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Sermon - September 30th, 2007
The Great Gap
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Luke 16:19-31
Prayer of Preparation: We give thanks, O God of sacred stories, for the witness of our holy scripture. Through it you nurture our imaginations, touch our feelings, increase our awareness, and challenge our assumptions. Bless we pray, our hearing of your word this day. Speak to each of us; speak to all of us; and grant that by the power of your Spirit, we may be hearers and doers of your word. Amen.
It is reported that whenever someone shared with Carl Jung, “I have just been promoted!” Jung would respond, “I’m very sorry to hear that; but if we all stick together, I think we will get through it.” But then when someone shared with him, “I’ve just been fired.” Jung would respond, “Let’s celebrate! Open a bottle of wine; this is wonderful news; something good will happen now!”
Jesus was telling yet another story to the Pharisees who were grumbling about the company he kept, who were “lovers of money” (Luke tells us), and who were trying to ridicule Jesus. Jesus had told them the story of the lost sheep, lost coin, and the prodigal son—all who had been found followed by great rejoicing and partying into the night. Parables with happy endings. But then his stories became more perplexing, taking a turn toward the darker side of human nature. Maybe the Pharisee just weren’t getting the message that Jesus wanted them to get, because Jesus told the Pharisees, “You who justify yourselves in the sight of others—God knows your hearts. God knows your hearts.” It sounds like a warning, followed with a story.
Once upon a time there was a rich man and a poor man—disgustingly rich and despairingly poor. And although they lived in close proximity—there was a great distance between them. One was rich and one was poor and there was no bridge between them. When they crossed through the gate of death, the poor man, whose name was Lazarus was carried away by the angels to eternal rest in the bosom of Abraham. The rich man had a proper burial and found himself in the torment of Hades. Once again there was a great gap between them. And the rich man cried out in his suffering, “Have mercy on me! Send Lazarus to me to serve me with just a drop of water to cool my tongue.” But the rich man’s request was refused. He had already received his good things. Now the roles were reversed. The great gap between them was fixed for all eternity.
It’s a sad story with a tragic ending for those of us who are rich and in the global economy most of us here, maybe all of us, are rich. The question I wonder about, though, is what kind of story was this for Lazarus, for someone like Lazarus? Was it a happy ending for Lazarus?
This is a story of extremes and contrasts. There was a rich man, dressed in the most expensive clothing of the day, in the color purple, a color for royalty. He was a man who feasted every day. There was also the poor man, starving, lying helplessly at the rich man’s gate, yearning to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table. And when death comes to both—well, some would say that the rich man went to hell and the poor man went to heaven. But this is not a story about the afterlife. This is a story about now, today, the present.
One way to look at the story is that Jesus is confronting our faith in “prosperity theology” or “health and wealth theology.” This theology is the belief that God rewards the righteous, good, and faithful. After all, we can find scripture to back up this belief. Deuteronomy 28 promises fertility, prosperity, and victory in war to those who obey the Lord. Psalm 1 makes it very clear that the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but wicked will perish. Wealth has been linked with God’s favor. If you think this is just on Old Testament theology, listen to Luke 8, “For to those who have, more will be given, and from those who do not have, even what they seem to have will be taken away.” And Jesus even said, “the poor will always be with us.”
But then Jesus also tells us a story of the rich man and Lazarus—a tragic, awful story. There is nothing nice about oozing sores, slobbering dogs, the place of torment, and the great, fixed chasm. There is no grace in the story. It’s about a man whose was so stuck in his own way of life, blind to everything else, that he doesn’t even notice someone bleeding in front of him, at the gate of his estate until it’s too late to do anything about it. He was a victim of his own life. He ended up in the place of torment. Only then did he notice Lazarus. Only then did he get concerned about his five brothers ending up like him. But it was too late. Nothing could be done. The chasm was fixed forever. It is a story with no grace. The lost have been lost. The great gap between the two characters is never bridged—before or after death. Prosperity theology does not describe God at all. God does not hand out rewards and punishments. So, yes, the parable confronts our belief in such a God but it is also about more.
Let us remember that Jesus is telling this story FOR US. Jesus is on our side. Jesus is the giver of grace in all that he did and said. It’s true, he did not like at all the way people loved things more than God, and money more than their neighbor. God wants to give us the Kingdom. But all we want is linen suits, satin sheets, and a vacation in the Bahamas, oh, and an afterlife in the bosom of Abraham. God wants to give us brothers and sisters, but we are content in keeping up appearances. God wants to give us new life, life abundantly, and we are happy to get by with the part of the Bible that backs up our own lifestyle. God has given us this message over and over again—through Moses and the prophets. Now Jesus is saying—wake up, take off your blinders, don’t be a victim and don’t victimize others. Wake up, or all will be lost, all will be lost, like in the story you just heard. Yes, there is a limit, there is a time when it will be too late, when you will never be able to bridge the gap. That’s why there is no time like the present. You are at a crossroads now, today, at this moment. Which way will you choose? Will you build bridges or will you build walls?
God is in favor of building bridges. God is in favor of choosing life. God is in favor of us finding ways of peace. God is in favor of establishing and building relationships.
When we succeed in cutting ourselves off from others, when we learn how to live with the misery of other people by convincing ourselves that they deserve it, when we defend our own good fortune as God’s blessing and decline to see how our lives are quilted together with all other lives, then we are the losers. That’s the story of Lazarus and the rich man—and, not because of what God will do to us, but because of what we have done to ourselves. Who do you think fixed that chasm in the story? God? No, it’s about us. We fix the chasms between us and them.
So, let me tell you the good news in this story. The story is not over. For the rich man and Lazarus in the story, yes. But not for us. Let me tell you why. In this story, we are the five brothers, we are the rest of the story. Even though Father Abraham will not let Lazarus come back from the grave to tell us his story, it has been leaked. Jesus is the snitch. We HAVE the story. We also have the Moses story and the prophets AND someone who rose from the dead to convince us it is true. All that remains to be seen is what we will do with our one wild and precious life, OUR story. Will we allow God’s good news to be our saving grace? Will we allow God’s story to affect OUR story?
The biggest clue in the story that I see in this story is given to us in the very first verse. “…at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus.” It wasn’t about helping someone far away. It wasn’t about seeking out something righteous to do. It wasn’t about worshipping and praying the right way. It was about seeing who was at his gate, for God’s sake. It was about helping the person he nearly tripped over every day! It was about noticing him. It was about waking up to something that should have been slapping him in the face. It was about not taking that great gap for granted and believing he could do something. A very small act of kindness, something, anything…. But Lazarus did not exist to the rich man until they died and the roles were reversed. Only then it was too late.
It is not too late for us. We can open our hearts, just a crack, that’s all God needs. We can open our eyes to a better way, even if we squint, that’s all God needs. We need to, though, because it is the only way to bridge the gaps between us and them, in our own neighborhoods. Because Jesus just won’t let it go. Jesus won’t let us go. Over and over again, Jesus looks us squarely in the face and proclaims that God has shown us the way over and over again. We just have to open our eyes and our hearts to see and feel it. Let God in. Let others in. Now. Today. The rich man didn’t do it. But we can. We can do it. So seize the moment. Bridge the gap. Close the chasm. It’s the only way to peace and reconciliation and life. It is the only way. And it will be our saving grace.
Amen.