Dear Friends,
We’ve got another doozy of a Gospel this Sunday: Lazarus and the Rich Man. In life, the Rich Man failed to pay attention to, much less cared for, the poor man Lazarus. After death, Lazarus is immediately welcomed into the nearness of God, next to Abraham, while the Rich Man is sent into torment. From there, the Rich Man cries out to Abraham, begging him to ask Lazarus to help him; when Abraham declines, the Rich man asks Abraham to ask Lazarus to at least warn his still-living family to amend their ways so they don’t end up in torment with him. Abraham replies that they have scripture to tell them how to behave. If they can’t listen to that, why would they listen to “someone who rises from the dead”?
Our ears should prick up at that ending, for we follow one who “rises from the dead,” yet we know enough from all of the scriptures and his life to shape our lives in the right way. If we do not care for the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the stranger now, no miracle, no warning will change us.
Last week, I wrote in this space about the call to grow in holiness, to allow God to shape us into who God calls us to be. On Sunday, Colin preached about acting while we have time, to “eat the radish” when it is before us. One of our most cherished blessings at All Saints begins “Dear Friends, life is short and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who journey the way with us, so be swift to love and make haste to be kind.”
Recently we have witnessed a very odd understanding of faith, one that focuses on filling stadiums and displays of fireworks, one that allows expressions of both love and forgiveness and of hate and vengeance. It can seem that the Jesus our country wants resembles Rambo more than the “Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” But our God, while awesome, came among as one who tends to the little and the lost, the one in front of him.
It is a grace to be loved and forgiven by that One, a grace to be called to follow in His ways, but those ways are not about being overwhelmed by miracles and then acting out of fear and amazement; rather, we are called to respond to God’s love and mercy for us, by acting with compassion towards others, and then be amazed at the grace, mercy, and love that flow forth from there.
See you in church!
Faithfully, Suzanne+