Prison Sunday / Christ the King : Guilsborough Evensong:  20 November,  2011
Today marks a watershed in the Christian calendar.  On this Sunday, dedicated to  Christ the King,  we can look back on our journey over the past twelve months travelling through the Church Year. 
In doing that we have followed  the life of Jesus as he was born in the stable,  read of his Baptism by John,  followed his ministry in Galilee,  his miracles of healing; his teaching of the multitudes and the disciples,  his crucifixion and resurrection.   We have celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,  reflected on the mission of the Church and what it means to be a disciple of the Christ.  So today is the last Sunday of that journey for this year. Next Sunday, as you know, we begin celebrating Advent as we once again begin that journey to remind ourselves who we are, to whom we belong and to whom we shall return. 
Christ the King Sunday is, however, a comparatively new creation having been first promulgated by Pope Pius X1 in 1925 and then become part of the Liturgical Year of the Anglican Church some time later.  Kings arouse negative emotions at times.  To some people  they stand for  practices, ideas and customs that are alien to our modern democracy.   
So there have been those, I gather, who have wanted to rename, to turn  this Sunday into something more politically correct.  But  " Christ the King "  has a better ring to it than, say, "Christ the democratically elected Chairperson of Heaven".    But Christ our King taught us that His kingdom was one where humility and service hold sway, not regal splendour.    As he put it himself,  when recorded in St. Mark's Gospel,      
"   You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to become great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many ". 
This is a day, then,  to look back at this past year with Jesus and his teaching.   What have we learned, what changes have there been in our lives to bring them closer to Christ the King ?   
 But we are also looking forward to a further part of our journey,  of our lives,  the coming year, as we express each week our faith in the transforming power of God at work in our world, and in our Church, and in our lives.
As well as being a Sunday dedicated to Christ our King, today is also the first day of what for the last 30 years has become known as Prison Week, a time when we remember  prisoners and their families and those who are involved in caring for them.  It is the occasion to remember, too,  the victims of crime and of man's inhumanity to man.   It is the chance, then,  to make those who are hidden and often forgotten in our society a bit more visible.  
 "   The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of civilization in any country.   A calm and dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused against the state, and even of convicted criminals against the state, a constant heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment,  a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry all those who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment,  tireless efforts towards the discovery of regenerating processes,  and an unfaltering faith that there is a treasure,  if you can only find it, in the heart of every man  -  these are the things which in the treatment of crime and criminals mark and measure the stored-up strength of a nation, and are the sign and proof of the living virtue in it."

You probably know that passage from a speech in Parliament by Winston Churchill,  as Home Secretary,  over 100 years ago.  But it bears repeating.  I first came across those words when I heard the then Director General of Prisons say that he had them framed on his desk:
In this country today there are about 85,000 people in prison.  We lock up more people than any other  country in Europe.   Of those 85, 000, some 6000 are under the age of 21, held in Young Offenders Institutions or in other secure accommodation.   In Finland, as I discovered recently, there are only 3 minors incarcerated.  I leave you draw your own conclusions about what that says about the relative  " stored up strengths" of the two nations and the " living virtue"  in them.  
 Every one of those 85K prisoners  has been a child and most of them, we can be pretty sure,  have not had a childhood  that they can look back on as happy.  30% have been in care.  50% have been excluded from school.  70% have no formal qualification and were unemployed before going to prison.   And  -  the most worrying statistic of all -  on average some 60% will reoffend again within 12 months of release. 
And then there are the children of prisoners.  Some people might question the need for a Christian Prison Ministry,  and cuts in public expenditure have reduced the number of Prison Chaplains .   However,  I guess that very few will question the need to help the children who have to live with their parents mistakes.   It is estimated that over 160,000 children will have to spend this Christmas without one or both of their parents - because they are behind bars. 
 Those children are serving time of their own. 
In the parable that Jesus told about the rich man Dives and the beggar Lazarus,  you'll remember  that  at the end He describes  how Abraham passes judgement on Dives who is crying out in Hell  saying to him    " between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come down from thence "   
The separation was one that came about when both men were on earth.  It was then that Dives decided that he had nothing in common with Lazarus,  no common humanity and nothing to bind them together.   It was Dives who isolated himself  in his wealth and complacency and threw away the key  -  eternal isolation as it eventually turned out.  
During this Week Christians are encouraged to try to bridge that  " great gulf " , to pray for those involved in prisons and their work.  When we pray for one another  -  as in our prayer chain in our own Benefice   -  we are at that very basic level acknowledging our common humanity and belonging.     As John Donne famously put it:  " No man is an island  entire of itself. ......................Every man is a piece of the continent,  a part of the main.  Any man's death  [ misfortune, imprisonment or unhappiness]  diminishes me because I am involved in Mankind. "    And so we are,  through our prayers, involved with one another. 

We need to try to bridge the gulf that exists, then,  between those behind prison walls,  or who are in danger of going behind those walls,  and those outside.   As a bishop I read recently put it, 
   " There are no hermetically sealed compartments: perpetrators of violence and crime, victims of such crime and those who administer the Justice System- whether police,  judges, probations service officers, volunteers and families, workers and many others all belong together in the heart of God and are His concern.  So there is no "us and them" when we answer a call to prayer. 
So as we look forward to the next Christian year let's try to keep all those in the Justice System in our prayers and make a practical contribution to helping them where possible,  for example,  by a donation to Prison Fellowship or Victim Support  -  or both.  Some of us may well  have a reminder of the great  19[th] century prison reformer,  Elizabeth Fry,  in our wallets or handbags in the form of her portrait on a five pound note.  Either of those humanitarian  organisations could  certainly put it to good use.  
 And here's a final thought for this week from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Patron of Prison Fellowship :  
"  One of the most serious aspects of being in prison can be the sense of isolation and even abandonment; and one of the most effective witnesses that can be given to prisoners is the assurance that they are not forgotten.   `When I was in prison, you visited me',  says Jesus and this tells us two things  -  that Jesus is already with those in prison, as he is with all who live in loneliness (including the loneliness of self-reproach or self-hatred); and that he is waiting for us there.  I hope and pray that this year's Prisons Week will help us all to connect with the Jesus who waits for us in prison, and that those undergoing imprisonment will feel confident that they are accompanied in prayer and compassion by the Lord and his servants.
The Lord is there,  then.  As for  " his servants" ,  that means you and me. 






