“LIBERTY TO
THE CAPTIVES”
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A sermon preached Readings: Galatians
6:1-5, Luke 4:16-21 |
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“The Spirit of the
Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed”
(Luke 4:18)
Today
is the start of Prisons Week,
when we remember and pray for those in prison,
those working in our prisons,
and for our prison chaplains.
Whilst
we do remember in particular today
Her Majesty’s Prisons and their equivalents around the
world,
it
is perhaps worth reflecting
that there are many kinds of imprisonment, not all physical –
We
talk of people being
imprisoned in a marriage,
a slave to fashion,
caught in a web of deceit,
immured in debt,
chained to their desk, and so on.
The bars of the prison house can be to do with
wealth, health, addiction, fear, envy, malice, greed….
I
wonder what the prison bars and shackles are in your life?
Think for a moment what are the sins, sorrows and circumstances
which threaten to diminish and curtail your life
and prevent you utilizing it to the full….
And
then hear the Gospel –
Jesus comes proclaiming freedom to the captive.
And
true freedom can be found even in a physical prison cell –
I
remember Nelson Mandela saying that
during his decades in jail in South Africa
his soul enjoyed a freedom unknown to the gaolers who locked him up.
Or
in Lovelace’s
words to his sweetheart from prison,
“Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage”
But the Gospel is always
promise and demand –
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The promise is about what we are free from –
we can be freed from the power of sin and sorrow,
·
and the demand is about what we are free for -
that we use our freedom for our sisters and brothers
It is said that in the Victorian age
there was an elderly inmate in Dartmoor Prison.
As a trusty, he had been appointed years ago as the prison
shepherd
and was often allowed out on the moor to look after the prison sheep.
He had served several stretches
and upon release he would always deliberately commit another felony,
solely to get back to the prison and be with his beloved sheep again.
Finally on one occasion after his release
he did not return to Dartmoor in his customary way –
and it was discovered that he had appeared in Court as usual,
but sadly before a different judge
who had thoughtlessly sent him to another prison.
It’s a rather sad ending to
the story - but the main story makes a good point -
The shepherd of Dartmoor knew
that the only way to be with the prison flock was to enter the prison himself.
And just so if we would
bring the Gospel of Freedom
to those trapped in sorrow and sin,
we must be like Christ -
prepared to share their sorrows and enter their sufferings.
Today those of you who are
Pastoral Visitors
will be coming for an act of rededication –
If I might say a word to our Pastoral Visitors,
this is a simple liturgy but a very important one –
The literal meaning of the
word Pastor is of course Shepherd –
as pastoral visitors you have that most important privilege and responsibility
of being shepherds of the sheep – caring for God’s flock.
But of course it isn’t just
those formally appointed as pastoral visitors -
we are all in different ways called by God to be shepherds, to be
pastors,
to care for each other as God’s children,
caring for the needy, being shepherds for God’s flock.
And as the old shepherd of
Dartmoor knew,
shepherds and pastors we have to go where the flock has gone –
wherever that may be.
In the 1970s there began a bloody civil war
in the Central American state of El Salvador.
The right wing government was in daily conflict with left wing freedom
fighters.
The Roman Catholic Church bravely and consistently
stood with the poor and the marginalized against the forces of the state.
It was this which lead to the martyrdom of
many Christians,
including Oscar Romero, the saintly Archbishop of San Salvador,
who was gunned down at the altar during Mass in 1980.
Not many weeks before he died,
Oscar Romero spoke about his fellow priests who had already been martyred.
He said
“I am glad that they have murdered priests in this country,
because it would be very sad if in a country
where they are murdering the people so horrifically,
there were no priests amongst their victims.”
Ultimately
this is what it means to be a pastor,
to share in the sorrows and heartaches of those you care for –
to share their prison cell, even if needs be to share their grave.
And
in so doing we follow in the way of Christ himself -
who went to a cross to be alongside us in our sin even unto death.
Throughout the 1980s the Church in El Salvador
remained committed to the cause of the poor
and of speaking out against the government.
Finally in November 1989, orders were given
to move against the University of Central America and its Jesuit staff.
And on this very day 14 years ago, on 16 Nov 1989,
government forces entered the University compound at 2 a.m.,
They rounded up the University’s Rector Fr. Ignacio Ellacuría,
and five other Jesuit Priests,
forced them to lie on the ground and then machine gunned them to death.
The troops also found the housekeeper Elba Ramos,
and her 16 year old daughter.
They were also murdered.
And
so today we commemorate
the Anniversary of the Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador,
and we realize what it can mean to be a pastor –
it means being a shepherd who will lay down his life
rather than desert his sheep.
You
recall how the First Letter of Peter [1 Peter 3:18]
talks about what happened on Holy Saturday,
the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday?
He
says that Christ went “to preach to the souls in prison” –
meaning those who had died before his coming, who were –
according to the mythology of the day -
caught somewhere in a waiting limbo world
and had thus yet to know Christ’s love –
What
a wonderful thought –
that Christ would go to search out the lost
even in the prisons cells of hell –
And so when the tabloids scream
about Myra Hindley or Soham
murderers rotting in hell,
don’t believe a word of it –
rather believe the Gospel –
that Christ goes even unto hell to rescue the fallen and the sinner –
the shepherd ever searching for the last 100th sheep which has
strayed –
And if he will go there, then maybe you and I too
dare hope to be saved!
One
more story – it is a parable of God’s love.
If you know it, it bears repeating,
for it tells us how God treats us
and how he would have us live our lives for others.
Once upon a time there was a man
who was entirely careless of spiritual things.
When he died, he went to hell.
He was much missed on earth by his old friends.
His business partner went down to the gates of hell
to see if there was any chance of bringing him back.
But, though he pleaded for the gates to be opened,
the iron bars never yielded.
Then his minister went and argued -
he was not really such a bad fellow -
won't you let him out?
The
gates of hell remained stubbornly shut
against all their voices.
Finally his mother came.
She did not beg for his release.
Quietly, and with a catch in her voice,
she said to Satan
"Please let me in"
Immediately the great doors swung open on their
hinges.
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So, think of a Dartmoor Shepherd
going to gaol in order to care for his sheep
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Think of the priests of El Salvador,
rejoicing that they might die
to share fully in the suffering of their flock
·
Think of a mother willing to brave the jaws of hell
to be with her suffering Son
And hear what it means to be
a Shepherd, a Pastor
And then go forth in God’s
name,
knowing that in his freedom and power
even the very gates of hell
cannot prevail against the love of God..