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All Saints’ Day

John 11
32When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ 35Jesus began to weep. 36So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ 37But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’
38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39Jesus 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.’ 40Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42I 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.’ 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ 44The 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.’


O grave, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?

Jesus waited in the land of the Jordan, some twenty miles away, before he returned to Bethany and his friends in need. He knew his friend Lazarus was dying, but has his own idea how to proceed.

Two days they waited, and puzzled that Jesus would tarry. But when he finally resolved to go, the disciples feared the day. Too close to Jerusalem, Bethany was a danger from those who opposed Jesus and his way.

He went, nonetheless, and when he arrived he learned that Lazarus was dead, dead four days in his tomb. He found a scene of great sadness, and some angry friends who couldn’t understand his delay. “My brother would be alive if you came sooner,” one sister says, and her sister repeats it to make sure we hear the same.

Jesus weeps for their weeping, and says, “where have you laid him?” At the tomb he says, “roll this stone away.” And they do. Jesus is intent on showing them the glory of God that day, and so he bows his head: “I pray so that your children can hear, Lord, that they can believe. Thank you for hearing my plea.” Looking up, he called into the cave, “Come out, Lazarus, come out! Unbind this man, death, and let him go!”

O grave, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?

“The Unfortunate Rake”
“Young Sailor Cut Down in His Prime”
“The Streets of Larado”
“St. James’ Infirmary”

The song our friends played a moment ago is perhaps the most enduring and most adaptable song ever written. The earliest written versions come from 18th century England, where the “unfortunate rake” tells his story, cut down by the peril facing every soldier on furlough and every sailor in port since the beginning of time (wink, if you know what I mean).

Eventually the song comes to America, adapted into a cowboy song where cards and drinking and a six-shooter prove the end of a young man ‘cut down in his prime.’ Then there’s the blues version, which returns the original title “St. James’ Infirmary” but makes our young man into a woman:

I went down to St. James Infirmary,
Saw my baby there,
Set down on a long white table,
So sweet, so cold, so fair.
Let her go, let her go, God bless her,
Wherever she may be,
She can look this wide world over,
She'll never find a sweet man like me.

It seems an add twist, to go from a cautionary tale about fast living to a lament that a newly departed fair maiden will never find someone quite like the artist singing. But such is the license of folk and blues (and jazz) and the charm of Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Artie Shaw and countless others who have made this an important standard.

The best version of St. James’ Infirmary features an animated Cab Calloway lamenting over the death of Betty Boop. It’s hard to find, created before the so-called “Hays Code” that turned Hollywood into a boring source of virtue after 1930. But the theme continued, with the death of that naughty Betty Boop replaced by the Acme Portable Hole and the frequent death of a certain coyote.

O grave, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?

The St. James’ Hospital was torn down in 1532 by a very greedy King who wanted to build a palace on the spot. This tells me that we’re being entertained by a 500 year-old folk song. What gives a song staying power? What can we expect to learn from this song well into the future, long after “Thriller” no longer thrills and disco is finally and truly dead?

I think we can learn that this 'warning song' is hardly a warning at all. It isn’t really a song about death by misadventure as much as a song about death itself. It is the oldest theme we have, the only theme with any staying power, the theme that will outlive all other themes and never die itself.

So what shall we say, on this All Saints’ Day, about the oldest theme we have? It’s the only theme that can make a 500 year-old song better and better and make Jesus weep. It’s the only theme that can make us pine after the saints in light. And pine after the likes of Dr. King and Rosa Parks, who made justice sound like beautiful jazz. It’s the only theme that can move us and stop us and send us to our knees.

And it’s the only theme that speaks to our humanity. First we ask: Who have we, as humans, consigned to the realm of death? Who’s in that cave with Lazarus, making a stink, ready to be unbound from the realm of death? A billion go hungry, with food enough to spare. Many live under tyranny, and only dream about the freedom we take for granted. We enjoy a living unparalleled in human history while the people who belong to this land live in squalor “reserved” for them alone.

O grave, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?

And Jesus weeps for their weeping, and says, “roll this stone away.” Jesus is intent on showing them the glory of God, and so he bows his head: “I pray so that your children can hear, Lord, that they can believe. Looking up, he calls into the cave, “Come out, friends, come out!”

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, and guide them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from the eye of Mary, and Martha, and everyone who has tasted death.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 12:09 PM