Jailbreak

Reading:  Acts 5:17-32

            It is a comical situation.  The apostles are safely under lock and key and an angel releases them with the command:  “Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.” 

            The message cannot be silenced.  The life proclaimed cannot be put into prison and kept out of earshot.  Put it behind bars and bolt the doors.  Set guards in front of it.  The angel of the Lord will come and lead this message of life into the very place where the authorities do not want it to be heard:  the Temple. 

            I’m taken back in my memory to a visit I made to prison.  I had to take off my belt, empty my pockets, have my thumb print recorded, and be searched.  The process left me feeling naked.  I was led into the prison and hoped that someone would remember to let me out.  I was visiting an addict.  He had gotten clean but then his crimes caught up with him.  In prison he started using again.  I saw desperate people.  Lovers holding hands.  Mothers visiting sons.  Guards watched.  Cameras filmed. 

            The prison of sin and death seeks to incarcerate the message of life.  This prison is shrouded in darkness.  This prison takes the good things of creation and put them in the service of selfishness.  Faith which transforms is ossified into dogmatism.  Sexuality which affirms loving relationship becomes focussed on self-gratification.  Power which has the potential to make life better for all becomes a weapon of exclusion and oppression.  But life breaks these bars and is proclaimed as freedom. 

            It’s amusing to think that the apostles are released without a lock being turned…a guard being disturbed.  The message of life is being proclaimed under the noses of those who seek to suppress the Way. 

            In what ways is life being put under lock and key in our lives?  What are our delusions? 

Prayer:  Lord, there are times when we feel convinced that the church is on the verge of closing the doors.  Sidelined by mocking whispers, society labels us outdated and irrelevant.  People don’t want to hear what we have got to say.  Send your angel to free us.  Empower us to go into the places where the message of life needs to heard and be bold in our proclamation.  Amen.