WITH GRACE UNBOUNDED
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minnesota
All Saints Sunday
Texts: Isaiah 25:6-9; Revelation 21:1-6a; John 11:32-44
Sermon by Pastor Lois Pallmeyer

Sisters and brothers in Christ, God's grace and peace be with you. Amen

What an incredible sight this must have been:
A crowd standing outside a grave;
Sisters of the deceased, grieving their dead brother;
Neighbors and townspeople, huddled together to see what might happen next;
And a corpse, now 4 days old, wrapped tightly in linens, and creating a stench.

In comes Jesus -
Grieving and agitated himself,
Aware of the crowd,
Seeing his dear friends mourning the one they loved,
But confident in his prayer, and ready to change this scene from sorrow to joy.

In artistic depictions of this story,
the resuscitated Lazarus is still standing with death cloths wrapped all around him.
Like someone wearing a Halloween mummy costume,
he looks as if he is barely able to move,
and after four days in a cave, isn't quite ready to face the living.

Those bands of cloth that bind him
keep him from fully celebrating his renewed existence,
keep him from being fully restored to his loved ones and neighbors.

And so Jesus completes the miracle by declaring that final command,
"Unbind him, and let him go."

"Unbind him."
Powerful words.
Spoken not just to Lazarus,
but to the whole crowd that is so eager to see what would happen.
And spoken not just for Lazarus, but for all of them,
and I suspect for all of us as well.

For we know that this gospel story,
this miracle,
is not just a story about a single event long ago.
We know that Jesus' entire ministry is focused on bringing life to the world,
to the whole world.


Perhaps if we look closer at this scene we can see
that Lazarus is not the only one wrapped up in linen cloths.
Perhaps the grave cloths are draped around all of those gathered there as well.

Perhaps when we look in the mirror,
we could see that we are wrapped up pretty tightly ourselves.
We too are bound,
not with linen burial wrappings, perhaps,
but bound just the same.

We are bound by those things that keep us from living as we were meant to live.

Perhaps we are bound by our fears.
Maybe we're afraid of looking foolish.
Or of being discovered to be less accomplished
than our reputations would indicate.
Maybe we're afraid of letting go of something we cherish.

Our fears bind us;
they paralyze us from trying new things
or of letting something new happen in our lives.

Maybe we're wrapped up in our bitterness.
Unable to let go of a hurt we've suffered,
and remaining bound by the pain that someone caused to us long ago,
unwilling to forgive;
unwilling to move on with our lives and with our healing.

Maybe we're constrained by our prejudice-
Maybe we stereotype people around us by the kind of clothes they wear,
or their hair style,
or their age,
or the color of the skin,
or the type of job they have,
or the people with whom they relate,
or their political points of view.

Maybe we're caught up in shame,
so convinced we're unworthy of life,
unworthy of forgiveness,
unworthy of wholeness,
that we never show our true selves to the people around us.
we never fully allow ourselves to live.

Maybe it is our preconceptions that cover us.
Presuming that we already know God's ways and God's will for us,
maybe we cling to the ideas and images of God that were taught to us long ago,
whether or not they are faithful portrayals of what God is really all about.

Or is it our grief that enshrouds us?
- So heartbroken about those who are gone from us that we can no longer face life.
- So tightly wrapped by memories and by "what could have been,"
that we can't even acknowledge what is.

Regardless of what it is that binds us,
Jesus is coming to us and setting us free.
Jesus is ordering the grave clothes that we have wrapped around ourselves
to be removed, so that we might live as we are meant to live.

And make no mistake about it.
When Jesus commands us to be unbound and let go,
his are not just tears of sadness.
Jesus is indignant about our condition, "greatly disturbed," the text says,
and so Jesus cries out with a loud voice.
In no uncertain terms, Jesus tells us to "Come Out" of those places of despair.

What Jesus did for Lazarus is surely what he's been trying to do for all of us -
To unbind us from what holds us back,
and to set us free.

Today is All Saints Day -
This day on which we remember those who have died before us,
and who now live in communion with God.

In contrast to Mary and Martha in this story,
we don't actually get to see our loved ones arise from the dead and walk among us again today.
Sometimes we wish that were the case.
But no, it is not our loved ones who get to wake up today,
it is we who are asked to claim our place with them.

On All Saints Day we get to see ourselves alive, unbound and set free.
Today we get to see ourselves living face to face among all of the people of God
from every place and time.
Today we get to find ourselves joining them at the River of Life,
embracing them in the New Jerusalem,
eating with them at what looks like a simple altar to others,
but at a place we know to be the heavenly banquet table,
where they join us in a feast which has no end.
It is not just Lazarus who hears his name being shouted from outside that cave this morning,
but each one of us can hear it as well:
Erik and Paul, Come out!
Nancy and Rachel, be unbound!
Samuel, and Richard, and Therese,
Child of God, lift up your head and live!

- Not just someday, when you die and join the saints triumphant,
But today,
Right here and now!

Because God is here.
A Loud Voice is calling this morning and proclaiming to all of us again today,
See! The Home of God is among you!
You are freed to be alive and whole and well.

No longer do you need to be covered up by the shroud of death -
Live!
Today you are loved and embraced.
Today you are claimed among the living!
You no longer need to live as if death were wrapped around you,
you have been set free to be alive.

No longer afraid or full of doubt,
we are freed to face this day,
to take risks that faith allows us,
to let go of that which has hurt us,
to reach beyond ourselves in compassion for those in trouble around us,
to join with God in setting free all who have been are bound.

Today we have been freed to join the communion of saints.
No longer isolated,
we are free to celebrate our connections
--not only with those saints who have gone before us,
but even with all of those living here around us now.

Today we no longer need to stay wrapped in our fear and insecurities,
because we have been freed to live in the truth of the resurrection.

No longer leaving us tied up in shame and grief and sadness,
God has come among us,
to wipe away every tear from our eyes,
to unbind us from death's hold,
and to restore us to the land of the living.

On this mountain, scripture says,
In this place,
On this very day,
The God of the living is making for all peoples
a feast of the finest food & best-aged wines,
and will feed us with God's own self, the very bread of life.

On this day,
God comes to us, with grace unbounded,
to unbind us, and to let us go free to be the people God created us to be.

Thanks be to God.
Amen

Lois Pallmeyer
Pastor of Education
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
700 S. Snelling Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55116
prlois@gloriadeistpaul.org