Centennial Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
Centennial Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
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CHRISTIAN TO CHRISTIAN
Do you believe God is in prison? In my sermon yesterday, I told some of my experiences
at Logan Correctional Center on the Great Banquet retreat team recently. I
talked about Jesus’ particular concern for prisoners, his compassion for them
because they are humans like the rest of us, and because they are created in
God’s image with a divine spark in them just like us.
So Christ calls us to reach out in prayer and ministry for prisoners.
They are among “the least of these
brothers and sisters of mine” in whom Jesus says he himself lives. (Matt.
25:40) Certainly there are great problems with prisoners. They
committed crimes that hurt other people, our society, and themselves. They are
paying for their mistakes so that justice can be done.
They are still good con artists. We
were warned not to be taken in by their wily ways, not to give them anything, or
receive anything from them to take out with us.
They are masters at manipulation which they learned on the streets and
have perfected inside the prison walls. We
need to be realistic about that and about the hardened lives many lead. But we can’t let that stop us from seeing them as God’s children. We,
too, though hopefully not criminals, are pretty good at hiding our sins,
deceiving ourselves and others, manipulating and conning people to get what we
want. As Paul says, “all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) That includes us! But we are
also all God’s beloved children with God’s divine spark in us, and so are
they. We need to look with Jesus’
eyes to see the humanity and the divinity that is in us all, including those
behind bars and razor wire! We heard moving testimonies from the prisoners at the end of our three days.
They shared what the weekend had meant to them, and there were many
heartfelt confessions of faith. Of
course some of those were insincere. Some
were saying what they knew we wanted to hear, hoping to earn good behavior
points. It’s the same with us when we talk about our faith at church.
Sometimes we are saying what we think others want us to say.
Sometimes we don’t really mean to change our lives just because we have
confessed Jesus as Lord. But I also believe many were really touched by God during the retreat.
I believe that God was there in that prison and in the hearts of those
prisoners, every bit as much as God was present in us on the team and in us at
church. I believe that God uses events like the Great Banquet retreat, our
prayers, and visits, the work of the chaplain, and other ministries in the
prison, to touch and change lives. God
can and does work in the prisoners and those who reach out to them to bring
grace, transformation, and salvation. It’s easy to become cynical in a hard crime world. It’s
easy to become hardened to the intractability of sin and evil.
But if we grow so cynical and hard bitten that we give up hope, then we
miss the whole point of the gospel. Jesus
came to love and transform lives – even the most hardened ones. Jesus can
touch and change people – even criminals like thief Zacchaeus and murderer
Paul – even people as sinful in our own ways as you and me. Thanks be God!
I look forward to sharing Christ’s life changing grace with you, as I
did with those men at Logan, at his table of forgiveness and love! Christ’s Transforming Grace Be in You! Pastor
Joe
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