"Living as the Beloved" Midweek Reflection (Week 7)

John 21:15-19

Colossians 3:12-17

The final chapter of Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved is where we discover the challenge of both living in the world and claiming the gift of God naming us “beloved.”

God sends each of us, wholly beloved by God, into the world and our lives becomes witnesses to God’s mighty works in and through us.

Not because of what we do,

but because of God who loves us and claims us as God’s own.

Because of God who equips us and sends us out.

God doesn’t only call us Beloved, God also asks, “Do You love me?”

And, like Peter in John’s gospel, we get to say,
“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Nouwen writes, “…life is a God-given opportunity to become who we are…to say “Yes” to the One who calls us the Beloved.” (133)

That is the spiritual life that we are called to,
a life to which, as we hear in Luther’s explanation of the third article of the creed, “the Holy Spirit has called [us] by the Gospel, enlightened [us] with His gifts, sanctified and kept [us] in the true faith.”

Nouwen reminds us that “The Spirit of God, the Spirit that calls us the Beloved, is the Spirit that unites and makes whole.” And that we can recognize God’s Spirit in “moments of unification, healing, restoration, and reconciliation.” (135)

Living as the Beloved then is choosing the life of God’s Spirit each day and listening to that voice that calls me the Beloved. (139)

Reformation Sunday 2025

John 8:31-36

Let us pray…
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
 
Like the Israelites listening to Jesus in John’s gospel, many of us might balk at the notion that we ever have been, or are now, enslaved. Like them, we have short memories.
 
I say that because we often begin our worship with the rite of confession and forgiveness, saying to God, “we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.” We name how sinfulness is the very nature of our human condition. And then we forget.
 
God doesn’t forget, but thankfully, God does not leave us there in the muck and mire of our sin. Because God loves us, God forgives our sin and frees us from bondage. It is completely God’s action for each of us, and it is pure gift.
 
Until we understand the size or volume of our sin, we cannot grasp the magnitude of God’s action for us. We fall back into thinking we need to believe more, do more and earn God’s favor.
 
Unless we accept that the cross upends the way we think the world should work, we will continue to underestimate what our freedom in Christ means for us, and for our neighbors.
 
Because freed from sin,
slaves to no one and to nothing,
we are called to be servants to all.
I often say faith is never only about me and Jesus. It is always a cross shaped relationship, between God and us, and between us and our neighbors, community and world.
 
Which brings me to my question for us today as we remember Luther’s teaching and the movement of the Reformation more than five hundred years ago:
“What does faith free us to do that we cannot do alone?”
 
Faith frees us from fear. One of the stories we hear about Martin Luther is how his understanding of who God is was transformed by his reading of Scripture. When he studied St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, his image of a vengeful and punishing God was replaced by a God of mercy and grace whose awesome gift for us is the righteousness of God flowing to us that brings us into God’s presence. We are to “love and fear God” not because God is wrathful but because God’s grace is beyond our comprehension.
 
Faith frees us to follow God’s will, keeping Christ at the center of our lives. When we accept our chosen-ness by God, and God’s abundant love for us, we can stop competing for approval in the world and its terms. We can, like Luther, stand up and boldly claim, “I am a baptized child of God” with confidence that God is with us in all of the ups and downs we experience. Abundant life in Christ is found in relationship.
 
Faith frees us to stand with our neighbors. At Grace we have a history of more than four decades of showing up in our community, partnering with ministries who provide food, shelter and assistance to people living without basic needs. In any given week, you can see Grace members volunteering at the Rescue Mission, at Interfaith Assistance Ministries, the Thrive Clubhouse, and Habitat for Humanity, as well as at Safelight, the Storehouse and the Free Clinics. In the book study we just wrapped up, we heard stories from the global church where faith has empowered communities to build schools, to provide health education and prevent diseases like malaria and to work across ecumenical and even interfaith divisions to address needs. Faith says that none of us are whole unless all of us are whole, and when one suffers, we all suffer. Faith frees us to love selflessly.
 
Today as we celebrate the freedom given to us in our faith in Christ Jesus, we are also celebrating the affirmation of baptism milestone for Dustin and Kaylee, young adults whose faith has been nurtured and formed here in our congregation and by their family. They completed their confirmation instruction but had not yet participated in the milestone and expressed a desire to do that.
 
On this Reformation Sunday, let us celebrate that we are joined together in faith and commit to living in the freedom faith gives us for the sake of the world God loves.
 
Amen.

"Given" Midweek Reflection (Week 6)

Mark 14:22

John 12:24-26

Throughout our study of Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved, we have been learning how to receive the gift of God naming us “beloved.”

Nouwen uses four words to describe the movement of the Spirit among us: taken or chosen, blessed, broken, and given. Tonight, my reflection is focused on this last word: given.

When I introduced these words, I shared that they echo the words used when we describe the Eucharist. At the Table, the bread - that is the Body of Christ - is taken, blessed, broken and given. And in our Christian lives, where we too are a part of the Body of Christ,
we are given.

Nouwen writes about the joy found in giving our lives and ourselves to others, saying that “our lives find fulfillment in giving ourselves to others.” (108) And not only fulfillment, but Nouwen says, “true joy, happiness, and inner peace.” (109)

He emphasizes that he is not talking about giving from what we have, or even what we can do, but making a gift of our presence.

When the North Carolina Synod had our leaders’ convocation last week, the keynote speaker told the story of having spent a year in Ethiopia where she learned to prioritize relationships over timetables and schedules. If she encountered a student on her way to class, they stopped and visited, and if that made her late, that was a cost she was willing to pay. It sounds foreign to many of us who may have heard as children, “If you arrive on time, you’re already late.”

But what would happen if we decided to prioritize our relationships ahead of the next task, appointment or meeting? What if we live as if we believe our presence is a gift, and the person in front of us is the recipient?

Nouwen writes, “When I ask myself, “Who helps me the most?” I must answer, “The one who is willing to share his or her life with me.” (113)

The second point Nouwen makes is that not only are our lives gifts, but also our deaths. It’s a startling claim at first, but he illustrates his point with the example of St. Francis, whose influence continues more than eight centuries after his death. “His life goes on bearing new fruit around the world. His spirit keeps descending upon us.” (121)

Listening to Nouwen and to John’s gospel, we are reminded that the fruitfulness of our own lives, the harvest of the fruit we bear, will likely be realized after our deaths.

Could we trust that our gifts are multiplied when we give them away? (123)

Like Elisha giving twenty loaves of barley to a crowd of more than one hundred and then gathering the leftovers (2 Kings 4:42-44) or the feeding of the five thousand that we hear in all four gospels (Matthew 14:13–21; Mark 6:31–44; Luke 9:12–17; John 6:1–14), God multiplies and God uses what we offer.

May we respond to the call to give ourselves for the sake of the world around us, and to give joyfully, without reluctance or hesitation.

"Broken" Midweek Reflection (Week 5)

Romans8:26-28

Hebrews 4:15-16

Throughout our study of Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved, we have been learning how to receive the gift of God naming us “beloved.”

We have reflected on two of the four words that Nouwen uses to describe the movement of the Spirit among us. We are “taken” or “chosen” by God and God calls us “blessed”.

The next word Nouwen uses is broken.

Some twenty years before writing Life of the Beloved, Nouwen wrote The Wounded Healer. In that book his premise was that one who is ministering to others must look after one’s own wounds but at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others. He recognizes that we all bear wounds and we all are broken.

In this book, he writes,

Our sufferings and pains are not simply bothersome interruptions of our lives; they touch us in our uniqueness and our most intimate individuality. (87)

He continues, writing,

The way I am broken tells you something unique about me.
The way you are broken tells me something about you. (87)

And he urges us not to be afraid of our brokenness,
but to accept our brokenness as readily
as we accept our chosen-ness and blessedness.

One of the first ways we can accept our brokenness is to name it.

“Loneliness, isolation, insecurity, frustration, confusion…all these are forms of brokenness.” (Week 5, Study Guide) And I wonder,
what kind of brokenness feels most present or challenging for you right now? (pause)

Writing this book to his friend, Nouwen says choosing to share our brokenness with each other, to share our deep struggles, is a sign of deep friendship or relationship. (86)

I think one of the beautiful parts of friendship is when we can sit with another person and listen to them share their brokenness without denying it or trying to fix it.

Once we accept our brokenness Nouwen suggests two practices for us to respond to it: befriending it
and putting it under the blessing. (92)

Ignoring or hiding pain or suffering doesn’t erase it or reduce its effects. When we are fearful, our fear magnifies the obstacles and the challenges we face seem even larger.

Nouwen suggests instead that we need to step toward our pain and live through it. (95)

There’s no way to go around it. But we do not face it alone.

[We] need someone to keep us standing in it, to assure [us] that there is peace beyond anguish, life beyond death, and love beyond fear. (95)

As siblings in Christ, we help each other transform our suffering.

And when we do that, we also bring that suffering out of the shadows and bring it to God.

The shadows or what Nouwen calls “the curse” is our temptation to understand the brokenness we experience as confirmation of our un-worthiness.

It is what happens when we forget we are God’s beloved,
when we forget we are chosen by God as God’s children,
and when we forget we are blessed by God
for the sake of the world God loves.

I think of Adam and Eve in Eden in Genesis, when they hide from God.  Genesis 3, verses 8 and 9 say:

⁸ They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

I wonder how often we hide among the trees, hoping to hide something about ourselves from the God who created and loves us? (pause)

Nouwen urges us instead to put our brokenness under the blessing of God, trusting God to use our experiences to strengthen us and to see the pruning or winnowing as a natural part of our growth as disciples. (98)

Like joy, sorrow “becomes [part of our] desire to grow to the fullness of the Beloved.” (99)

That reminds me of Peter after the crucifixion.

John 21 tells the story of Jesus and the disciples cooking breakfast on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias, and Simon Peter and Jesus are having a conversation where three times Jesus asks Simon Peter whether he loves Jesus. And each time, Peter insists, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” And Jesus does know. And he knows Peter faltered and denied him three times before his crucifixion. And he forgives him.

Truly, nothing is hidden from God and nothing, not even our brokenness, separates us from the love of God and our lives as God’s beloved.

"Blessed" Midweek Reflection (Week 4)

Galatians5:22-26 

Matthew 5:1-12

Throughout our study of Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved, we have been learning how to receive the gift of God naming us “beloved.”

Last week we reflected on the first of four words that Nouwen uses to describe the movement of the Spirit among us. We heard we are “taken” or “chosen” by God.

The next word Nouwen is blessed.

When he talks about “Blessed-ness” he isn’t talking about the kinds of material or superficial blessing that we might see in pop culture and in the world around us.

Nouwen describes blessing as hearing God speaking with “a small intimate voice saying, “You are my Beloved Child, on you my favor rests.” (77)

God has spoken these words before.

In Genesis 12, Scripture tells us that God says to Abram, ² I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

And in tonight’s reading from the Sermon on the Mount, we hear Jesus declaring the blessed-ness of all different peoples.

But even as we remember how God blessed our spiritual ancestors, Nouwen acknowledges how often in our lives today, that voice can be drowned out by competing claims, by condemnation and by blame or shame. (69,73)

And then he suggests two practices for us to learn to receive the gift of our blessed-ness: prayer and presence.

We often define prayer as a conversation with God.

Nouwen challenges us that “the real “work” of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me.” - not to be self-indulgent but to be disciplined enough to push aside the “many voices that question my goodness” and trust God’s voice. (75-76)

I have taught the contemplative practice of centering prayer and sitting in stillness to listen to God. Sometimes it’s maddening because your mind wanders, and you can feel like you are wasting time. But teachers will tell you that the distractions are part of the practice. You learn to let the random thoughts float by and let them go, without grasping at them and engaging them.

Nouwen describes how he uses the prayer of Saint Francis, whose feast day was just last Saturday, as a sacred word or prayer to return his attention to God. Others might use a single word or phrase or recite the 23rd Psalm or the Lord’s Prayer. Finding words to repeat slowly helps ground you in the silence and prepare you to “listen to the voice of love” that is God. (78)

The second suggestion he makes is a practice of presence. Mary Oliver has a poem where she said, “Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.” (“It was Early”, Evidence.)

When our lives are busy or we are distracted, we may not notice what is right in front of us.

An easy example for me is how I sometimes forget to really take in the beauty of this sanctuary; it can become a backdrop for whatever activity is taking place, but I don’t really see it. But take a minute to look around and to notice, the stained-glass windows, the vaulted ceiling and the soaring cross, just to begin to name the ways that this space is especially adorned for worship. 

Along the same lines, when our hands are full, we cannot receive anything more. I wonder what we might set down to be open to receiving what God offers? How can we change our posture to be open to the blessing that others may offer, and to learn to bless others in turn? Nouwen tells the story of being asked for a blessing by someone just before a prayer gathering, so he began to automatically make the sign of the cross, but the person stopped him. She said she wanted “a real blessing”, so he took time in their gathering to embrace her and call her by name, saying,

“I want you to know you are God’s beloved daughter. You are precious in God’s eyes. Your beautiful smile, your kindness and your actions show what a beautiful human you are. When you have sadness, I want you to remember who you are: a very special person, deeply loved by God, and all the people here. (71)

And then there was a cascade of people who witnessed that blessing who asked to receive a blessing.

We ache to know we are loved, and when we can receive the gift of our blessing, we can then bless others.

As I reflected on Nouwen’s words, I thought of just the past ten days or so, and the many blessings I have witnessed. Several of us went to Bat Cave for a house blessing for a house that was built for a family whose house was destroyed in the hurricane last year. And then Jill and I talked with a couple of preschool families about faith practices that include teaching their children simple blessings. And on Saturday, a friend gifted Ada with a blessing bowl at Denny’s memorial service and guests wrote out their memories of Denny to share with his family. At Sunday’s worship, Rita gave our benediction in German, and later that day, I led a blessing of the animals outside.

It makes me wonder if we can practice this attentiveness to God’s movement in our lives, through prayer and presence.

Would you experiment with praying in stillness and quiet? I’ve printed the words from 1 John 4:7-8 for you; try reading them slowly and letting them sink into your heart as you listen for God’s blessing for you.

Could you find one person whom you can bless? It can be as simple as telling them, “God loves you.” Or “It is good that you exist.”

And then let’s see what’s different when we’re together again.

"Taken" Midweek Reflection (Week 3)

John15:12-17

Romans 8:12-17

In Life of the Beloved Nouwen urges us to receive the proclamation that each of us is God’s Beloved and then he acknowledges that “becoming the beloved” means embodying God’s love in our words and actions,
a task that isn’t accomplished in a day or a week or even a single season of our lives, but is an ongoing process.

Nouwen uses four words to describe the movement of the Spirit among us: taken, blessed, broken and given and we’re going to reflect on one word each week, beginning with “Taken”.

Concerned that “taken” can be heard as “cold and brittle”, Nouwen quickly replaces it with “chosen”, writing,
“As children of God, we are God’s chosen ones.” (51)

We hear this same language in our readings tonight from John’s gospel and from Paul’s letter to the Romans. I often say, “God gets all the verbs.” Tonight, we hear:

God chooses us.
God adopts us, and
God makes us heirs to God’s kingdom.

God does that, FOR US.

Nouwen continues, writing, “From all eternity, long before you were born and became a part of history, you existed in God’s heart.” (53-54)

I remember the first time I heard someone describe Jesus’ prayer in the high priestly prayer in John 17. There Jesus is praying  and he says, “⁹ I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.”

Jesus prays for us because he knows how much God loves us, because God has claimed us as God’s own.

Nouwen writes because he wants us to understand that in the gaze of Christ, or as he writes, “the eyes of love”, we are seen as precious. (56)

God has chosen us with an everlasting love. (58)

Chosen. Precious. Beloved.

These are the words God uses for us, even when our world says otherwise. When we hear words that tear down or diminish, or when we experience rejection or humiliation, those words are not of God. For that matter, when we inflict suffering on others with our words, that is not of God either.

Choose whose voice you will heed.

And then celebrate with gratitude to God and to every person who reminds you of your chosen-ness. As Nouwen writes, “When we keep claiming the light, we will find ourselves becoming more and more radiant.” (62) That is the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

And as we live with gratitude, we also cultivate the desire for others to know that they too are chosen by God and beloved.

Nouwen writes, “It is impossible to compete for God’s love.” (64) My being chosen doesn’t mean someone else is excluded or rejected. Instead, as he says, we call forth “each other’s chosen-ness and a mutual affirmation of being precious in God’s eyes.” (65)

This is how we live as God’s Chosen.

Decimosexto Domingo despues de Pentecostés

I first preached this sermon in Spanish; the English translation is below.

Lucas 16:19-31

Oremos…Que las palabras de mi boca y la meditación de nuestro corazón sean gratas ante ti, Señor, fortaleza y redentor nuestro. Amén.

Pensando esta semana, en lo que nos dice esta parábola, me encontré con una caricatura que muestra a un ángel sonriente con túnica y a un hombre de pie sobre las nubes, mirando un ascensor claramente marcado con "arriba hacia al cielo" y "abajo hacia al infierno" y el hombre dice: "De alguna manera pensé que sería algo diferente".ⁱ

La parábola comienza con un hombre rico, más rico de lo que nadie puede imaginar, vestido de púrpura y lino fino, que festeja con suntuosidad y extravagancia todos los días, no solo en Shabat o en días santos. En mi imaginación, me imagino a Midas, recordado en la mitología griega por su capacidad de convertir en oro todo lo que tocaba.

Y luego Jesús nos habla de un segundo hombre, un hombre pobre que fue colocado en la puerta del hombre rico, a la entrada de su propiedad. En otras traducciones, a este hombre se le llama limosnero. Dependía de la ayuda de sus vecinos y de la comunidad, pero nunca oímos que recibiera ayuda del rico ni de nadie más.

Lo único que se nos dice de él es que tiene llagas que los perros lamen, y se nos dice su nombre. Se llama Lázaro, del hebreo el azar, que significa "Dios ha ayudado".

Las interpretaciones populares de esta parábola suelen añadir detalles que no forman parte de la historia. No se dice nada sobre la pureza ritual ni sobre la impureza. No se dice nada sobre el comportamiento de ninguno de los dos hombres. No se dice nada sobre la piedad, la religiosidad, la fe, la creencia ni la rectitud de ninguno de los dos. Son simplemente dos hombres: uno rico y bien alimentado, el otro pobre y hambriento.

Sin embargo, sabemos por las Escrituras que para los judíos observantes de la Torá, y para los cristianos en general, el mandato bíblico de cuidar a los pobres es claro.

• En Deuteronomio capitulo quince se instruye al pueblo: “Abre tu mano al pobre y al necesitado de tu tierra”. ⁱⁱ

• En la literatura sapiencial, Proverbios dice: “Quienes desprecian a su prójimo son pecadores, pero felices son los que son bondadosos con los pobres”. ⁱⁱⁱ y “² El rico y el pobre tienen esto en común: el Señor es el creador de todos ”. ^iv

• Y los profetas también aportan su granito de arena: Isaías le dice al pueblo: “Comparte tu pan con el hambriento y lleva a tu casa a los pobres sin hogar”. ^v Y Zacarías nos instruye: “Muestren bondad y misericordia los unos con los otros; ¹⁰ no opriman a la viuda, al huérfano, al extranjero ni al pobre”. ^vi

Al escuchar esta parábola, nos preguntamos: ¿Por qué el hombre rico ignoraría a Lázaro? Quizás se sentía impotente para ayudar o temía que se aprovecharan de él. Sin embargo, al reconocer nuestra condición humana, parece probable que nunca viera a Lázaro como su responsabilidad; o no le importaba lo que le sucediera o estaba ciego al sufrimiento que tenía frente a él, y ni siquiera vio al pobre.

Nuestro desconcierto dura poco.

En los versículos siguientes se nos dice que cada hombre muere y llega a habitar el Hades, que se traduce literalmente como el "lugar que no se ve". Irónicamente, Lázaro, quien no fue visto en vida, sí  es visto alli.

Hades, infierno, Seol o Gehenna se usan en las Escrituras para describir el lugar de los muertos. Las descripciones que tenemos no son literales ni geográficas, y nuestra comprensión del cielo y el infierno ha cambiado a lo largo del tiempo.

Los antiguos israelitas creían en un mundo de tres niveles donde el cielo estaba arriba y los muertos iban a un inframundo moralmente neutral abajo. No fue hasta el siglo IV (cuarto) que los judíos adoptaron la visión helenística del cielo como lugar para los salvos y el infierno como lugar para los condenados. Muchas de las imágenes familiares y gráficas del infierno que hoy reconocemos se originaron en el poema épico del siglo decimocuarto de Dante, la Divina Comedia, y en las pinturas del Juicio Final de los siglos decimoquinto y decimosexto, y estas imágenes persisten en la cultura popular actual.

Esta parábola describe un lugar completamente diferente “donde los salvos y los condenados podían verse”.^viii

Cuando el hombre rico clama, es evidente que lo único que ha cambiado es su ubicación. Su forma de pensar es la misma que tenia en vida.

Aunque ahora ve a Lázaro, e incluso sabe su nombre, sigue diferenciando como un “otro” a Lázaro, hablando sobre él, en lugar de hablarle directamente. El hombre rico primero le pide a Abraham que envíe a Lázaro a traerle agua. Y cuando eso falla, le pide que envíe a Lázaro a sus cinco hermanos para que se les evite el tormento que él está experimentando. Permanece ciego a la verdad de que él y Lázaro son ambos hijos de Abraham, hermanos ante los ojos de Dios.

Incluso cuando Abraham le dice al hombre rico que hay un abismo que puede ser cruzado, no ve su propia complicidad en su destino. Su propia ignorancia y falta de compasión excavaron ese abismo; es el mismo abismo que usó en vida para separarse de los pobres y los que sufrían. Es tan profundo como sus miedos y desprecio, su egoísmo y desprecio. Ahora, como escribe la teóloga Amy-Jill Levine, "pasará la eternidad viendo lo que no puede tener".^x

— una plenitud que solo es posible en la vida con Dios, como parte del reino.

Esta parábola nos recuerda que “Dios no se rige por nuestras reglas”. ^xi Cuando nos encontremos con el reino de Dios, será diferente de lo que imaginamos, así como Dios está más allá de nuestro conocimiento y comprensión actual. Lo que sabemos en este momento, y lo que nos enseñan la ley y los profetas, es que tenemos la responsabilidad de derramar la misericordia y la compasión de Dios aquí y ahora.

Oremos…

Dios del cielo y de la tierra,
Gracias por tu misericordia y gracia que nos hace tus hijos y herederos de tu reino.
Enséñanos a ver a las personas con tus ojos y a amarlas como tú las amas.
Haznos compasivos y generosos al salir al mundo a compartir la Buenas Nuevas de tu abundante amor.
Oramos en el nombre de Jesús, nuestro Señor y Salvador.
Amén.

i Werner Wejp-Olsen. https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/o/otis.asp, accessed 9/28/2019.
ⁱⁱ Deuteronomy 15:11
ⁱⁱⁱ Proverbs 14:21
^iv Proverbs 22:1-2
^v Isaiah 58:7
^vi Zechariah 7:9-10
^vii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_cosmology, accessed 9/26/2019.
^viii Amy-Jill Levine. Short Stories by Jesus. 286.
^vix Levine, 288.
^x Levine. 289.
^xi Levine, 300.

Luke 16:19-31

Thinking this week about what this parable says to us, I came across a cartoon that shows a smiling robed angel and a man standing on clouds, looking at an elevator clearly marked “up for heaven “and “down for hell” and the man is saying, “Somehow I thought it would be somewhat different.”[i]

The parable begins with a rich man who is richer than anyone can imagine, clothed in “purple and fine linen” and feasting sumptuously or extravagantly every day, not just at Shabbat or on high holy days. In my imagination, I picture Midas who is remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold.

And then Jesus tells us about a second man, a poor man who was laid at the gate of the rich man, at the entrance to his property. In other translations, this man is called a beggar. He was dependent on help from neighbors and community, but we never hear that he received any help from the rich man or anyone else.

All we are told about him is that he has sores that the dogs lick, and we are told his name. He is named Lazarus from the Hebrew el azar which means “God has helped.”

Popular interpretations of this parable often add things that aren’t part of the story. Nothing is said about ritual purity and uncleanliness. Nothing is said about either man’s demeanor. Nothing is said about either man’s piety or religiosity, faith or belief, or righteousness. They’re just two men, one rich and well-fed, one poor and hungry.

However, we know from Scripture that for Torah-observant Jews, and for Christians for that matter, the biblical mandate to care for the poor is clear.

·    In Deuteronomy 15 the people are instructed, “"Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land."[ii]

·    In wisdom literature, Proverbs says, “Those who despise their neighbors are sinners, but happy are those who are kind to the poor.[iii] and “² The rich and the poor have this in common: the LORD is the maker of them all.”[iv]

·    And the prophets add their two cents, too: Isaiah tells the people, “share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house;[v] and Zechariah instructs us, “show kindness and mercy to one another; ¹⁰ do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor;”[vi]

Hearing this parable, we wonder, Why would the rich man ignore Lazarus? Maybe he felt powerless to help, or anxious that he would be taken advantage of. Recognizing our human condition though, it seems as likely that he never saw Lazarus as his responsibility; he either didn’t care what happened to the man or he was blind to the suffering right in front of him, and never even saw the poor man.

Our bewilderment is short-lived.

In the verses that follow we’re told each man dies and come to inhabit Hades, which translates literally as the “unseen place.” Ironically, Lazarus, who was not seen in life, is seen there.

Hades, hell, Sheol or Gehenna are all used in Scripture to describe the place of the dead. The descriptions we have aren’t literal or geographical and our understanding of heaven and hell has changed throughout time. Ancient Israelites believed in a three-tiered world where heaven was above and the dead went to a morally neutral underworld below. It wasn’t until the fourth century that Jews adopted the Hellenistic view of heaven as a place for the saved and hell as a place for the damned.[vii] Many of the familiar and graphic images of hell we might recognize today originated with Dante’s fourteenth century epic poem Divine Comedy and 15^th and 16^th century paintings of the Last Judgment and these images persist in popular culture today.

This parable describes a completely different place “where the saved and the damned could see each other.”[viii]

When the rich man cries out, it’s clear that the only thing that has changed is his location. His way of thinking is the same as it was in life. While he now sees Lazarus, and even knows his name, he still “others” him, speaking about him, instead of speaking directly to him. The rich man first asks Abraham to send Lazarus to bring him water. And when that fails, he asks him to send Lazarus to his five brothers so that they might be spared the torment that he’s experiencing. He remains blind to the truth that he and Lazarus are both children of Abraham, brothers in God’s sight. [ix]

Even when Abraham tells the rich man there is a chasm that cannot be bridged, he fails to see his own complicity in his fate. His own ignorance and lack of compassion carved out that chasm; it is the same chasm he used in life to separate himself from the poor and the suffering. It is as deep as his fears and disdain, his selfishness and contempt. Now, as theologian Amy-Jill Levine writes, “he will spend eternity seeing what he cannot have”[x] — a wholeness that is only possible in life with God, as part of the kingdom.

This parable reminds us that “God does not play by our rules.”[xi] When we encounter God’s kingdom, it’s going to be different than we imagine, just as God is beyond our knowledge and understanding now. What we know, right now, and what we are taught in the law and by the prophets, is that we have the responsibility to pour out God’s mercy and compassion here and now.

Let us pray…

God of heaven and earth,

Thank you for your mercy and grace that make us Your children and heirs to Your kingdom.

Teach us to see people through Your eyes and to love them as You love them.

Make us compassionate and generous as we go out into the world to share the Good News of your abundant love.

We pray in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Amen.

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[i] Werner Wejp-Olsen. https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/o/otis.asp, accessed 9/28/2019.

[ii] Deuteronomy 15:11

[iii] Proverbs 14:21

[iv] Proverbs 22:1-2

[v] Isaiah 58:7

[vi] Zechariah 7:9-10

[vii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_cosmology, accessed 9/26/2019.

[viii] Amy-Jill Levine. Short Stories by Jesus. 286.

[ix] Levine, 288.

[x] Levine. 289.

[xi] Levine, 300.