Christ's vision

Friday February 1^st, Luke 4: He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, Having the highest incarceration rate in the world should be a barometer of our national mental and social health. It is not so much a question of whether those individuals need to locked up as it is, why are so many drawn into that world. It is not just a matter of setting them free, it is a matter of fixing the system that is at the heart of a life of hopelessness. What directions in life are we taking that lead to such hopelessness? Could it be that so many own so little while so few own so much?  Could it be that elected officials act more out of the desire to be reelected than to help the nation, could it be that so many years after Martin Luther King, the race and wealth and power gaps are greater than before? We are driving headlong down the road away from Paul’s vision of the body of Christ, away from Christ’s vision of bringing good news to the poor. We are not after all, blessed to be a blessing in this world?