Inside the Walls
Matthew 28:18-20
And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. v. 20b
My experience inside the walls of a prison or jail is, fortunately, very limited. My stays were limited to an hour or less as I visited the incarcerated.
My first experience entering a prison occurred in the Workhouse in St. Paul, Minnesota. We spent part of our seminary training as counselors in hospitals and prisons. Over a few weeks in the workhouse, I visited a young man who had grown up in North Dakota. He had suffered terrible abuse from his father and escaped to the streets of St Paul. However, there he’d broken the law and was confined now to the workhouse.
Remarkably, the regimentation of the workhouse helped him. He became a trustee and happily reported to me that he had worked outside the walls of the prison to change light bulbs. He appreciated the trust placed in him. I wondered what would happen when that supervision was gone.
Some years later I visited a young man of our congregation who had sold drugs. He acknowledged his guilt, and in our visits he mostly complained about the lack of activity for the prisoners. It all seemed about punishment rather than rehabilitation. I remember one visit where the jailer said to me scornfully as he let me in, “So, you going to save him padre?” After working in the jail for a long time he was cynical about anyone changing their life.
In another parish, the treasurer of the congregation embezzled congregational funds. He eventually found himself in the county jail with Huber privileges. This meant he spent only nights and Sundays in the jail. He had not only let down the congregation, but as the pastor I was affected as well. The visits weren’t easy to make.
None of my visits changed anybody’s life. None of them resulted in a conversion experience. All of them simply said to those incarcerated, God has not forgotten you here in the shadow of the cross. The light of the resurrection still shines, and you will see it.
Pray: O God the author of freedom we pray for those who seek justice for all people. We pray for judges, attorneys, and probation offices that they would seek justice with mercy for all who come before them. Amen.
Fast: From branding all who complete prison terms as worthless.
Act: Collect supplies for a jail ministry to use (Pencils, colored pencils,
stamps, paper, cards and envelopes, magazines, paperback books.
OR set aside $1 for the ELCA World Hunger justice projects.
...the least of these... 