The reading
Luke 16:19-31
"There
was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted
sumptuously every day. And at his gate
lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what
fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the
angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he
looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, "Father Abraham, have
mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my
tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' But Abraham said, "Child, remember that
during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner
evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great
chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you
cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' He said, "Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn
them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the
prophets; they should listen to them.' 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 listen to
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises
from the dead.'
The message
I am going to start this morning by admitting this
has not been a pleasant text to face, work with or find joy in this week I have
to start with a few details or notes. First, this is a parable, like so many
others, meant to teach us about God’s kingdom.
This story is not God’s revelation on what happens after we die or God’s
law on how we get to heaven or hell (We cannot talk about those things without the
death and resurrection of Jesus). Actually Hades, where the rich man is, is not
eternal hell. It is the greek work for the Hebrew concept of Sheol, meaning
gathering place for the dead. In the New
Testament, it is a place where people are awaiting God’s final Judgment. The central pain there is the realization of
how far from God you are. It’s not the end of the line but its awful close
Two of the main characters in this parable are the
gate outside the rich man’s house and that space between heaven and Hades. (I
know they are not people but they influence the movement action and meaning of
the story greatly). In the case of the
gate, the rich man is the gatekeeper, deciding who is in and out, who can pass
and who is left out. In the case of the chasm between heaven and hades, all we
are told is that Abraham, the great and faithful father of many nations, Lazarus or the rich man are not the
gatekeeper. For several hours a week (if
not more), I am a gate keeper. I am not
the gatekeeper for the kingdom and promises of God (Jesus has that under
control and did not ask me for my help deciding who can enter or who receives
forgiveness, my orders are that those priceless things are for all people and to give those priceless things away). Instead, I work as the gate keeper for 7201 43rd
avenue (that’s our building). I have to
decide what teams can use the gym at what times, when the churches who share
the space with us can be in particular area, if we can fit a special event on
the calendar or rearrange things to help ministries thrive. I have to deal with situations when people
are staying too long or using space at a time they were not given. During this work, I have had to disappoint
and welcome, telling some groups and events they cannot come back and managing
to find a spot for churches or other groups in need. The waiting list of teams, churches and
groups interested in meeting, playing, launching or growing their ministries
here is long. I find myself having to tell churches in hard situations who
cannot afford their rent at other sites, we have no space for you. I find myself telling people, even friends I
have done ministry with for years “you cannot come here”. Sometimes I even find myself telling our
council or a church member, we cannot really use that spot at that time, it’s
been promised to someone else.
Overall, it has been a great experience, a time of
building new relationships and shaping how I see ministry but sometimes, I get
overwhelmed and anxious, and I hate this sort of work. It’s never perfect. Some decisions are mistakes, some kill
ministries, derail plans or leave groups with no place to go. Some events keep me up late or in the building
early, while many help our community thrive, a few do not. There is no other
way to do this. We only have 1 gym, 1
sanctuary, 1 school and a few meeting rooms.
There are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. There is also pressure, the very strong
possibility that without this sharing of the space, our church would not be
turning 150 years old in a few weeks.
That’s my gate, well I think and act like its mine
but really it’s this community’s gate. Fortunately, the kingdom of God is different;
there is plenty of room for everyone
In the parable, we have the rich man’s gate outside his house (which we
are lead to assume is an ostentatious, gaudy, bragging celebration of his
wealth). This gate is a physical and
metaphorical separation between the rich man and poor Lazarus. In life, the rich man has the best of
everything Lazarus on the other hand was suffering, poor and ritually unclean.
We have no idea how Lazarus came to be in this situation. This division and
separation between them could be healed if the rich man wanted (I originally
wrote, easily healed but that is not true, helping someone actually get and
stay out of poverty is a very complicated, exhausting and frustrating process,
it is not a matter of throwing someone a meal, a bag of rice and a few
dollars). Whatever the cost, it’s his
gate and he can choose who can enter his world. The rich man’s sin is not
failing to fix poverty, his sin does not even seem to be ignoring Lazarus
(Lazarus is the only named character in any of Jesus parables found in Luke’s
gospel, he was known by the rich man, by the community and most importantly, by
God). The rich man goes wrong by embracing the separation between them. His
belief that because of what they had, they were separate and extremely unequal
is what gets him in trouble. (You get the sense that he believes God favors and
rewards the rich with riches and God dislikes or punishes the poor with
poverty)
While Lazarus and the rich man were separated in
life by a beautiful and complicated gate, after death, this is amplified. They
are now separated by an impassable barrier, a chasm that even someone as
faithful and important as Abraham cannot pass. This is Jesus telling the crowd “hey in life, you
like being behind your gates so much, well how do you like it now that you are
on the bad side and no one will or can help you).
Finally, we have to ask, where is the news of grace
in this one. If you think this is a
story about sinners or rich, abusive, greedy and unconcerned people getting
what they deserve, there is no grace. If you think this is a fire and brimstone
story to scare people into faith, there is no grace. If you think this is a story about removing
gates and barriers, the grace is at the end, when the rich man is told "If
they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced
even if someone rises from the dead.'
In a few weeks, we will hear the good news of Easter, that someone is risen from the dead. The rich man could not pass that gate between
heaven and hades, Lazarus could not pass, I cannot pass, you cannot pass, even
Abraham could not pass, but Jesus did.
If you are like me and do not want to go to hell, depend on God’s grace, depend on Jesus
and live like you know it.
That’s the main gate, but we still have all the
others. Jennifer and I went on our first
date to a public art exhibit in Central Park called “the Gates”. It was miles of these large, reddish orange
banners hung throughout the park. The
idea was to visualize all of the gates we cross in life, all of the social,
economic, geographical, educational, racial, gender, religious and other
barriers we have in the world that separate us from each other. Today, Jesus invites us to realize he has
that gate between heaven and hell taken care of, we need to work on the rest,
to see one another as children of God, desperate to hear some good news.
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