Year B
 Wisdom 3:1-9
 Psalm 146
 Revelation 21:1-6a
 John 11:32-44

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

I only recently became aware of something called a “mash-up”…  but apparently they’ve been around for a long time…  friends of ours invited Joel and me over to see a movie that only someone with a vivid imagination could…  well…  imagine…  and if you don’t know…  a mash-up is something that’s created by combining elements from two or more sources into one…  like digitally combining a vocal track from one recording…  with an instrumental track from another one…  or like scripting a movie with characters and situations from more than one story or genre…  and the movie our friends chose for us to watch…  was called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter…  and while you have almost certainly not seen this movie…  you almost certainly have seen the TV commercial which mashes-up Wonder Woman with tennis champion Serena Williams…  and we end up with a tennis racket-wielding superhero who vanquishes several insect-like creatures which are wreaking havoc by hurling tennis balls at shoppers and in the food court… 

All this is a way of saying that we have our own kinder…  gentler mash-up today…  as we combine the beginning of a seven-week Advent…  with All Saints’ Day…  and I hope to make plain why we won’t need to stretch our imaginations too far…  to see how they fit together…  go together…  more seamlessly than do Honest Abe and Bela Lugosi… 

Mary greeted Jesus with the words…  Lord…  if you had been here…  my brother would not have died…  and she wept…  and when Jesus saw her weeping…  and those who came with her also weeping…  he wept too…  but Jesus’ weeping is not sentimental…  he does weep for Lazarus…  he does weep for the loss of his friend…  but he also weeps for the gritty grief of death… he also weeps for himself…  because he knows what’s going to come…  but Jesus maintains power over death even in the midst of his grief…  and it’s worth noting…  that of the thirteen verses in today’s Gospel…  the raising of Lazarus is only two verses long…  the other eleven verses are about how we respond to death…  and Jesus weeps for the reality of death in general…  he knows that the separation it causes is unfathomable…  that it’s grief is beyond anything we can imagine being able to get through…  that’s why later in this Gospel….  in Ch. 20…  on Easter morning in the Garden…  that’s why Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus and thinks he’s the gardener…  because in that moment…  her grief clouds her senses…  and it’s impossible for her to see who’s right in front of her…

And in the very last verse of today’s reading…  after Lazarus is raised…  and comes out of the tomb…  Jesus tells the crowd that’s gathered…  to unbind him…  and this unbinding is a reminder of the story in Genesis 22 about Abraham and Isaac…  the story that’s often called The Sacrifice of Isaac…  and it makes real the belief that all first-born sons belong to God…  that’s why when my brother and I were newborns…  my parents symbolically bought us back from God in a synagogue service…  and I still have some of the sterling-silver dollars that were used to redeem me…

The Sacrifice of Isaac…  while Torah does not allow child sacrifice…  Leviticus 18:21 says…  You shall not give any of your offspring as sacrifice to Moloch…  and so profane the name of your God…  but some of Israel’s neighbors in the Phoenician world viewed child sacrifice a religiously inspiring act…  or one reserved for really dire situations…  and if you’re interested in reading about one of them…  I invite you to read 2Kings 3:27…  to find out why the King of Moab sacrificed his firstborn son…

But this story about Abraham and Isaac is also known as The Unbinding of Isaac…  and in his book… coincidentally titled Unbinding Isaac…  Professor Aaron Koller offers an original interpretation of this text which is grounded in medieval Jewish philosophy and attuned to the modern world…  he wrote that the biblical God would like to want child sacrifice –– because it is a remarkable display of devotion –– but even more so does not want child sacrifice…  because it would violate the child’s autonomy…  and so the high point in the Genesis drama is not the binding of Isaac…  but the moment when Abraham is told to release him…  and Isaac was unbound to new life…  and so one of the major assertions Koller drew about this biblical God…  is that God feels…  feels our pain…  feels pain on our behalf…  and feels pain because of us…  and while the raising of Lazarus can be seen as a foretaste of the resurrection…  people still die…

Pastor Gary Charles…  of Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta…  writes…  by the grave of loved ones…  and especially on All Saints’ Day…  the church listens with longing faith…  for the promise from the Wisdom of Solomon…  that…  the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God…  years later…  our Gospel writer John…  on the Greek island of Patmos…  would borrow this inspiring image for Chapters 4 and 5 in Revelation…  to portray the souls of the righteous seated and singing around the heavenly throne of God…  and just as God invites Samuel in 1Samuel 16:7…  not to be seduced by the attractive appearances of David’s older brothers…  but to see the heart of God’s chosen servant David…  so John invites us to peer behind all appearances…  to probe the truth and purpose of God…  as we do in a seven-week Advent…  in both life and in death…  and while in the eyes of the foolish…  our departure may be thought of as a disaster…  and our going from…  thought to be our destruction…  we will be at peace…

A United Methodist-pastor friend of mine recently shared this image of death that came to him while he was holding his own sleeping infant son…  he said that when we die…  it’s like God holding us while we’re asleep…  and even though our awareness may change…  even though we may be asleep to oursleves…  the God who is holding us formed us in the womb and knows us fully…  and loves us in spite of our imperfection…  and keeps us safe…  so that no torment will touch us…  and so our hope is full of immortality…  and we will awaken in the parousia… 

And so we mash-up a seven-week Advent with All Saints’ Day…  to remember that we are brought into the everlasting heritage of our sisters and brothers…  and with all the saints…   past…  present…  and yet to come…  and that everlasting heritage includes a banquet…  you see…  before the Mesopotamian shekel emerged nearly 5,000 years ago…  food was currency…  and being invited to the Heavenly Banquet…  is like winning the mega-millions lottery…  being invited was foretold by the prophet Isaiah…  when God would make for all people…  a feast of rich food…  of wine without all of that unpleasant sediment…  because it was strained clear…  which took extra time and effort…  and on that mountain…  God will swallow the swallower named Death…  and it will be said on that day…  Yup…  this is our God…  the one we have waited for…  and now we can be saved…  so let us set off fireworks and have a parade…

After Jesus unbound Lazarus from death…  he unbound Mary and Martha from their grief and trauma…  he instructed the crowd which was standing nearby…  to unbind Lazarus and to let him go…  and as the crowd began to unbind Lazarus…  he was released back to family…  and into community…  and in our time…  in our communities…  we are called to release those who are bound up in emotional…  psychological…  and spiritual dis-ease and death…  and we are called to unbind ourselves…  from whatever is holding us back from the promises of an abundant life…  and even when we die…  God will release us from death…  and we will wake up in the parousia…  in God’s loving arms…