Share the Feast

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted

sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’

                                                                        Luke 16:19 (NRSV)

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What happens when we die?

There are a lot of ideas

I doubt very much if it has anything to do with heavenly mansions and streets of gold

I will be very much surprised if there is, as some on the right claim

a wall

or a gate

or any sort of test

What I do believe is that our being then will bear little resemblance to our being now

What I do believe is that the communion with the Sacred

Which we experienced here on earth

Will become union

“Our true nature is the nature of no birth and no death” Thich Nhat Hanh

  To put it another way, we come from God, and we return to God

All of us!

So what do we do with pesky parables such as this?

How do we think about the ramblings of Paul and his “third heaven”

I believe we all come from the Sacred

And I believe we all return

But I also think that while we are living

We can distance ourselves from the Sacred

We can ignore

We can lose touch

Or

Worst of all

We can actively deny the Sacred by the way we think

And the way we live

We can create such a distance

By our greed

Our lust for power

Our lies

Our cruelty

Our lack of compassion

Our failure to champion justice and equity

That we create an abyss

That blocks our reunion with the Sacred

As Jesus put it

A great chasm is fixed

A distance, a hardness

A blindness can be developed

That keeps people from returning

Keeps people from the eternal table

Keeps people form once again

Living the house of love

What it looks like to be in that place I do not know

But I do know this

I do not want to deny my heritage

I do not want to be apathetic about the Sacred Presence that is in me

I do not want to slowly fall away into a dark place

Where I am so far from God it is almost

Almost

Impossible to get back

I cannot bring myself to believe that it is impossible

There are those parables about lost coins

And lost sheep

And prodigal children

And I suspect there is always a way back

And I suspect if we do not find ourselves back in communion

It is not for lack of trying

On God’s part

I wonder what it will be like when

Those in power in America, finally die, and move on

Will they move on?

Or will they be stuck,

Not in eternal torment imposed by God

But a cold darkness they have chosen

It is interesting that in this parable Jesus suggests

That Lazarus might well have tried to find a way

To get to the Rich Man and bring him back

I love that

Part of me wants those I believe are so much like the rich man (often called Dives)

To pay the price

But a bigger part wants to believe that god never gives up

Never stops looking

Never stops trying….

But I suppose that is the point

We can choose the things of the earth

We can choose to distance

This is truly a parable for our time

It is one of those stories

That reminds us that this is all a mystery

And we do not understand

And will probably

Will never understand

This is one of those stories that reminds us of our limited

Capacity to understand God, and God’s way

And there really is only one response we can make

We can share the feast

We can live lives of generosity

And kindness and love

We can notice those in need around us

And offer more than crumbs