Being Unbound

When I told Nicole I’d preach today, I had no idea what the lectionary texts were. Once we landed on the date, I read through the 4 scripture options and was particularly drawn to the verse in the gospel story John read for you when Jesus says to the people, “unbind him” after Lazarus walks out of the tomb. There was something about that line that just caught me and knew this was the scripture for today.

It took me 2 or 3 readings of the scripture over the last couple of weeks to get unbound myself from what tradition has handed down and what I have taken in for over 50 years. What tradition has handed down for many centuries. Suddenly I remembered all that we learned 2 years ago prior to, during and after Nicole’s sabbatical exploring Mary Magdalene and the divine feminine. 

I’m aware that we have some in the congregation who know some of what I’ll start with today and another group of people who weren’t on that journey will find this to be brand new information. 

2 years ago when Pastor Nicole introduced us to the work of Elizabeth Schrader Polczer, I got hooked. I began listening to multiple podcast interviews and reading many articles. This week I listened to more. If this is your jam or your curiosity is peeked, please talk to me or Pastor Nicole and we can point you in the right direction for more study and we are both happy to talk with you as well. Serena asked a couple of questions on Thursday in office hours and we both took off! I am going to offer a cliff note version this morning.

A few weeks ago, Kirk was the worship leader and he made a joke that John needed an editor. I know some of you loved that and thought it was funny and I’ve heard some say that it rubbed them the wrong way. So, let me start with this - there is credible evidence that indeed John’s gospel was edited! Edited in ways to diminish the role of women in the Jesus movement and specifically to diminish the role of Mary Magdalene. And all of this has been bound up and hidden until recently.

The scholarship and research by Elizabeth Schrader Polczer has shown that some of the oldest manuscripts we have of the Gospel of John, reveal that the character of Martha in this story was added much later. That Lazarus has only 1 sister in the 3 earliest manuscripts we have and that sister is Mary. She has found some old manuscripts where you literally can see “Martha” written into the margins or where a letter was changed in the name Mary to make the name Martha. She took the earliest manuscripts and pieced together what she suggests is close to the original text for the first 5 verses of this chapter and story and our John read those for you today. 

These are not the first 5 verses that you will find in your Bible at home or the ones in the back of the sanctuary or in your phone. You’ll notice that in the first 5 verses we shared today, it is just Mary and Lazarus. No Martha. And then a few verses later there Martha shows up. It’s quite curious and what many scholars led by Polczer are suggesting is that this edit is a way to give the central statement of the gospels to Martha, a person who shows up once in John, rather than to Mary. There is a case to be made that this Mary is Mary Magdalene who is also the first person to witness Jesus’ resurrection in John 20. There is a case to be made that the change was deliberate to confuse and distract us with the Mary and Martha story in Luke - those were different people entirely.

Why would that be? 

Someone wanted that confusion to detract from Mary perhaps being equal to the apostle Peter on whose leadership and authority the church is based and to dilute her authority. Imagine if Mary is the one to say the line in the scripture “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” This is the central theological statement of the Gospel and places her on the same level as Peter as a leader of the movement. Co-leaders if you will - Peter the Rock and Mary the Tower - a sermon in and of itself. It is Mary after all who anoints Jesus 1 chapter later in John foreshadowing his death and burial. It is Mary who is with him at the cross. It is Mary who is the first person to witness the risen Christ. And Mary he commissions to then go tell the male disciples. That is a lot of authority to give to a woman especially in the first century.

Even Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, referred to Mary here in this story giving the testimony of who Jesus is, not Martha. Most early depictions in art of this story - have Lazarus, Jesus and 1 sister, not 2. 

Likely there were 2 versions of this story circulating in the early days - one with just Mary and Lazarus and one with Mary, Lazarus and Martha. 

So likely Martha was added to mute, to dilute, or unhelpfully bind or hide Mary’s importance to the Jesus movement and her deep understanding of Jesus teachings and purpose.

As I shared earlier I was really drawn to the words Jesus spoke when Lazarus walked out of the tomb, “unbind him.” Burial practices in the first century - “When a person breathed the last breath and the heart stopped beating, the eyes of the deceased were reverentially closed, the entire body was washed and anointed with oil, and the hands and feet were then wrapped in linen bands. The body, clothed in a favorite garment, was then wrapped with winding sheets. Spices of myrrh and aloes were placed in the folds of the garment to perfume the body. A napkin was then bound from the chin to the head.” (Jesus and the Ossuaries: First-Century Jewish Burial Practices and the Lost Tomb of Jesus Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Jeffrey R. Chadwick, Frank F. Judd Jr., and Thomas A. Wayment

https://rsc.byu.edu/behold-lamb-god/jesus-ossuaries-first-century-jewish-burial-practices-lost-tomb-jesus#:~:text=The%20first%20burial%20was%20the,the%20wall%20of%20a%20tomb.)

I also noticed that Jesus did not go into the tomb to get Lazarus. He had people roll the stone away and then he called in - “Lazarus come out.” A directive or an invitation, we don’t know. And Lazarus came out on his own. And when he did - “unbind him.”  Lazarus had to choose to come out. And others had to help unbind him from all that cloth he was wrapped in. He no longer needed that which kept him from life. And his life was dramatically changed because of choosing life.

It made me wonder about when being bound is a good thing and when it can be a hindrance.  I started having this invitation keep popping up. I was looking for something online and stumbled upon at excerpt from St Patrick’s Breastplate https://www.saintbrigids.org/prayers

I bind to myself todayThe power of Heaven,The light of the sun,The brightness of the moon,The splendour of fire,The flashing of lightning,The swiftness of wind,The depth of sea,The stability of earth,The compactness of rocks.

I bind to myself todayGod’s Power to guide me,God’s Might to uphold me,God’s Wisdom to teach me,God’s Eye to watch over me,God’s Ear to hear me,God’s Word to give me speech,God’s Hand to guide me,God’s Way to lie before me,

God’s Shield to shelter me,God’s Host to secure me.

Sometimes being bound to virtues, teachings, ways of being, tradition is good. It’s helpful. It’s a guide for living. 

We can probably all think of things we bind ourselves to that leads to life and meaning. Here at CUCC we are bound by a covenant that we make with one another and to the larger church. We are bound in relationship, in values, in faith.

In some wedding ceremonies, the couple's hands are bound together to symbolize 2 lives and stories coming together joining their hopes and desires. 

Books have bindings, quilts have binging, ski boots have bindings. Bindings can be legal. Binding holds 2 or more things or people together.

Sometimes bindings are meaningful and helpful. They give parameters, guidance, agreements. They bring life, meaning, fullness.

Other times bindings are restrictive - as in the case of those cloths binding Lazarus. Or two thousand years of fear, misogyny and repression holding back the truth of the involvement of Mary Magdalene in the early Jesus movement and the spread of Christianity into the world. 

Sometimes we are bound by traditions that keep us in unhealthy patterns, or by beliefs we were taught were true or that we grew into but don’t fit anymore. 

Sometimes it’s about timing. Perhaps it takes some time to be ready to hear “unbind him” or “unbind her” or “unbind them.” Maybe the world wasn’t ready to know that Mary, a woman, understood who Jesus was and his purpose and was just as important in spreading the message as Peter was. It seems the world is ready now. 

Maybe it’s the same for us. Here at CUCC we celebrated our 60th year and then started a visioning process. Maybe it’s time to be unbound from who we were, to become who we are meant to be next. Not to let go of everything, but to take the best of who we are and go forward. We have a history of not being held back or bound by voices that say “that can’t be done” “there is no hope” or “there is nothing we can do”. 

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the massacre at King Soopers that took the lives of 10 of our neighbors. We heard voices that literally said “there is nothing we can do about gun violence.” But we did not take that as truth. We instead looked to the resources of our faith and held the first Guns to Gardens event to gather donated unwanted firearms to turn into garden tools and jewelry. Our step in faith and justice, took 37 firearms off the street that day and started a nationwide movement that has taken thousands of firearms out of circulation. We didn’t stay small or bound by fear. 

We have lots of other examples - the idea of a soup supper fundraiser to raise funds for immigrants detained by ICE that offered opportunities for bringing a community together in addition to raising funds. 

Certainly in this country, light is being shed on our systems binding to greed, power, and fear. Some beloved things are also being unbound from this place of greed, power and fear. Maybe some of those things we need back and maybe some of those things need to be undone so that new systems and ways of life can emerge so that we can live into the values on which the United States was founded - liberty and justice for all, not just for some.

In my various ministries I lead several groups. In one this week as each person checked in, all 5 of us said something about rest. We got sick and had to rest, we can’t get enough rest, we have so much to do, it’s hard to rest, or we’re resting because we are in between things. We spent our time together reflecting on the reality that our culture does not value rest - it values and encourages production and doing. In our reflection we all came to the realization that our system has bound us in this pattern and that we are ready to unbind ourselves from it so that we can have more freedom and we each committed to it and will check in about it next month. 

I recently started reading a book called, The Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang. He is making the case that Christianity has been bound up by a few loud people who don’t fully understand the radical message of Jesus. He asserts that the Church and Bible need to be unbound from this and claim the truth of God’s love, compassion and mercy. What could be possible then?

Or maybe in your own life you feel like some habit or way of being just isn’t you anymore. Maybe you feel restricted, held back, bound. Maybe you are feeling small. That’s the invitation -  ‘unbind him, her, them.” Allow yourself to let go of the old story, hurt, or belief that keeps you stuck where you are. Sue Monk Kidd has a wonderful quote from one of her books that I keep close to me - “Bless the largeness in me even if I fear it.” 

Some of you may have heard me tell this story, but I am reminded of it as several of us walk with Lynda as she discerns her call to ordained ministry. When I was in the discernment process, I was held up because I could not find the words to write my ordination paper. I was holding myself up, no one else was. Me. I had a belief in my head that this needed to be the perfect paper, that I needed to say the “right” things in it that the committee, other pastors and caring lay people wanted to hear. I had to unbind myself from all of those beliefs and fears because they were holding me back and I knew it at some deep level. With the help of my trusted advisor and my spiritual director, I came to the realization that I needed to write that paper for me with my truth and understanding of my calling, the church, Christian faith and teachings. My words and who I am matters. Once I was unbound and embraced that my words and who I am matters, that paper flowed out with ease. Well, relative ease. 

Friends, what is binding you that is helpful? What needs to be unbound within you so that you can live fully? 

Lazarus Blessing

The secret of this blessing is that it is writtenon the back of what binds you.

To read this blessing, you must take holdof the end of what confines you,must begin to tug at the edge of what wraps you round.

It may take long and long for its length to fall away,for the words of this blessing to unwind in folds about your feet.

By then you will no longer need them.

By then this blessing will have pressed itself into your waking flesh,will have passed into your bones, will have traveled every vein

until it comes to rest inside the chambers of your heartthat beats to the rhythm of benediction and the cadence of release.

(Jan Richardson ©Jan Richardson. janrichardson.comfrom Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons)

May it be so