30 April 2014 - can't hold me

30 April 2014 - can't hold me

the party of the Sadducees,
... filled with jealousy,
laid hands upon the Apostles and put them in the public jail.

We're all in one sort of prison or another.  It may feel like house arrest.  Or it may feel like Guantanamo Bay.  But either way, it is keeping us from telling "people everything about this life."  There is darkness.  There are chains.  We just don't feel the freedom or the magnanimity to go out and direct our lives toward others.  We are too busy trying to survive.

So how do we escape?  It isn't by figuring out the locks ourselves.  It isn't by forcing the doors open.  They are "securely locked" even after the apostles are gone.  It is only by the Holy Spirit that we can experience this freedom.  An angel setting the apostles free sounds too miraculous and too extraordinary to relate to us.  Yet God wants us to know the same freedom that the apostles know.  He wants us to proclaim everything about the Christian life we've been given just as much as he wants it of them.  Our guardian angels stand ready to open impossibly secured prisons so that we may escape.  We just need be willing to let go of the darkness and venture out into the light.

And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

When the apostles find the prison doors open the leave at once.  Why are they fearless about venturing into the light while we hesitate in the darkness?  Does our fear of the prison guards outweigh our trust in the angels God sends?  Hopefully not.  God gives us so many ways to receive his grace and these can all set us free.  The sacraments and the Scriptures are obvious, but prayer for deliverance from our brothers and sisters should not be underestimated.  Do we realize this is a more powerful force than the chains of sin and suffering which hold us? 

Even if we do realize that freedom is possible we may still hesitate in fear if we aren't motivated to go forth.  The purpose that drives the apostles can fill us and make us courageous.  We will insist on freedom because we need freedom to proclaim the kingdom of God.  This is why, once they are free, the apostles immediately resume the proclamation that landed them in prison in the first place.

“The men whom you put in prison are in the temple area
and are teaching the people.”

This proclamation is now even more persuasive because there is now one more example of God's deliverance, of his fidelity, and of his love.

Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.

The angel, we must remember, does not encamp only around the apostles.  He encamps around all those who fear the LORD. 

The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.

In these prisons we experience the feeling of condemnation.  But Jesus does not come to condemn us.  This is a sign that there is another prison from which we need deliverance.  Let us be confident of his love for us and his desire to deliver us.  If we know this love and trust it no prison will hold us.