Acts 16:16-34

Psalm 97

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

John 17:20-26

Pray for me, that the words I speak may be those God wants us to hear.

Today’s readings are very rich. We have a marvelous story from Acts, that action-packed book that tells us about the early church. We have a reading from Revelation, full of symbolism that touches our hearts deeply. And we have the Gospel, taken from the great priestly prayer of Jesus, which he prayed at the last supper.

In the story from Acts, Paul exorcises a slave girl possessed by a spirit. The girl can no longer be exploited as a fortune teller, and her owners are angry. They trump up some charges and use local anti-Jewish sentiments to have Paul and Silas beaten up and put into stocks in jail.

Paul and Silas respond to this by praying and singing through the night in the depths of the jail. And the prisoners are listening to them.

Suddenly there is a great earthquake, great enough to shake all the doors open, and for all the chains to be unfastened.

All the doors are opened, the chains are unfastened, and no one runs away.

How strange is that?

Something really unusual was going on in the jail that night. So unusual that no one ran away, even though they had the chance. So unusual that the jailer was transformed from a person who inflicted misery into a caring host. He and his entire household was baptized that night. Who would have thought that such a miracle could happen in prison?

In the Gospel lesson Jesus is praying for us. He is praying not only on behalf of the disciples gathered around him, but for those who believe through their word. His prayer is that we may all be one. Completely one.

This is a hard thing. We Christians are so often divided over this issue or that….or we have been hurt…or we have hurt others…There are great gaps between the followers of Jesus, even between Anglicans, among whom a broad range of views is not just tolerated, but expected as one of the hallmarks of who we are.

But we Anglicans are who we are because we pray together, so every Sunday we repeat this prayer of Jesus in some form during the prayers of the people:

Father, we pray for your Holy Catholic Church. That we all may be one.

Why is Jesus praying that we all be one? So that the people in the world who do not know Jesus will believe that the Father sent Him. And so that the love that Jesus has received from the Father will flow into and through his disciples, and then into everyone they touch.

Does that mean we all have to be the same? No. People are all different, and things that are important to one person don’t help another person in their spiritual journey at all. So diversity is a good thing, but it shouldn’t stand in the way of the most important thing: that God’s love is known and shared. They will know we are Christians by our love.

I am on the support team for a Kairos weekend that is planned for June 7-10 inside California State Prison—

Sacramento, up in Folsom. Kairos Prison Ministry International is an ecumenical organization, and all teams are ecumenical. Participants from many denominations agree to set aside those things that divide us, and focus on sharing the most basic Christian teachings and sharing of God’s love. The idea is to create an environment where unconditional love can be shared. Unconditional love is something many of the participants have never experienced.

Unlike our story in Acts, on a Kairos weekend, the physical doors of the prison are not opened. The team members go inside the prison, and the doors are locked behind them. They go through metal detectors and are searched. They go through sally ports. You are completely dependent on security procedures and prison staff to get you back out. You can’t just leave.

But like Paul and Silas, team members bring song and prayer with them. They bring meditations and talks, sharing and listening.  They bring delicious hand prepared meals…real turkey and dressing with all the fixings…shrimp Louie…lasagna…strawberry shortcake…They bring letters to the participants, many of whom have not received any mail for years. They bring greetings and encouragement from the Christians outside, who send greetings in the shape of their own hands reaching through the bars and walls. They bring in a prayer scroll containing the names of individuals from all over the world who are praying for them during each hour of the weekend. They bring home-baked cookies, mere sweets to us, but during the weekend those cookies become the bread of reconciliation for them.

I invite you to be a participant in this weekend. Last fall many of you made prayer hands for the women at the Kairos Weekend in the Federal Correctional Institution in

Dublin

. You are invited to prepare hands for the men at CSP-Sacramento. You will have an opportunity to make prayer hands during coffee hour today, or you can take some materials with you and make them at home. If you would like to write notes of encouragement, or make small posters or pictures to send inside, those are welcome, too.

Many dozens of cookies are needed, so you are invited to bake cookies, freeze them, and bring them to church on Sunday June 3. On June 3 we will also be baking cookies during coffee hour and Sunday School.

It costs about $150 per participant to run a Kairos weekend, so financial support is welcome also.

If prayer is your gift, we really need that too. We invite you to sign up to hold the participants and team in prayer for a one hour time slot during the weekend. If you don’t think you can sit and pray for an hour, Deacon Susan Reeve’s technique is to go on a prayer walk. Any activity that you can do while praying will work, as long as you make prayer the focus. 

I refer you to the display on the communication table for instructions on how to prepare notes, posters and pictures, prayer hands and cookies. Since these are going into a prison, there are guidelines that need to be followed for them to be allowed inside. The prayer signup sheet is there also.

Since the prayer scroll has to be made up before the weekend, please sign up either today or next Sunday. Ingathering for everything else is Sunday, June 3. Bring everything in on that day, and we will offer it to God during the offertory.

Unlike the story from Acts, no prison doors are opened on a Kairos weekend. But hearts are opened, or at least stirred, when they begin to encounter unconditional love. God reaches through the barriers and says to his children, come to me, remember who you are, who I made you to be. Learn a new way. Come to the feast of new life.

The spirit and the bride say, “Come”.

And let everyone who hears say, “Come”.

And let everyone who is thirsty come.

Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely, I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. AMEN!