First Baptist Church Of Memphis

Maybe too much has been made over the years of the detail included in the story of Lazarus where Lazarus comes out of the tomb and Jesus tells those present to “Unbind him, let him go.”  It could be nothing more than Jesus giving rather obvious directions to those standing around in a state of shock.  Lazarus wasn’t going to be able to unbind himself.  Someone had to help him.
That having been said, you and I both have heard more than our share of sermons which use this moment as a metaphor for our lives and those things that might be keeping us from truly living them to the fullest.   Such sermons usually pose a question: “What is binding you?  What is keeping you from living as God designed you to live?  What burial clothes do you need to discard to be on your way?”   Are such sermons a stretch of the text?   Maybe.   But the fact that you keep hearing them and folk like me keep preaching them says something to the fact that such questions and themes are connecting with us.
Well, as you might have heard, this Lent, I am asking all adults in our church to find a way to study the Martha Grace Reese book, Unbinding the Gospel or its accompanying study guide Unbinding Your Heart.  All adult SS classes are considering how they might offer it, and opportunities are being offered at other times as well.  If you want more information about alternative times and places, please contact me.
At first glance, our Lenten study might not seem to have much to do with Lazarus.  Unbinding the Gospel is well, about the gospel, not us and our lives.   And yet like all movements of God’s love, you cannot speak about “the Gospel” without getting incarnational.  When Martha Grace Reese speaks of “the Gospel” she is speaking about that aspect of God’s love that has saved us, that has forgiven us, set us right, transformed us and is transforming us still, and how in the midst of this journey our church has been our family that upholds us and encourages us and calls out the very best within us.  Thus the Gospel is a part of us. . . as those who profess that Jesus is Lord, the main part of us.
And yet, suggests Reese, for many of us and many churches like us, it remains bound.  We never talk about it.  We never reveal it.  We never share it, not even with ourselves much less anyone else.  Why is that?  What’s keeping us from sharing what God has done and is doing in our lives and inviting others to come join us?   And why are some other individuals and churchs different?  Why do they find it easier to let loose the Gospel within them and thus are experiencing growth?
These were the questions that shaped a multi-year, Lily Foundation study headed up by Reese.  In this study she went to hundreds of main-line churches: Moderate Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Disciples, etc.   She looked at ones that were struggling, ones that had plateaued, but especially the ones that were growing.  These books are the results of her research.  We may disagree with some of Reese’s conclusions, but at the very least, I think she poses the right questions around this subject matter for churches like us.
So, I encourage you to read and participate in this conversation.  Let me know what you think.  Lent is typically a time in which we give up some things.  Maybe with the help of Reese’s book we can find the courage to leave some things behind for good, so that the Gospel might come alive within us as never before.
Grace,
David