Unbinding

"Unbind him and let him go. Unbind her and let her go." So, quoted Reverend Lynn Scott at Sunday's Taize worship at First Congregational. She went on to point out that Jesus says this to the gathered community. At Painted Prayerbook, (www.paintedprayerbook.com) Jan Richardson makes the same point:

"Jesus enacts Lazarus’ raising, but he does so in the context of a community. Jesus calls Lazarus forth, but he calls upon those around Lazarus—sisters, kinfolk, neighbors—to unbind him and let him go."

The idea that we of the community are required to unbind our brothers and sisters from those things that bind them in "death in life" resonates within me like a deep tolling bell or a slow but insistent drumbeat. If we have been commanded, certainly we will receive the power to do what has been commanded.

We could unbind people from their bonds of curable diseases - think of access to health care for all. The bonds of economic exploitation could be unbound and people set free - think of the "cheap labor" of undocumented immigrants and labor camps "offshore." And then there are those pushed to the margins of society by disability, discrimination, poverty or illness. Think of those who are homeless, or those who live in "elderly/handicapped" housing, who could be unbound from their isolation and their experiences of being unloved or simply not even seen.

In such unbinding, we as a gathered global community would provide access to health care for all, living wages and freedom from hunger and homelessness, a joyful community of care and celebration for all of us. There are models for each of these kinds of unbinding. In the next few posts, I will write about some of them.