The First Baptist Church of Bridgeport
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Luke, Mothers & Children:
The
Innocent Spouse & Children Project
Luke 12:32-40
A Sermon
By
Jeff Grant
Do
Not Be Afraid.
Expect
Miracles.
Allow Them To Happen.
Good morning, and Welcome to the First
Baptist Church of Bridgeport Connecticut.
For those of you who are new here, my name is Jeff Grant, and I am the
Associate Minster here at the First Baptist Church, and I am also the Director
of Prison Ministries.
Pastor Scott is away this morning, and
he has asked me fill in for him to preach this morning’s sermon on our
Scripture reading from the Gospel of Luke. With your permission, I have decided to give you both a sermon and an update on the prison ministries at the
church. And specifically on the
important and groundbreaking work we are doing at Innocent Spouse and Children
Project.
______________________
Let’s start with a true story:
Not too long ago I received a call from
a friend about a family in crisis. This family was from an affluent
suburb of a major financial center. The husband/father was now in prison
for securities fraud.
Upon his arrest the husband left his
family penniless, with no plan, no means to support the mother, children or
their home. Their family and friends cut off all ties with them almost
immediately – they were left without any emotional, spiritual or financial
support. They were Eskimos on an ice barge.
It was a scenario I knew all too
well. I agreed to meet with the mother the next day - I asked my wife to come along for the first part of the meeting and help in case the mother wanted her point of view and a little extra hand holding.
The house and grounds were lovely, if
fallen slightly into disrepair - I was familiar with the Norma Desmond-esque
nature of these things. I was pragmatic and down to business, my wife was all compassion and kindness (her specialties). The mother was a
deer caught in the headlights - she had no plan, no direction, and nowhere to
turn.
The mother’s tale is a sad and
all-to-common one these days – an over-ambitious husband who lost his
way. The details are not particularly important, and even if they were,
propriety and privilege prevent me from discussing them here.
The mother needed to stop being a
victim and to make some difficult decisions. What other choice did she
have - it certainly looked like her husband was not going to be coming home any
time soon. She needed answers, to understand her options. She
needed a plan - a plan that included a spiritual solution for her material
problems.
A spiritual solution basically means to
not be afraid, to expect miracles - and then allow them to happen. I have
no ready explanation for how or why this works - yet it seems to work each and
every time.
It took us a little time to develop trust - I was asking her to make a big leap of faith. But the more we spoke and shared our lives, it became clear that what we shared was our suffering - we were bonded by our brokenness. I shared with her my family's suffering and spiritual solution, and suggested that our experience, strength and hope would open a path for her family's own spiritual solution.
Of course, her spiritual solution
would have to deal with some very real issues. She needed to find out
what went wrong, when and why? To do this she needed a team of
professionals – she gave me permission to put together a team of expert lawyers and other professionals to work solely on the
behalf of her and her children (incredibly, she never retained independent
counsel - or received any advice or counsel - independent from her husband who
was now in prison).
In very short order, we had a full team in place where there had been none. Among the miracles that happened for
this mother were that this team of wonderful lawyers and professionals all worked on
her matter in nontraditional payment arrangements.
We delved deep into spiritual matters –
and dug into the how and why? We searched for signs and guideposts, as
to how this all could have happened – how this innocent spouse could have been
unwittingly dragged into this mess? We searched, scoured for, and
unearthed clues; we considered, intuited and prayed for options and solutions.
Through
the process of seeking spiritual solutions, expecting miracles, allowing them
to happen, faith, teamwork and discipline, and overcoming fear - today it looks
as though we will able to secure a real future for this mother and her
children.
_______________________
Let’s talk about Luke:
The first half of the lectionary year - from
Advent to Ascension - is typically called the "Season of Christ" and addresses
the question, "Who is Jesus?" The second half of the year – all of
the Sundays of Pentecost is named the "Season of the Church" and addresses
the question, "What does it mean to follow Jesus?" This week’s Scripture reading from Luke
is enmeshed in the heart of what it means to be a Follower of Jesus.
According to today’s scripture reading, Jesus
is on the road to Jerusalem, teaching his disciples and the crowd he attracts along
the way. After sharing the parable
of the rich fool, Jesus urged his disciples to dwell on no earthly concerns:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you
will eat, or about your body, what you will wear...Instead, strive for God's
kingdom and these things will be given to you as well."
Jesus then invites them to give all they have
away and, in the verses that follow, to look for Christ's imminent return. The edgy part in the last verses -
reward for those who were ready and what feels like a thinly veiled threat to
those who are not - only heightens the sense of expectancy for, and tension
around, Jesus' instructions.
There is, however, one line, one phrase really,
that stands out for me, that helps put the entire passage into
perspective. It is when Jesus
says, Do Not Be Afraid:
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Do not be afraid is the one of the main points
through out the good news of all Scripture - and it occurs many times in Luke's
account of the Jesus story. Do not
be afraid is the starting point and anchor for everything else in this passage.
___________________
I’ve learned a lot about Jesus’ admonition Do Not Be Afraid – I learned it mostly through
service to others. Service
and volunteer work is something I suggest to everybody who goes through life
crises – and since almost everybody goes through some life crisis, I recommend
service to others to almost everybody.
As many of you know, Pastor Scott
chose me for the prison ministry position here at The First Baptist Church of
Bridgeport because of the path that I chose after I was released from prison. I served almost fourteen months in a
Federal prison for a white-collar crime.
After my release, I volunteered in
hospitals, rehabs and prisoner reentry programs; I attended and earned a Master
of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in NYC - the preeminent urban
seminary in the world; I became a prison minister here in the inner city in
Bridgeport, Connecticut – this is my main calling and where I spend most of my
time.
But something else was burning a hole in my soul – it was a
thirst - a calling - to help people and families get through what my family
went through. That’s why we founded our new ministries: the Progressive Prison Project and the Innocent Spouse and
Children Project, both in Greenwich, Connecticut, that offer experienced and compassionate support to the families of the people accused
or convicted of white collar or other nonviolent crimes. These families receive so little
compassion and empathy - and are so easy to "other" - by a
world that is all too eager to believe the next sensationalized headline and to
ignore the human side of things.
___________________
You can imagine how frightened this
mother and her children have been.
Frightened, isolated, penniless, without hope. You can imagine how difficult it was when we came into each others' lives and we prayed together, and then asked each other to not be afraid. We started by asking each other if we
could look at things differently, engage in spiritual solutions, start to
expect miracles, and that we could allow these miracles to happen simply
through faith, trust and eliminating fear - or at least the strangle-hold that
fear had on making good, sound decisions.
Huge miracles have already happened for
this mother and her children – mostly through the work of the wonderful team of
professionals that we put together for her. This team also had to overcome its own
fears, learn to expect miracles and allow them to happen. Doing things differently is just as difficult
for lawyers and other professionals as it is for anyone else – maybe even
harder.
Through the outstanding work of this
team, we learned just this week that there will almost certainly be a safe and
secure future for this mother and her children. God has delivered what mere mortals might have thought was
impossible. I know what this
mother and her children originally thought was impossible.
Certainly, there will be a lot of life
changes that they will have to get used to - theirs is a family that will almost
certainly be split forever by institutions like divorce and prison. And
this mother and her children, through none of their own doing, will likely bear
the cross of a tragedy in which a lot of people and institutions lost of a lot
of money and respect for the system.
But as I see it, the biggest tragedy
of all about white-collar and nonviolent crime is not how big the matter is, or
sensationalized the headlines - it is in our failure to see it as a human
story, with real people, real brokenness, and real families left behind.
That is why we are honored and proud
to announce the launch of the Innocent Spouse & Children Project. We
believe it is the first ministry in the United States to specifically support
the families of people accused or convicted of white collar and other
nonviolent crimes.
We are so grateful to have the
opportunity to have helped this mother and her children move their lives into a
new day, even as they have helped us learn and grow, and help our new ministry
to evolve.
Do Not Be Afraid
Expect miracles.
Allow them to happen.
Thanks to workingpreacher.org for assistance on some theological insights.
Rev.
Jeff Grant, JD, M Div
Director, Progressive Prison Project/
Innocent Spouse & Children Project
Greenwich, Connecticut
Assoc. Minister/
Director of Prison Ministries
First Baptist Church of Bridgeport
126 Washington Avenue, 1st Fl.
Bridgeport, Connecticut 06604
(203)
339-5887
jgrant@progressiveprisonproject.org
jg3074@columbia.edu
