Living in the Spirit
September 20, 2020
Scripture Reading: Matthew 20:6-8
And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.”
We see the homeless on the sidewalks, idle and hopeless. Some seek work as day laborers, and depending on how many workers are needed, some are often left behind. Who are these people? They may be former soldiers, runaway teens, addicts who can no longer function in society, persons with mental illnesses or physical disabilities, people with regular jobs living in their cars, or sleeping under a bridge who cannot afford shelter.
They may also be former prisoners who, upon serving their terms, are released with a bus ticket to the town of their choice unless they have someone to help. Worse yet, they can carry the stigma of prison into every workplace they approach. The Greek word* translated “visited” in Matthew 25:36c (I was in prison and you visited me) means “to come” and implies more than just a friendly visit as we might consider it. Prisons in the first century did not necessarily provide food or much else. Showing up for someone in prison meant bringing food and clean clothing, perhaps a cloak in the cold months. It meant doing whatever is necessary to restore the prisoner to wholeness. Such restoration is described in Psalm 23:1-3,
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
The scripture is based on the understanding that each of us can have a complete and whole soul. That includes everyone who has ever been in prison for whatever reason, particularly those imprisoned for no legal basis. God calls us to come to the prisoner and do whatever we can to restore their souls in our role as part of the Body of Christ, active and engaged in the world today. Such work can include friendly visiting, linking people to professional help, enabling those getting out of prison to find employment, and assuring that our justice system is just. One of the services I have been most impressed with is training prisoners to train support dogs. Many of those prisons, in working with dogs, experienced unconditional love for the first time while doing something for someone else. We could learn a lot from those dogs.
Prayer: Lord, use us as your conduits to restore souls. Amen.
* https://biblehub.com/greek/2064.htm
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.