September 25, 2016 - Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

Today was a special day for a number of reasons.  With Heidi as his sponsor, Samuel was presented as a new member of Creator. Also David substituted for Matt as he took a day off,  The music was strong and familiar to the congregation and the last song Canticle of the Turning was particularly evocative.

Pastor Michelle opened her sermon discussing a presentation Brian McLaren gave in Portland at Trinity Cathedral focused on his new book The Great Spiritual Migration.  She talked about the despair many are experiencing in the current national stories. She wove it in with the Gospel Lesson - Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. 

Years ago I taught Sunday School to middle-school children.  When I presented the Parable of the Bridesmaids they asked why the wise bridesmaids would not do what they were taught in church to do - share the oil.

The other parable that remains in my memory is the Rich Man and Lazarus.  My class asked "Why would the rich man be forever condemned in Hades because of the great chasm if God loves everyone?"

Pastor Michelle alluded to an answer I have come to in the years since.  This is not primarily a parable about an actual event or making a prediction about the afterlife, so much as a cautionary story of what can happen if the views of the living do not change.

Martin Luther on this parable states "Therefore we conclude that the bosom of Abraham signifies nothing else than the Word of God,.... the hell here mentioned cannot be the true hell that will begin on the day of judgment. For the corpse of the rich man is without doubt not in hell, but buried in the earth; it must however be a place where the soul can be and has no peace, and it cannot be corporeal. Therefore it seems to me, this hell is the conscience, which is without faith and without the Word of God, in which the soul is buried and held until the day of judgment, when they are cast down body and soul into the true and real hell." (Church Postil 1522-23)

I agree with Luther.  What I see now are all the details that show the chasm is in the rich man's mind.  The dogs who lick Lazarus' sores have more interaction with him than the rich man in life.  In death the rich man addresses Abraham, not Lazarus and wants Abraham to use his authority to send Lazarus, first for the rich man's comfort then to save the rich man's family.

Pastor Michelle declared this parable particularly emphasized a Gospel of Love.  It is hard not to think about the discussion presently going on in the presidential campaign.  On Monday, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a graphic that likened Syrian refugees to Skittles, which swiftly triggered a wave of criticism. He wrote the following about the tweet depicted here on the left:

"This image says it all. Let's end the politically correct agenda that doesn't put America first. #trump2016,  If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem."     

I read a response to this tweet that I have adapted from Eli Bosnick's original Facebook post:

"If I gave you a bowl of skittles and three of them were poisoned; would you still eat them?"

"Are the other skittles human lives?"

"What?"

"Is there a good chance, a really good chance that if I ate a skittle I would save someone from a war zone and probably their life?"

"Well sure, but the point -"

"I would eat the skittles."

"Ok, well the point is -"

"I would GORGE myself on skittles. I would eat every skittle I could find. I would STUFF myself with skittles. When I found a poison skittle and died I would want to leave behind a legacy of children and of friends who also ate skittle after skittle until there were no skittles to be eaten. 

All of us would weep for each person who found a poison skittle. We would weep for their loss, for their sacrifice, and, finally, tears of gratefulness that they did not succumb to fear but made the world a better place by eating skittles. 

Because here is the REAL question...behind this inaccurate, insensitive, dehumanizing little candy metaphor, a deeper and unspoken question, "Is my fear of death more important than the lives of thousands upon thousands displaced men, women and terrified children and how should I act when faced with that truth?   

... How do you answer that question?"

Eli's original quote inspired me.  He also used language that denigrated those who might answer yes.  He ended with a different question than the one above:

... and what kind of monster would think the answer to that question... is yes?"

Although I hope my actions would follow this inspiration, I might be that kind of monster.

I even changed the question from "Is my life more important" to the slightly less challenging "Is my fear of death more important".  My soul certainly longs to answer no because of the way of love that Jesus taught and this response to an insensitive tweet does activate my imagination.  However I know the pull and gravity of the mundane - but, perhaps, more honest - response of yes that comes from what might be considered ordinary cautiousness.

I feel my yes response might be like Peter's declaration at the Last Supper, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." and his subsequent three denials before the cock crowed. If my fear was stronger, my tears would be like Peter's weeping - different but no less real than the weeping at the consequences of the other response. Weeping for the falling short of what I thought I might be.

I pray this cautionary tale truly changes hearts.