VICAR
Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that my Sunday message finds You well and relaxed this February weekend.
This week I ask You to spare a few minutes to pray for political prisoners around the world.
Jesus himself became a political prisoner. We should look into each case and decide for ourselves whether prisoners merit their sentences. In the case of political prisoners their imprisonment is often based on false accusations and bending of the law. If You cannot think of one such political prisoner then the case of Alexei Navalny in Russia is a good place to start.
Jeremiah 37:11–38:28
“What wrong have I done to you or your servants or this people, that you have put me in prison?”
The prophet Jeremiah is an early political prisoner. Before the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, he is imprisoned because he tells King Zedekiah that God wants him to surrender to the Babylonians so Jerusalem will be spared. Jeremiah’s imprisonment reminds us that incarceration is fundamentally a tool of power.
Have a peaceful Sunday. God bless You all.
Judge eternal, bringer of justice,
hear the cry
of those who suffer under the lash of heartless political oppression;
those who languish in prisons and labour camps, untried or falsely condemned;
those whose bodies are shattered,
or whose minds are unhinged by torture or deprivation.
Meet them in their anguish and despair,
and kindle in them the light of hope,
that they may find rest in your love,
healing in your compassion and faith in your mercy.
In the name of him who suffered,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.