If we look at our
history, a man named William Booth, a Methodist lay preacher from Nottingham,
travelled to London to preach the Gospel. He looked upon the streets of the
east end of London and what did he see;
Unemployed men wondering the streets, women selling themselves, Children passed
out drunk on the roads, people starving and begging for food, the pubs and Gin
Palaces full and prisons still loading the criminals in. Yet in all of this, the place where these
people could find comfort and Salvation did not want them. The Church did not welcome these poor and destitute people but William
Booth saw that these people need physical and spiritual healing, these people
need Jesus!
And so God raised the Salvation Army up out of the slums of
Mile End waste for the lost. But what gave William Booth this passion for the
lost, where did his heart for the lost come from? Luke Chapter 4 answers that
question. When Jesus stood up in the temple, He could have read out any
prophecy and fulfilled it that day but He chose to read the passage of
scripture from Isaiah 61 and Jesus said; "The
Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to
proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the
prisoners"
Where did William Booth get his heart for the lost? He got it
from Jesus! And when we think about identity and our identity as a Salvation
Army, it does not mean what we look like in the sense of what we wear or the
instrument we play but our identity is what we are made up of. Our identity is
what stirs us, it's our passions and it is our convictions that make up our
identity and surely as a Salvation Army we need to take up the identity of
Christ and in turn have that passion for the lost. It says in scripture in Luke
19:10 that Jesus "...came to seek and save the lost."
That was Jesus' goal, that was the reason why Jesus came to earth. To save
sinners. If we look at the whole of the bible, it comes down to the
fact that Jesus came to save sinners. In Genesis, we can read about the fall
and the point where sin entered into that beautiful relationship between God and man and when man distanced himself from the
love of God. God sent many people in the form of Leaders and Judges and Prophets to
come and bring God's people back into line but it was God's one and only plan to
send the dearest thing he had in His Son
Jesus, to Earth so that sinners can be saved and that the Church through Jesus
Christ would be established to complete the
commission God gave us in Matthew 28, "Go
and make disciples of all nations..."
That commission given to the disciples, doesn't just apply to
the select few who heard it. That commission is our calling, it is mine and it
is your calling and ultimately it is the Salvation Army's calling. We are a
Salvation Army, some of us may know the story of William Booth and his son Bramwell and they were writing a letter to be sent from the
then called Christian Mission movement and it said "We are a volunteer
Army", Bramwell Booth looked at the letter and said, "I am no
volunteer" and they crossed out the word volunteer and replaced it with
Salvation. There's a great quote that come from Booth and it says "We go
for souls and we go for the worst" and that's exactly what Jesus did. He didn't come to Earth to socialise with the established
Gentry, He came to Earth to be with sinners. The tax collectors, the
prostitutes, even His dying breath was spent with criminals. The Salvation of the lost is the heart of Jesus. And it must be our
heart too. We are a Salvation Army! It must be who we are, we have to
reflect that desire and passion for those who are in darkness and for those who are prisoners of sin. It is our heritage
and it has to be our identity. If we were asked who are you (as in who is the
Salvation Army), would you reply, "We
are the Salvation Army and we save souls"? Maybe the next question would be, why? My answer would be because
Jesus did it. Jesus has to be at the
centre of who we are as a Salvation Army, and with that everything that He
does we must replicate, who He loves we must love, His Heart must be our
heart.
Does the Salvation Army have the same passion that Jesus had?
Can the Salvation Army read from Isaiah 61 and say ""The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on us, because the Lord has
anointed us to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent us to bind up the
broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the
captives and release from darkness for the prisoners" Is this who
we are? Our purpose on this planet is to bring souls to Salvation?
When looking at who we are, we must not shy away from the
fact that we are an army. We are
called an Army for a reason and like any other Army we are a fighting Army, it
says in Ephesians 6:12 that "For our
struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms." We are at war, I am no expert in Spiritual conflict theology
but I believe that there is an evil one and he will try his very best to ruin
anything that is Holy and Just in this world. We as a Salvation Army have to stand up against and fight against these evil forces.
These forces delight in suffering and pain and it is the exact opposite to the
reason why Jesus was sent to Earth, once more Luke Chapter 4; "He has sent me to bind up the
broken-hearted..."
We as an army with our identity in Christ have to fight
against these things. And that can come in a number of ways, it may mean
literally getting our hands dirty and going into the worst places of this world.
It is where the Salvation Army began and it is where the Salvation Army
belongs. General Linda Bond says, "The
Army belongs in the dark places to shine the light of Jesus." Who is
the Salvation Army? We are a light in
the darkness, we go to places where people are too scared to go, where pain and
suffering is obvious and there is no sense of
God working. It is who we are, it is where we belong. It may mean that we pray. We need to be an Army on our knees,
we need to pray for the lost and we need to pray for our Salvation Army. Or it could mean in our everyday lives, we live a life that
reflects Jesus and that means showing love to those we come into contact with
and standing up against the things we see that are not right in this world.
Whatever way, we as a Salvation Army are a fighting Army and
we're not just fighting against things, we are fighting for things as well. We
are fighting for the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven here on Earth. A kingdom
where sin has no hold on anyone and a kingdom where our God is King over all. I read from Revelation 21: “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for
the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer
any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully
dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne
saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell
with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be
their God. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of
things has passed away” This is why
the Salvation Army is alive, this is what we are fighting for, for the Kingdom
of heaven here on Earth. It is who we are.
You all may have your own interpretation of who the Salvation
Army but you can’t refute the fact that we are a Salvation Army. We are an Army
fighting for the Lost and an Army fighting against Sin in this world.
Do you want to join in on that fight? Are you willing to
commit to God in fighting against injustice and for the marginalised? Is God
calling you specifically to do or to be something? Then I ask you to respond to
the leading of the Holy Spirit. Who is the
Salvation Army? We are a Salvation Army, called to save and fight for the lost. William
Booth wrote this poem and as I read it will you make the same promise as he did
all those many years ago?
While women weep as they do now,
I’ll fight.
While Little Children go hungry as they do now,
I’ll fight
While
Men go to prison in and out, in and out as they do now.
I’ll fight.
While there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the
streets, while there remains one dark soul, without the light of God.
I’ll fight. I’ll fight to the very end.
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