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by Robert Docter –
A vacant cross inspires–an empty tomb energizes–a living Lord motivates, and his love surmounts all obstacles. From Ahmednagar to Anchorage–from St. Petersburg to Santa Fe–from the Ukraine to Eureka–the Caribbean to Casper, an Army of Salvation dispenses God’s never ending love in compassionate service to mankind–to whomever, wherever, whenever God calls. Place, time and circumstance fail to enter the equation. The delivery of God’s love is a function of humankind’s need, and The Salvation Army assumes the role of his agent.
Officers and soldiers lift the hands of Christ in small corps on distant islands, in large corps within teeming urban settings, in quiet places beside “blue highways,” in noisy areas amid the staccato of gun fire–they combine their compassion with their commitment and simultaneously offer an instant refresher and a permanent thirst quencher.
No criteria limit the dispensation of God’s grace, and none restrict his servants. Inebriates and politicians, prostitutes and executives, old money and no money, saints and sinners, all need the Christ of the Easter morn. All must feel his love, his never ending forgiveness, his message of hope, his inspiration.
His emissaries wear uniforms and call themselves a Salvation Army. They speak the words he has placed in their hearts. They tell stories of the freeing power of forgiveness. In the accent and dialect of the street, these reclaimed, hard-purchased people re-live the sacrifice of Christ. Their cross is also vacant. Their tomb bears no corpse. They are as free as their humanness and God’s grace allows. They have learned God’s love shared begins a reciprocating cycle of mutual growth; that judgmentalism and love cannot coexist; that status needs are vanquished in the spirit of servanthood. They are Christians at work.
