A Great Chasm
Ms. Carolyn Seaton, Episcopal Lay Chaplain
Kay Spiritual Life Center
September 26, 2004
I Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31
Today’s lesson from the gospel of Luke contains a startling parable. A few verses earlier in the chapter, Jesus has told the Pharisees, “You cannot serve God and wealth.” The writer of Luke tells us, “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him.” In their theology, wealth was a sign of God’s blessing, and poverty was a sign of God’s displeasure. When Jesus challenged this belief, they scoffed.
Jesus follows with this parable in which there are two main characters. The rich man, not identified by name in the gospel, has by tradition been given the name of Dives, which is Latin for “rich.” He has the symbols of wealth of his time—he wears purple robes. Purple dye was expensive; only royalty and the wealthy could afford it. If he were with us today he might wear an Armani suit, Gucci loafers, or LaCoste polos and the best Nikes. He’d want us to see all the labels of status.
Lazarus is the opposite of the rich man. He’s covered not with purple robes but with sores. He’s so hungry he covets the table scraps. The dogs are licking his wounds. Dogs were considered unclean, but even the dogs paid attention. But the rich man does NOTHING to help. He doesn’t even say, “Let someone else help,” or “Let them dial 9ll” or “Call the police to have this unsightly person removed” —or, more charitably, “Send him to the Salvation Army.” This human being is beneath his notice. Interestingly, Lazarus is the only person in any of Jesus’s parables to be named. His name is a version of Eleazer, which means, “God heals.”
God does heal, in His way. Both men die. The rich man is next seen in Hades, which for our purposes, we can consider A Place of Torment. Lazarus, on the other hand, is in Abraham’s bosom, a blessed place to be in the afterlife. Here, his sores and sorrows are healed. NOW the rich man notices him, still not as a fully human being, worthy of respect, but as a person dimly seen, but one who can be of service to him—one who can bring him water. Surely, Lazarus could dip his finger in the water and just bring him a drop to soothe his thirst in the flames?
Who does the rich man address? Father Abraham. He’s used to going right to the top. Surely Abraham will listen to someone of such importance. How does Abraham respond? He calls him “child.” There’s a painful irony in that. He calls him “child,” but he can’t help him. “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 . . .” There’s a great chasm. It’s God’s world and the rules are set. No one crosses the chasm. A time has come when there’s no way to reach across the gulf. Each is left to God’s justice.
Then the rich man, understanding that there’s to be no help for him, remembers his brothers–not the whole suffering world, not his neighbors… just his brothers. He widens his circle of remembrance and care just that far. He knows he didn’t repent in time, but he begs, please get the word to my brothers. Tell them there really are consequences. Tell them to mind Moses and the prophets. I let it slide, but they must not.
Now this is not really a parable about the blueprints of heaven and hell, and it’s not meant to tell us whether there is wireless phone service from one to the other. This parable is what one scholar has called The Great Reversal. Jesus is reminding us that our God is a God of justice and a God who surprises us by reversing what we think is the natural order of the world. Don’t we think that the rich always win and the poor always lose? Jesus reminds us that this will not always be so. This parable is both a sign of hope and a warning.
As Jesus tells it, Abraham points to the Law and the Prophets as the ways to righteousness. The rich man’s five brothers should listen to them! What was the message of the Law? The Jewish law said no one is to mistreat widows, orphans, or “aliens;” that tithes should be taken to the temple to support these members of the lower rungs of society; and that they should be included in hospitality and celebrations. Gleanings, the bits and pieces left after the harvest, should be left for the poor to gather; every seventh year, debts must be forgiven. Under the Law, Jews were commanded to observe justice and to refrain from exploiting workers.
And what about the prophets? Do you know that archaeologists have found in the ruins of ancient Israel periods when the houses were the same size, and the artifacts were of equal value? During those periods there is not a lot of distance between the top and bottom levels of society. And during those times, the Biblical prophets seem to have been silent. But archaeologists’ diggings uncover other periods when huge houses co-existed with little hovels, and the objects found show great disparities in the economic conditions. During THOSE times the prophets were most outspoken, denouncing the gaps in wealth and the neglect of the poor. . During such a period Amos said: “Alas, for those who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches…who sing idle songs.”
The Law and the prophets don’t necessarily condemn wealth but they insist that it be shared. In this parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Abraham points to the Law and to the teachings of the prophets, and the gospel writer shows him to be pessimistic about the chances that the five brothers will listen to them. The rich man, too, says no, you have to send someone back from the dead before they will listen. The writer of Luke, writing, of course, after the Resurrection of Jesus, knows that few have listened even after that stunning event. Abraham says, no if they didn’t follow the Law, and pay attention to the words of the prophets, a mere resurrection isn’t going to convince them either.
Let’s fast-forward to a more modern world. What have our “prophets,” few though they may be, said about the gap between the rich and the poor? How have they responded to this parable? For a man by the name of Albert Schweitzer, eventually a Nobel Prize Winner, possessor of three doctoral degrees, one of Europe’s best concert organists, author of studies of Bach, and of Jesus, this parable had so much power, that in 1900 he left his prosperity and success in Europe and left for Africa. Dr. Albert Schweitzer– one of the great humanitarians of the 20th century–claimed that this single story of Lazarus gnawed at him and nagged at him, pulled at his heart. He became convinced that Africa was like the poor man, covered with sores, lying at the gate of a wealthy Europe. So, he went to Africa to found a hospital and a leper colony, to heal the sick in the name of Christ. It was this story of the rich man and Lazarus that so radically altered his life.
Another prophet of our time, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was murdered in front of his altar for his advocacy of the poor, said in a sermon that, “The absolute desire of ‘having more’ encourages the selfishness that destroys communal bonds among the children of God. It does so because the idolatry of riches prevents the majority from sharing the goods that the Creator has made for all, and in the all-possessing minority it produces an exaggerated pleasure in these goods.” That sounds about right to me. Romero’s words also seem to reflect the words in I Timothy that we heard read this evening: “But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction . . . For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”
Do you know that the United States is number one in the industrialized world in its number of millionaires AND in the number of its elders and children who are living in poverty? Do you know that the three richest families in the world today, Bill Gates, The Sultan of Brunei, and the Waltons, have greater net worth than the 48 poorest nations of the world combined?
Another may-be prophet who lives right here in our city, and whose organization, “Sojourners” some of you visited last week, Jim Wallis, wrote recently that the gap between the rich and poor–the chasm–has never been so wide and he says we’ve gotten comfortable with the idea of the “survival of the fittest,” this time not biologically but economically. If you can’t make it to the top of the economic heap, then. . .”that’s life.” But, Wallis adds, “Moral evolution, as both the Jewish and Christian scriptures assure us, works exactly the opposite. We evolve morally not by the survival of the fittest, but through the survival of the weakest. The biblical gauge
for morality within any culture is always how its weakest members fare. Lately that hasn’t been very well.”
It’s at least as hard for us to pay attention as it was for Dives. We know that the Law, the prophets, and Jesus called for A Great Reversal, but the messages coming at us from all directions are so constant. At the same time the people of those 48 nations—and many here–live in crushing poverty, hunger, and disease, we see and hear ads and messages almost continually promising us abundance. In this culture of spiritual poverty, it’s easy to forget that this is not what Jesus meant by having life “more abundantly.”
You know our society as well as I, and I’m sure you are as appalled as I am. But what, in the name of God, are we as individuals to do? I realize I’m “preaching to the choir” because you are the students who fed the homeless in DuPont Circle on Friday evening, who go on mission trips, who practice compassion. I know we each want to do MORE, but hey, we here are students, chaplains, clergy—we have no big money, nor do we have enough time. I don’t have all the answers for you, and I sure don’t have all the answers for myself. For what it’s worth, however, I might have a few inklings: As Christians, I believe we are called to examine the value we place on money in our lives and in our spending—to ask ourselves, how much do I really NEED? I believe we are called to VOTE, this year and always, according to our faith and our values; and I believe we are called to join others in missions of social justice, be they missions involving giving of our time, money, possessions, or political actions.
In this parable Jesus says justice is coming, and he calls us to choose whether we stand with the heedless rich man or whether we notice and help the Lazaruses in our midst. He also seems to say that in terms of crossing that great chasm, a time can come when it is too late. Amen.
