"Unbind Him"

John 11:17-44

A Sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

October 14, 2001

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

To whom do you turn when you need to be set free? Lots of people go to their

families or their friends. Some turn their lives over to Jesus. But to whom do you

think Jesus went? Many people might say God. Others might say Mary Magdalene, the

disciples or possibly John the Baptist. My money, however, is on Lazarus.

Jesus would go to Bethany whenever the going got tough. When he got out of sorts, he would hibernate in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. It was an oasis in the

midst of despair. In my mind’s eye, I imagine when Jesus was struggling with his mission and up against the bull-headedness of the disciples, he went to his buddy Lazarus to kick back and hash it all out.

Lazarus was someone who could challenge and support him at the same time. Someone who would listen to him and give him a loving response whenever it was needed, without being asked. Jesus trusted Lazarus.

Jesus must have loved Lazarus in a way he couldn’t or wouldn’t love the disciples.

At Bethany, Jesus could just be Jesus Josephson, not Jesus Messiah, Jesus Christ,

Lamb of God Savior of the world. I can see Jesus talking with Lazarus late into the night about his calling, letting out self-deprecating belly-laughs and shedding tears. Lazarus, I imagine, saw something in Jesus that Jesus couldn’t see in himself. That’s the way it is with really close friends. I bet Lazarus encouraged Jesus to come out of his Nazarean closet and get down to the business of his ministry. I can see Lazarus saying, "Yes Jesus you have to go down and see John the Baptist and get this ministry started. You’re almost thirty for crying out loud. Yes, it’s going to be hell. But it’s also going to save your soul and ultimately it will save the world." Jesus was eternally grateful for Lazarus’ love, honesty and trust.

Do you have a Lazarus in your life? If you don’t, you should. We need people to

support us, comfort us, confront us, challenge us and most important, just be with us. Lazarus, I think, helped to unbind Jesus. He helped to set him free to be the child of God he was and to fulfill his mission. Jesus longed to return the favor to his friend, to one day, set him free to do his ministry.

John Chapter 11 begins with the message, "Jesus, the one you love, Lazarus is ill." By the time Jesus makes it to Bethany, Lazarus is dead and already in the tomb. For

the sake of this sermon, lets leave aside the probability that this was an actual death. Let’s think of Lazarus as the embodiment of those of us who are in a cave, a tomb or dare we say a closet.

Those of us on the outside, who see the dazzling potential of our sisters and brothers squelched either by themselves or by a society unable or unwilling to accept them, weep for those inside. We weep for the community that is not here yet. We long for the freedom which may well come on the other side. Jesus saw his best friend Lazarus in his tomb. He smelled how it stank. He saw his best friend locked up and he began to weep. And in those holy tears he wept for and with all those kept in tombs, in closets, in caves.

On October 11 1990, my younger sister telephoned me and tentatively and bravely told me a truth about herself she had been holding in for years. She told me that she was a lesbian. It was national coming out day. She said she could tell me before she

could tell anyone else because I had already been denied ordination twice because I would not say homosexuality was a sin and because I had gone to bat for my glbt sisters and brothers. I just never knew that one of those would be my biological sister. She told the rest of the family a few years later on one of those rare occasions when we were all together. I have tremendous respect for her.

"Life is too full of muck and mire to live in a closet or in a cave," she said. In a

closet or in a cave it is safe, secure or at least familiar. But there are four walls and there is not a whole lot of room to maneuver. You are restricted. And it begins to smell. It’s a smell you get used to. The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people in this congregation and community know a lot more about this than I do. And at least in this church many of those people feel they can be out in a way they cannot be in other places. We give thanks for that freedom. I believe that this kind of freedom is the kind of freedom which Jesus envisioned for the beloved community: where the outcasts are welcomed to the table. "Mine is the church where everybody’s welcome" says a song I used to sing in my last church. "I know it’s true because I got through the door. We are a dazzling bouquet of every kind of blossom. Jump in the vase ‘cause we’ve got space for more." We’re a church where "we don’t simply tolerate each other" (as the song says) but we celebrate everyone.

(Take off shroud from communion table)

Jesus said, "Lazarus, come out. Come out of that tomb. I don’t care what you smell like. I know the tomb is familiar. But don’t you realize when you come out of that

tomb and only when you come out of that tomb is the dazzling bouquet revealed. There

is new freedom on the other side of that tomb."

Lazarus could not come out of the tomb on his own. He needed weeping Jesus to call him out. Because of his relationship with Jesus, because of his trust of him, he took that tentative step out of the tomb. Out of the cave, out of the closet. The people who were used to him being dead realized that he stank. They were not used to him being out of the tomb. When someone tells a truth it makes us look at them in a new way. It was then that the people had a choice to make. The choice was whether or not to accept him into their family. I’m sure Lazarus was afraid, too.

There are people I know who have gone through depression. It is a scary place to be. It is a place where everything seems to be closing in around you and there is no clear way out. It’s like you’re in a cave. You don’t have the energy to get up or finish a task. Everything is taxing. No amount of spiritual Band-Aids are going to help. There is no quick fix. What you need is for someone to ride out the storm with you. Someone to not only say, "Come out of that cave, but to also say, I’m going to stay with you. I’m going to be here."

The scripture said that it was not only the miraculous words of Jesus, but the miraculous work of Lazarus’ community at Bethany that really set Lazarus free. You see Lazarus was still shrouded in the burial cloths. He needed people to help him become unbound.

Coming out of the cave, the tomb, the closet is only the first step. The next step is what we do together.

Lazarus’ friends did the work of unbinding him. They took off his burial shroud.

(Begin tearing shroud)

And with each shroud they removed, they removed a piece of prejudice.

They removed their fear.

They removed societal pressure.

They removed loneliness.

They removed religious abuse, because it defiled them to touch a dead body.

They removed their disgust.

And like a butterfly emerges from a cocoon, Lazarus stood before them, strong and powerful. And they no longer noticed the stench. They no longer paid attention to the restrictions against welcoming this brother home. For the gift of their brother was greater than it all.

We all have secrets. We all have tombs which we stay in. Many of us have stayed in those tombs so long that the stench becomes horrible. But you know what? The stench becomes bearable the longer you are in the tomb. You gradually get used to it. It’s when another sees what you don’t see, smells what you no longer notice. That’s when we are shocked into telling and living the truth. If we are to follow Jesus, we are to say with Jesus, "come out of the tomb, the cave, the closet and like Jesus’ church we unbind each other and set each other free to be more fully God’s children.

What binds you?

What shrouds you?

What do you need to come out of?

What do you need to come clean about?

What closets keep you restricted?

What Lazarus experience do you need?

What way can you unbind someone else?

And you know what? We don’t care what you smell like here. We don’t care what tombs you have been in. We don’t care what has bound you. What we do care about is setting you free. "Mine is the church where everyone is welcome". We say, like Jesus, like Lazarus’ community at Bethany: "Come out. We’ll help unbind you. You don’t scare us. We know we’ll learn something about God from you."

Our task as the church is to unbind people. It is to set the captives free. It is to create safe space for the truth to be heard and celebrated.

When we unbind one another we say we are here for you.

We say, "we are no longer going to listen to what society says when God says

something else."

We remove the spiritual violence too often embodied in denominational backwardness.

We grant community.

We say that it is not always going to be easy.

We say we will not forsake you.

We say, you are no longer alone.

We say, this is the day that God has made let us be glad and rejoice in it because I

rejoice in you who are made in the image of God.

Our task as the church of Jesus Christ is to take the burial cloths and unbind another. Because Jesus has said, "come out of that closet, that cave, that tomb."

And Jesus says to us, the work is not done unbind him.

Unbind her.

Unbind them.

The kind that sets us free and who calls community together and says, unbind them.

Unbind them all.

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