5th November 2023 - Communion Service

Ready from last time, deer, oh dear, So yes, I'm going

to preach from Oh yeah, actually that's right. I'm a prison prison gates

chaplain through the gates chaplain at Bronzeford. Been in the prison for twenty years,

nearly twenty years, twenty years next next year. So yes, I've

done various things. I'll tell you a little bit about the job I'm doing

now, But I have been. I have been in probation as a probation

service officer. I've also been the managing chaplain of the prison. But now

I've got the best job, which is one I will share with you.

But this passage, and I'm going to share is one that the women love,

and they love it for the very sort of end of the of this

passage. So I'm going to read from Luke eight Luke chapter eight, starting

at verse forty nine. While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the

house of Jurnus, the synagogue leader. Your daughter is dead, he said,

don't bother the teacher anymore. Hearing this, Jesus said to Giros,

don't be afraid, just believe, and she will be healed. When he

arrived at the house of Giros. He did not let anyone go in with

him except Peter, John and James, and the child's father and mother.

Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. Stop wailing.

Jesus said, she's not dead, but asleep. They laughed at him,

knowing she was dead. But he took her by the hand and said,

my child, get up. Her spirit returned and at once she stood up.

Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were

astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened. A

man, I love that passage. I love it so I believe that as

we are entering November, you've got a theme something like Prepare, Preparing the

Gift, Prepare the Gift. And I felt led to say, let's let's

my title is preparing or prepare for the amazing, Prepare for the amazing.

And I chose amazing rather than miracle, because you know, when you say,

oh, we're going to have a miracle, people go okay, because

you know, sometimes we do see miracles and sometimes we don't, and sometimes

we're still in hope for the miracle. Well, I want to go for

amazing. We're going to prepare for amazing And this story is about Jesus bringing

the best gift you can have, the gift of life. And so he

restored life to the daughter, and he restored the daughter to the parents,

and he gave hope to everyone else who was aware of what was happening.

A wonderful gift. This is the season when we start, certainly in the

West, certainly in the UK, we've got the ads for Christmas coming and

we oh boy, and you know, we are being told there are gifts

that we didn't even know we needed that are just there a click of a

click of a button, click of a you know whatever, and you can

you can get whatever you want. And if you don't know what you want,

there's a website to go to to tell you what you want. So

there's there's so much there time of gifts and giving and also you know,

a time of making Christmas lists of what you like to be given. Well,

I want to look at the amazing in terms of is it a gift

that you're going to be using, a gift that you've got to give,

a gift that you're going to receive, A hope, a desire, a

passion, a will you know something that is on your heart, something that's

amazing. There's unbelievable. I'd normally jump up and down, but yes,

I can still jump up and down. It's it's something to get excited about,

that gift. What's the I want to unpack the story. We know

it, we must know it really well. And the women in the prison

know it incredibly well because everybody comes and preaches that and all the first time

preachers, I've got a really good passage for you, and they invariably it's

this one, and it's so encouraging to the women. But you know,

just before we we read what we read, Jesus had had that encounter with

a woman with hemorrhaging, and he come from the other side of the lake.

The guy who even possessed had been healed and restored his right mind.

The disciples had seen yet another miracle. And he arrives up the shore the

other side, and here we have a gyrus meets him, and then a

crowd meets him, and then a woman reaches out her hand from within that

crowd and he and he knows that the power's gone out from him, and

she healed and restored, and there's a conversation going on. But Gyrus all

this time is thinking, my daughter is not well, you know, and

being aware that you know, actually can we can we move on a bit?

And at some point he's told, don't bother the teacher anymore. Don't

don't bother it's it's it's too late, too late. But Jesus is aware

of what has been said, and he says, uh, it's not too

late. Let's carry on. And I'm sure that I'm sure that as they

went to the house, the first thing that he was aware of were the

mourners outside. In Matthew chapter nine, verse twenty three, there's a really

good description of what was happening outside the house, the wailing. In fact,

in some translations it's called the din you know, And in some translations

they talk about funeral music being played, in others pipes. But there was

an awful lot of noise going on. And I'm sure that before he saw

the house, you heard the noise. And as it got to the house,

he would have passed people who would have known this daughter, this girl

of twelve, for many many years. There would have been aunts and potentially

uncles, there would have been grandparents, potentially there could have been people who

would have seen her when she ran errands for her mum at twelve. She

would have been doing all those sort of things. Even though they were from

a prominent household, she still would have known and would have been known by

an awful lot of people. So there are a lot of genuine people there

who were mourning, who were pouring out their heart because of this sad,

sad situation. There may even have been one or two who have been paid

to mourn. That also happens. I have a friend in Romania. He

has a learning disability. He works for the Orthodox Church and his role and

he gets paid in food and gifts and things. His role in the church

is to carry the cross in the front of every funeral possession. He is

a lovely guy. He's a lovely guy, and he does it with great

pride and reverence, and you know, and he's well known. Every time

he hears that somebody has died, he gets excited. He gets excited because

he knows he's got a role to play, and he knows he's going to

get some gifts and some food. He gets excited. I won't say the

people we are excited at all, of course, we are excited when we

know that somebody dies. Who knows Jesus amen, because we know where they

are. So here we have this scene of devastation, and Jesus goes inside

and on his way saying, she's not dead, sleeping, she's not dead,

and people are laughing at him, perhaps disagreeing, debating with him.

Whatever, what he does is significant because what he does is in the Matthew

accounts Matthew nine. He actually makes sure that everybody's out of the house.

He kicks everybody out, all the naysayers, all the negative, all the

ones who are downing, and the only people in there are the grieving parents

and the disciples, three of which are there with him who've seen the miracles

that he does. So there's faith in that room. There's faith in that

house. That's exciting. And then once he's created the right environment, once

everybody is out who needs to be out, and everybody's in who needs to

be in, then he reaches out his hand and he takes her hand,

and at the very same time he says, get up a rise, daughter,

And that's the bit in prison. Everybody goes because you know, they

want to arise, they want to be helped by Jesus, and in the

prison right now, the service would have just finished. Last week I took

the service. There were sixty six women and a few officers, and another

church had come to assist. So there are about seventy of us worshiping God

just for that moment, seeking him and his favor. And so it is

that he didn't need to say to anybody, you know, go and tell

what's happened, because the whole community would see that she was alive. And

of course word did spread, and other accounts and other translations, it certainly

says that people, you know, everybody was amazed. There are three things

that really hit me about this passage. When we look at being prepared for

the amazing, for the miracle, for the gift, for the for the

whatever it is that we're looking to see, and the three the three things

are creating the right environment. Jesus made sure that the negativity was out,

and what he did was something very practical. He gave a helping hand and

then he gave instruction, get up a rise daughter. Three really important things

when you're getting ready to see the amazing, when you're getting ready to receive

or give that gift, be that gift. So I am I through the

gate chaplain. I'm a community chaplain in the prison and my role these days

is to walk with the women as they leave the prison. And it's the

best job you think over. It's the best job because everybody's happy at leaving,

but of course they're not. Some people don't know where they're going.

Some people don't know where they're going to be staying that night. And it's

not necessarily because there isn't a room for them. It's because they don't know,

or they don't feel capable or confident in taking up that offer. They

don't feel that they are in the right place mentally, emotionally or whatever.

Or they've had the house before, the flat before, the room before,

but never been able to actually keep hold of it. They've had people who

have cuckooed come in, boyfriends, other people and take over their place.

They've they've not been able to pay even a small contribution to the rent,

so they've been evicted. And so when they're walking out, they're wondering is

it this time? Can this time be different? And there I am.

I see them inside the prison while they're going through all the paperwork ready to

leave and I'll say hello to them, and I'll chat to them, or

I'll listen, and just many of them will know me now. And I

specialize with the revolving door women, the womins that you know we see time

and time again, and it's really important just to listen and not necessarily saying

here we're going. You know they're feeding that one already. But my job

is to listen, is to just create a safe environment, perhaps a safe

environment emotionally. It's great to see you. So you're off, brill.

Do you know where you're going? Do you know what you're doing? I'm

not sure. I could go here. And then I race around quite some

fast these days. I race around to the main gate, and as they

come out and the main gate comes back, I'll you know, I won't

go bo, but I will say hello as they walk through, and they're

expecting me. And there are some who are being met by friends and family.

There are some who are being met by people that you know, that

know them, and it's all being pre arranged. There are some people who

are hoping to be met but aren't. And then there are those who don't

want to be met by anybody. And often it's those people that I will

say, do you want me to walk with you or part of my team,

my team of volunteers, you want us to walk with you down to

the station, and we will, and often, particularly when they know us,

they say, oh yeah, yes, sim And we'll go into the

visitors center just outside the prison barrier, and we're going to a coppa there

courtesy of the coppa from the coffee shop there, and we're just wander down

and we'll take their bags. Well there, well carry you back. Oh

no, don't winte about Well look, actually you've got a long journey.

Let us carry a bag because we're only going to be carrying it for ten

minutes, you know, you may have it for two or three hours.

And so we'll carry their bags and as we're walking, we've got an opportunity

to just say some positive things, just red mind, you know, just

to say, so where is it you going? What are you doing?

A right? Okay okay, and just give gentle instruction. So what we

do is we try to create a safe environment in an unsafe world where people

are walking out and there are drug dealers and there's thoughts of going using again

and scoring and you know, it's it's it's harsh for some people to get

the money to pay for the to pay for the drugs or the alcohol,

they need to do things that are really unpleasant. Sometimes it's nicking, and

sometimes it's selling their bodies. And just to have somebody walking with them,

non judgmentally, just journeying, just carrying their bags, just being positive.

It's fantastic. It makes a huge, huge difference to the women and it's

a privilege. That's what I think. It's the best job, even though

I might see them again in three or four or five months time, but

for that twenty minutes, half an hour, it makes such a difference,

such a difference. It's so it's so empowering. And for the women,

you know, it's just amazing. They will say thank you, and they

will say to the they will say to the volunteers, some of whom have

come a long way, thank you. That's great. Oh, that's really

thank you so much for them. That's an amazing gesture of giving up your

time. It's early morning. Sometimes we have to wait an hour though,

because we're not always quite sure when they're coming out, when all the paper

works done, and how many women determine how fast things happen. But you

know, our volunteers wait, it's an amazing act of love, and the

women really appreciate that. I want us to think for a few moments about

the amazing happening in here. For so many of our women, it's about

being here because for years they've been self negatively talking they're not worthy, they're

not worth it. You know, everybody else has given up on me.

Why don't I give up on me? You know, I've messed up my

relationships. I've messed up my relationship with my family. I've messed up everything

I had a career, I've messed up I I you know, I had

a good education. I've messed up. You know, I had dreams.

I've messed up. And it's all in here and there, and they're they're

self negative and talking themselves down. They're not worthy. And so it's really

nice when we can just get along the side and go, hey, what

are you talking about? It's great walking with you, creating a safe environment

in one's head, kicking outs all the negativity, kicking out all the stuff

that's not right, that's not what God wants. But we need a helping

hand sometimes we need a real practical and you know, the women sometimes we

almost fight them for their back. You know, no, no, no,

no will take it. No no, yeah, I will take it.

And so you know, it's just a lovely thing that we'll carry it.

It's a simple gesture that helping hand emotionally means an awful lot to the

women can mean an awful lot that somebody's come a distance, and then helping

out and in here giving very simple instruction or very simple encouragement, just saying

you're worth it. You know, not necessarily sake worth it, but you

know, by our gesture, by our way we walk with them, the

way we talk and just engage, you're worth it. Come on, it's

lovely. And you know, the biggest payoff I get is when we're at

we're at the platform and the trainer's coming in and they go, oh,

thank you. Can I hugue and of course not specially be hugged by prisoners,

and we go all right then and they jump on you and hug you

so thank you. It's like, yeah, that's brilliant. Get excit about

that because they're leaving positively. They come out not knowing I'm twenty minutes later,

half an hour later. Thanks, their spirits are lifted. But it's

you know, it's in here. For years, I was doubting myself and

doubting myself because I had I have. I have dyslexia, I have some

reading and writing issues, and neurodiversity is what we call it today. And

I I struggled at school. Of course, I had special lessons, and

I was in a special needs class for quite a while and all of that.

But I enjoyed writing poetry. When I was in my early teens,

I was writing poetry normally, you know, to a girl who didn't quite

you know, feel the same way about me as I might to her,

but you know, nonetheless, yes, And over time I started to write

stories, stories for my children, little children's stories about a flying pig,

and then other things, other stories. And I would occasionally share this other

writing with people and they'll go, oh, it's all right you. And

over time I knew I wasn't the gifted writer I wanted to be, because

they and some of them were really connected and some had written books and stuff

and before, and some were connected with publishers, were quite well less and

encouraging. You shall we say and so for years and years and years I

had that negative self talk. And yet on one occasion, oh, I

don't know, twenty twenty five years ago, in the Salvation Army in Stains,

I was sat and there was a there was a prophetess called Elizabeth Fouston,

and she came to our church. We were borrowing the center, hiring

the center, and she looked at me. She said, do you write?

I've sat down, Yes, keep writing. The Lord says, keep

writing. Okay, hey Ben. Twenty years later I published this book twy

few years later, One Mile to make a difference. It's the story.

It's the story of what I do. It's about a mile from inside the

prison to the train station. So I was thinking, I can't never going

to get anything published, and my boss works at I really need to sort

of justify what you're doing. Can you write a few lines about what you're

doing? Anyway? Thirteen thousand words later, because I thought he wouldn't understand

that, why I better I add this, And then he wouldn't understand that,

so I better add this. I'd written this thin sort of booklet and

people say, you need to get that published. I'm doing Yeah, yeah,

right, Okay, I've heard this before, you know. And and

over a period of time, I kept popping into Canaan Christian Ministries, the

book shop center in Stains and Barry, I sort of Burry the manager,

and Barry would say to me, how's things, and we talk about all

right, this book. I'm thinking I might have to self publish it.

He said, no, no, no, no, I'm sure we can

get publishers to publish it for you. I think you haven't seen it,

you know nothing about it. What you're talking about? What's all this?

Anyway, I ignore him because I know better in my head, I'm never

going to have anything published. Yeah, that negative talk. One day,

I'm in the shop, We've had another chance about this book? And anyway,

someone else walks in and I get talking to them and anyway. He

then says, oh, well, I've just I've just got one of our

book reps, who also happens to be at the time, one of the

directors of Canaan on the phone. I'd like to talk to you about you

know a publisher that might be interested. Hold on, no, no,

ask you to make that call. And then about five minutes later I was

talking to the person who ends up publishing my book. What's that about?

What's that about? That? That's amazing? Well, for me, that's

amazing. It may not be amazing for you, but for me, it's

amazing. It's absolutely amazing. There I am talking to well, I'm quite

sure what I'm saying, you know, tell me a little bit about it.

It's not really Christian, but you know. Anyway, He then gives

me instruction. He then tells me what to do and tells me to send

it off, and then he has an edit to look at it, and

then it comes back to me, and then it goes again, and it

comes back again, and you know, and in the end, this little

book then has why and how I became a chaplain? How I have no

business to be a chaplain because I don't have the qualifications. But there I

am a chaplain, let alone having been the managing chaplain. That's miraculous.

That's amazing. That's a story. You can read it in matter anyway.

And then at the back of every chapter there's a reflection section when we look

at the story of the ms road and the two walking in the wrong direction

and then turning around and coming back to Jerusalem, and three years later,

I have a book launch. So sorry. Three years ago, about a

year two years later after starting the process, I have a book launch.

And guess where the book launch was. It was in the Salvation Army.

And it wasn't until I was in that meeting suddenly sort of hold on a

moment twenty something years ago. So I said at the book launch, you

won't believe that this is amazing. I sat there twenty odd years ago and

a prophesess came to me and said, you're going to carry on writing and

you know you're going to be a blessing. Amazing, isn't it? And

on Wednesday, this Wednesday, I have another book launch. Woo woo,

woo woo. I know I've written another book. Can this guys? Actually

I've written another book after this book, but anyway, And this book is

called Gates Happy. It's another book that's really this one, Gates Happy,

and that talks about the emotion that the women feel just before they're released and

during that release process. And it's really it's meant for anybody, people of

faith and people of no faith, people professionals, or people who just want

to know what to pray about. You See, I needed a helping hand.

I needed somebody to reach out in a practical way and say we're going

to do this. And I needed to follow instruction, which I did.

You know, what we learn about Jesus and how he ministered to that family,

to that girl and her parents, you know, he created the right

environment. I believe God is saying we have to create the right environments.

We have to have the right environments. We need sometimes to get rid of

that that is negative and destructive. We need to purify us else, you

know, we do. We need to clear out our minds. We need

to we need to have a more wholesome way of thinking about things. But

we also need to be ready for people to give us a helping hand and

don't be proud and sell no thank you very much, but say yeah,

thank you. And when Barry gave me that help in hand, that was

like awesome, because I really I was stuck. I was stuck. If

Gyros had believed the crowd, the miracle would not have happened. He would

have said, no, thank you, Jesus, I don't want to waste

your time anymore. It's okay. But he didn't listen to the crowd.

He listened to Jesus, and so there was that faith and that readiness to

comply to have everybody chucked out. And then you know, that very practical

gesture and that instruction. I think when we look at it as Christians,

as believers, as people who as people who know Jesus as our Lord and

savior, I think we need to think of this story a little bit like

the house being our minds, our hearts, our lives, and we need

to have Jesus come into, come in fully to our hearts. You know,

we need to We need to, Yeah, we need to have him

in and listen to the instruction. Listen to how he clears out. Let

him clear out all the rubbish, all the negative of all the disbelief,

all the dreams that have been broken, all those feelings motions that we have.

Let him clear the the rubbish out of our lives and let him do

the miraculous, because that's what he does. He does the amazement. He's

going to do the amazing, He's going to do the unbelievable. He's a

god of miracles. This is exciting, this is fantastic. So we need

to in our lives and our minds and our hearts, we need him to

orchestrate. And whether that's he gives us a scripture that just hits us around

the head and go oh that before like that, that's wonderful, or whether

somebody comes up or somebody does something for you. Let's be expecting, let's

be ready, let's be on the edge of our seats going, yes,

I've got this issue. I want to see this miracle. I want to

see this amazing thing. I want to see something that I that I can't

imagine in my earthly state. But know that you are the miracle worker.

Know that you are the amazing one. And then follow the instructions. Follow

the instructions. And we all trip up at times, and we all make

mistakes at times, but it's lovely to come back and know that he's ready

to So get up. A rise, my child, Arise A rise,

A rise, A rise. We're going to take communion in the moment who

who And in that time, it's a wonderful time to reconnect, a connects

again with Jesus because we're noting his death and resurrection, We're noting that he's

coming again. We're noting that we have that fantastic hope, that eternal hope.

I said earlier about how we can celebrate when people in faith and Christian

faith die, there's an eternity. Woo woo, whoo, whoo. Whooh,

that's awesome. And so when we take communion, we're remembering his sacrifice,

what we're remembering his love, his care, we're remembering the hope eternal

we have. I think this is awesome and it's a great place to start.

And you know some preachers, when they're told there's going to be communion,

they go, oh, okay, I suppose that in someone. No,

it's part of the family, it's part of everything. It's central.

Jesus is central. And you know, one of the best places to talk

about Jesus and say the name Jesus with boldness is in a church, in

a prison. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, I can talk

about Jesus and the women will go Amen, Amen, because they know they

need Jesus. I've stopped regularly asking for a cause of commitment because they'll all

come out, every one of them will. So these days I'll say stand

or what's that a prayer? And you can all join in because I just

know they all will because they need that hope. They need the amazing.

They need to see the miracle. They need to see lives changed around.

They need broken relationships with store. They need the gift and they need to

be the gift. And they want to be the gift for their children.

They want to be the gift, the parent, the mum. They want

to be. There is that awesome. Yes they're broken. Yes they have

all sorts of issues which you know need a miraculous touch from Jesus. But

there are some and from one of the exciting things. Another plug for the

book launch on Wednesday is that I've got an next prisoner coming. Fiona.

She wrote the ForWord for my first book, and at the book launch she

came and shared some of her story. Her stories moved on. It's very

exciting, and she was never addicted to drugs, but she was addicted to

money to power. She was somebody who embezzled a lot of money from a

company and in the end she fessed up and spent some time with us in

prison. Her story is amazing. It's amazing because she also speaks quite properly,

you know what I mean. She looks quite proper, you know what

I mean. But she had been right down there sharing cells with people who

were very different to her. Shall we say very different? And so you

know, it's so encouraging when we hear testimony of people for who lives are

timed around, and her life has been majorly turned around, and she yeah,

and she's a believer. She was more nominal before she came in,

and yeah, it's a good news story. So we take communion. And

in taking communion, I just want to share, you know, those famous

words of Paul in one Corinthians eleven, and he says, for I received

from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus on

the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks,

he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for

you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after

supper he took the cup, saying, this cup is the new covenant in

my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. For

whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death

until he comes again. You proclaim his love the hope you're welcoming. As

we take the elements, we're welcoming him in again to our lives, his

love, his death, his resurrection, the new Covenant, new hope.

So if we take communion now, and I will, I know you'll come

up and help yourselves. I think as we take it, I want us

to think about, Yes, the women in prison, Yes, people that

we know around the world who need to see that miracle. But you know,

we ourselves, as we take it, let's lay before Jesus that that

we want to see that is amazing, that that we want to see,

the breakthrough in that that you know and miss dream big, miss dream Big.

And I can say that because I'm an author. I can say that

because twenty something now forty years ago I wrote some poetry and in this book,

at the beginning and at the end, there's a poem I've written,

Woooa whoa, whoa whoah, and it says, be free to be you.

Be free to be safe, be free to dream, be free to

laugh, be free to cry, be free to succeed, be free to

fail, be free to take your time, be free to run, be

free to rest, be free to speak, be free to listen, be

free to learn, be free to forget, be free to stop, be

free to go again. Be free. The last line I'm going to add,

be free in Jesus