Bible

Friday, First Week in Advent

Prison Lectionary1 Comment

by Matthew B. Harper

Then he said to his servants, ‘the wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find. (Matthew 22:8-9)

The shocking thing about this parable of Christ’s is that we are the latecomers to the banquet. The ones who were out and about in the alleyways and poorhouses that night; those that were brought to the wedding feast and clothed with the festal garments, they are us.

It is humbling to think of ourselves in this context. But it is in this capacity that Christ comes to us, and that God offers us so much. I would rather think that God somehow needs me, but God doesn’t. It is that God wants me! I might think that I can do God’s work, but I can’t. It is the amazing and nearly unspeakable miracle that God wants to do some of God’s work through me!

And just this month as children sit and hope for the gifts of Santa, we must be ready to accept the gifts of God. We must be willing to come before Christ humbled and ready to receive the commissioning that God has for us. If we have talents and skills, then they were only given to us for a purpose. Jesus talks in this parable of giving the guests the wedding garments to wear. What garment has Christ given you? Do you have the humility to accept it? Do you have the courage to wear it?

The poor and destitute are always more ready to receive God’s love. We already know that we cannot make it on our own. All too often we think we can do it ourselves, and we are so wrong. So today I dare you to climb onto the lap of you divine father, and when you are done telling him what you want for Christmas, I dare you to receive and accept what God brings you.

He comes, the prisoners to release – He comes, the broken hearted to bind, the bleeding soul to cure; – let every heart prepare a throne, and every voice a song. (Hymn 71)

Thursday, First Week in Advent

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by Matthew B. Harper

Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him… and count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation (2 Peter 3:14-15)

It is inevitable that we, human that we are, will work to seek God. We will try to learn, and to do, to bridge the immense gap between God and us. And yet, as Peter so strongly reminds us, it is Christ who comes to find us.

I have been angry at God. In the pain and anger of my life I have rebuked God, and blamed God. I have heaped the unfairness of the world on God, and I have laid both the wrongdoings that I have done and that have been done to me on God. And I have turned my back on Christ and looked elsewhere for answers.

If you were to give a thirsty man advice on digging a well, the advice would be simple: find the right spot, dig a deep hole. You would not stand by and let him dig 20 different wells only 10 feet deep; but that is what I did, and many of us do, with other religions and philosophies. When you need a well you dig one 200-foot hole. I may have picked up some Buddhist tendencies, but it was only when I came home to Christ, and was willing to dig deep, that I found solace and comfort. God found me, called me home, and welcomed me.

When we are angry at God, when our faith wavers, the answer is never to go on some superficial journey to other ideas. Instead it takes a step of deliberate faith to dig deeper. When we don’t have an answer, we know God does. Dig deeper. Like the wise men that we remember on Epiphany, be willing to journey and to go to a new place to search and find Christ, and to be found by Christ.

Thank God that our straying and questioning are accepted and forgiven. The forbearance of God is great. Be zealous to be found.

With God the Father you are one, and one with us in human flesh. Oh fill our weak and dying frame with godly strength which never fails. (Hymn 55)

Wednesday, First Week in Advent

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by Matthew B. Harper

Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, the tax-collectors and the harlots go to the kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31)

It is disturbing to think that the people we least approve might be the first ones into heaven. And not just might be, according to Jesus, they are. If you think you are humble, think of the prisoners getting into heaven ahead of you. Does it disturb you?

The question is no easier from behind bars. In here there are inmates who are hated and despised. The rapists are a second class citizen in prison, the snitches rank a little lower, and it simply doesn’t get lower than the child molesters. And yet when I find it difficult in my heart to reach out to them in kindness, I hear these words of Christ in my head. When I harbor judgment and resentment, it is indeed they who will go before me into heaven.

The repentant criminals are among my favorite people in the world. The person who has honestly looked into the depths of their own heart, and seen the guilt and the need; and who has then in their longing and grief turned to God and let Christ fill and sanctify them; I love these men. But I find that I love those who aren’t repentant as well. When I see them in their pride and anger, self-righteous before man and God; I find only love, pity, and sorrow in my heart.

Is our church a Sunday country club or a hospital for sinners? I welcome and rejoice with my favorite people in church. We are all repentant sinners. But I also welcome those that I struggle with. I welcome the snitches, the child molesters, the rapists. I struggle, for I too need the maturing ministry of Christ, but I welcome them.

Christ turned none away, not even me, can I do less?

Herald, sound the note of pardon – those repenting are forgiven; God receives his wayward children, and to them new life is given. (Hymn 70)

Tuesday, First Week in Advent

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by Matthew B. Harper

Therefore I intend always to remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth you have. (2 Peter 1:12)

It isn’t often that we stop and think about the deep foundational issues and truths that define our lives. When we do take the time to think about or talk about these issues, we always want to cling to very high and noble ideas. But the truths that are actually established in our lives are the ones that are made manifest every day. It can be disappointing if we see that what we claim and profess to believe, we do not live.

In prison it is a common mantra to hear men say that they will begin to live a more upright life in their last year in prison; or that they will go to church ‘when they get out.’ I always tell them that the truth is that if you aren’t doing it, then you aren’t going to do it. What these men don’t grasp is that if they cannot live a righteous life now, then they will not be able to live one when they get out. Tomorrow starts now, and as you prepare so shall you live.

Prison is a time of preparation, so what are you preparing for? Advent is the time of preparation, what are you preparing for? If you live in and focus on the pain and depressions of prison, then that is what you will be established in. If you live only for the toys and presents of Christmas, then that is what you will be established in. But if you live in the joy that the Lord brings, if you actually live it, then it will be established in you. The deepest roots of our faith are sown when we can find the strength and joy of the Lord in hardship and pain. God is there. Tomorrow starts now. God is here.

As you prepare, so shall you live.

Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free:

from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. (Hymn 66)

Monday, First Week in Advent

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by Matthew B. Harper

Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road… and the crowd that went before him…shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:8-9)

The people of Jerusalem were so happy to welcome Jesus. They cheered him and lay their garments in the road. Oh, how the Apostles must have rejoiced on this day. This was the Messiah, the one that they had forsaken all others to follow, and they must have rejoiced to see the crowds hail Jesus. What a ‘mountain-top’ experience. And yet it was this very same crowd that would chant for his death only days later. What a deep ‘valley.’

I am the rector of the Kairos community here. A Kairos retreat is a high mountain top experience for so many men, and I am always blessed just to be here when God is blessing them. But a Kairos retreat is only three days, and the fourth day can be hard. The mountain top experience must be kept alive, even when we are no longer on the mountain. No matter how powerful the talks are that are given by the ‘outside’ (free) team members, the last talk of the retreat is always given by a prisoner. It is a talk about how we go forth back into the prison, often a deep and barren valley, and still let this experience be alive within us. And yet the answer seems simple: if the mountain is God, then when we go into the valley we must bring the mountain with us!

The spiritual disciplines of prayer, mediation, study, sleep, and godly toil are well proven by spiritual people throughout history. They are proven, because they work. They are ways that we structure our lives to make constant room for God. They are ways that when we find ourselves in a valley, in a desert, we are welcoming God in. And when we welcome God, God is present.

“Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us, the shout of rampart guards surrounds us: “Awake, Jerusalem, arise!” (Hymn 61)

First Sunday in Advent

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by Matthew B. Harper

So then let us not sleep, as others do but let us keep awake and be sober.

(1 Thessalonians 5:1-11)

Today we light the first candle of our Advent wreaths. A candle that welcomes light into our world, and a light in the window to wait for our coming Savior.

‘Let us keep awake and be sober’ cries Paul to the Thessalonians. What a difficult command this is to us. In our culture, in prison and out, we do not want to wait or be sober. Instant gratification and indulgence are the mantras of the culture. But seeking the desert, as Jesus did after his baptism, was about being quiet, and waiting on God. When we create stillness, then there is room in our lives for God to fill.

As a child I loved to devour the toy catalogs. As Christmas approached I would make longer and longer lists of the things that I ‘just had to have.’ In prison I am prone to do the same. I read my magazines and books full of boats, and scuba diving, and in my mind I make my lists. But I have to wait, and wait. In prison I have had to learn patience, it has been forced upon me. It has not been easy, but it has been a gift. I am learning how to be quiet and present to reality, and neither to live in my past or my future.

We stay busy. This time of year we seldom slow down even for a moment. In prison I work hard to stay occupied with productive things. But the hardest spiritual work there is often comes when we do less, and do it better. When we find times to deliberately slow down, and quiet down, to spend time with God.

I have my dreams, and sometimes they console me while the pain and longing grips me; but when the pain is the most intense, and the yearning reaches to the depths of my heart; in those times I cannot dream, I can only grow quiet and sit safe in the hand of God.

Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding. “Christ is nigh,” it seems to say; “Cast away the works of darkness, O ye children of the day.” (Hymn 59)