Close the Gap

I have to admit that I am terrified of the parable about the rich man and Lazarus the beggar.  When you really think about it, it is terrifying. 

A rich man ate well and dressed in fine clothes. Well, he didn’t just eat well, he feasted every day and he didn’t just wear nice clothes, he wore purple and fine linen.  Purple was the color of royalty and linen, so light and beautiful, was one of the most expensive fabrics in Israel. Meanwhile outside the rich man’s house, a poor man named Lazarus lay there dying. He was not only poor and hungry but he had sores. And the dogs came and licked his sores. He was degraded to lower than a dog.  He lay in the dirt.  And the poor man has a name, Lazarus. And the rich man does not.

Both men die and Jesus paints a vivid picture of what happens next.  Lazarus is taken to heaven by angels where he sits with Abraham. The rich man just ends up in Hades and we don’t really know how he got there.  But what we do know is that he is very hot. There is fire all around him and it torments him. Worse still, the rich man can see Lazarus and Abraham in the comforts of heaven. He can see them but he can’t get to them.  He must watch paradise from a seat in hell.

The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue.  It is a small request.  He does not question his fate.  He does not yell and scream.  He does not ask for a way out of hell. All he asks is for a tiny bit of water, enough to moisten the tip of a finger, a tongue.  But Abraham answers by telling him about the chasm.

Abraham addresses the rich man with the word “child.” He does not seem angry or offended by the rich man, rather, it seems that he is trying to educate someone who knows next to nothing, someone like a child.

Abraham describes the gap to the rich man. “There is a great gap between heaven and hell and you can’t cross over.  No one can, not in either direction.” And this is what I find so hard to digest in this parable.  Heaven and hell are cut off from each other.  There is no redo.  Once you end up in one place or the other, that’s it.

And the rich man ends up in Hades because he did not see the man who sat on the ground right on his doorstep.  He did not see a person there.  He had a chance to make a connection that would have served as a bridge between him and Lazarus, but the gap that was there in life was even worse in death.  The rich man could simply not cross over.

The rich man failed to see Lazarus. Lazarus looked so different. He was so dirty, so ugly, so smelly.  The rich man didn’t want to see.  So he just walked on by and the distance that he created became the chasm that kept him from God. 

The distance that he created became the chasm that kept him from God.

Our relationship with one another is part of our relationship with God.  When we fail to see each other, when we allow the gap to exist, we alienate ourselves from God.

All over this country, there are riots going on in our cities. These riots have been going on periodically for decades.  White and black people are not seeing one another as human beings.  There is still so much blindness.  So little communication.  So much hatred.  And we all are suffering, all of us.

Lazarus was lying right in the path of the rich man, at the gate to his home.  He was right at his doorstep.  The rich man had to pass by Lazarus every time he left home and every time he returned. And even still, he did not see Lazarus as a human being. Day after day, he simply refused to see.

So how can we bridge the gap in this life?  What could the rich man have done to save himself from eternal torment?  The answer is simple. See Lazarus.  Enter his skin.  Learn about him.  Serve him.

God is not asking us to fix it the problems of the world or the suffering of humanity, but to see the people who are in our path as people.  To learn their names.  To see with God’s eyes and to ask ourselves, “What is God asking of me?”

This love your neighbor as yourself stuff, it’s no joke. We are being asked to close the gap.

It’s scary to see each other, to risk letting someone change our lives. But if Jesus is right, it is essential.  We cannot cross the gap to God if we haven’t crossed the gap to understand each other.

Yesterday, I was leaving the church after an emotionally-charged funeral.  I was walking to my car when a homeless woman came marching towards me swearing at the top of her lungs. She seemed to want to tell me something, but the swear words were so thick that I had to ask her to stop swearing so much simply so I could understand her.  She was carrying a children’s book wrapped in plastic, like the kind you get at a McDonalds drive through or a Chick Fil A.  When she slowed down enough, I began to understand her story.

It turns out that this woman had tried to give the children’s book to a little girl as she and her family were leaving the church after the funeral. And the little girl refused to take it.

“I had a present for her!” the woman cried. “And she didn’t want it!”

I realized that this woman, who was so loud and abrasive, had had her feelings hurt.  When I told her that it sounded like this hurt her feelings, she said, “Yeah it did!  That little girl…she broke my heart!”

And then, to my surprise, the woman thanked me for listening and walked on.  Turns out that all that she needed was simply to be heard.

Who is on your doorstep?  That person is an essential part of your story, a way for you to grow closer to God.

To close the gaps in this broken world is to grow to God in the next.  It is all so intertwined. We must see one another as human beings for the very salvation of our souls.

All About Money

There is an ancient Viking legend about a great warrior-king.  When the king came to power, he demanded that his soldiers immerse themselves in a river to show their allegiance. Every part of you that the water touches belongs to me, he said.  The Viking soldiers were strong, vigorous men, used to defending their families. They dutifully submerged their bodies in the cold water of the river but they held out their sword arms. Those alone remained dry, as they wanted to keep the right to defend themselves and their families should the need arise.

That is what Americans do with our wallets.  We submerge ourselves in the waters of baptism and give our lives to God, but we hold out our wallets. You can have all of me, God, but just not my money, we say.  I will pay my dues.  But my money does not belong to you, God.  In fact, I just don’t want to talk about it.  I want to live my life with prayer, service and maybe paying my dues to the church or charity and that’s it.  I don’t want to actually reflect on what money means to me or what I am doing with it in the rest of my life.  That part must remain separate.  My financial life has nothing to do with God.

But really, the opposite is true.  Your relationship with money, no matter how much you have or don’t have, is important.  You cannot separate your financial life from your prayer life.  They are interrelated. Your relationship with money effects not only yourself but the people around you. Money is a tool for the building of the kingdom of God.  It is not to be worshipped, or adored.  It is a moving thing. Money is incredibly important in the spiritual life.

When John the Baptist was asked how people should get ready for the Messiah, he told them to give away their stuff.  There is no denying the importance of money and belongings in Scripture.  Jesus talks about money more than he talks about prayer.  But when it comes to our faith, we don’t want to think of money as a part of it.  We just want to pay our pledge and move on to prayer.

When I preach about money, I can see people react. It is like nothing else.  People assume what this is really about is that I want you all to give so that the church can pay its bills but I have to talk about money because Jesus did.  I have to talk about it because it is such an important part of your life as a Christian. And I don’t even think many of us know what money really is.

Deep in the Amazon rain forest, there is an indigenous tribe called the Achuar.  For thousands of years, they have lived without money.  Generations grew up, worked, built homes, raised families and maintained communities, all without any concept of money.  They lived off the land.  When a couple got married, the village built them a hut. When a hunter killed a wild boar, the whole village ate.  Life was mostly focused on events of nature.  There was no concept of currency at all.

Chumpi was 26 when missionaries came to his village and changed everything.  Having seen other tribes devastated, they instructed the Achuar to send one of their smartest young adults to America to learn.  Chumpi was selected and he moved from the Amazon rain forest to the United States of America where he lived with a missionary family and went to school.

Chumpi learned that the land on which his village sat was worth a lot of money.  He learned that there were many different plants on the land in the rain forest that had yet to be discovered.  Many of them could have medicinal qualities. His tribe was offered a large sum of money for the land.  But he also learned that if his village sold that land, the money would run through their fingers like water and it would soon be gone. Then they would be lost.  This had already happened to other tribes.  Chumpi learned that he must value money but also say no to it and learn that there were things that were more valuable than money.  He learned that his village was rich in relationships, rich in history, rich in land. If they were to hold onto their riches, they must not succumb to the temptation to sell.  Ironically, he had to advise his tribe to say no to money in order to become rich.

Picture a river.  The water moves at different paces depending on the day, on how much water is in the river.  You can ride it.  You can take people places on it.  It can create energy. It is beautiful. But if you lose control of it, you can drown in it.

Jesus tells us a parable about a manager.  He is in charge of a man’s wealth but he uses it unwisely for his own enjoyment.  He “squanders it.” This is the same word used by the prodigal son, so it probably means that he partied and ate and drank a lot. So the master finds out and prepares to fire him.  Suddenly, the manager wakes up.  He realizes that he only has a few days left as manager of the master’s wealth.  So he begins to use the money to build relationships.  He forgives debts one by one.  He is kind.  He is generous.  He serves and loves people he hardly knows so that they in turn will care for him. It is selfishly motivated but it is good.  He uses his treasure to build up relationships.

All that we have is God’s. All of it.  I know it seems like we have stuff, but we don’t.  It is like trying to cup water in your hands.  Your hand may be full of water one moment but believe me, it will slip away.  You cannot hold onto any of this.  The only thing that lasts is love. So take your money and use it to love.  Love your family, provide for them.  Celebrate life. Give generously.  Don’t be afraid of not having enough or of having too much. It doesn’t matter how much you have as much as it matters what you do with it.  Build up the kingdom of God.  Harnass the power of money to build the kingdom of God.  Love at the core of your hearts and your wallets.

Reed Dearing passed away and we buried his ashes yesterday out here in the Bishop’s Garden. He gave his grandchildren some money when he died.   He told them that he would.  And this is what he said to them when he told them that he would be giving it to them.

“I want you to use this money to celebrate.  Celebrate that I am going to the King!”

Money is a tool of love, of celebration, of providing for the ones that you love and for the whole of humanity.  It is a moving river that can be harnessed for great good.  But the first step is just to wake up and become aware of it.  You are the steward of whatever God has given you.  What will you do with it?