Peace sent from prison

A few years ago, a friend of mine had spent almost four years in prison and was being considered for an early parole. He asked me come to the Florence prison for a hearing. I had visited him and others in prison and I knew the many changing regulations of prison visitation, so I checked the website and called before driving to Florence to make sure I was wearing the appropriate clothes and had the correct identification.

When I arrived at the prison, I left all my jewelry, phone and wallet in the car. Once in the prison, I presented my ID. Went through two metal detectors and then was searched.

The hearing room was a large open space normally reserved for visitations. There were two long tables at the end of the room where the three-person review committee was sitting. There were twenty chairs in four rows arranged for those speaking on behalf of an inmate. Facing the table was a solitary chair.

The west wall of the room was covered with large wire-messed windows that opened out onto a football-sized courtyard, which was surrounded by a twenty-foot tall fence topped by razor wire. Three prisoners, including my friend, were sitting in the sun, chained to a concrete slab.

Two armed guards ushered each prisoner when it came time for their hearing. My friend, who had lost at least thirty pounds during his time in prison, was wearing a prison issued bright orange jumper and flip-flops. There was a chain around his waist. His hands were chained to the waist chain and that chain ran down to the chain around his feet. He shuffled in the room to the sound of the rattling chains. When he sat in the lone chair in front of the hearing committee, his legging chains were fastened to a four-inch ring wedded in the floor.

My friends hearing lasted less than fifteen minutes. He was eventually denied early parole. His imprisonment would last another year. There was no room for joy in his confinement.

It is hard to imagine someone writing a joyful, hopeful, promised filled letter from prison. But, that is indeed what St. Paul wrote to the church at Philippi while he was imprisoned in Rome. The Letter to the Philippians is often referred to as the Epistle of Joy.

As a Roman colony, the city of Philippi had a rich history. Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, founded the city in 368 BCE. The city was the site of many historic battles including where Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius. The people proudly considered themselves Roman citizens and they worshipped the idols and gods of the Roman Empire.

The Christians of Philippi gathered under threat of imprisonment and death. These Christians were courageous and devout. They embodied the call to a life of costly discipleship.

Now, years after the establishment of their Christian community, Paul is writing them a letter of encouragement from prison. He pleads with them to live in unity and peace in spite of the divisive arguing of two members of the church, Euodia and Syntyche.

And what advise does Paul offer a church in division and argument? Does he tell them to excommunicate the offenders? Does he call for the theologically pure to leave and create their own church? No. Paul asks his fellow co-workers in the cause of the gospel to help these women who have sacrificed equally for the sake of the church community.

He asks the church to rejoice, be gentle, and not worry about anything – he exhorts them to pray and give thanks. These people are facing death, imprisonment and the possible dissolution of their Christian community and Paul is commending the peace of the God to them, a peace that “surpasses all understanding” and will “guard their hearts and minds”.

How do they rejoice in the face of such a threatening environment? Paul tells them to focus on the good, those things worthy of praise. In other words, he is saying, “Look around at the positive things that are happening and praise God for those things because that will bring peace in your life”.

Paul is offering them wise counsel and spiritual direction - for them individually and as a community.

These words could be encouraging to us as individuals and as a community. In the face of a disastrous global economy, having to endure personal pain and grief, forced to bear community loss and being confronted with what seems like many hopeless circumstances, Paul gives us this spiritual direction, “focus on the blessings of God and rejoice in them”.

Paul did not say it was going to be easy – he simply gave us an example to follow; he wrote the letter from the confinement of prison saying, “Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to us – let us keep faithful to the task God has called to be about in our community, let us stay committed to being a place of prayer, discernment and hospitality. Let us not waiver from our vision for the peace of God will be with us. For the peace of God within us may be the only peace of God that another person may experience.