The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for June 5, 2005

Texts: Genesis 12:1-9/John 11:17-27

Sermon Title: “Unbound”

             A piece of science trivia to begin this morning.  It may interest you to know that water offers seven hundred times more resistance than air.  Lloyd Lawrence, who exercises in a pool, would very readily verify that fact.

              Resistance, of course, is indispensable to the exercise experience---“No pain, no gain,” and all that. It is through repeated exposure to resistance that the bodies numerous muscle groups grow and strengthen. Absent exposure to some form of resistance muscles atrophy.  We must be willing to expose ourselves to resistance if we hope to remain fit.

              If resistance is essential to physical fitness, as defeating as that notion might be for some of us who prefer not to exercise, the same might also apply to mental activity as well.  If I were to ask you to tell me where you made the most gains as a student I would expect you to tell me it was in the classes or with teachers or professors that demanded the most from you. There were C pluses I earned in certain classes that meant more to me than A grades earned in others.  The professors in those courses provided resistance in the form of projects, papers, and examinations that forced me to exercise my brain matter more vigorously than in my other courses.

              The resistance theme is equally applicable in the realm of personal faith and morality. Many of us have made our biggest strides as people of faith when we were pressed to defend our beliefs.  Those challenges forced us to personally analyze what we believe and why. 

The biographies of virtually every saint of the church to whom people like us turn for inspiration, beginning with the Apostle Peter, and including Saint Paul, Martin Luther, John Calvin, right down to our own day and Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, and C.S. Lewis [each of those biographies], treat the resistance those individuals overcame in learning to walk in the Lord’s footsteps.

              In Saint Paul’s case the obstacles were particularly onerous.  He was beaten, jailed, and ultimately martyred as a result of his commitment to Christ. In the case of the other individuals I named resistance presented itself in the context of theological debates, or testimony before religious tribunals. Yet those saints of the church endured that resistance without regrets, resistance becoming an integral part of their faith biographies.

              When writing about Jesus, his four biographers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, almost immediately turn to the resistance he was forced to endure. Jesus’ ministry, for the first three I named, Matthew, Mark and Luke, effectively begins as the Lord is tested by Satan in the wilderness. The desert temptation predates any triumph Jesus would celebrate.          

Though the temptation sequence is absent in the Gospel of John, the evangelist begins his gospel by citing the resistance that Jesus faced in another form: “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.  He came to his own and his own people did not accept him.”  Resistance---his own people did not accept him.

              Resistance plays big in the Gospel of John, that resistance lodged in the Jews.  I would hasten to add that while John’s depiction of the Jews provides much ammunition for the anti-Semite, the failings attributed to them in John’s Gospel are by no means exclusive to them, as each of us can validate by our own personal experience. Much violence has been done in the name of the Lord by those who, choosing to ignore the command of the Lord to love our neighbor, have chosen any available pretext to strike out at anyone different from themselves.   

              So what is the basis for Jesus’ criticism of the Jews?  Raymond Brown, one of this generation’s foremost students of John’s Gospel summarizes the resistance of the Jews by making the following distinction, he writes, “Unlike [the other three gospels] John does not attack the Pharisees or the Jews for hypocrisy or for their moral and social behavior; the whole attack [he continues] on them centers on their refusal to believe in Jesus and their desire to kill him.”          

              The Jews resistance to Jesus is consistently exposed throughout the first ten chapters of John’s Gospel, an exchange between Jesus and the Jews in chapter ten offering a good example of the resistance he faced.  “How long [the Jews demand] will you keep us in suspense.  If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”  Jesus, believing that his works offered sufficient validation of his ministry, enflames the Jews by declaring, “The Father and I are one.”  Those words put the Jews over the top. They took up stones to stone him. 

              Of the four gospels, John’s Jesus is most open in professing his exalted standing in the eyes of God, “The Father and I are one” being one example, but John also has Jesus declaring, “I am the bread of heaven,” “I am the light of the world,” and “I am the good shepherd.”  Demanding proof to substantiate what Jesus was saying, the Jews were unprepared simply to take him at his word. 

              Oh yes, Jesus could point to an impressive list of deeds to bolster his claims to authority, but none of that induced the Jews to change their opinions.  It was simply too tall an order for them to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, God with them in the flesh, yet that was precisely what his preaching, teaching, and healing were meant to convey.

              Make no mistake, Jesus’ message took the character it did because of the resistance against which he was pitted, represented by his Jewish adversaries, certainly, but also by his closest followers as well. 

              Resistance is the prominent theme in our morning’s lesson. If one act could disarm Jesus’ critics it would certainly be raising someone from the dead. It didn’t turn out that way, however.  In fact, the raising of Lazarus from the dead not only didn’t win Jesus new standing in the eyes of the Jews, but it prompted the Jews to make plans to kill him.  I’m getting ahead of myself, however. 

              Before the Jews would begin conspiring to kill Jesus, the Lord faced resistance of another sort, resistance in this case mounted by Martha, the sister of Lazarus.  Like his Jewish opponents, Martha was unable to truly apprehend what Jesus was attempting to communicate about himself and his mission on earth. Though she and her sister Mary were believers, their perception was limited to their own personal experiences of the Lord. They had yet to be challenged to evaluate Jesus’ words and deeds in the broader scheme of things.  That, however, would come in our morning’s lesson.

              Jesus arrived on the scene to discover that Lazarus had already been entombed for four days.  Martha, a grieving woman, yet also a woman of sturdy faith, addresses Jesus without delay, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”  Jesus, of course, is prepared take on the challenge that Martha places before him, assuring her that Lazarus will rise again. That news, however, offers little comfort, for Martha’s needs are immediate.  “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day,” Martha declares.  Her focus though was not on the “last day,” but the current day.  She wanted her brother back now.

              Jesus, as we know, was also focused on the current day, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me will never die.”  Jesus was prepared to offer immediate consolation.

              “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me will never die.”  Whether we happen to be talking about the disbelieving Jew, the faithful Martha, or one us, those words prompt great resistance, great resistance because none of us can pretend to grasp the depth of commitment Jesus is making to us in those words, a commitment to us in real time.  I am the resurrection and the life.

              Resistance to belief in Jesus as the source of eternal life may present itself in different forms.  Though he wanted to believe that the grace of God mediated through Christ was his ultimate hope, St. Paul fought resistance, all the messages buzzing around in his head telling him he was unworthy of such a blessing. Though she believed in the ultimate victory that would conquer death, Martha fought resistance.  The victory upon which her hopes were set was tomorrow’s business. Resistance would not allow the Jews to accept Jesus for who he was, for they had been raised to believe that the Messiah would introduce himself to the world by other means.

              Resistance shows up in your life and mine in different ways.  Barriers of all sorts impose themselves, but those barriers are as nothing to the one in whom our belief is lodged, and that is because Jesus is with us in real time. 

“I am the resurrection and the life.”  No, not tomorrow, but right now. 

              Martha accepted the death of her brother Lazarus as an unalterable reality. While her faith allowed her to embrace the promises of the resurrection, Jesus had, from her perspective, arrived on the scene too late to do anything about present circumstances. Of course, she was wrong. While she looked to the future, Jesus insisted on the present.

               After thirty-three years the Watergate informant “Deep Throat,” revealed his identity this week, that revelation bringing to the surface, into the present, memories that for those of us who were alive them---and as I look around, that would appear to be most of us---[memories] we had shelved in the deep recesses of our minds were restored. Mark Felt’s revelation reintroduced the likes of Nixon staffers Charles Colson, John Dean, G. Gordon Liddy, and Pat Buchanan into the daily news cycle.  The famed Washington Post reporting duo Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward came front and center.  Felt’s revelation brought back memories of the summer of 1972, and newly resigned President Nixon standing at the door of the Marine Corps helicopter, beginning the first leg of his journey back to his San Clemente home.  Mark Felt made his disclosure and the summer of 1972, Watergate, and the Nixon resignation, were reborn and made present again.

              Just as that chapter of American history was re-presented in real time, so Jesus presented the claims of everlasting life in real time for Martha, and now for us: “I am the resurrection and the life.”  Lazarus would live again, in real time. 

                I think that we, like Martha, can become too focused on the “last day,” to appreciate fully what Jesus is doing in this present day.  Martha would not have to wait to the “last day” to see her brother for Jesus was prepared to act that very day. 

              The raising of Lazarus relocated the ultimate promises of Christ, promises deemed to be out there somewhere in the future, to right there in the present.  And so the cross behind me relocates the victory of Christ to right here, symbolically making current in real time the sacrifice Christ willing made for our salvation.

             Likewise the communion meal we will soon share makes current the ancient promises of Jesus.  The bread and cup are visible symbols of a grace that transcends time and place, Christ pledging to be present with us this very day, and on to the end of the age.  

             There is that dramatic scene some verses beyond where I left off reading this morning.  Jesus is depicted standing at the cave where the body of Lazarus is entombed.  And soon is heard in Jesus’ loud, resonate voice, “Lazarus, come out!”  John tells us, “The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth.” 

              Bound securely in his grave clothes, four days dead, Jesus ignored all that, “Unbind him, [he declared] and let him go.” 

             “Unbind him, and let him go.”  Great symbolical importance attaches to that line.  Lazarus was unbound, alive and free.  But even as the word of his raising spread, resistance to Jesus once again imposed itself.  Driven by fear and suspicion the Jews began to plot against Jesus’ life.

              The very act that restored life to Lazarus set in motion events that would see Jesus’ life taken.  Yet even as that earthly chapter of Jesus’  life closed, the command of God the Father went forth, “Unbind him, and let him go.” 

              Friends, by the same act that God unbound his son from death, so we are unbound. The resistance of sin and death were overcome for all time in the decisive act of Jesus’ resurrection.  Christ conquered death, that conquest winning our freedom for life unto the end of time. 

PRAYER

              Creation sings your praise, O God.  The rhythmic pulse of waves lapping the Maine coastline, the wind whistling through the buttes of Utah, the sun reflected off majestic El Capitan in California, the expansive prairies of Montana, the cascading waters of Niagara Falls in New York, the dense forests of the Great Smokies of Tennessee, the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota, these are the wonders you, O God, have wrought, each one of them offering their testimony to your greatness. 

              Though impressed as we are with the marvels of nature, O Lord, we do not mistake what you have created for you who are the God of creation.  The awe that created things inspire forever point beyond themselves, reflecting, but not encompassing your glory. No, we look beyond created things, O God, to you who are greater, to you who alone are worthy of our worship and praise.

              “Come to me, all who are heavy-laden and I will give you rest.”  Accepting your invitation, O Christ, we have come to this place to worship you but also to unburden ourselves. Our common need has brought us here, the weight of sin, the weight of obligation, the weight of unresolved dilemmas. 

              “Come to me.”  The invitation is plain enough, O Christ, but some of lack the confidence to place our burdens as your feet.  Instead we soldier on, applying our own strategies and solutions to the problems we face. We are obstinate people, O Lord, and we cannot bring ourselves to trust that you can help us.  Have mercy on us, O Christ, and free us from the false illusions we maintain about ourselves, the vanity through which we ascribe powers to ourselves that we do not possess.  Help us to understand that the times are in your hands, and that we are in your hands.

            “Unbind him and set him free.”  Your command to free Lazarus, O Christ, is also a summons to your church to bring freedom to the world. Given the Good News of salvation, you command us to go into the world and baptize, preach and teach in you name, O Christ, yet we have been reluctant to respond to the call.  We worship for an hour a week, perhaps serve on a church committee, and leave this place satisfied that our holy obligations have been fulfilled. Idle and self-absorbed as we are in activity that pleases and fulfills us, the harvest is spoiled for lack of servants to gather it in.  Lord, though we deserve to be condemned for our sloth, we know you are the source of grace, ever seeking to redeem the lost and confused.

                The weight and burden of death intrudes into our world, as hatred and vileness stain the human heart.  O Christ, who in sacrificing your life on the cross canceled the powers of sin and death, we have been slow to apprehend the significance of what you have done.  Grant us confidence to exalt in your victory, confidence to try new approaches in ridding ourselves of the scourge of death.  Abide, O Christ, with those who strive for peace, even at the risk of death. We continue to pray your blessing on members of our armed forces, aid agencies, embassies, and others who place their lives in service to their fellow man.

                 O Christ, head of the church, we ask your blessing on this church, that our work may conform to your design.  May the gifts and resources with which you have blessed us be matched by our zeal to profitably use them, always and everywhere giving honor to your name.

              We pray for concerns raised by members of our congregation. We pray for John and Audrey Broussard as they maintain a vigil at his mother’s beside, we pray for Rudy as he continues his Chemotherapy regimen, we give thanks for Shane’s positive test results as he fights Leukemia.