Well, we make choices all day long, don't we? Some of them are conscious and we're aware of them, and some of them are just kind of automatic as we go through the day. A lot of these things are based on things that we were taught when we were very young. We caught perspective, assumptions, values, beliefs from our parents and our family and our culture where we lived. But when we became teenagers, we probably rebelled against some of those maybe, possibly. And when we went away to college, then there were all this amazing array of choices that we could make. And some of us were, some of them were good choices and some of them were maybe be not so good choices. That we made during those years, and maybe when we settled down to adult life we kind of realigned some of those values and choices and made them our own and kind of go through our days and in recent times I think we've all been challenged by some of the choices that collectively we've been making as we've going down some destructive paths, and we're going something's not working right here. We need a little wake-up call. We need a little jolt to get us back on the right track.
[00:16:08]
It was a cultural assumption in those days that if you were rich you were blessed you were a godly person you god was blessing you and and just pouring out abundant life on you right now and it was going to be like that for ever and the corollary of that was that if you were poor, then you were obviously a sinner. Obviously you've done something to offend god. Obviously that's what's wrong with you and jesus had to confront this over and over and over again throughout his ministry because it was so prevalent in his society. And so he tells this parable again to people to try to wake up. There are consequences to the choices that you make and some of these assumptions are not necessarily true.
[00:17:45]
Somehow this rich man was a son of abraham and he was stoked in the jewish covenant but somehow had forgotten about the part that said take care of the poor, the orphaned and the widows take care of you have a responsibility there for those people. And he was forgetting that all the way along the line. And we as christians know too that we are supposed to be taking care of the poor and the orphaned and the less privileged among us. And most of the time we're aware of that and we're thankful that there are programs there are food banks that we can serve at and maybe contribute to. There are homeless shelters that we can help out. The saint francis center the you know all the rest never rescue mission all these places where we can help out and yet it's the it's the audacity. And I think this is where jesus is really kind of pinning it down for us. Is saying this is a person that is at your doorstep. This is the person that is under your nose. This is someone who is quote in your bundle to take care of. And you even know his name. And you are not taking care of him. That's the big oops.
[00:19:29]
So who I mean we can we can participate in food banks helping. We can and all that's wonderful and good. But who is in our bundle? Who is at our doorstep? Who do we know that is struggling? That's the one that we can't ignore. Or there's choices. Consequences for those choices.
[00:21:03]
The consequences are what jesus is talking about here because in the parable the poor man dies and is carried away by the angels and the rich man dies and he ends up in torment and he must be quite surprised about ending up there because he was rich he was you know blessed by god right and this just doesn't compute for him and he's looking far off and he sees a lazarus up there with abraham and he says hey send lazarus down to give me a drink of water and he still doesn't get it oh my gosh he still thinks he can order lazarus around like a slave like a servant he doesn't understand at all what has happened so abraham has to explain to him there's this huge chasm between you and us and nobody can cross it nobody can cross it and it's a chasm that has been built by what the daily choices the daily choices.
[00:21:31]
Brain science says that that if we start doing things over and over and over again we actually make like grooves in the neurons of our brain and we know this is true have you ever tried to break a bad habit it's really difficult to do isn't it and it takes a lot of effort and it takes a lot of time to break those bad habits and if it's an addiction it's even worse because we've dug that groove deeper and deeper into our psyche and we think that's what we need and we think that's the way to go and that chasm keeps getting deeper and broader and wider all the time.
[00:22:46]
So what are the chasms of our lives today? It's interesting in our frenetic american dream cultural consumer cultural life that we get really really busy and want to go really really fast and even driving up here this morning my husband's going god everybody's in such a hurry today did you notice that it's like man everybody is in a big sweat i'm like why it's a beautiful day there's gorgeous mountains out there and some aspen peeking through the top man it's just incredible why are everybody in such a hurry and yet we miss what god is calling us to do right under our noses and those chasms grow big.
[00:23:30]
Mother theresa says our frenetic and our busy life is causing us to have this pandemic of loneliness loneliness and mental health issues because we don't have time to be who we are franciscan priest richard roer talks about our poverty of time we never seem to have enough time and then he says and we have a poverty of wisdom we have a plethora of knowledge knowledge at our fingertips just google anything right but wisdom that you that takes experience, that takes time, that takes attention, that takes presence. That takes knowing at a heart level and a spirit level that is different. And he talks about our poverty of friendship, that isolation that our busyness causes, and all of that.
[00:24:20]
So what are the chasms that we inadvertently dig? You know? We've got these chasms in our culture today. Economically, rich and poor, politically, right and left, religiously, all over the place, chasms here, there, and everywhere, race, creed, culture. I mean, it goes on and on, right? And we're sucked into it, sometimes subconsciously, subconsciously, without even realizing that we've just put another shovel full of that consequence, and dug another chasm. Or more personally, there may be chasms between people that we need to offer forgiveness, and mend the, build bridges, and do those things differently. Those chasms can be healed, because they have eternal consequences, what Jesus is talking about. Long, lasting, eternal consequences. But we can choose differently.
[00:25:26]
Abraham is telling the rich man, the unnamed rich man, that Lazarus can't cross over. And so, the rich man says, Okay, well, if he can't do that, then at least go to my father's house, and warn my brothers, that, you know, this is not a good way to be, this is not a good way to live, so that they don't end up here, too. Because we all bought the, we all bought the, the rope, the lie. We thought, you know, if you were rich and blessed by God, you had it made. And that's not so. And, and Abraham says, they have access. To the truth about God. They're sons of Abraham, too. They have Moses. They have the prophets. They know better. If they listen to the whole thing, but if they're ignoring it, then even if somebody goes back from the dead, even if someone is raised from the dead, they're not going to believe that either.
[00:26:38]
And that's kind of the pickle we're in, isn't it? And that's the pickle that Jesus was in as he was telling people to wake up. That eternal life, that resurrected life, is available to us all. Right here, right now, all the time. And if we, but we have to choose it. We can't ignore it and put it on the, on the side shelf. We have to pay attention to it. We have to choose that life. Or we will continue to inadvertently dig the chasms that we don't want to do.
[00:27:44]
So, choose the eternal life of God. That's what Jesus is calling us to do. Choose to build bridges and fill in those chasms. Choose forgiveness. Choose grace. Choose mercy. Choose justice. Choose those things that will help us rebuild the people of God community. An alternate way of being and living that pays attention.
[00:28:26]
Richard Rohr has a famous zinger line. He's got several. of them, but one of them that just drives me crazy because I'm so guilty. How you do anything is how you do everything. Well, I'm a planner, which means I'm always thinking about the next thing, right? So I'm not always present. And to be in the presence of God, you have to be present. And so it's a struggle to not just plan ahead or be efficient or multitask or do, you know, whatever it is your thing is. Watch where you're going. Be aware. Be awake. How you do anything is how you do everything. So scary how true that is.
[00:28:58]
Frederick Buechner put it another way. Watch where your feet take you. Watch where your feet take you. My husband and I like to go walking. You know, we have several different routes. And every once in a while I say, we need to walk it backwards. And we notice different things when we walk it backwards. Watch where your feet take you and start to notice. Start to be aware. And so you aren't digging chasms. You're making choices for life. Eternal life. God's life. Amen. Amen.
[00:29:58]
