Judson began its Fall Chapel series September 4 with a message from Mrs. Stephanie Peek, Assistant Professor and Head of the Religious Studies Department. She spoke from John 11:1-44, the story of Jesus’s raising of Lazarus from the dead. Peek focused on verse 44 for her reminder to the Judson community; when Lazarus came out of the tomb in his grave clothes, Jesus commanded his community, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
“In spite of their anger, doubt, feelings of loss, pain, grief, their own shortcomings of belief–even before they fully understood what He was doing–Jesus invited them to be a part of what he was doing,” Peek said.
“You have a part to play,” she continued. “We have seen the darkness in the world around us…We’ve been called out of the grave into new life, and we are to be about the work of unbinding one another–of letting God’s people go.”
Referencing Isaiah 42, Peek said, “The prophets preached a message based on this very word–that God works on behalf of God’s people, but God’s people are required to act with Him. The community of faith is a place where we work to loose one another from the chains that bind us, from the pains that burden our souls. We do this together that we might fulfill the commands of the Lord to open the eyes that are blind, to set the prisoner free, to bring out of the darkness those who are in it.”
Peek encouraged Judson students to be involved in local church communities in Perry County, joining them “at the forefront of this revolutionary work”. She also encouraged them to grow as a learning community that encourages and cares for one another. “Be raised, be free, and go,” Peek charged her listeners. “Be part of a place whose message is this: ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’”
The next Judson Chapel service will be at 11:05am on Tuesday, September 11 in Ramsay-McCrummen Chapel. The public is welcome to attend.