The Twenty Second Sunday after Trinity- All Saints
“The 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.’”
Summary
“Today, as we celebrate the feast of All Saints, we are offered a glimpse a future feast of all the saints in Isaiah 25:6-9. This feast will come once God has destroyed “the shroud that is cast over all peoples”, when suffering, conflict and poverty are ended and the whole of creation can celebrate together. In Isaiah’s vision, the saints of God wait for God to bring salvation but in John 11:32-44, Jesus calls to participate, inviting us to unbind the grave clothes from his friend Lazarus. Unbinding ourselves, one another and our world from all that is not life-giving is a task for the community to undertake together. In the gospel, those gathered must contend with the weight of the stone and the stench of decay to free Lazarus but most of all they must hold onto hope. Lazarus is raised on the fourth day, a symbol that all hope is lost (resurrection and salvation in scripture always comes on the third day). We are all saints, made in the image of God, set aside for God to use. Our saintly calling requires courage to speak out about all that constrains and oppresses, all that keeps us shrouded from fullness of life and to play our part in removing that shroud but most of all we are required to practise the discipline of hope, that nothing and no one is beyond redemption.
First Reading
Isaiah 25:6-9
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.
And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
he will swallow up death for ever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
GOSPEL
John 10.32-44
‘When 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.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’
Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus 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 for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I 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.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The 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.’
