Unbind him, and let him go!

Unbind him, and let him go!

I will never forget listening to the entire Eleventh Chapter of John read at Philip Berrigan’s funeral by his wife, Elizabeth McCalister, and feeling the danger and the risk Jesus took to go to Bethany to see a friend he loved buried in a cave while there were people nearby who wanted to do him harm, wanted to kill him. As the last reading of Lent before we enter Holy Week, this year we hear this story as we continue best practices during the Covid-19 Coronavirus outbreak: to Stay Home, and when we are out of the house to practice what our bishop likes to call Compassionate Distancing: Compassionate Distancing Saves Lives.

Although one might think the main character in this story is Lazarus who is raised from the dead, I’m not so sure. Or, Jesus, who, knowing the danger of those who want to kill him, still heading back to the region of Judea to be with the friend he loves at the request of the Bethany sisters, Martha and Mary. Or, maybe it is Thomas who urges his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Or, is it the community that has been gathered in the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus to comfort and enter into the sadness, mourning and even anger the sisters experience at their brother’s death and the fact that their friend Jesus had not come when first called. Or, is it those who rolled away the stone from the cave and eventually would unbind Lazarus from the burial cloths so reminiscent of the swaddling cloths Mary wrapped around her tiny baby, or the burial cloths Jesus would soon leave neatly folded in the burial cave of Joseph of Arimathea on the day of his resurrection. Or, is it everyone of them, and everyone of us?

We, who are now “bound” by restrictions that govern our freedom to move about; fears of contagion; sadness and grief at the already monumental loss of life, and the knowledge that this is just the beginning. And beyond all of these things that bind us and keep us bound tight there are the questions: Why is this happening? What can be done? And worst of all, who can we/I blame for all of this? Why does God allow such things like Covid-19 Coronavirus to exist to disrupt our lives, our communities and the entire world?

We all want to hear the words, “Unbind us, and let us go…set us free!” When the way, the truth and the life of it, the one who is Resurrection and Life is the same one who in the story risks his own safety to be with us who, like Lazarus, like the sisters Martha and Mary, are bound up tight in their loss, sadness, fear, anger, grief and death.

Martha shows us a way. When she hears Jesus is at the edge of town, she gets up and leaves the care and comfort of the community surrounding her and marches out to meet Jesus where he is and lets him have it: If you had been here sooner, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him. We need to do this. We have to let it out and acknowledge our fear and our grief. If God in Christ is who we think he is, he can take it. He can take our anger, our sadness, our fear, our grief and hold it all, and transform it all as he does with Martha. He reminds her and us, “I am resurrection and I am life. Do you believe this?” Yes, she says, I believe you are the Christ! She binds herself unto God in Christ.

The power in this story is that it reminds us that The promise of resurrection does not lie in some future event, but that in Christ and with Christ it is here, now. Life is here now. Resurrection is here now. Christ is here now having burst the binding of his three-day prison. When the mystics among us remind us to Be Here Now, we are to remember Life and Resurrection are Now. And it is Martha, this practical woman of the household, who is first in John’s story to proclaim in no ambiguous terms, Yes, Lord, I believe. We are to remember; we are all Martha. And in the midst of all our anger, fear, grief and uncertainty that for now forces us to live together in new ways, Christ who is Life, and Light, and Resurrection and Love is here now, if only we will Be Here Now and not let ourselves be distracted by the all the chaos and controversies keeping us from our experience of  The Living God right where we are.  We need to Stay Calm, Stay Connected and Stay Church. For it is as Jesus says at the beginning of the story: God will be glorified by going to the heart of the suffering community. He is already here and always has been. Instead of being bound by the chaos and danger and sorrow that surrounds, we need to roll away the stones that keep us in our caves, and bind ourselves to God in Christ.

One final thought. As I stood alone in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Rochester, NY, there was a gigantic stained glass window of Charity: A woman like Martha, larger than life, striding forward as if out of the window, forward past all trouble, forward with Christ, and with a banner waving about her that proclaims, “Faith, Hope and Charity, abide these three, but the greatest of these is Charity!” Charity is the King James translation of Love – and reminds us that Love always means going beyond yourself to others, to otherness. That is how we are to be the character at the heart of this story and in this time in which we feel bound. Allowing ourselves to be unbound allows us the freedom to think beyond ourselves and reach out in prayer and service to others who are also feeling bound up at this time.

Love alone overcomes fear and is the true foundation that lasts. Faith, hope and love, abide these three. But the greatest of these is Love! Unbind us, and set us free to bind ourselves unto God in Christ in Love and Charity!