Deering Community Church

HOW DO WE BRIDGE THE GAP?

Scripture: 1 Timothy 6: 6-19, Luke 16: 19-31

Well here we go again — another sermon on the rich and the poor. Luke is relentless. And that is because Jesus talks more about money and wealth, the rich and the poor than almost any thing else. Even before he was born his mother Mary declared in the hymn of praise traditionally called the Magnificat, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly: (Luke 1:52). In the last few chapters of Luke, the Pharisees and lawyers are challenged to give alms, (11:39-41); the rich fool forfeited his soul because he built new barns to store up more possessions rather than share them (12:13-21); the outcasts were called to the great banquet (14:15-24); and later in that same chapter Jesus tells his disciples that the cost of discipleship is giving up all their possessions. Luke continues with Jesus’ parables of the dishonest steward, the prodigal son, and now the rich man and Lazarus.

Let me quickly recap this story: We have two very contrasting figures: the rich man who dressed in purple cloth and fine linen, whose every meal was a sumptuous feast, and who lived behind the gate, and Lazarus, a poor beggar, covered with sores, who laid outside the gate. (By the way the name Lazarus means God helps and this is the only parable Jesus ever told where he gave a name to a character.)

The two men could see each other as their days passed by. The rich man even knew Lazarus’ name, all the more horrible to be aware of his suffering and do nothing. Both men died. We are told that angels carried Lazarus up to the bosom of Abraham, a very honored place to go. The rich man ended up being tormented in Hades, the place for eternal punishment for the wicked. However, the rich man could see across the chasm, the gap, the gulf to Abraham and Lazarus. Even in the fires of Hades, this man still felt he was privileged and so yelled over to Abraham to send Lazarus to cool him off. Abraham lets him know that the tables had turned — Jesus’ reversal theology. On earth the rich man received good things and Lazarus suffered; now the rich man would remain in agony and Lazarus would be comforted. Also Abraham pointed out that the chasm was fixed so that no one could pass over for here to there or from there to here. About this time the rich man finally seemed to at least half way get it and begged that Lazarus would be sent to his father’s house to warn his five brothers about what was in store for them. Abraham points out that they already had Moses and the prophets who taught them what was right so they only had to listen to them. If they didn’t listen to them, why would they listen to Lazarus?

This parable has two places of division and separation. First on earth there is the separation of the rich man behind the gate; and the poor, sick Lazarus on the other side. Then in heaven there is the gap or chasm between the righteous such as Abraham and Lazarus and those like the rich man who are sentenced to eternal torment. It is this motif of separation that I want us to focus on this morning.

It is very easy for most of us to shrug off Jesus’ talk about the rich by thinking well that’s not me. In fact many of us may feel relatively poor in contrast to some of the wealthier folks in our towns. In the United States the threshold to be counted as under the poverty line is if a family has an income less than $18,250 for a family of 4 (although most analysts agree that a basic budget for a family or 4 is from $27,000 to 52,000 depending on where the family lives. In 2002 the poverty figure in this country was 34.6 million or 12.1%. The most recent figures that came out in August showed this number had gone up to 35.9 million. Let’s compare this to the rest of the world. The world population is 6.3 billion people. More than 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 a day. So no matter how poor you may feel, you would be seen as quite rich by many people in the world. There is a great distance, a big gap between Lazarus and the rich man and between the haves and have nots in this country. It wasn’t always this way. According to Dean William Willimon from Duke, in the early 1800’s Alexis de Tocqueville visited America and was struck by the overall equality of conditions among the citizens — few very rich and few terribly poor. De Tocqueville felt that this was indeed fertile soil for democracy. Somewhere and somehow that has changed. Even in 1970 Americans were much more economically equal, about as equalitarian as we ever been. Things like Social Security, veterans programs, the civil rights movement all contributed to this economic equality. But then things began to change. Most of the economic growth, especially the great computer/internet explosion, benefited the wealthiest among us. The gap between the rich and the poor may now be the biggest it’s been in 50 years with the richest one percent having nearly as much wealth as the entire bottom 95%. We have many Lazarus’s at the gate.

It’s not only Jesus that admonished us about sharing our wealth with the poor. From way back in Moses and the prophets’ time, God has insisted that the way we treat the poor will be connected to how God deals with us. They told us to look after the widow and the orphan, do justice for the alien and the stranger in your land, take care of your neighbor and care for those who are suffering. Jesus says it very strongly in Matthew 25 in the passage that talks about feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, visiting those in prison and says as we do those things or not, we are doing them, or not, to Jesus.

What is the great chasm in our society that keeps us from seeing and noticing the poor? Have we succeeded consciously or unconsciously to put them out of the line of sight? In the bigger cities and suburbs there are more and more gated communities to keep the undesirables away from those who can afford these housing markets. There are freeways that take us away from the cities where most of our homeless poor congregate. One thing I like about rural life is that there is more side by side living of the different classes, but then how many poor live around Deering Lake? Even though they may have a home there because of inheritance or just buying many years ago, even many of the middle class may not be able to afford to continue living there because of the increased assessments and high taxes.

Getting more personal and local, what about the person that may be sitting in the pew next to you? Is it possible that they do not have enough money to cover their next house payment? Are there medical bills so great that there is not enough money left to buy school clothes for the children? Do we sit next to them and not know what their struggle is? New Englanders are proud people and find it hard to ask for help or to even let their neighbors know how bad it is.

In Biblical times the popular belief was that wealth was a blessing from God, and that poverty or illness was an indication of unworthiness, punishment by God. This parable may be an attack against this belief. In our own time we often hear about the deserving poor — the children, the minimum wage workers, the elderly, the disabled. Have you ever heard anyone say, “They made their bed, let them lie in it.” As a social worker I would often hear comments like this about unwed mothers, welfare mothers with multiple children, as well as those with HIV or AIDS.

This parable to me is very much about apathy and numbness. I get scared when I see myself getting more and more numb to the overwhelming suffering around me. This can so easily happen whether it is the suicide bombings, war casualties, Sudan genocide, hurricane damage or something else. Part of the reason for numbness is to protect oneself from being torn apart. There seems to be so many tragedies; if it’s not the things I just mentioned it can be homelessness, child prostitution, children starving to death, children orphaned because AIDS. Let’s help each other to be sensitive; keep each other from numbness. This is something I’m very serious about.

Before moving on to look at how we might bridge the gap, I want to address the issue of being rich. Jesus has said that it is harder for a rich man to get into heaven than a camel to go through the eye of the needle. When his disciples asked about this, Jesus replied that what is impossible for mortals is possible for God. In this parable the rich man is not condemned for being rich but for his indifference and uncaring attitude toward poor Lazarus. Remember that Abraham, one of God’s most favored persons, was extremely rich as were others whom God blessed such as David and Solomon. One doesn’t have to be rich to be greedy and uncaring, nor does one have to be financially poor to get into heaven.

Paul in his letter to Timothy talks about those who are in the present age rich. After pointing out that we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing our of the world as well as that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, he goes on to give us some helpful advice about how we can bridge the gap. He says that the rich must not be haughty or set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. Instead they should set their hopes on God, the one who richly provides us with everything. I quote v. 18-19, “They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”

In my research I found out that it was this parable of Lazarus and the rich man that was instrumental in Albert Schweitzer leaving his home in Britain to go to Africa to help God’s people there. He concluded that the rich man was Europe and Lazarus was Africa. He felt called to go personally and touch Lazarus in his healing work in Africa. That is the way he chose to use himself to fill the gap. What can you do to fill the gap?

There’s a song you may remember — I couldn’t find it on the Web, but it goes something like this: Reach out and touch a spirit that is hungry; reach out and touch a soul in despair; reach out and touch a life torn and dirty, a man or woman who is lonely . . . if you dare.

Each of us can bridge the gap, cross the chasm if we dare. We are all unique and have to find the way that works best for us. Not everyone is going to be able to do outreach with the homeless or live with people diagnosed with major mental illness, but we all can do something. Paul tells Timothy to “fight the good fight of the faith”. I pray that each of us will dare to reach out and touch the Lazarus’s of our communities and our world. Praise be to God. Amen.

Copyright © 2003 Deering Community Church
Last modified: 03/06/2006