This morning we have white paraments adorning the pulpit and the lectern in honor of today being All Saints Day – the day in which we remember the saints of the church. Believe it or not, yesterday, Halloween Day, was also a church holiday, just don’t let the Christian police – the atheists in on this… or they might want to change the name of Halloween to Spook night or something else. You see, Halloween is actually a Christian word… it’s short for All Hallows Eve… you know that word ‘Hallow’… as in “Hallowed be thy name” from the Lord’s Prayer… the word ‘hallow’ means to make holy or sacred, to worship. So Halloween actually has Christian roots, and today, All Saints Day is a day of celebration in the church.

All Saints Day is a day in which we remember our own loved ones who have died and gone to be with Jesus.  We remember our mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, and dear friends who have gone before us. It’s like Memorial Day for us, and we pause to remember these people as well as our own church members who have passed from this life and now know in full - what this place called ‘heaven,’ which Jesus spoke of so often, is really like. You remember those words of the apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 13… the ‘Love Chapter,’ “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” So All Saint’s Day remembers those who died in the name of the Lord – in the faith of the Lord - and have gone to be with Jesus.  But this is not to suggest that the word ‘saints’ only refers to those who have died; but rather, the word ‘saints’ refers to all of God’s sacred people, both the living and the dead.

Now I don’t know where or when the tradition began of dressing up in costumes and going from house to house – forcing people into giving out candy or other treats. It’s extortion, and that’s basically what it is… it’s called ‘trick or treat’ but as someone recently pointed out, the wording should be more correctly reversed and called ‘treat or trick,’ because we all know what’s supposed to happen if the kids don’t get treats… you get tricked… your house gets toilet papered… or your windows get soaped… or other devious things might happen… hey, so I was a kid once, and I know about these things. Thank God for forgiveness.

So anyway, I’d like to think that the tradition of dressing up in a costume was based on this very same lectionary reading for this morning from John’s Gospel… where Lazarus comes out of this tomb looking like a mummy on Halloween night. But before we get to that, I’d like to point out the fact that Jesus commands 3 things to happen here in this reading about Lazarus. When Jesus finally arrived at the tomb, the first thing he did was to command that the stone be rolled away.

Last week we heard about Bartimaeus, the blind beggar… and how Jesus restored his sight. We also learned that Bartimaeus ended up having not only his physical sight restored, but his spiritual sight was restored as well. And we were told that he became a follower of Christ. Bartimaeus’ stone was rolled away when Jesus came near and he had the courage to call out to him… even though the world was telling him to be quiet.

And so, today, we are brought, with Jesus, through the Scriptures, to the tomb of Lazarus. And there is this huge stone separating Lazarus from Jesus, separating Lazarus from God. And in order for any interaction to take place… that stone had to be rolled away, it had to be removed, and so Jesus commands for the stone to be rolled away.

I can’t help but wonder… when I read about or see people who have no apparent Christian faith – I have to think that they are like the zombies walking around in one of those horror movies – they’re like the living dead. I also think that they are people who are living behind these huge stones – separating them from God – and most of the time, all it takes is for someone like us, to help them roll away that stone so that they can experience the divine for themselves, so that they can see God in the acts of kindness and compassion in the people around them; so that they can hear God when God calls them. Most of the time those stones are prejudices and preconceptions about things and people that they never had the opportunity to come to know. And sometimes those stones are easily removed through simple acts of kindness and Christian love.

Once the stone was rolled away, we’re told the stench was evident, it was no longer sealed and hidden away in the darkness of a place where it was thought to have been buried forever… the stench was now obvious to the world, as well as to God. In the Book of Psalms, the Bible tells us that God knows everything about us, there is nothing we can hide from God.

The Scriptures also tell us in Romans 8:39 that “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” And that includes our sinfulness. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done to separate yourself from the will of God, it doesn’t matter what sins you’ve committed. If you’ve never truly and honestly asked God for forgiveness for something that you’ve been trying all your life to hide, it’s like the stench from that tomb when the stone was rolled away… you’ll never get rid of it on your own, only God can get rid of it for you. But you have to be willing to let God do it.

And after praying to God the Father, we’re told that Jesus commanded in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Oh, if only the dead could come to life so simply! And that’s the miraculous part of this, that the dead CAN come to life by simply responding to Christ’s call. Even Bartimaeus knew how simple it could be when he jumped to his feet and ran to the feet of Jesus. It’s that easy! All we have to do is to come to Christ when he calls… that’s how easy it is to be transformed from the living dead into someone who’s fully alive. Jesus said, “I have come so that you may have life, and have it in abundance.”  

And so Jesus completes the miracle by declaring that final command, “Take off the grave clothes, and let him go.” Unbind him.

Powerful words. And those words were spoken not just to Lazarus,
but to the whole crowd that was so anxious to see what would happen.
Those words were spoken not just for Lazarus, but for all of those gathered, and I suspect for all of us as well. “Unbind him and let him go.”

Perhaps if we look closer at this scene we can see that Lazarus isn’t the only one wrapped up in linen cloths. Perhaps when we look in the mirror, we could see that we are sometimes wrapped up pretty tightly ourselves. We’re wrapped up, maybe not with linen burial wrappings, but perhaps, we’re bound just the same.

We’re bound by those things that keep us from living as we’re meant to live. Perhaps we’re bound by our fears. Maybe we’re afraid of looking foolish. Maybe we’re afraid of letting go of something we cherish.

And even though Jesus tells us over and over in the Gospels, not to fear, our fears still bind us; they paralyze us from trying new things
or of letting something new happen in our lives.

Maybe we’re wrapped up in our bitterness. Maybe we’re unable to let go of a hurt we’ve suffered - and we remain bound by the pain that someone caused us long ago, unwilling to forgive; unwilling to move on with our lives and with our healing. How fair is it to ask God for forgiveness when we can’t find it in our heart to forgive someone else. Aren’t those the words we just prayed a few minutes ago… ‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors?’

Maybe we’re bound by our prejudices - maybe we stereotype people around us by the kind of clothes they wear, or their hair style, or their age, or the color of their skin, or the type of job they have, or the people with whom they befriend, or even their political points of view.

Maybe we’re caught up in shame, maybe we’re so convinced that we’re unworthy of life, unworthy of forgiveness, unworthy of wholeness,
that we never show our true selves to the people around us. Maybe we never fully allow ourselves to live.

Regardless of what it is that binds us, Jesus is coming to us, and calling to us and setting us free. That’s why Jesus came into this world, remember when he went into the synagog and began reading, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,
and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” and then he said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled.” In making this last command, Jesus is commanding that the grave clothes be taken off, that the things that bind us be removed… and that we be set free, so that we might live as we are meant to live. John 8:36 says, “For if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed!”

That’s the Good News for this morning! That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on a cross so that you might live. And that word ‘might’ is a conditional word… it’s dependent on your action. You see, the promise of the cross of Christ, the Good News of the Gospel is only Good News if you accept that gift, the gift of grace, by allowing the grave clothes to be removed, by allowing Jesus to remove those things that bind you; and when that happens, the Good News of the Gospel of Christ takes on a whole new meaning, just as it has for all of the saints of the past and all of those saints around us who are now living, truly living this New Life in Christ. And that’s why our Lord said in the Book of Revelation, “I am making everything new!”

There’s just one more thing, it’s the question that Jesus asked Martha right before our Gospel reading for this morning at verse 25 of this same chapter of John’s Gospel… when he said… “I am the resurrection and the life;  whoever (don’t you just love that word, whoever) whoever lives and believes in me will never die but live forever.  Do you believe this, Martha?”

And so, I have to ask you that same question this morning, the most important question in your life.  Do you believe this?  Do you believe that Christ is the Son of the living God and that whoever lives and believes in him will never die?  Do YOU believe this? What a question for you and me this morning, on the day when we celebrate the Saints of the church. And how we answer that question affects everything we say and do, today and tomorrow, and forever. 

Let us pray… Amen.