalm 72:1-7)

Second homily in the Heaven Scent series.
Presented to the Swift Current Corps 05 December 2010.
By Captain Michael Ramsay
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We are looking at Psalm 72:1-7 today: This is Canada’s psalm. When I next preach on Canada Day (Dominion Day) I will most likely preach on this Psalm:

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 historical application of this psalm but we can speak more about that on Canada Day. Today is the second Sunday of Advent, so we will be looking at this passage through a slightly different lens: that of waiting for the Messiah to come and of waiting for the Messiah to come again.

read more: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/12/psalm-721-7-gingerbread-cookies-of.html

Hockey Card (1 Samuel 4:1b-7:1)

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on June 22, 2008
By Captain Michael Ramsay

Do you know what this is? A hockey card: a Paul Coffee rookie card from his debut with the Edmonton Oilers. Some Edmonton Oilers rookie cards are evidently worth more than $2000.00 - if they are in good condition[1] – but this one is not in good condition at all.

Who’d have thought that Hockey cards would become the big business investment that they have in recent years with people keeping them in special cases and only touching them with white gloves and the works.

When I was a kid, we used to actually play with these cards: close –ies, knocksies (I don’t remember what the games were really called) - we would play all these different games with these cards and they would all involve throwing them against a wall – so much for keeping their investment value – we thought these toys were – uh - toys. Who knew we were squandering our retirement funds by throwing Wayne Gretzky, Billy Smith, and Guy Lafleur against the wall.

Did anyone in these parts ever ‘play’ hockey cards growing up? Or was it just a west coast thing? I remember some games that we would have: you would each line three all-star cards up against the wall and then take turns trying to knock down your opponents cards by flicking one of your cards at it. The first person to knock down each of their opponent’s cards would win and got to keep all of the cards – including every one that had been thrown.

The longer these games went on the more that was at stake. You could see cards piling up and kids would really have their entire collection at stake and then, of course, the more exciting it gets the more people who come to watch. Some of the big matches could have almost the entire school watching. This was a lot of fun if you were competing except for one thing - the grade threes. You see the grade threes loved to collect hockey cards but they didn’t win them. They would steel them. They would sneak closer and closer to any game they could find and as soon as they could get close enough the bold ones would scoop up a handful of cards and run for their lives as a couple of grade sixes always took up the pursuit; and then there were the cautious grade threes, they would step on the cards they want one at a time and then bend down to tie up their shoes over each time picking up a new card and putting it in their pocket, footprint and all.

Now, like many kids, I did collect quite a few cards in my time growing up but like I said none of mine are worth much because – well – because most of them have footprints on them – or are severely bent from my running away from the grade sixes. Oh well. “Who’d ‘a thunk?” If I’d known they would be worth so much I might have invested the $0.10 for gum and a pack of cards in those days. Who knew that hockey cards would become so valuable?

This is the same sort of thing that is facing the Philistines in our story today in 1 Samuel...

read more: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/06/1-samuel-41b-71-hockey-card.html