Safe Surrender
A person doesn't have to change his or her life in order to be welcomed by a mercifully forgiving God.
“Law enforcement officials in northern New Jersey are giving criminals a limited-time offer: Free food, a place to get out of the cold, drug counseling and career advice.
There’s one small catch: You have to turn yourself in, too.
The U.S. Marshal’s Office, in conjunction with the state attorney general and a host of other agencies, announced Monday that it will institute the first ‘Fugitive Safe Surrender’ program in Newark, the state’s largest city, next month to try and induce people with outstanding arrest warrants to surrender voluntarily.
The program already has been tried in 11 states and 16 cities including Camden, with plans to expand to Austin, Tex.; Chester, Pa.; Jacksonville, Fla., and Baltimore.
It has been deemed a success by those in law enforcement who say it benefits people wanted for nonviolent crimes by giving them a streamlined, non-intimidating legal process and benefits police by freeing them to pursue more dangerous criminals.
‘This is not an amnesty program; it’s a second-chance program,’ Attorney General Anne Milgram said at the Bethany Baptist Church, which will host the four-day program.”1
Thousands of fugitives are roaming free in cites across our nation, many wanted for non-violent crimes. The Fugitive Safe Surrender program allows these people a non-threatening process to be accompanied by friends or family at a well-known and trusted church in the community before being processed. In Memphis one church welcomed hundreds of fugitives with handshakes, hugs, and hot coffee, then showed them where they could meet with a sheriff’s deputy or judge.
It’s a program for the not-so-dangerous criminals, the broken, those who are tired of running, or those worried about an outstanding criminal record. But let’s be honest. It’s also a program for the church. When asked why they took advantage of the program, 85% of those who turned themselves in commented that they did so precisely because the program involved a church. 2
How refreshing to hear that an organization often guilty of holy huddles, and one that typically sends the impression that club membership is only for the perfect and holy, is still seen as safe. Even for criminals!
“My help is from the Lord,” the Psalm writer confesses. He continues, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Then, like a fugitive released into the waiting arms of God, he says, “If the Lord had not been on our side …” and lists a number of bad experiences. 3
A person doesn’t have to change his or her life in order to be welcomed by a mercifully forgiving God. That’s the job of forgiveness, isn’t it? A “come as you are” image is what the church needs more, instead of a “first become like all of us church people.” Imagine what the homosexual in the cubicle next to you might think if you told him how much you struggle with your own sin, and how welcome he’d feel at your church. If only for the reason that you’re welcome at your church and you’re not perfect.
But the Lord’s mercy is perfect. And powerful. Who in your circle of influence needs to hear that he or she doesn’t have to change in order to be helped by God, loved by God, and accepted by God’s forgiveness through Jesus? Tell him. Show her. And be one of those people yourself.
The church exists not to raise hell and give ‘em hell, but to raise hope and give ‘em hope. It starts with you.
PRAYER: When the surrender seems too frightening, Jesus, and the hope is for others but not for me … When the crimes I’ve committed curse my feelings with their guilt and keep me from your house, your sanctuary, your touch … When the loneliness imprisons me in its isolation and the anxiety all around me chases me in eight different directions … Lead me home. Welcome me again. Open the doors of your forgiving mercy once more. Give me real hope in your true promises. Then – even as I’m forgiven – help me (and my church) find those who need what you’ve given me, and let me have the compassion and strength to share it. Amen.
1http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/oct/05/health/chi-ap-nj-fugitivesafesurre
2 “Homiletics,” published by Communication Resources, Canton,OH, Vol 21, No. 5, p. 30
3 Psalm 121:2, Psalm 122:1, Psalm 124:1ff.