Giving Up the Binding God

Once a month we at Open Table experience a contemplative service of sung prayers, silence, and scriptures leading to a guided meditation.  We close by visiting one or more of the prayer stations that engage us in active or embodied prayers.  Below is an excerpt from yesterday's service with the scriptures, meditations, and actions prayers.

HEBREW BIBLE READING               Ezekiel  37:1-14                                 

The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ²God led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³God said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” ⁴Then God said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. . . .  ¹¹Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ ¹²Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.

SONG                                “Lord of Life, We Come to You”            

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

When have you felt “cut off completely” from the Lord of Life? Are there dead places in your life? For instance, is there something that used to feed your spirit or bring you joy but no longer does?  Have you lost zeal for certain commitments?  Have you lost hope in some area of your life? 

If so, can you excise that dead part of your life—or find a way to reinvigorate it?  Is there a relationship that needs to end—or revived?  Is there a habit that is sapping your liveliness that needs to be removed—or is there a new habit or spiritual discipline to develop?  Are you approaching some worthy goal with too little energy and commitment—or are you pursuing a goal that is simply not worthy of your dedication?  

Identify one thing that is depleting your energy and does not seem to be a worthy use of your efforts.  Prayerfully consider giving up this activity.   SILENCE

. . . 

 

Now identify another area of your life that seems lacking in vitality but truly deserves your commitment and effort.  Prayerfully consider a change you could make that would allow you to experience more joy and energy as you contribute to this project, cause, or effort.  SILENCE

. . . 

Hear God speaking to you:  “I am going to open your grave.  I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.”

GOSPEL READING                       John 11:17-19, 32-44                          

¹⁷When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, ¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. . . . ³²When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵Jesus began to weep. ³⁶So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” ³⁸Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”  

GUIDED MEDITATION  "Giving Up for Lent . . . the God Who Binds Us"

Ezekiel’s ghastly vision of the Valley of Dry Bones reanimating gave hope to a dispersed, dispirited people.  John’s story of the raising of the dead man Lazarus is also about the possibilities for life after death. The raising of Lazarus prefigures the culminating story of Jesus’s resurrection. In this Lenten journey we get a merciful taste of what resurrection might mean—before we journey to the cross and ultimately to the empty tomb.

   

But the Lazarus story is fraught with challenges.  For me it works best if I see its overarching theme.  Otherwise, I can get sidetracked by its details:  by Mary and Martha’s accusations that Jesus has failed them by delaying his help. I get distracted when the crowd questions why Jesus, who’d healed the blind, couldn’t have healed his friend Lazarus.  I have trouble making the many emotional shifts—wanting to blame Jesus, defend him, and then comfort HIM when he tenderly weeps for his dear friend Lazarus.  And then I shift emotional gears once more when the story verges into a Monty Python sketch—with Martha’s concern about opening the tomb because, as she says in the King James Version, “by this time he stinketh” (11:39). The climax seems, well, silly, if I start visualizing Lazarus stumbling out—feet and entire body still wrapped in strips of cloth—like a Halloween mummy.

I’m admitting my love of and yet my difficulty with this story just in case you, too, have trouble finding emotional footing and narrative continuity and theological integrity.

Many discrete parts of this story are rich in meaning for me—like the fact that Jesus weeps, that Jesus grieves, that Jesus had deep friendships.  Many sermon seeds lie within this text.

But the overarching theme is this: God in Jesus can bring US back to life and freedom.  THE resurrection we’ll celebrate two weeks from today is not just about one man’s return to life. It's is about humanity’s capacity for resurrection.  The Lazarus story anticipates the good news that resurrection is not limited to one human being. 

I need to remember that I can be resurrected, that my city (recently named the 9^th most miserable city in the US) can be resurrected, that my country (seemingly hell bent on widening the divides between the rich and poor) can be resurrected, that our planet (poisoned by our own hands) can be resurrected.

PAUSE now as we pray by imagining our city being brought back to vitality, our country being rebirthed, our earth being allowed to do is natural work of renewal.

. . .

Even the Church of Jesus can be resurrected.  While many are tolling the death knell on the Church, others are seeing a moribund Church stumble its way into fresh light.

Sometimes I have worshiped the God of the Bible as One who binds us—who restricts us to certain actions and thoughts, who emphasizes limits and says, “Don’t eat of this tree.” The Binding God mainly inhibits and constrains.  The Binding God keeps us in our place with commandments and threats of hell.  But the Binding God, as some understand that god, can wrap us up so tightly we find ourselves entombed, wrapped in grave clothes, the darkness pressing in on us, and our lives stuck, immovable. 

I suggest this Lent we give up the God who Binds our arms and legs and minds and spirits—and listen to the God who loosens society’s restraints and calls us out into the light of freedom, into the spaciousness of what is possible.  

This is not a call to be selfish, irresponsible, or unethical. This is a call from death to life.

Just because Open Table is a new born church doesn’t mean we don’t need some resurrection.  Here are 4 ways we can get wrapped up in grave clothes:

1)      Playing it safe.  Consider ways we as a church may be playing it too safe.

2)      Being anxious.  Consider ways we as a church may be too full of worry.

3)      Becoming programmatic. Consider ways we as a church may have expectations (of which we're unaware) that we’re not a real church unless we operate like other churches.

4)      Turning inward.  Consider ways we as a church may be too inwardly focused.

Jesus called the dead man OUT of the tomb—and into the world.

Jesus calls us to step out of our cave of protection and move out into the world. We may look ridiculous.  We may stumble and hurt ourselves.  We may shock some people.  But it’s only through fearless freedom that we’ll move forward in faith—to live in the liveliness of the Christ.

ACTION PRAYERS

 

1.    PRAYING THROUGH POETRY.  Reflect for some moments on the image of a God who weeps.  What might make God weep?  What makes God weep with us and for us and also because of us? Then complete this sentence:  “God weeps when . . . . . “  You’ll find pens and slips of paper at the first prayer station.  Leave your completed sentence in the basket provided. Feel free to write more than one sentence.  These sentences will become a prayer-poem to be read at the end of the service.

2.    PRAYING THROUGH SYMBOLIC ACTION. Consider something in your life that is binding you, limiting you, keeping you from moving forward in lively and loving ways.  This might be a habit or way of thinking.  It might be a hurt from the past or a fear about the future. What is a choice you can make that will help you live more freely? Move to the second Prayer Station and untie one of the white binding cloths covering the blue vase as a sign of your choice to make a change that will help you move forward.  Thank God for life that continues to unfold with freedom and hope. Fresh flowers will be added once the vase is unbound.

3.    PRAYING THROUGH SACRIFICE.   By sacrificing some of our precious time or money for the good of others, we experience freedom.  The things that bind us fall away and we—and our offerings—are let loose in the world.  Share your offerings and walk away a little more alive.

4.    PRAYING THROUGH SACRAMENT.  Take the broken bread and dip it into the cup of life.  Eat this meal in remembrance of Jesus, whom Death could not keep bound. Hear Jesus call to you to “come out!” and be released from things that bind you.