Monday morning when I arrived at church I couldn’t find a parking spot. Even the grassy areas of the church had been filled. Lines came out two different doors of the church, one for a record cleansing clinic and the other for a warrant clinic.
We’ve been hosting the warrant clinic now for a couple of months. Each week Raymond the lawyer comes diligently and makes himself available (pro bono) assisting clients in processing their outstanding warrants.
Most outstanding warrants are incredibly minor: failure to appear and failure to pay the fines being the primary.
Record cleansing is somewhat similar but different. It’s removing from your public record items that are no longer outstanding. In the United States, certain types of criminal records can be expunged or sealed by a judge or court. An expungement removes arrests and/or convictions from a person's criminal record entirely as if they never happened. Even a court or prosecutor cannot view a person's expunged record.
When we host these clinics, it obviously puts me in mind of the forgiveness proclaimed by Jesus. Expungement is real world forgiveness. Yes we can think of the forgiveness of Jesus in theological terms, but honestly given how often his forgiveness was connected to healing, I think a material reading is even better.
On this day, I was reminded by Raymond of the story of Jesus (recorded in the gospel of Mark) healing a paralytic lowered through a roof.
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
2 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door, and he was speaking the word to them. 3 Then some people[a] came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.” 12 And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
As over 300 people milled around our church waiting for their turn with the lawyers, I wondered if some were trying to think how they might get to the lawyers more quickly. Through the roof.
There is a very specific reason we had over 300 people in these lines on Monday. The community is afraid. ICE recently targeted the Marshallese community with dozens of arrests. Our leaders got out an information campaign in area churches Sunday. People responded.
I’m trying to imagine the push-pull factors that brought so many to the home of Jesus. Was it the pressures of living under Caesar? Was it the draw of Jesus?
There are so many pressures on immigrants and the poor in our culture. If you have to appear in court there are so many ways you can fail. Cars break down. Or you don’t keep time like Western culture. A family emergency. Exhaustion.
Add to this language barriers and the sheer difficulty of navigating our legal system.
Imagine being told there is this guy (call him Raymond) who in one meeting can bring forgiveness.
You show up. You bring your differently abled friend.
I think the paralytic story bothers us a bit because we don’t want to connect paralysis to sin. Yet we often connect poverty to sin. We forget how much the legal pressures we experience (or are privileged to avoid) are related to intersectionality and systems of oppression.
The church holding a legal clinic that achieves actual forgiveness: that exceeds all the religious gesturing spoken in our liturgies.
Not that the poetry of our liturgies is a waste. Quite the opposite: it’s a relief to receive forgiveness there also.
But Monday is the real world corollary, and Jesus is the lawyer.
When we connect these, something clicks and we are never the same.
Good Shepherd and lawyer Raymon are such a blessing to people who otherwise would not have a place or person to help them through a very difficult time in their lives. I’m in awe of how many people showed up that day to get help and that our church was able to provide that help. Proud to belong to such a church doing God’s work.