The Chasm Crossed
Pentecost 16, Proper 21
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
This week’s parable is, without question, the scariest. It includes dogs licking sores, death, and eternal punishment in a place filled with eternal flames and endless thirst. The indictment for not having a truly godly heart is clear. People know better, but apparently choose to ignore or at least minimize passages like this from Deuteronomy that are consistently in the law and the prophets.
“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:7-11) (p. 159 in your pew Bible.)
There is a clear challenge therefore to us as to whether or not we are doing enough for the poor and suffering in this community. Do we have the right heart for God? Do we have the right heart for Jesus?
But the really scary part is that chasm, that impassable chasm. No regrets or confessions will breach it. Fear rises in our hearts that our own perceptions and rationalizations may help us sleep at night, but if we are wrong and willfully blind, blissfully ignoring our responsibilities, then we could find ourselves on the wrong side of an impassable chasm after we die, and we would have no way of ever recovering from that.
Scary indeed. Let’s dig in a little deeper.
First, it’s helpful to know that Jesus is indicting the Pharisees. That is omitted here, but just a few verses before this parable, Jesus calls them “lovers of money” in verse 16:14. The Pharisees also believed in life after death, and some measure of judgment in the afterlife. You may recall Jesus saying, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms…” (John 14:1-2). The Pharisees thought there must be a range of eternal habitations and you’d slot in where you belonged, depending on your behavior.
As “lovers of money” as well as prestige and power, they were fixated on their standing, according to standards set in this life, as though that would translate into the afterlife. And they judged others who did not have it so good as having been judged already by God. Jesus exposes their hypocrisy because, as we’ve noted, they, above most people, should know better.
But there’s a deeper point here about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Jesus has not come merely to confront their (and our) hypocrisy and to reinforce the standards that they (and we) already know. He has come to convict us, yes. And he has also come to save us. This is an entire reversal of their expectations.
Jesus teaches to not look at people as the world does, rewarded or suffering because that must be a result of God’s favor or disfavor. Remember that we are all created in God’s image and someone’s difficult circumstances offer an opportunity to administer God’s grace.
The reversal is not something that is going to happen. It has happened. It began when Jesus came on the scene and proclaimed, “The Kingdom of God is at hand,” and is happening right before their eyes. The Kingdom of God has come near in the person of Jesus.
Jesus eating with “sinners”, Jesus healing the sick, the disabled, the broken and the demon possessed all demonstrate the way God loves his people, including the broken ones. And the truth is, always, that is not “them.” It is us, all of us. We are all sinners in desperate need of redemption. None of us can ever cross that impassable chasm except by the grace and mercy of our loving Father in heaven, and the sacrifice Jesus gave of himself on the cross and rose victorious from the dead. We have direct access to the Father through Jesus, and we are to open direct access to our hearts to the Holy Spirit.
Yes: Listen to the law of Moses. Listen to the prophets. Above all, listen to the One who rose from the dead. Listen not just because of his absolute authority to guide us to right hearts and right actions in alignment with God’s heart and God’s will for us. Listen because he is the One who bridges that chasm.
This morning we are baptizing June Sutton. She has been born to truly loving parents, who know and love the Lord, who each come from large extended Christian families. And their extended families know each other well. The grandparents live just two doors, really two driveways apart. She has excellent love, care and support in every way.
June is also a very inspiring girl. She has taught her family and their friends a tremendous amount about the depths of love, and they are collectively an ever-expanding witness to lives washed in faith and hope, and lifted by prayer.
And their faith recognizes that there is just one way to make sure that, whatever this life brings to her, June crosses that otherwise impassable chasm today, dying to sin and death and lifted to eternal life, to be with the Lord now and forever.
This is not merely a rite of passage, a tradition, and a celebration of her life, although it is in part all of those things. It demands bells, and flowers and cake, and a few tears of joy. All of those methods celebrate God’s greatest gift; Christ in, with and for June.
AMEN!