Whoever You Are, Come Out and Live!

John 11:17-27,38-44 (NRSV)

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

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.’

We have traveled an amazing journey since Christmas Day. From the Manger where the Shepherds came to see the Christ Child whom the angels had told them about to here at the tomb of Lazarus. Yet, tomorrow we will celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, where we will again be at the Manger with Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the Wise men. Going all over the place like this can make one's head quite dizzy. Every place that we have gone is important as part of the Christmas Story. It is just as important to arrive here at the tomb of Lazarus as we prepare to go from Christmas into Epiphany. Because we cannot separate the Incarnation from the person and works of Jesus including his death on the cross and resurrection. The fact that God came to us in God's Incarnate Word means that God has come to be our salvation in all of the events and difficulties of our lives.

The tomb that Lazarus laid in is a place where life has stopped. It is a dark, cold and lonesome place. Sickness and taxes may be over with for the dead, but there is still no life, no meaning at least we tend to think. However, when God became one of us in God's perfect revelation in Jesus Christ, God put a face on all who were considered lifeless. Even the dead are given a name and are important to God. The dead we might think they have no hope of living once again, have that hope restored because God in Jesus died and rose again. Those who lived in Jesus' time had not yet witnessed his resurrection, but there were many who had come to know Jesus and came to believe that he would be the One who would raise them from the dead. This is why Jesus proclaims himself "the resurrection and the life". In Jesus death is not the last word. In Jesus, the dead shall live again, that which was considered meaningless and loveless, now has purpose and is just as much loved as anyone else.

I was really disappointed this morning when I read on Towelroad Gay News how the Christian Anti-Defamation League listed their ten top anti-Christian acts of 2009. I will not bore you with the entire list, you can read it for yourself in the link I provided. For the purposes of this blog I will share that number 7 was "The overt homosexual participation in Obama's presidential inaugural events by "Bishop" Vickie Eugene Robinson, the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington D. C., and a homosexual marching band." Number 2 was: "President Obama's appointment of radical anti-Christians like homosexual activist Kevin Jennings as the "safe school czar;" pro-abortion advocate Kathleen Seblius made Secretary of Human and Health Services, and Chai Feldblum, pro-homosexual and anti-religious liberty judge nominated for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission." Finally number 1 "The Federal Hate Crimes Bill that attacks religious liberty and freedom of speech. For the first time in our history ministers are vulnerable to investigation and prosecution for telling the truth about homosexuality." Apart from all of these being falsely labeled as "anti-Christian attacks" the Religious and Spiritual violence of how these are used is simply unacceptable. This is the negativity of the religious right that I write about so often. It is attitudes such as these that make their way across the Atlantic and helps created things like the anti-homosexuality bills in Rwanda and Uganda. In addition to these attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, the Episcopal Cafe reported on the Westboro Baptist Church's protest throughout New Hampshire this past weekend over the beginnings of legalized marriage equality that started on January 1st. Attacks like these come, because in the minds of many in the religious right, LGBT individuals are seen as lifeless and sinful individuals. Those signs saying: "God hates fags" are outright lies and their spiritual violence cannot be ignored.

Our visit with Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus today invites us all to come out of our tombs. Whether those tombs be our closets by which we deny our sexual orientation or gender identities and/or expressions, or those tombs be our apathy with what is going on. It is all too easy to say, that politics will never get better, therefore there is nothing we can do, therefore why write our legislators, why vote, why act and why care? Because apathy and allowing these anti-gay voices to "kill" our desire to continue to speak up for equal protection under the law is exactly what they hope to accomplish. We can lie in those tombs accepting how they so often "kill" us, or we can "rise again" with Jesus and Lazarus to new life and become active with new strategies and new ideas. We do not have to answer these attacks in a violent and disrespectful manner to get our point across. All we are asked is to be who we are, do what we can do and if nothing else let people know that we are here, we will stay here and we will respond to all of the anti-gay attacks seeking our equal rights and opportunities. Through our activism and our learning to love ourselves as we are and others, we can show people that we are people of compassion and understanding, but we are people who have been saved by the blood of the Lamb just like anyone else. We do not have to accept the tombs that the anti-gay forces of this world wish to place us in. We can rise again through the power and Name of Jesus Christ and proclaim God's unconditional and all inclusive love for all of humanity. If through Jesus Christ, God gave a name and face to even the dead, also through Jesus Christ, God has given a name and a face to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people.

May today be a day, when we respond to Jesus when he calls: Come out! May today be the day we all come out and live, and love and be who we are. Because in Jesus Christ, God has created, redeems and loves us as we are. God does not wish for us to be lifeless and dead. God in Jesus Christ has given us new and unending life. What are we going to do with that new life?

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, you Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (Collect for the Second Sunday after Christmas, Book of Common Prayer, Page 214)

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, Page 815).