In the Name of God, our Creator, Redeemer an Sustainer. Amen

Once upon a time, many years ago when I was in my 20s, I visited Strasbourg with a group of friends. The weather was glorious, and we had just had a splendid meal which lived up to all that we had heard about the gastronomic delights of that city. We had had one or two glasses of an excellent wine, too, and were walking to a nearby Park to sit in the sun for a while.

As we were walking along, we turned a corner and saw in front of us a very grim building. There seemed to be no windows in it at street level, and the upper windows all had bars. As I looked, I saw two white-knuckled hands grasping the bars of one of the windows, and I realized that the building was a large prison, and there were people shut up inside it.

It was a startling reminder of how free we were. Free to explore, free to enjoy the sun on our faces, free to laugh with friends, without too many cares in the world. It cast a shadow over our afternoon, and we were suddenly quiet and more serious in our conversation, as we tried to imagine what it would be like to be in prison, serving out a sentence as punishment for some wrong-doing. We felt for those in this grim, dark place.

Saint Paul, as we heard from our reading from Acts today, was no stranger to prisons!
He writes in his Letters of many beatings and confinements, sometimes on his own, sometimes with a companion like Silas, who was with him in the jail in Philippi, having accompanied Paul on his ministry to Macedonia.

Actually, as we hear in the reading, Paul and Silas were the free souls in this story singing and praying through the night, talking to the other prisoners of God’s love shown in His Son ,Jesus, fervent in their trust in God’s Spirit, watching over them at all times .It was other people who were prisoners. The slave girl, who made money for her owners through her sooth-saying, was trapped in her role by her owners, who were in their turn imprisoned by greed for the money she made for them. The jailer, who appeared to be in charge of the prisoners, a free man, was imprisoned by his fear of his Roman masters, who had charged him to take special measures to keep Paul and Silas locked up, and who would punish him severely if they managed to escape.

When the miraculous destruction of the prison occurred, and all the chains heaped on the prisoners were unfastened, the jailer prepared to fall on his sword rather than be punished by his Roman masters, but Paul was granted special sight in the darkness that had fallen all around, and was able to prevent his desperate suicide, and reassure him that all the prisoners were still there. When lights were brought, the truth of Paul’s message was revealed, and the jailer and his family came out of darkness onto God’s glorious light, the light of Baptism and true freedom.

I read in the Independent yesterday a description of the new life that awaits the Camerons in their home in Downing Street. after pointing out that the young Camerons have to be closely supervised, and that the police will always have to know where they are, and stressing that a police guard will never ne far from their parents, the journalist finished by saying : From now on , the Camerons are a family imprisoned in their privileges. Jesus knew about the cost of privileges : He said to the rich young man, ’If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me’. The young man grieved over the wrench at giving up so much and surrendering his hard won privileges .Did he manage to do it? We are not told specifically, but the tone of the encounter leads us to think that he remained imprisoned by the feeling of security his wealth and possessions brought him.

Security seduces many. When Jesus spoke to the invalid by the pool near the Sheep Gate, He asked him a very deep question: ‘Do you want to be healed? Jesus could perhaps see that foe 38 years, this man had carved out for himself, not a privileged life with wealth and possessions, but a life of sorts, being given money occasionally, perhaps, sometimes food, dreaming away the day and nights in relative security, imprisoned by the fear of change, comfortable in his discomfort, afraid of what might lie ahead if he really tried to enter the healing waters. How often the words of Jesus make us realize that it is not just young children who cling to their ’security blankets’!
Many, many are the prisons we make for ourselves… Some people trap themselves in a deep anxiety about keeping everything in their homes spotlessly clean, and have gardens where every plant is staked and controlled, ruthlessly pruned should it dare to over-shot, lawns from which daisies are blasted away by weed-killer, paths swept and swept again- I was walking into our house the other day with a friend who somehow manages to keep everything squeaky-clean at all times. As we walked up the path, blossoms from a nearby tree blew down in front of us, so that we were walking through a beautiful white flowery carpet. I was just going to say how lovely it all was, when she exclaimed:’ just lend me your garden broom, and I’ll have this all clean and clear in 5 minutes!’

Routine can become a prison. It always amazes me when friends of ours reach retirement age with dread rather than pleasure. Given reasonable health, this should be a time of great fulfillment and sheer fun! At last we can arrange all the family photos, look up our ancestors on the Internet, go finishing for hours, visit friends we have hardly seen because of pressure of work ,break away from the deadening routine of days in the office or wherever we have worked , and enter the delightful world of a new freedom. Breakfast in bed occasionally, more time with our pets or pet projects, sitting in the garden or a park and dozing off if we feel like it, without any guilt or self-reproach when we see how much time has passed.

I have made fun of my over-tidy friend, and gently mocked those whose lives seem to them empty and muddled when their careers end. I am probably guilty of imprisoning myself in a kind of ‘apartheid’ – a kind of : Look at them ! I’m not like that ! How easy it is for me to find myself trapped in the sort of attitude the self –satisfied Pharisee had towards the poor man who was afraid to lift his eyes to God as he prayed, but whose prayer was the more genuine. God keep us all from the prison of self-righteousness, the insidious division of ‘ them ‘ form ‘ us ‘ , the crusade to ‘ get others on our side ‘ when there is some adventurous plan proposed that upsets our security, brings out our fear of change and knocks our sense of proportion out of the window. Remember in your prayers, if you will, those who set faces against change of any sort, and are not prepared even to discuss measures that might be of benefit to many people, even to them themselves, id they could but set on one side, their prejudices and anxieties, and trust in God’s Holy spirit to bring good out of uncertainty and lead us to god’s will.

Let us strive with all our might to keep ‘ apartheid’ of any kind out of our lives Sometimes Jesus’ disciples tried to keep people, often children, away from their Lord as if He had no time for them. If we have a great task to perform, as Jesus had when He faced feeding 5000 people, let us like Him, accept what others bring, however humbly. The small boy, with his bread and fish, was pushed away by Andrew because his gift was insignificant, but Jesus took the gift and blessed it. May we never be too wrapped up in our prisons of self-sufficiency to accept the offerings of others – their help? Their advice, their time, their love.

Let us keep in our prayers all those in a prison if any kind. Let us pray for those who say ‘prison is too good for them’ when they hear of wrong-doing. Let us thank God for those brave men and women who have endured long imprisonment to bring about reform and greater tolerance where there was injustice and hate.

Let us fight against our own personal prisons with prayers and songs to god’s praise, as Paul and Silas did , and not be afraid to offer to God our own personal loaves and fishes, however inadequate they seem, banishing from our minds all self-importance and pride , humbly asking for His grace and mercy and the guidance of His Holy Spirit as we approach Pentecost, the time of God’s pouring out of His great gift to us.

Rowan Williams writes that ‘God gives God , having nothing else to give’. The challenge for us is whether we will part with our own meagerness, come out of our prisons and the darkness of doubt into the true light that enlightens all, for the darkness has not overcome it .

AMEN