You know, we're really fortunate - those of us who are familiar with the letters of St Paul, addressed to the early churches; recorded and reproduced for us in the bible. For there's really not much that went on then that doesn't also go on now: most of it is really just as relevant today as it ever was when it was written...
Take his famous discussion in the 12th chapter of his first letter to the people of the church in Corinth for example, which is often entitled something like, 'one body, many parts':
Now the body is not made up of one part, but of many...
If you asked a small child to draw their parents, there's a good chance they'd draw matchstick characters, with a trunk, two legs, two arms, a head - and just possibly an expressive face and/or perhaps some hair, to differentiate between the sexes. They draw only these features, because that's what they see. Once they're a bit older they might attempt to draw the actual features rather than just rely upon the matchsticks, but the chances are the features would remain much the same.
Just because they don't draw them, doesn't mean they don't recognise that other features exist. Some might indeed add such details as ears, feet and hands - and they might dress parts of the body up in some way.
But unless they're really good at drawing, they'll just represent them all with what they consider to be the most familiar features.
If you asked them to draw The Salvation Army nowadays, I suspect the majority would need to ask the adults around them for help and, having done so, I suspect most of them would attempt to draw a band; or at least a couple of brass instruments and a drum.
Now, here lies a problem for the whole of The Salvation Army, for just as with the human body, it is not made up of merely one part - i.e. a band; but of many parts. The trouble for most people who don't already have some connection with it is this though: what exactly are the other parts? What do they look like? What are they for - and how do they relate to each other?
Many people are well aware of the Army's charitable works, and especially social work services associated with the homeless. Quite a few older people know of work the Army did during the last world war, in supporting the troops and services with mobile canteens, friendly faces and listening ears. A surprising number will tell you that their grannies attended The Salvation Army's Sunday Schools. Some people know that some kind of family tracing service exists. A few might be aware of other services, such as overseas missionary work.
But the vast majority imagine that the band they see is employed to do all of these things. If they encounter one or two of us out and about in uniform - collecting money on street corners or during the annual door-knock appeal; they'll often ask, "do you not have the band with you today?"
People really respect the band - but maybe not always for terribly accurate reasons. While it is certainly true that the band does an enormous amount of work and really sacrafices a great deal of what would otherwise be personal time spent pursuing individual interests, few if any of its members are employed full time by The Salvation Army! Salvation Army officers apart, they all have day jobs too, that financially support them and their families - from whom they spend a good deal of time apart in their numerous practices, worship meetings, community services and, for their interest, occasional concerts. Many of their members are heavily involved in other aspects of the Army's work too - as songsters, young people's workers and so on - all of which involves then giving up even more of the time that they might otherwise use pursuing their own interests.
But the fact remains, the band is just a band: it isn't by any means representative of the whole of The Salvation Army! And, just as Paul illustrates in his first letter to the Corinthians, all the parts of the body are just as important as each other. He tells us,
A body isn't really a body unless there is more than one part. It takes many parts to make a single body. That's why the eyes cannot say they don't need the hands. That's also why the head cannot say it doesn't need the feet. In fact, we cannot get along without the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest. We take special care to dress up some parts of our bodies. We are modest about our personal parts, but we don't have to be modest about our other parts.
God put our bodies together in such a way that even the parts that seem the least important are valuable. He did this to make all parts of the body work together smoothly, with each part caring about the others. If one part of our body hurts, we hurt all over. If one part of our body is honoured, we are all honoured.
(1 Corinthians 12, verses 19-26, Contemporary English Version)
The Army's challenge is, how on earth can it get people to recognise those of its parts that are not a band, and moreover to place equal value upon each of them?
Robert Burns offers us quite a clue in his well-known poem, To a Louse:
O Wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
And ev'n devotion!
Just as The Salvation Army isn't just a band, Robert Burns wasn't just a poet. He was a man, a Scot who came from the south-western part of the country and spent much of his life there, a farmer. He was a womaniser, yet a loving husband too. In the eyes of some he was a loveable rogue, to others a cheeky tax-evader, to others still he was a sinner. He was a nature-lover, a romantic, definitely a people-watcher, at times a comedian. He was these and many other things - and, oh yes, he was also a poet...
It probably isn't the Salvation Army Bands' fault that so many people see them as the most obvious, most important feature of the whole Army - and it certainly isn't their responsibility alone to sort that issue out. Rather, the responsibility lies with the whole of the body that is The Salvation Army. Personally, I think that whole body would do well to keep a very close eye on how others might be seeing it - for in this world at least, is seems unlikely they'll ever receive the gift of such automatic insight. For I suggest it would indeed free us from many a blunder and foolish notion; and perhaps if we paid more attention too, to how our near obsession with how we dress and present ourselves impacts upon others, we'd re-order and re-prioritise those things that require our greatest devotion!
And we also need to be real. Not just a warm, romantic aspect of a Dickensian Christmas scene; but something that actually lives and breathes in a manner that others can easily relate to! We need to become a warts and all Army, fully prepared to relate to a warts and all world!
Brass bands pull crowds, almost like no other tool other than bagpipes - which don't really have the same effect in Edinburgh as they might elsewhere, as they're too commonplace here. (I recall taking part in a small demonstration in Winchester some years back - just a crowd of 40 or so people with various forms of disability in the middle of a busy road, that would certainly have gone unnoticed were it not for the bagpipe-player up front. My goodness, it got us noticed...!) So our bands will always be very important to us. We'll always need them, and they're a finite resource, so perhaps we need to consider how and where we most need them. And in closing, thank-you, Salvation Army band members everywhere - you're doing a grand job. The rest of us are here to compliment what you do - don't you ever forget that!
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