St. Dysmas
Luke 23:39-43
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” v. 43
Tradition has it that the thief on the cross who asks to join Jesus’ kingdom was named Dysmas. Living briefly and literally in the shadow of the cross, Dysmas came that day to rely on God’s mercy and the hope that Jesus inspired.
Over the last 30 years Lutheran congregations have sprung up in unlikely places such as the penal institutions in South Dakota. Prisoners have established and maintained congregational life within the walls of the South Dakota prisons. These congregations call pastors, elect council members, serve as worship leaders. These congregations call themselves St. Dysmas Lutheran Church.
The congregations welcome and encourage people outside the walls of the prison to join them in their worship life. This is an opportunity not only to praise God together, but also for prisoners who do not get visitors to engage in conversation with someone who is not an inmate or paid to be there.
Many who worship at St. Dysmas testify to what belonging to these congregations means to them in their situation. For some, their experience has changed their lives, their attitude, their hopes for what lies outside the prison. For others these congregations provide opportunity to return to a childhood faith that they rejected. For others their participation provides an important link to the world from which they were separated.
Contributions from individuals, congregations, and congregational auxiliaries fund the congregations and their ministry. Since prisoners only make about 25 cents an hour, the congregations can’t be self-supporting. The people and congregations in South Dakota are the light of the resurrection as these men and women live daily in the shadow of the cross.
Pray: O God the author of freedom, we pray jail and prison chaplains and for the ministry they do daily among inmates and staff. May the good news of the life of freedom even in difficult times take root in the hearts and minds of those imprisoned. Amen.
Fast: From taking for granted our country’s freedoms.
Act: Purchase gift cards haircuts, bus fares, etc.
OR set aside $1 for the ELCA World Hunger justice projects.
...the least of these... 