Jail Report
Every other Sunday, Carla and I conduct a church service at the local County Jail, in the Work Release area. These are folks who have been in jail and are preparing to be released. There is a palpable sense of trepidation among the inmates: they are excited about being released but worried of going back to their former lifestyles, making the same mistakes and winding up back in jail.
Carla and I play a set of worship music and then have a Bible study/teaching. The group is typically small: usually less than a dozen, and is very attentive and engaged. It is a mixture of men and women and they conduct themselves like any other group of Christians meeting together. The only differences are the jail uniforms and perhaps a more serious, intent and grateful attitude. They know they are sinners. They know they have fallen short and missed the mark. They have experienced judgment and retribution in tangible ways. They appreciate, and sometimes are surprised by, the mercy and grace that is extended to them by God through Christ.
Our Sundays at the jail are a highpoint of our week. We typically walk out of the jail completely buzzed by how good God is. It's an interesting and well-known paradox: When we give of ourselves, we find ourselves filled.
There are a group of chaplains who work full-time at the jail. They do a fantasic job. They are Godly, transparent men who truly love the inmates. One of the things I appreciate the most is their encouraging nature toward volunteers like Carla and myself, and the fact that they bring in Christians of all types to minister to the inmates: not just people who believe the same way that they do.
Yesterday was the first time we had been at the jail in a month. My travel schedule had caused us to miss a couple of weeks. The group was small: one woman and two men. We had a wonderful time however. There was a sense that we five, of very different backgrounds, were long-lost brothers and sisters; brought together in God's household.
After worship we had an impromptu dialog about addiction and idolatry. This was inspired by the last worship song we had sung:
Teach me your way, Oh Lord,
And I will walk in Your truth,
Show me Your paths, Oh Lord,
For I'm devoted to You,
Purify my heart's desire,
I long to be Your servant,
Give me an undivided heart,
That I may fear Your name,
Give me an undivided heart,
No other gods, no other love,
No other gods before You.
I layed out Gerald May's view on addiction and grace (see my blog entry dated Monday, November 13, 2006) and all three immediately "got it". They were all dealing with long term substance addictions (as are a majority of people in jails and prisons). They completely grasped the idea of how we take the desire for God that is built into us and transfer (or attach) it to other people, objects, substances, behaviors and relationships. We then look to these things to meet our needs, instead of looking to God; the only one who can truly meet our needs. These attachments can become addictions; in which case they control and imprison us. We went through the worship song "Undivided Heart" (which is based on Psalm 86:11) line by line and discussed how these attachments and addictions function as idols and cause our hearts to be divided.
We also read and discussed Luke 5:12-16: The story of the man with leprosy whom Jesus heals. The man was considered ceremonially unclean, which meant that he couldn't approach God. We talked about what it would have been like to be such an outcast from society. To lose everything and have to shout "Unclean, unclean!", warning people about yourself, whenever you came near a populated area. Of course, the inmates could identify with being a social leper; with having a stigma follow you wherever you go and with being seen (and seeing yourself) as unacceptable in God's eyes. The man's request to Jesus isn't to be healed, but to be made clean.
He says to Jesus, "If you are willing, you can make me clean". Jesus responds by touching him (how long had it been since another person had touched him?) and saying, "I am willing", which I understand in the Greek is very emphatic and might better be translated as, "You bet I'm willing!" The man is, of course, healed and then Jesus tells him to follow the ritual given in Leviticus 14 which will confirm, via a priest, his healing and restore him to the community.
It is stories like this - stories which display the love, mercy and grace of the Father, as revealed through Jesus - that these inmates drink up like thirsty plants in dry soil. Fortunately, the Gospels are full of such stories.
Carla and I play a set of worship music and then have a Bible study/teaching. The group is typically small: usually less than a dozen, and is very attentive and engaged. It is a mixture of men and women and they conduct themselves like any other group of Christians meeting together. The only differences are the jail uniforms and perhaps a more serious, intent and grateful attitude. They know they are sinners. They know they have fallen short and missed the mark. They have experienced judgment and retribution in tangible ways. They appreciate, and sometimes are surprised by, the mercy and grace that is extended to them by God through Christ.
Our Sundays at the jail are a highpoint of our week. We typically walk out of the jail completely buzzed by how good God is. It's an interesting and well-known paradox: When we give of ourselves, we find ourselves filled.
There are a group of chaplains who work full-time at the jail. They do a fantasic job. They are Godly, transparent men who truly love the inmates. One of the things I appreciate the most is their encouraging nature toward volunteers like Carla and myself, and the fact that they bring in Christians of all types to minister to the inmates: not just people who believe the same way that they do.
Yesterday was the first time we had been at the jail in a month. My travel schedule had caused us to miss a couple of weeks. The group was small: one woman and two men. We had a wonderful time however. There was a sense that we five, of very different backgrounds, were long-lost brothers and sisters; brought together in God's household.
After worship we had an impromptu dialog about addiction and idolatry. This was inspired by the last worship song we had sung:
Teach me your way, Oh Lord,
And I will walk in Your truth,
Show me Your paths, Oh Lord,
For I'm devoted to You,
Purify my heart's desire,
I long to be Your servant,
Give me an undivided heart,
That I may fear Your name,
Give me an undivided heart,
No other gods, no other love,
No other gods before You.
I layed out Gerald May's view on addiction and grace (see my blog entry dated Monday, November 13, 2006) and all three immediately "got it". They were all dealing with long term substance addictions (as are a majority of people in jails and prisons). They completely grasped the idea of how we take the desire for God that is built into us and transfer (or attach) it to other people, objects, substances, behaviors and relationships. We then look to these things to meet our needs, instead of looking to God; the only one who can truly meet our needs. These attachments can become addictions; in which case they control and imprison us. We went through the worship song "Undivided Heart" (which is based on Psalm 86:11) line by line and discussed how these attachments and addictions function as idols and cause our hearts to be divided.
We also read and discussed Luke 5:12-16: The story of the man with leprosy whom Jesus heals. The man was considered ceremonially unclean, which meant that he couldn't approach God. We talked about what it would have been like to be such an outcast from society. To lose everything and have to shout "Unclean, unclean!", warning people about yourself, whenever you came near a populated area. Of course, the inmates could identify with being a social leper; with having a stigma follow you wherever you go and with being seen (and seeing yourself) as unacceptable in God's eyes. The man's request to Jesus isn't to be healed, but to be made clean.
He says to Jesus, "If you are willing, you can make me clean". Jesus responds by touching him (how long had it been since another person had touched him?) and saying, "I am willing", which I understand in the Greek is very emphatic and might better be translated as, "You bet I'm willing!" The man is, of course, healed and then Jesus tells him to follow the ritual given in Leviticus 14 which will confirm, via a priest, his healing and restore him to the community.
It is stories like this - stories which display the love, mercy and grace of the Father, as revealed through Jesus - that these inmates drink up like thirsty plants in dry soil. Fortunately, the Gospels are full of such stories.
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