Baptism Unbinds and Frees Us

Homily for Sunday, November 3, 2024
All Saints’ Sunday
John 11:32-44

There are any number of websites that publish the creative writing of those who are in prison– The Marshall Project, for example, and the Prison Journalism Project, and Prison Witness, to name but a few.  If there is a theme that under-girds this “prison literature,” it is the extent to which those in prison are dehumanized.  For example, those in prison are called not “incarcerated persons” but rather “inmates,”“convicts,” and “criminals.”  They are known by a number rather than by their name. When they enter, all personal items are taken away, and they are made to wear the same outfit.  In prison they are watched constantly by dozens of cameras, and there is no privacy.  They need to ask permission to get water; they are told when and what to eat and when to go to bed.   A common punishment is to be sent to “the hole,” or solitary confinement.  Unless it’s violent, in prison there is a lack of touch.  They are allowed only so many minutes to speak on the phone, and only so many minutes to visit with family, those visits often separated by glass.  Many write about the extreme boredom of prison and the lack of a sense of purpose and the frequent feelings of hopelessness.  Prisons are dehumanizing to the point that many choose death over imprisonment – the prison suicide rate is exponentially higher than that of the general population.

Of his dehumanizing experience in prison Jy’Aire Smith-Pennick writes:

I’ve become a certified peer support specialist, a certified personal trainer, a published writer, and a university student who will graduate in August.  And yet I still feel like an animal in here, like a horse they’re trying to break.

And Lisette Bamanga writes:

When we are not called mad dogs, animals, predators, offenders and other derogatory terms, we are referred to as inmates, convicts, prisoners and felons – all terms… that identity us as“things” rather than as people.

Prisons dehumanize.

If prisons dehumanize, Jesus re-humanizes.  And the Gospel of John, from which we just heard, lays out the re-humanizing process into which Jesus invites us.  

If those in prison are known by a number, in John Jesus is the Good Shepherd who “calls his own sheep by name” (10:3).

If those in prison are made to eat the same food, to wear the same clothing and to keep the same schedule, in John Jesus sees us all individually: “I know my own,” he says, “and my own know me” (10:14).

If those in prison are constantly surveilled and watched, in John Jesus instead“sees” people.  “Come,” said the woman at the well, “and see a man who told me everything I have ever done” (4:29).  

If in prison people are sent to solitary confinement, in John Jesus assures us that we never need be alone, that he abides with us, and he invites us to abide in him(15:4).

If in prison touch is usually violent; in John Jesus lovingly washes his disciples’ feet (ch 13).]  

And if in prison many feel such hopelessness and lack of purpose that they would rather die, Jesus declares that he has come “that they may have life and have it abundantly” (10:10).

Jesus’ process of re-humanizing culminates in today’s story of the raising of Lazarus.  Lazarus is in prison.  He is dead, in a cave with a stone rolled across the entrance.  He is in the dark,alone, his hands and feet bound, his face is covered.  To this “prison” Jesus comes.  Jesus brings with him Lazarus’ family, his sisters Mary and Martha; he brings with him others who knew and loved Lazarus and who are weeping.  As they approach the tomb, Jesus orders that they, “Take away the stone” – that there be daylight and an exchange of air and the possibility of movement and egress and connection.  Jesus calls Lazarus by name– not a number, but by his name.  And when Lazarus comes out, his hands and feet bound, his face covered, Jesus says,“Unbind him, and let him go.”

Armaan,when you are baptized this morning – and Charlie and Lucy, when Archie is baptized – we are in effect saying, “Unbind him, and let him go.”  By your Baptisms we are initiating you into Jesus’ process of re-humanizing this world. For there is much in our world that would de-humanize, that seeks to imprison us.  As our Baptismal rite says, in our world there are “evil powers… which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.”  These powers would press us down and hem us in;they would keep us in the dark and tell us what to “eat” and what to “wear.” They would seek to deprive us of touch and to confine us to “solitary.”  They would have us be bored and without a sense of purpose; they would have us feel hopeless and despair of life.  These powers bind our hands and feet and cover our faces entomb us.  But this morning,Jesus calls you by name – not a number, but by name: “Armaan, I baptize you;” “Charles Archer, I baptize you.”  This morning, Jesus calls you by name to come out from those places where you may be bound and imprisoned.  He calls you to come with him into greater life and to be part of God’s process to “re-humanize” our world by being fully human, by fully being the persons God created you to be.

And if ever you wonder what being fully human might look like, look to the saints.  You, Armaan and Archie, are being baptized on All Saints’ Day.  The saints we remember in our calendar are in our calendar because they manifested in their lives something of his life.  In their own way, in a unique way that only they could do, they manifest in their life the life of Jesus Christ.  By our Baptism, we are called to manifest in our lives, in a unique way that only we can do, the life of Jesus, who shows us how to be fully human.

Armaan, by your Baptism this morning, and Charlie and Lucy, by Archie’s Baptism this morning, we are “unbinding you and letting you go.”  May God give you the grace to truly renounce “the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God,” these powers that seek to imprison us. And may God give you the grace truly to turn to Jesus and to accept him,who alone makes us fully alive, fully human, to help him re-humanize our world and restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.