In the name of the Risen Lord. Amen.
The
Book of Common Prayer, drawing from
Scripture, states that the mission of the Church is to “restore all people to
unity with God and each other in Christ.” In other words, the mission of the
Church is reconciliation. Reconciliation is what the Easter season is all about
– reconciling the dead to eternal life; reconciling sin to forgiveness;
reconciling those who denied Jesus to the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Reconciliation is about restoring things which have gone astray, about setting
things rights. So you might say that doing the work of reconciliation is to do
the work of justice, and that is what our readings today are all about.
In
the Resurrection appearance that we heard from John, Jesus offers reconciliation
to Peter. You’ll remember that in the Passion narrative, three times Peter is
asked about his affiliation with Jesus, and three times on the night of Jesus’
arrest, Peter denies Jesus. Here, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him
– giving Peter three opportunities to affirm his faith to refute his three
denials. This is the reconciling power of Jesus’ Resurrection, it is a reminder
that it is never too late to be forgiven, that there is no sin so final that it
cannot be atoned for, and that God is more interested in loving restoration
than vengeful judgment. Then, being reconciled, Jesus commissions Peter to feed
his sheep. The Good Shepherd tells his disciples that they are tasked with
caring for the flock.
Part
of what happens in reconciliation is conversion: relationships are changed and
new perspectives comes to light. This is what the well-known story of Saul’s
conversion on the Damascus Road tells us. What it so fascinating, and often
overlooked, about this story is that it’s not just a story about how Paul, who
at this point in the story goes by the name Saul, was converted, but also is
about Ananias who was converted through reconciliation.
You
can find hundreds of works of art about Saul encountering the radiant light of
Jesus, but I’m not aware of any of Jesus telling Ananias that he is to warmly
receive Saul. Can you imagine the expression on Ananias’ face upon being told
that he needs to go find Saul and lay hands on him to heal him? Remember, Saul
was a persecutor of the disciples of Jesus. Saul presided over the murder of
St. Stephen and our text today begins by telling us that Saul was breathing
threats and murder against the disciples. And this is the person to whom
Ananias is sent to minister to. If you’re a Bernie Sanders supporter, this is
like being asked to go campaign for Donald Trump. Or if you’re Ted Cruz
supporter, to go work on Hilary Clinton’s campaign. This would be like a rabbi
being asked to pray over a member of the Nazi SS patrol. It is utterly
repugnant.
So
Ananias says, “Um, Jesus, I know you’ve been busy conquering death and sin, so
maybe you haven’t had time to read the paper. This Saul guy is bad news, he’s
not the sort that we associate with.” And Jesus responds by saying that,
nevertheless, Saul is God’s chosen vessel. Ananias thought that he knew the
whole story about Saul, but he was wrong. For one, Ananias only knew about
Saul’s past. To be sure, there were some evil deeds there, but Ananias knew
nothing of Saul’s future. Ananias had closed the book on Saul, but God reminds
him that God will do more than we can ask or imagine. As I said on Easter
Sunday, God reminds Ananias that there is a “but” in Saul’s life. And I wonder,
who are the people in our lives that we’ve written off? Who have we judged
based on past mistakes and condemned to a life sentence of being ostracized?
Peter got a second chance, Saul got a second chance, to whom do we deny the
grace of reconciliation?
Acts then records that “So
Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said,
‘Brother Saul…’” If that’s not conversion, I don’t know what is. That is
conversion, that is reconciliation, that is the power of the Resurrection.
Ananias’ first word to Saul is “brother.” It’s not just that Saul was saved and
converted, but that Ananias was as well. The entire Christian community was
changed when Saul entered it. So often, we tend to think of ministry as what we
do for people in need. We talk about helping the other, but how often do we
speak about letting the other help and convert us? Where do we miss the grace
of God when we assume that we are the ones serving instead of being served?
This story from Acts reminds us that reconciliation goes both ways.
It’s also rather
interesting to note that no one goes to Saul to try to convert him or tell him
about Jesus. Saul knew as much, if not more, about Jesus than Ananias did.
Often though, we assume that when we minister to people, when we do the work of
evangelism, that we are supposed to be telling people about the power of Jesus
to love, redeem, reconcile, or give strength to. How often though do we listen?
If we believe that the Holy Spirit blows where it chooses and that God is
everywhere, why do we not listen more to the experience that others have of
Jesus? What if we viewed the ministry of reconciliation not as something that
we do for others, but as something that we need to receive as well?
Thus far in the sermon,
I’ve been setting the table for my main point. So as we move forward, keep in
mind that these texts from the Bible are pointing towards reconciliation,
second chances, not assuming to know someone based only on their past, and
receiving as much as we give. The Rector Search Committee has been meeting and
praying over the past several months to continue to work of discernment to see
where God might be leading St. Luke’s next, especially in regards to doing the
work of the Gospel in our community. Some of you know that last weekend, our
wardens, Reg Boland and Cathy Green, and I spent the weekend in Durham at a
retreat learning about mass incarceration.
Perhaps you’ve noticed,
but St. Luke’s is surrounded by our legal system. Our immediate neighborhood
consists of the county jail, the Sheriff’s office, the county courthouse, and
many lawyer’s offices. God has planted St. Luke’s in this part of the vineyard,
and if we are going to be faithful to our neighbors, we must be faithful to our
legal system. As you all know from different perspectives, our criminal justice
system is full of injustice. If we are to take seriously the task of
reconciliation, we must take seriously the need to proclaim the Gospel of
forgiveness, reconciliation, and liberation to the injustice of mass
incarceration. After all, our faith is built upon the rubble of a broken
system.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was
himself was tried, convicted, and executed by the State. And he wasn’t wrongly
convicted – he was guilty of the crime of which he was accused. It wasn’t that
a typically fair system failed Jesus; the system itself was broken. Let us
never forget that we follow an incarcerated Messiah. Saul himself spent a lot
of time in prison, as did many of the early followers of Jesus. At one point,
Jesus tells us that we are to visit those in prison, because when we do, we
visit Jesus himself. And when Jesus appears to Saul in today’s reading, he asks
“Why do you persecute me?” not “Why do you persecute my followers?” Jesus is
one with the persecuted, one with those rightly and wrongly convicted, one with
those who are incarcerated.
Reg, Cathy, and I went to
learn about mass incarceration and the Church so that we might learn more about
the system and how we might respond in faith. The most converting aspect of our
time was meeting with those who had been incarcerated – seeing a human face and
hearing their stories, seeing the face of Jesus in theirs. We’re still working
through the work of discernment with the committee, so today I simply ask for
two things: 1) to learn with us about the system of mass incarceration and 2)
to pray for God’s guidance as we discern how we can follow our Lord’s
instruction to “love our neighbors,” knowing that our neighbors are judges,
lawyer, and those incarcerated.
The reason why
reconciliation is need in our prison system is that it is fundamentally flawed.
Currently, the US has about 4% of the total global population, but has nearly
25% of the prison population. Thirty
years ago, the US had about 300,000 people who were in prison; today that
number is 2.3 million, and this is despite the fact that rates of crime have
trended downward during that same 30 year period. There is no statistical
correlation between crime rates and incarceration rates. There is, however, a
correlation between race and incarceration. One out of every three young black
males will be incarcerated at some point, despite the fact that they do not
commit crimes at rates higher than whites. Our prison system has a 70% reentry
rate, which is a clear signal that the system is not working.
That is, unless the
system actually is working as it is intended to. Many prisons and jails operate
under the model of a for-profit business, and many prisons are actually
privately owned with stockholders who expect there to be profits. In our
current system, private prisons make $3,300 per year per person who is
incarcerated. That’s not income to be offset by expenses, that’s profit on top
of costs. Regardless of what crime someone committed, no one should be making
money off of their incarceration. The parole system is just as problematic, as
are issues like mandatory minimum sentencing and an underfunded mental health
system. And I do want to be clear that though the system is broken, there are
many good and faithful people in the system who seek to do the work of justice
each and every day, so we should pray for that work. Just as Saul was not
defined by his worst actions and was not prevented from finding new life in the
community of Jesus’ followers, nor should those who are incarcerated have to
continue to pay for their crimes after their debt has been paid to society in
prison, but we all know of the stigmas that are held against those who have
served time. As today’s Psalm says in verse 5, “God’s wrath endures but the
twinkling of an eye, but his favor for a lifetime.” If that’s true for God,
shouldn’t it be true for us when it comes to judgment?
And this is an issue that
widely supported by a full range of Christians – those who work in the system
and those who don’t, those who are “straight-ticket” Republicans and those who
are “straight-ticket” Democrats, those who have been incarcerated and those who
have no direct experience with the criminal justice system. This is not a political issue, it is an issue
of justice and reconciliation. It is an issue of the Resurrection and whether
or not God’s Good News will be proclaimed to the ends of the earth, including
our jails, prisons, and courtrooms.
As Jesus tells Peter, it
is our task to tend the flock. Part of that flock is incarcerated, perhaps
rightly so, but still as part of a system that is flawed at nearly every level.
Perhaps you noticed that at the beginning of the Acts reading, that the
followers of Jesus were referred to as those who belonged to “the Way,” which
is the same word as “road” or “street.” The earliest followers of Jesus were
known not by what they thought or said in a creed, but by the directionality of
their live as they walked the Way of faith. The Christian life is about
traveling in the direction of the reconciliation of Jesus’ Resurrection.
May the Risen Jesus grant
us the will to be reconciled and to reconcile. By loving our neighbors, may we
profess our love for Jesus and tend his flock. And may Jesus guide us in his Way
toward bringing a greater sense of Gospel-based justice to our legal system.
Amen.
