Saturday, 1 April 2017

STILL BOUND

STILL BOUND
Watching from afar as the drama unfurls in London of Teresa May, the Prime Minister, signing and sending a letter signalling the decision of the UK government to leave the European Union after 46 years, I felt, as many do, a great sadness. Here is a leader who campaigned for the UK to stay in the EU as she felt, despite its limitations, the EU was basically a great achievement and the UK should be in it. But then she was offered the highest office in the land with one condition: she must lead the country out of the EU. Can we say she preferred her job to her judgement? It sounds a harsh thing to say.
I have no interest in implying that the good lady has anything in common with Pontius Pilate but it cannot go without notice that the Roman Governor of Judea did something similar. He was faced with an awkward dilemma. Jesus was brought before him as a dangerous agitator but Pilate could find no evidence and his instinctive judgement was that the accused was innocent. He wanted to set him free. But Pilate was not in a strong position. The general public had been manipulated to demand Jesus be executed and to stand in their way would be risky. For the sake of peace – and his own job – he decided to condemn him.
We get the leaders we deserve and we would be hypocrites if we claimed we always followed our best judgement. Faced with complex pressures – from outside ourselves and from within – we buckle and compromise. It is a step on the way to freedom to admit this. But then do we need the greatness of Nelson Mandela or his recently dead colleague of Robben Island, Ahmed Kathrade, to retain our integrity?
Signs are indicators of places not yet reached. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead it was a sign. Lazarus would die a second time. For him it was a temporary reprieve. But raising someone from the dead is a powerful sign of the new way that Jesus proclaimed. If people everywhere, and especially those in authority, could begin to follow the enlightened judgements of their conscience, we would have a far better world. When Jesus rose from the dead he left the linen cloths behind him. But Lazarus emerged from the tomb still bound. All the complex ties and emotions we all experience still held him captive. If the Lord is “to Easter” in us we will need to be unbound.
2 April 2017                                         Lent Sunday 5 A

Ezekiel 37:12-14                                Romans 8:8-11                                  John 11:1-45

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