Your Way Out

Pentecost 15 Proper 20 

September 25, 2022

Fr. Tim Nunez

When we lived in Belleview, the Belleview City Cemetery was on the way to our house. It was on the right heading home. Across the street from the main part of it, on the left, was a modest mausoleum – above ground niches for caskets, two sets, each 3 rows high and 12 across. By modest I mean there was no decorative architecture, just two rectangular structures and not even any landscaping, just grass.

For the longest time, years, one of those niches had a for sale sign on it. Driving by it every day, I got to thinking, How would that list on Realtor.com or Zillow? “One room, Eternal Studio apartment…unfurnished…quiet neighborhood…classic style…free parking…”

In all honesty, it did serve as a reminder of the inescapable reality that we all face death. Today’s Gospel brings that into sharp focus. It does so in an interesting context. Last week’s passage ended with Jesus teaching, “You cannot serve God and wealth.” The very next verse Luke tells us the Pharisees ridiculed him for saying that; ridiculed him!

All of that sets them up for this parable. In some respects, it feels as though Jesus loads and springs a trap on them, but it is a trap of their own construction. On one side, they have pursued and demanded strict adherence to the visible aspects of the law. They have pursued an unrighteous literalism.

Where God said, “Keep my statutes on your mind,” they made little wooden boxes called phylacteries which held little rolls of scripture and they hung them on their foreheads. In other words they made a big display of their piety. The premise for all of that was obedience, yes, and with an eye toward eternal life.

They were correct in seeing that our decisions have eternal consequences, but they think the eternal consequences are going to be like earthly ones. They saw prosperity as a heavenly reward and being poor and miserable as consequences of sin. They missed the fullness of the Law and the Spirit coursing through it, including the care and concern God demands we have “for the least of these.”

Worse, they completely miss what their own pattern of thinking and living would hold for them. This is the heart of this parable.

It is a very stark and frankly frightening parable. As we place ourselves on either side of that great, impassable chasm, it strikes a deep sense of terror into our hearts. It is the same sense I get when I read the Revelation to John, with all of its dramatic images of God’s final victory over the beast, dragons and lakes of fire, the final judgment. I think, at once, “Yay! We win!” and “Man, I hope I’m on the right side of that victory.”

Here, the rich man’s sin is not one of active mistreatment or persecution of Lazarus, which means, “Whom God has helped.” I think we are supposed to infer that the rich man’s sin is of omission. We pick that up later when Abraham says that his brothers have Moses and the prophets to warn them. His wealth had put blinders on him, like they sometimes use on horses. He would pass by Lazarus every time he went through his gate.

Let’s also pause and note here that the rich man probably had a lot on his mind. Sumptuous feasts take a lot of planning and coordination. His position meant he had a lot of social and perhaps political obligations, not to mention his family. He is surely very, very busy and all of that busyness is very distracting.

(What is distracting you?)

Further, he very likely developed a callous attitude toward those unfortunate people in his society. That helps insulate the conscience from being distressed by the conditions most people face. And if you tell yourself to blame their lot in life on cosmic justice, then you free yourself from the weight of concern.

The rich man holds the mindset of the Pharisees, who as Jesus illustrates have boxed them in just like that one-room, eternal studio apartment in Belleview. None of us want to be in their side of that chasm with no relief and no way across. All of us have had Moses and the prophets to warn us. All of us live with this witness to the One Whom God raised from the dead. We have no excuses for blinding ourselves to the suffering of the poor and helpless.

And none of us want to suffer like Lazarus in this life, hungry and covered with sores.

The truth is that we all live with this parable playing out all the time inside our own hearts. And it’s not as simple as all that in practice because we also know that how we help people matters. Indulging bad behaviors can make their lives worse. We have to continuously check ourselves on that.

I am so happy for the youth, their parents and the other volunteers who served at the Care Center’s community kitchen last Sunday. Everyone, especially the youth, got to see Jesus in the faces of the people they served. They will do it again in December so if you want in on that let the Kapphans know.

But there’s another, unspoken reality to this parable: the guy who is sharing it. Jesus wants us to take very seriously the eternal consequences of our actions and especially our attitudes and direction toward Him. But that must not lead us to a new legalism. Jesus is calling our hearts to be so full of God’s love that we care for one another the way he cares for all of his children.

That’s why he’s going to the cross, to make himself a bridge across that otherwise impassable chasm, to sweep us all into his victory over sin and death, that we might live every day in this life as a citizen of his Kingdom and have our place with him secured forever.

That is what he did for you. So let him bridge that chasm in your heart today so that you may live and love as he loves you.

AMEN