As you probably all know, I came to Christ in a Salvation Army setting, in a proper, good old ‘Blood and Fire’ Salvation Army context, with a vital Holy Spirit, Jesus-centred spirituality, the expectation of winning the world for Jesus and being holy warriors for Christ. I learned to preach in the Army – you preach for a verdict, you address the heart, and trust that God’s word calls people to respond to him in surrender and consecration to his mission as we march to Glory. It’s still my core spirituality – I’m a Salvationist through-and-through, to be perflectly honest, and there are so many riches of that legacy that I don’t think will ever leave me.
Anyway, in my sleep last night I was in Ipswich. I’ve only been to Ipswich once, and thinking about it now, the place I saw in my dream looked nothing like the only bit of Ipswich I remember from my one visit. I had arrived in ‘Ipswich’ and I was met there by my four Salvation Army spiritual parents: Billy, Joyce, Roberta and Robert (of whom, Robert is the only one still this side of Glory). Incidentally, they have nothing to do with Ipswich either, but I knew it was Ipswich. I’ll come back to that.
Joyce was helping me piece together various elements of Salvation Army uniform that I needed because there was something really important about it, akin to ‘putting on the whole armour of God.’ We searched around Ipswich for good strong boots, then the usual base pieces of clothing that made up the uniform (trousers, shirt, tie, tunic, coat, hat). They were all found easily. But it was not recognisably a Salvation Army uniform yet. There was no S lapel badges, no insignia on my shoulders, no crest on my cap, no ‘Salvation Army’ cap band on the cap, and no other distinguishing features.
‘This will never do’ says Joyce, ‘Come and dig over here.’ You always do what Joyce tells you. There was a bench in the street absolutely covered and caked in dirt, very thick. There were shapes under the dirt, covered in all sorts of grime, including dead things, mud and all sorts of unpleasantness. There were words, ‘Ipswich Citadel’, carved into the bench, and other words that I couldn’t make out. Digging the mud revealed two other things: all the bits of my uniform that needed cleaning and affixing, and then the realisation that this was the Mercy Seat…more about that later. After a whole load of clearing away dirt, mud, dead cats and mice, and washing the stuff, I had the necessary bits.
‘Wonderful’, says Joyce, ‘you’re nearly ready, apart from one thing.’ Joyce produced a rich, deep red scarf. ‘Covered in the blood, son’, she said. I was ready for battle.
Just two pieces of research when I woke up. Why Ipswich and what might the words have been? A quick Google told me that the beginnings of the mission of The Salvation Army in Ipswich was very much contested by the ‘Skeleton Army’ – a group set up to oppose the development of the Christian witness of the Army with riots, noice, fireworks, throwing of flaming tar barrels and the like. (I’ll leave aside the fact that the current corps officers – ministers – are Major Stephen and Sandra Battle…major battle, eh?)
Secondly, the words on the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat is a focal point in Salvation Army places of worship – it’s the ‘Altar’…a place where you either were invited to come and pray and seek salvation, or where you’d come and seek the blessing of a clean heart (The Salvation Army was a primitive pentecostal holiness movement, birthed in revival fire, that believed in the ‘second blessing’ of the baptism of the Holy Spirit to make the believer holy and equip for ministry). There was a strong expectation of the movement of the Spirit to convict of sin and make the sinner holy – no playing about. This was the goal of the gathering, and a decent corps got down to business every week.
Now, in googling Ipswich Citadel, I find that the fellowship now meets in a new building, significantly smaller than the cavernous place that used to seat over 1000 people, but the old place had an old fashioned Mercy Seat at the front of the hall. The words enblazoned on the Mercy Seat at Ipswich Citadel were ‘Pardon. Peace. Purity.’ This is a common set of words you might find written on a Mercy Seat, along with phrases like ‘Jesus Saves’ or ‘Here Bring Thy Wounded Heart.’
What a wonderful rich, colourful world with a glorious revival legacy I have in my Sally Army foundations. I won’t comment on the Army now, but I am so glad that the Salvation Army charism was birthed in my by the Holy Spirit from day one. I’ve plenty of praying into this dream to do, but there’s one thing I sense so clearly: this is a re-enlistment call, not to The Salvation Army, but to the battle for souls no matter the cost, for trust in the mighty power of the Holy Spirit to save and sanctify, and the call to the discipline of a soldier in battle in the Kingdom of God.
FInal words to the prophet, Joel:
“Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near…”
“Yet even now,” declares teh Lord, “return to me with all your heart with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments”. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents of disaster….
“Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation, assemble the elders; gather the children, even the nursing infancts. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests,, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD’ and make not your heritage a repreach, a byword among the nations….
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, BLOOD AND FIRE and columns of smoke….and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on teh name of the LORD shal be saved….”
“Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”
