WRideout
02-20-2016, 09:21 PM
Okay, I’ll admit it; I have some prejudices. For instance, I don’t trust people from New Jersey. As individuals, I don’t have anything against them, but when I hear that Jersey accent, and pick up on the big-city dialect, I just have this feeling; which is actually rather odd, since I grew up in California, and the only New Jerseyites I knew of were in the movies. So when I say I have prejudices about inmates in jail, I actually have something to base it on, because I have been a volunteer at the Allegheny County Jail for the last few years, on a pre-release program for inmates called Helping Open People’s Eyes, or HOPE.
Now in my mind, most inmates are somewhat uneducated, and speak the street lingo of the neighborhood they came from. At least, that’s what I thought. So when I was leading a group discussion a few weeks ago, I made an analogy between race cars “drafting” each other on the track, and being pulled along by the inexorable will of God, whether or not we are completely sure we want to follow. I thought this analogy would appeal to the group, and be understandable. So the next week I was a little surprised when one of the inmates, Brian by name, said to me, “That phenomenon you described last week, it’s called a wake vortex.” He went on to tell me that when he had been in school he had studied physics, and had been interested in some of these aerodynamic problems. Brian is one of those guys that doesn’t talk much, so all this came as a real surprise. So much for my prejudices. He went on to say that when he went before the judge to talk about parole, he asked to stay in jail, in the program, rather than be released on parole.
So here I am, in my superiority, volunteering at the jail to teach people who are my equal intellectually, but who have made some mistakes in life. And I think about the parable of the two men who went to the temple, a Pharisee and a sinner. The Pharisee prayed and gave thanks to God that he was not like other men, while the other beat on his chest and prayed repeatedly “Lord be merciful to me, a sinner.”
There are sinners in jail and on the street, in church and outside the church. Every week we recite the confession of sin during worship, and every week we need it. When I sign in at the jail, one of the blocks to fill out is “reason for visit”. I always write in HOPE, which is exactly why I am there. God offers all of us hope, no matter our condition in life. As members of the body of Christ, my prayer is that God’s grace will abide in us, and in spite of our imperfections, we may serve as a light to people in darkness.
Wayne
(originally published in the monthly newsletter of Grace@Calvary Lutheran Church, 2007)
Now in my mind, most inmates are somewhat uneducated, and speak the street lingo of the neighborhood they came from. At least, that’s what I thought. So when I was leading a group discussion a few weeks ago, I made an analogy between race cars “drafting” each other on the track, and being pulled along by the inexorable will of God, whether or not we are completely sure we want to follow. I thought this analogy would appeal to the group, and be understandable. So the next week I was a little surprised when one of the inmates, Brian by name, said to me, “That phenomenon you described last week, it’s called a wake vortex.” He went on to tell me that when he had been in school he had studied physics, and had been interested in some of these aerodynamic problems. Brian is one of those guys that doesn’t talk much, so all this came as a real surprise. So much for my prejudices. He went on to say that when he went before the judge to talk about parole, he asked to stay in jail, in the program, rather than be released on parole.
So here I am, in my superiority, volunteering at the jail to teach people who are my equal intellectually, but who have made some mistakes in life. And I think about the parable of the two men who went to the temple, a Pharisee and a sinner. The Pharisee prayed and gave thanks to God that he was not like other men, while the other beat on his chest and prayed repeatedly “Lord be merciful to me, a sinner.”
There are sinners in jail and on the street, in church and outside the church. Every week we recite the confession of sin during worship, and every week we need it. When I sign in at the jail, one of the blocks to fill out is “reason for visit”. I always write in HOPE, which is exactly why I am there. God offers all of us hope, no matter our condition in life. As members of the body of Christ, my prayer is that God’s grace will abide in us, and in spite of our imperfections, we may serve as a light to people in darkness.
Wayne
(originally published in the monthly newsletter of Grace@Calvary Lutheran Church, 2007)