There is a new addition to the blog this week. We have worked out the ability to record sermons during our contemporary praise and worship service at Bethany, so this week there is audio to go along with the manuscript. I have intentionally not altered the manuscript beyond my final edits. I have not adjusted it to match the text so there will be some differences between the two.
Peace,
Travis
The sermon this week is based on Luke 16:19-31.
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
One of the most difficult aspects of life that I experienced during my time in Chicago was the poverty. I did not see a great deal of poverty growing up in Brenham. I know that it is there, just as there is poverty here in Fredericksburg, but I did not come across it much as a child. While I was not shocked at what I encountered, the amount of poverty I witnessed in Chicago was staggering. And the worst part was the panhandlers.
Now I know there is real need, but I learned very quickly that not all who beg for change are actually in need. I was told by my ethics professor during new student orientation not to give money to anyone in the neighborhood because, as he put it, “some of them have worked here longer than I have.” Some of those begging had houses in the suburbs and acted the part of a beggar, making tens of thousands of dollars in a year based on the good will of others. Needless to say, I was jaded to the act of handing out money. But I still saw the poverty. In doorways, outside of restaurants, in the alleyways, I saw the hungry faces of the poor and needy. And it broke my heart. I was safe from it in my apartment and at school, but in the permeable spaces of life, in the space between comforts, I saw the need. And I struggled with it. I wonder if that’s how we are to understand the rich man in this parable. I wonder if he struggled with the need of Lazarus.
On the surface, this parable starts out in a rather simple manner. A rich man dresses well and dines lavishly every evening in what we can assume is a large, well-decorated house. A poor man named Lazarus lays at his gate hungry and desiring the scrapes that fall from the table. This is an accurate picture from the time of Jesus, and if we are honest, in our own times as well. The rich are well dressed and fed, the poor lie in squalor. We get no other details from Jesus. No list of merits. No reasons for the status of either man. Just a picture of wealth and poverty.
Then then Jesus moves away from the expected. The poor man, Lazarus, dies and is taken by the angels to the bosom of Abraham and the rich man, still un-named dies and is buried and wakes up in Hades, the Greek concept of the afterlife. This reverses what the crowd would have expected and I think it catches us off guard as well. The rich man would have been seen as someone blessed by God, to find him separated from God is shocking. Lazarus, ridiculously poor, is assumed to have gotten what he deserved from some sin he committed on earth. But the roles are reversed by Jesus. And the parable moves on into a chat between the rich man and Abraham. But let’s remain here for a moment.
While it seems like a minor detail, it is important to notice how and where Lazarus enters the story. He is literally tossed by the gate of the rich man. Our reading this morning said that he was “laid” the rich man’s gate, but the Greek rendering is not so passive. The word used by Luke paints a picture of Lazarus being tossed at the gate of the rich man, left for dead by someone who didn’t know what to do with him. Lazarus is literally tossed out, a throw away, potentially to be collected with the Monday morning trash. He is a nobody. And there he lays at the gate.
Now the gate may seem like a minor detail, a descriptive clue to set the scene, but we should not move too quickly and dismiss the place as not important. The gate tells us a great deal about the story. We can imagine that the rich man lives in a lavish compound. A Mediterranean villa complete with high walls, palms trees, and a swimming pool. It is a house built to display wealth and I am sure it has a fence to keep all of the undesirables out. So the gate is an access point. A place of entrance for the rich man and his guests. A hole in the wall. A permeable space. And its where we find Lazarus. Lazarus is tossed into the in-between space, a potential place of contact between him and the rich man. The gate is important for us to notice because it is how God encounters us in the journey of faith and it is where we encounter others (neighbor and stranger) in this world.
Our God has always encountered the world through permeable space. That’s why the call to hear Moses and the prophets is so important in the final verses of the parable. The witness of Moses and the prophets points us to the truth that God encounters the world through permeable space. If we dig back into Moses and the prophets we are immersed in God’s mercy to those in need. God calls the people to acts of justice and mercy in the permeable spaces in our world. God calls to the people through Moses to leave the edges of the field unharvested, to leave some grain on the stalks and grapes on the vine for the poor and immigrant passing through the land. It is on the edges of the fields, in the permeable space, that nourishment is provided for those in need.
God calls the people to look out for the orphan and the widow, those who were pushed to the margins over and over again because they were left out of the social hierarchy. The orphans and widows existed in permeable space, not sure who would take care of them, so the people are called to rally together to their aid.
God calls through the prophets for the people to be lovers of justice. The prophet Amos reminds the people that the gates of the city were to be places of justice. “Hate evil and love good, and establish justice at the gate,” cries Amos. The permeable space of the city is where justice is done because that’s where people encounter one another. The permeable spaces are where life happens, where forgiveness is acted out, and where love is embodied in the encounter with the neighbor and stranger.
And then there’s Jesus himself. Jesus, God incarnate in the world, comes to us in the permeable space of life. Jesus teaches us how to live in the here and now, in permeable space, the space between the world as it is in it’s fallen state, and the kingdom God that is coming into the world. Jesus’ ministry takes place in everyday life, Jesus reaches out to those in need, lifting them out of brokenness and restoring them to life. And it is this life that leads to the cross. Even here in chapter 16, Jesus‘ face is set towards Jerusalem and perhaps he knows the cross is coming.
It is on the cross, the ultimate permeable space between life and death, that God’s love is poured out for the world. God transcends the space between the world as it is and the kingdom that is to come, and in the process, gives new life to all people through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God encounters us in permeable space and gives us new life. And Jesus calls us to follow this example.
So today let’s think about our permeable spaces. The front door, the parking lot, main street, the high school hallway. The very streets of our neighborhood. We are set free to live into these spaces. But it’s not always easy. Sometimes we judge and put up boundaries. We set rules in place to keep others away. For me it was trying to control the permeable spaces in Chicago – I tried to set limits on the kingdom of God. I keep what I thought was mine with tight fists. I was unwilling to share. And the more I think about it, the more I come to realize that it was not even about my stuff, but about how I would rarely acknowledged the other as a child of God. I would not try to learn their name or build a relationship. And that’s where the rubber hits the road, in building relationships.
When we recognize the child of God in the neighbor and in the stranger, we learn how to use our blessings to meet their needs. Encountering the neighbor and the stranger in the permeable spaces of our lives is about building relationships and sharing the wealth that God has blessed us with, be it money, or possessions, or time. When we remember that we are blessed, we realize that we are called to be a blessing to others.
Friends in Christ, every day is an opportunity to live into the new life we have in Christ. Over and over again we travel through permeable spaces on a journey of faith. And it’s in these fluid spaces that we have a chance to live out the grace and mercy of God. In living out God’s love and mercy we continue the story of Moses the prophets and Jesus. We establish relationships. We extend grace. We embody the kingdom of God in this world.
Friends, we are a blessed people and we are blessed in this place. As you go back out into the permeable spaces of your lives this week, remember that your are a beloved child of God and that you are blessed. And in being blessed, you have the opportunity to be a blessing to others.
No comments:
Post a Comment