Bible

Monday, Fifth Week in Lent

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by Matthew B. Harper

Exodus 4:10-11 – But Moses said to the Lord “O my Lord, I have never spoken eloquently”… Then the Lord said to him “Who gives speech to mortals… Is it not I, the Lord?”

Moses had the same reservations that many of us have when we are called out of our comfort zone to serve the Lord. We are fearful and nervous. Our fear and our calling seem to be at war with each other. But, as one of our chaplains in here constantly reminds us “The Lord does not call the equipped, he equips the called.”

All to often we underestimate the gifts that we have been given, and we are afraid to step out in faith when we feel called. One of the greatest joys I have been a part of is when the leaders of the church can gather and discuss how to raise up new leaders, new teachers, and new readers. Many men feel called by God, but until we have a chance to call them forward, they remain silent. We underestimate the comfort and strength of the Lord that can speak through us.

And we underestimate how bad things can get. As a people we underestimate our ability to suffer, and we underestimate our ability to endure suffering. We do not realize what great strength we have to rely upon in the Lord.

God’s power isn’t coercive in our lives. God will call us, we must answer. In the Book of Revelation, Jesus tells us he is at the door knocking, but it is still we who must open the door and invite him in.

So when God calls you out of your comfort zone, trust and rely upon the Lord. When God calls you, God equips you.

“That it may please thee to have mercy upon all mankind, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord” BCP 152

Fifth Sunday in Lent

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by Matthew B. Harper

John 12:36 – While you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become children of the light.

I remember well the day I sat in the jail and watched the horror of Columbine unfold on the news. That event defined for the world the anger and fear in my generation. And only a few short years later I was on a transportation bus listening to the horror of the September 11th attacks unfold. Both events were crimes and horrors of such great magnitude. It seemed and felt as if the darkness of the world was overcoming all the good.

But as time went past we began to see the full picture. In the face of fear and death we heard about teachers and students who helped others and saved lives. We heard not just about the bravery of the firefighters, police, and E.M.T.s, but also the courage and heroism of secretaries and stockbrokers. We heard about the airplane passengers like Mark Beemer who died to save others, and the martyrdom of a young woman named Cassie Bernal who died because she refused to deny God when someone put a gun to her head. And for me the greatest act was when the students of Columbine erected crosses for their fallen friends, and also put up two crosses for the murderers. They had done such horrible things, but were also victims of fear, hate, rejection, and hopelessness.

The world is, at times, a very dark place and there are times when God seems silent. But God is never silent. God is with us, and we are the lights shining in the world. It is only when the night is the darkest, that the light shines the brightest.

“O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men: Grant unto thy people that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, one God, now and for ever. Amen” BCP 167

Saturday, Fourth Week in Lent

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by Matthew B. Harper

Psalm 108 – My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast

1 Corinthians 13:8 – Love never ends.

The Bible seems clear that, more than anything else from us, God wants our steadfast love. God values our faith, and what is faith if not a steadfast heart focused on God.

It is possible, maybe even guaranteed, that you will love people who will hurt you, and you will love people who you don’t always like very much. We disappoint and hurt each other all too often, but steadfast love will endure all things and it never ends.

Some of my friends from before prison are still my friends during prison. They aren’t my friends because I never made them mad; because I never hurt them; or because they have always liked me. They are my friends because their steadfast love for me was greater than their anger.

In a world where divorce is rampant and destructively out of control, I have seen some prisoners’ marriages survive for years in spite of their hardships. The couples’ love is steadfast. There are some people who were in my life, and we loved each other dearly, but prison was too hard to stay in touch. The love has changed, but the love has never died.

God’s love for us encompasses all that we have done, and all that we might do. God’s love for us is steadfast. The Israelites constantly disobeyed God, and God remained steadfast in Love. I have disobeyed God in horrible ways, and God has never stopped showing me the mercy and grace of God’s love. The enduring power of God’s Love is the greatest force in all of creation.

Love is steadfast, anything less is less then love.

“That it may please thee to support, help, and comfort all who are in danger, necessity, and tribulation, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord” BCP 151

Friday, Fourth Week in Lent

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by Matthew B. Harper

1 Corinthians 13:2 – And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith… but do not have love, I am nothing.

In prison I see what some people call “Christianity” in the way that they despise prisoners. They are quick to cut freedoms, programs, opportunities, and education. They scorn prison ministry as a waste of time. They believe that the Christian focus for prison has to be the ‘eye for an eye’ that appears in the Old Testament.

But in prison I have also found true Christianity. I have seen it in the work of the men and women who come into the prisons to teach the faith, to lift up the men to better lives, and to love them as God does. These people believe that the basis for ministry in prison is ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” These people are not on any crusade to free prisoners from prison, just to free them from despair and sin.

Which side are you on? We are commanded to test all things by the spirit, and we are warned that many will come to us preaching the name of Christ, and they will be false messengers. We are taught to judge what is proclaimed by the fruit that it bears. The true work of God in the prisons brings forth repentance and newness of life. It brings forth not only clean and godly living on the outside, but it brings forth peace and joy. That is the true work of God.

Whatever your knowledge, whatever your faith, whatever your politics, whatever you have, do, or are; if you do not act out of love, then all else is as nothing.

“That it may please thee to visit the lonely: to strengthen all who suffer in mind, body, and spirit; and to comfort with thy presence those who are failing and infirm We beseech thee to hear us good Lord” BCP 151

Thursday, Fouth Week in Lent

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by Matthew B. Harper

1 Corinthians 12:20 – As it is, there are many members, yet one body.

I always thought that prison was full of thugs, thieves, rapists, and murderers; and it is. But prison is also full of artists, poets, musicians, teachers, and ministers. God has given everybody a different gift.

But all of us are in prison. We came to prison because we didn’t use the gifts we were given, or we misused them. Ultimately it matters very little what gifts we were given, what matters is how we use them.

All men are here because of misuse, but now many use their gifts properly. Our church is filled with beautiful singing and playing, our G.E.D. classes are taught by inmates as much as staff members, our Bible studies are taught by inmates, our art classes make Christian comic books and flyers, one brother has published poems, I play, I write, I teach. All of us serve each other for the glory of God. As a leader of the community here I work with other brothers to discern the gifts some people have, and we work to help them grow into using them for the glory of God.

Do not allow yourself to covet the gifts of others; do not allow yourself pride or regret over what you have or have not been given. Instead spend your time focusing on using the gifts God has given you for their proper purpose, not for your glory but for His.

“That it may please thee to preserve, and provide for, all women in childbirth, young children and orphans, the widowed, and all whose homes are broken or torn by strife, We beseech thee to hear us good Lord” BCP 151

Lectionary: Fifth Sunday in Lent

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by LA

Psalm 126

Psalm 126 bring me great joy every time I read it. Lent 5C Ps126I am reminded that even though I am in bondage now that not mean that there will not come a time when I am an old man sitting in a comfortable highbacked chair near a fire nice and warm, remembering the “bad old days” when I was a lousy prisoner and everything was hard and horrid. How back then it seemed I would never make it here and back to the love of my family.

I’m sure I would sigh at the memory and with my loved ones surrounding me in love and luxury I would entertain them with the tall tales of my prison days. Relaxing in quiet freedom and thanking the Lord for all he has done to carry me through those terrible times and restoring me to these real fortunes and riches.

I know that the above vision is an accurate portrait of my future and I have a hard time containing my excitement for its fulfillment, like a small child anxiously awaiting his parents to awake on Christmas morning. That anticipation of a better future helps me survive a horrible present.

Too often in times of trouble we forget that trouble passes and what is hard now is harvest later.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, Fourth Week in Lent

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by Matthew B. Harper

Mark 8:24 – And the man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.”

One girlfriend I had used to love to call me her “blind-as-a-bat boyfriend,” and that was before my eyes got really bad. When I told some prison friends I was learning sign language, they laughed and told me I should learn Braille. I’m nearly blind without my glasses, and without them people to me look like little more than trees walking. And my vision is slowly but steadily deteriorating. Yet I am at peace.

One source of strength in this is from a young woman I knew ten years ago who was totally blind. A college friend, she had the courage and faith to spend a year studying abroad in Paris. When I visited there it was she who was my tour guide.

The eye doctor has joked with me and told me only one man at the prison has worse vision; it turns out that he is a friend of mine. He is the drummer of a band I am in, and diabetes has left him almost totally blind. You would assume that his handicap would leave him a perpetual victim in prison, and the reverse is true. The men in here look out for him, help him, and accommodate him in many little ways.

And it is fair to say that all of us know well many people who are spiritually blind. Their vision may be 20/20, but their eyes are blind to the ways of God. Jesus opened the worldly eyes of this man, but only after the man begged Jesus to touch him. His spiritual eyes were working just fine.

God has opened my eyes and ears to his ways and his being. My earthly eyes are in His hands, and I am at peace whatever happens, because I am in His hands.

“That it may please thee to preserve all who are in danger by reason of their labor or their travel, We beseech thee to hear us good Lord.” BCP 151

Tuesday, Fourth Week in Lent

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by Matthew B. Harper

Genesis 49:29,33 – Then he charged them… When Jacob ended his charge to his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

My sentence is very long. A few days after I was sentenced I spoke with my father over the phone. He told me that he might not live long enough to see me again as a free man. That is, to me, a terrifying and sobering thought.

My dad and I have always had a difficult relationship. I am now incarcerated, I am his only surviving child, and strangely we have a better relationship than any I can ever remember. And it is important to me to be in as deep a relationship with him as I can be. I read his books and talk frequently to him and my stepmother when he is in the country. Both of us value our relationship more than we did.

Dad has quit smoking and lost weight, but still lives a high-stress life. I hope and pray that we have time to once again go fishing and hiking; but his father died very young and I fear the odds are not in our favor.

I live my life with a lot of regrets—we all do—but let us not be allowed to regret damaged or broken relationships that can still be mended in the hear and now. As long as there is life for us, there is hope. If there are broken relationship in your life, reach out to heal them. If others reach out to you, accept them. In the Old Testament everybody seems to die peacefully and in the proper time, but in our lives it is seldom that way. You are not promised tomorrow, so make peace today. That will be something you never regret.

“That it may please thee to inspire us, in our callings, to do the work which thou givest us to do with singleness of heart as thy servants, and for the common good, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord” BCP 151

Poem: “When the Concrete Speaks”

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“When the Concrete Speaks”

by AMN

Shhh, did you hear that?
There it goes again,
that sound makes the noise of a thirsty
beast.
And you can only hear it when the
concrete speaks.
The concrete only speaks of these cruel
and hardcore streets.
This wretched beast has no conscience,
it just devours souls with rage and violence.
It quenches its thirst from the blood
of the fallen.
It doesn’t matter whether they be innocent,
or his savagery be justifiable.
One day you will unveil the voice
of these wicked streets.
And you will see that it is the voice of the Devil’s advocacy.
So play if you will and roll the dice,
But always remember that on the Devil’s table,
The dice always land on the snake’s eyes.
Many continue to ask if that sound will
ever cease,
But that sound will never cease
until that Hellish Beast,
Is put on his thousand-year leash.
So, I advise you to never have a seat,
nor enjoy those foolish treats,
because it just might be you,
in the next edition of the concrete speaks…

 

Monday, Fourth Week in Lent

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by Matthew B. Harper

Mark 7:28 – But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children‘s crumbs.”

Prison ministry is unpopular. It isn’t often thought of, and the few people who decide to work in it often approach it with fear and apprehension. We are always hard pressed to raise donations and to find willing volunteers. We gladly settle for the ‘crumbs’ from the regular ministries. I am writing this on a used donated computer, work in a library full of used donated books, and play music on a used donated guitar. The music is at least a joyful noise to the Lord.

Jesus came to minister to the sick, the friendless, and the needy. Jesus did not come for the healthy; he came as a physician to heal the sick. Who were the children that this lady spoke of? The Gentiles. Us.

In prison ministry or any other, spend your time ministering to those people who most need it, not those who you think most deserve it.

Please remember prison ministry and other non-traditional ministries when you make your tithe of money and time. Even small gifts of yours, or a short period of your time, can make a profound impact on the life of another.

“That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the bountiful fruits of the earth, so that in due time all may enjoy them, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord” BCP 151