"Right Before Your Eyes"--October 8, 2019
[Jesus said:] "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.' He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead'." [Luke 16:19-31]
What if it turned out that God had been sitting outside your front door, your very own front door, and you missed it because you chose not to see beyond your gate?
What if you had been waiting--no, seeking and searching!--for some sign of God's amazing power and presence, and it turned out you had missed God's clear direction for your life because it was only written in words and not spoken by a booming voice from heaven?
What if you were so worried about letting some stranger onto your property because you were so afraid of them taking your stuff or so convinced they were just a freeloader, that you missed seeing the very image of God right before your eyes?
I think you would say that's a damn shame. And it is. It's a waste of a life to miss out on the very face of God right at your door because you expected that God only showed up in glory and light rather than the face of the neighbor who is sick... or homeless... or hungry.
And honestly, I think that's the most tragic thing about this story Jesus tells about a poor homeless man named Lazarus, and an anonymous man who is so insulated from the world by his riches and by an actual wall and a gate around his property that he cannot see the person made in the image of God right there at his doorstep. And he cannot hear the voices of Moses and the prophets calling him to take care of the neighbor in need, because he think that is just too "ordinary" a source to be listening to. No... he'll be convinced, he thinks, if someone would have risen from the dead to warn him. Or if he could go warn his brothers. But he has missed the very presence of God right before his eyes... because he was more concerned about keeping the riff-raff out than with letting the presence of God in. That is a tragedy of epic proportions.
Jesus' parable here is less about the geography of heaven and hell, and whether there is actually a large chasm, or a fiery underworld, and more about how we see (or do not see) the neighbors placed in our midst today, right in the thick of ordinary life. Jesus uses the stock trope about the afterlife that were common in his day (the same way you or I might tell a joke that starts out, "A man died and went to the pearly gates to meet Saint Peter..." and you would know I am telling a joke rather than making a claim about what I think heaven is actually like), and the point of his story is not to describe heaven and hell but to say that we are already given a clear call from the Scriptures to care for the neighbor in need right in our midst... and yet we ignore the message and close our eyes to the faces God has placed before us. And to be perfectly clear about this, from the opening chapter of Genesis onward in the Bible, the Scriptures assume that every human being is made in the image of God--so there is never a face you will meet who does not bear the reflection of the divine right onto your retinas. No matter how high the walls we set up to keep them out, no matter how thick the gate is that keeps them at arm's length, as far as the Bible is concerned, the Lazaruses waiting outside are the very presence of God. And it is a damn shame to miss the face of God because you are so unwilling to recognize it through the metal bars.
C. S. Lewis once famously said, "Next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses." And he was not exaggerating. Because every person you will ever meet--regardless of their skin color, politics, sexuality, nationality, language, tax bracket, or religious persuasion--is made in the image of God, you and I are constantly surrounded by reflections of the divine. And if our heads were on straight, we would see it as an honor to receive the presence of God through our gates, into our homes, and at our tables. What a gift of grace is set in front of us every day, to be surrounded by image-bearers of the divine--ambassadors of the living God--everywhere we go, from the homeless mom trying to get sober, to the cranky old man complaining in line at Wal-Mart, to the people speaking fluent Spanish in line behind you while you wait to pick up your kids from the school, to the couple holding hands at the coffee shop. What a holy world it is, that every corner should be filled with the glory of God in such perfectly ordinary human beings!
And yet... we can be so afraid of the "other"... or so suspicious of "outsiders" we think are just going to take our all-important stuff... or so wary of letting a stranger in... that we miss out on the very presence of God sent to us in our neighbor. That means that the Lazaruses who are waiting outside our gates are not simply there for us to pity, or to be the permanently helpless objects of our patronizing or condescension--no, they are blessings from God who bring us the very face of the divine! See--that's what the no-name rich man has totally missed. He has not even considered that he might have something to receive from Lazarus--he only sees the sick beggar outside the wall as a drain, a leech, a "public burden." What a terrible, terrible waste that he cannot recognize that there is a blessing outside waiting to be invited in. Lazarus, after all, will be cared for in the end. Those whom the powerful and the comfortable cannot even see are specially beloved and watched over by God. Lazarus, even through death, is escorted by the very angels of God. But the tycoon whose name isn't even given, he has missed out on the chance to receive the very reflection of God into his home. It is a reminder that even if you are the sort of person who is wealthy enough to get your name in big gold letters on your property, your puffed-up fake persona is completely forgettable... while the living God makes sure never to forget about the Lazaruses who are in need.
What have we been missing out on, all this time? What have we been unable to see because we were unwilling to look beyond the wall, to see through the gate, to recognize the image of God in the face looking back?
And what could we do in this day so that we do not miss out on the presence of God sent right across our path today?
Perhaps instead of looking up into the distant sky for a sunbeam and a voice, or looking inside our little gated communities and our piles of stuff instead, we might just dare to see the face of the neighbor just outside the fence... and to catch a glimpse of the God who shows up in the ordinary there.
So then, keep your eyes open... and your hearts open... and your gates open.
Lord Jesus, help us to see your reflection in all the perfectly ordinary faces you have chosen to show up in. And give us the courageous love to welcome you to our table.
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