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
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