Transcipt of sermon ‘Hope for a broken world’

 

St Oswald’s Rugby 16^th Oct 2022

(Baptism of Ambrose and Asa Naish)

‘Hope for a broken world’ – Luke 5: 17-26

During the length of this Service 60 men across the world will have died by suicide.

On the 1^st January of this year a young man, who had recently returned home to the family farm having just completed his studies at Agricultural College, in the early hours told his parents he was going out.  They thought he might be giving a friend a lift. Tragically he was discovered dead later having died by suicide. He was 21.

In Stafford Prison there are notices in several prominent places that say, ‘we do not release ex-offenders, but community members back into the community.’  Which is a laudable idea except Stafford Prison is for male sex offenders. Would they really be welcomed back into the community. Would we welcome them into the Church community? As a Volunteer with Prison Fellowship, I preached several times on a Sunday morning in the Prison Chapel. The lead Chaplain, Jo and I were chatting about support structures upon release. She told me of one resident who had been released, reoffended, and brought back into prison. He admitted that prison was the best place for him so that others would be safe from him, and he would be safe from himself.  The revolving door syndrome is a real issue across all prisons. 

In Greenwich, London, there are areas of real deprivation and a strong gang culture. A mild-mannered man from Gloucester called Nick Russel has chosen to live there, and indeed has been ministering in this part of London for a good number of years now. Nick is a Church Army Evangelist and heads up the Greenwich Mission Centre. Into a gang culture that says the only hope of surviving and being safe is to join a gang, into an area with seriously dysfunctional families, Nick and the team are trying to offer a different narrative, to offer a different hope.  

 Born in 1905, Victor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist. During World War II he spent three years at Auschwitz, Dachau, and other concentration camps. In his bestselling book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl’s autobiographical testament of his time in Auschwitz, he talks about seeing the light of hope go from men’s eyes.  

He wrote - “Those who know how close the connection is between the state of mind of a man­, ­his courage and hope, or lack of them­ ­and the state of immunity of his body will understand that sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect”.

 

To illustrate his point Frankl details for us his theory on the record high death rate in Auschwitz during Christmas 1944 to New Year’s 1945: that prisoners died because they had expected to be home before Christmas. When they realized this was not to be they completely lost hope in life beyond the concentration camp. 

Having hope in life is very serious – it is a matter of life and death!

In our Gospel story we are told about a group of friends one of whom was a paralytic and unable to walk.  The situation for their paralytic friend probably looked hopeless. But they hear about Jesus and the things he is doing and saying.  So, they carry their friend to Jesus. But getting him through the press of the crowd was hopeless. They hit upon another plan. Most of the buildings at this time had flat roofs, often serving as an extra outdoor space, sometimes with an outside staircase.  Up they go with their friend being carried on a stretcher. They begin to make a hole in the roof, and when it was big enough, they lowered their friend down at the feet of Jesus.

Let that thought and image enter your mind and settle in your heart.

Collectively they took their burden of hopelessness and laid it down at Jesus’ feet.

Low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness,
high on his heart he will bear it for thee,
and comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.

Jesus responds by saying, ‘friend, your sins are forgiven.’

Now in the crowd are Pharisee’s and teachers of the law and they knew as everyone else would have known, that forgiveness came only from God mediated by the Priests and in some cases only by the High Priest. Jesus was not a Priest or of the Levitical tribe of Priest. The Pharisee’s are right in what they say as according to the law, tradition and Scripture stretching back thousands of years. However, to receive such forgiveness, he would have to travel 120 miles to Jerusalem and offer a sacrificial animal. How on earth was a paralytic person supposed to do that.

This is an important point Luke is making in his telling of the Jesus story.

But time prevents us from delving deeper into this today.

But note Jesus’ response, “But that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – he said to the paralysed man, “get up, take up your mat and go home.”

The Son of Man and having authority referenced here is from Daniel 7: 13-14

 
“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.  He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

(And check out Mathew 28.18.)

Jesus is demonstrating his authority as the hope of all Israel, the promised Royal Priest King who would fulfil all of God’s promises.

Jesus brings hope, light and life into the world.

And it is into the company of Jesus’ followers that Anna and Murray have brought Ambrose and Asa to be baptised today. So that a seed of hope may be planted in the lives of Ambrose and Asa and that they may grow in their love and knowledge of God and have an ongoing hope in their lives going forward.

But note that after Jesus’ offers forgiveness, he tells the man to walk. To walk into a new life freed from whatever it was that was causing his paralyses, possibly something arising out of guilt carried for years until it brought on the paralysis. What we today would refer to as psychosomatic paralysis.  Hence Jesus dealing with that issue.

Both Ambrose and Asa will have to actualise the promises made on their behalf today. In due course they will have to choose whether they will continue to look to Jesus as their one true hope.

Lying at the feet of Jesus and receiving forgiveness of our sins is only the start. We are then invited to get up and go live a life that speaks of the hope we carry.

That through his crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension, King Jesus reigns and that - His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

As we close let me leave you with these related questions…

1)              Have you knelt before Jesus and known his forgiveness?

Have you stood up and walked into a new life with hope in your heart?

 If you have never done that you can do it today, here this morning

And then thirdly  whom do you know, or what situation are you are aware of, that appears to be hopeless?  

 

If we are we weak and heavy laden,

cumbered with a load of care?

The Precious Saviour is still our refuge

Let’s take it to the Lord in prayer!

 https://youtu.be/N0osMgIrPFQ

 

Prison's Week 2022

Address at St Oswald's, Rugby Tuesday 11th October 2022

Luke 17: 11-19

This is day three of Prisons Week that began on Sunday with a reflection on our Gospel reading.

Prison Week has now been running for nearly fifty years and involves a wide number of charities engaged in prison ministry and invites people to pray for their work.

Just how many people have we in our prisons?

According to the briefing report of Population and Capacity on Friday 30 September 2022          

Population                                               81,309

Useable Operational Capacity                 83,723

Population in male estate                        78,130

Population in female estate                       3,179

Home Detention Curfew caseload             2,055

In 2019 England and Wales had the largest prison population in Western Europe.

Our Gospel reading today helps us to understand something of this ministry and the men and woman in our prisons.

In ancient Israel, the setting for the story Luke brings us about these ten lepers, not much was known about leprosy other than it was much to be feared. Something that continued into the modern era until we understood it better and began to find ways of helping.

Therefore, any skin disease was highly suspect and enough to have you banished from the community.

Remembering that at this time you lived and died by your community.

It wasn’t that you went and visited your mum occasionally.

Your community was everything and this was at a deeper level still for the God’s covenant people, the Israelites.

Being banished from the community was a massive issue.

Those locked away in our prisons often find themselves treated like lepers. Little thought is given to their crime, their background and in some cases, whether there may have been a miscarriage of justice.

We can so easily declare them as prisoners, lumping them all together.

Yet God sees each and every one of them, and God loves each and every one of them.

And if they cry out, as a number of them do, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on me’ then they find new hope, new peace, and a new direction in their lives.

All around the inside Stafford Prison written up on the walls in various places are these words…

‘We do not release ex-offenders, but community members back into the community.’

That’s a tough call because Stafford is a sex offender prison.

O how easy it is to sit in judgment on such people and others in prison.

We need to heed the word of Paul in the Letter to the Romans as he reminds us that ‘we all fall short of the glory of God.’

Of the many things I learned from my visit into Stafford prisons is that the residents are very aware of their fallenness, of their sins.

And they are very aware that they are social pariahs. And I get that, especially if it was my son or daughter or grandchild who had been abused. Although I may not fully understand the pain of those whose friend or family have been violated by a sex offender, never having experienced it, I can imagine something of their pain and anger and their wanting to rip their heads off. And in so doing they sit in very company with the Psalmists. But that doesn’t bring healing and wholeness, only more bitterness and isolation.

One of the courses the Prison Fellowship have been running now for some years is the Sycamore Course. This seeks to bring offenders to a place of recognising their crime and the damage caused.

Another very important initiative is Angel Tree...

However, it is stating the obvious, but for such initiatives to operate it takes people, often Volunteers, and money for the materials, etc.  

But, as some say, and as I have heard it said, ‘lock them up, throw away the key and forget about them.’

Could we really accept such a thought – as God’s people, surely no one is beyond His reach, no one beyond His love, no one beyond His hope and no one beyond the possibility of reconciliation and restoration.

However, this will mean engaging with the lepers, those who we deem are unclean and unfit to live in our communities.

As these men cried out to Jesus for him to have pity on them his response was, ‘Go and show yourself to the priest’ – and we are told it was as they went, they were healed.

Note that order, go – and as they went in faith and obedience, they received their healing.

There are some other fascinating aspects to this story – ‘go and show yourself to the priest’ would have made a lot of sense to the Jews, which by inference we deem nine of the men to be, but that would not have worked for the Samaritan. In the eyes of the Covenant People of God, we might say he was doubly excluded, as a leper and as a Samaritan.

It maybe that the others were so keen to be on their way back to their communities, back to their families, and to go through the necessary rituals of being declared clean. Released from their prison and exclusion, in their eagerness they forgot to say thank you.

We might also reflect on what kind of welcome back into the community they received. Some may have continued to be unsure and suspicious.

Much like those who are released back into our communities today having served their prison sentence. They continue to be viewed with suspicion by some and continue to carry the taint of having been inside.

It is the idea of having an attitude of gratitude that forms the theme for this year’s Prisons Week.

We are invited to reflect on what we are thankful for. Now you might think that prisoner do not have a lot to be thankful for. However, for them, it is often the small things that we so often take for granted. A kind word, a helpful letter, a phone call, a visit. And an opportunity to ring the Prayer Line, set up by Prison Fellowship, and make a prayer request.

And it is in these prayers that I receive and share amongst our Group that we can begin to hear the authentic voice of prisoners.

Let me read you just a few Prayer Line Requests:

Anon asks 4 times for us to pray for him and his family - he says they are all are being hassled by Satanists and witches.

R feels he is being unjustly treated and falsely imprisoned. He asks for prayer and for an Anglican chaplain to visit him with communion.

C asks us to pray his wife will realise that what she is doing is wrong. C has loved his wife unconditionally for the last 10 years of his life and doesn’t understand her behaviour. 

C (2) is desperate to see his kids. He is not coping in prison for something he didn’t do.

Luke has placed this story amongst a cluster of stories about who is in and who is out, Lazarus and the rich man, the Pharisee and the sinner. This all sits within a large section of Luke’s Gospel as part of Jesus’ long winding journey to Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem he will be taken prisoner, become falsely accused, put in prison, and then executed. Jesus knows what it’s like to be social pariah, to be rejected.

If you are feeling encouraged to support people in prison, how might you respond?

Well Prisons Week is a great opportunity to pray through the Prisons Week prayers and I have put copies of these at the back of Church.

You could sign-up to pray for people in prison with the Prison Fellowship Prayer Diary sent by email.

You can also get involved in supporting people in prison by becoming a Prison Fellowship volunteer and being part of the Rugby Prison Fellowship Group.  And I am more than happy to include you in the Prayer Line WhatsApp group or email list for the weekly digest.

Prison Fellowship - We believe no one is beyond hope.

“Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” Hebrews 13: 3  

Follow this link for this years campaign video...

https://vimeo.com/732017840