Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The second scripture this morning is from Luke sixteen, verses
nineteen through thirty one. Jesus said to his estiples, once
there was a rich person who dressed in purple and
linen and feasted splendidly every day. At the gate of
this person's estate lay a beggar named Lazarus, who was
(00:24):
covered with sores. Lazarus longed to eat the scraps that
fell from the rich person's table, and even the dogs
came and licked Lazarus's sores. One day, poor Lazarus died
and was carried by the angels to the arms of
Sarah and Abraham. The rich person likewise died and was
(00:46):
buried in hades in torment. The rich person looked up
and saw Sarah and Abraham in the distance and Lazarus
resting in their company. Sarah and Abraham the rich and cried,
have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip
of his finger in water and cool off my tongue,
(01:07):
for I am tortured by these flames. But they said,
my child, Remember you were well off in your lifetime
while Lazarus was in misery. Now Lazarus has fine consolation
here and you have found torment. But that's not all
between you and us. There is a chasm. It is
(01:28):
so that people who might wish to come to you
from here cannot do so, nor can anyone cross from
your side to us. The rich person said, I beg
you then to send Lazarus to my own house, where
I have five siblings. Let Lazarus be a warning for them,
so that they may not end up in this place
(01:48):
of torment. But Sarah and Abraham replied, they have Moses
and the prophets. Let your siblings hear them. Please, I
beg you, said the rich person, if someone would only
go to them from the dead, then they would repent.
If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets. Sarah
(02:10):
and Abraham replied, they won't be convinced even if someone
should rise from the dead. Here in's the reading.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
For six years, the Holy Family would stop at our house.
The Holy Family, along with their donkey Ernie, would find
their way to us now with the youth group at
the church. But every December, in the darkness pre arranged,
(02:50):
they would come knocking at our door. We'd open it
and they say, hi, George and Kelly. Someone who'd hand
us a script. They would begin their lit me and
then we will respond, there's no room for you, for
we are busy, for we are eating dinner. And we
usually were please go somewhere else, and then they would respond,
(03:11):
and then they would say, we wish you a merry Christmas,
and they would trot off to the house across the street.
Ernie would climb on board for his transportation back to
the stable, and the rest of the youth would pour
into the family's house across the street for a celebration
of Christmas. Now that's all well and good. Now the
(03:36):
children the youth would go next door because one of
the youth lived across the street and their family would
always host them with cookies and things, and it was
a fun thing. But we were remembering the pasada of
the Holy Family's journey of coming back and forth. But
it always got me a little bit that we were
(03:58):
the last stop before they would get something to eat. We,
like everyone else from our church community who lived in
the neighborhood, this procession of the Holy Family would go
to them and finally come to us, and we would
all say no. The first year we said, perhaps we
we'll offer them some apple cider. We'll offer them some fruits,
(04:20):
and the youth leader said no, no, no, don't do that,
for they're going to be getting cookies soon. But it's
still was like someone was sort of taking a knife
and sticking it in me and twisting it, because I
could always see the laughter and joy as they were
about to enjoy the Christmas festivities. Oh how those times
(04:48):
bring great memories to me. But we live in the world.
Even though George and I were not dressed in per
and linen, probably jeans and T shirts or sweatshirts, it
still reminded me each year that we had it pretty good,
(05:10):
that we were well thought of for the Holy Family
even to think they'd visit us. But it always troubled
me that we would slam the door in their face
and resume with dinner. The parable of the rich person
(05:34):
in Lazarus is one of those that troubles preachers. Yesterday,
at a meeting where there were other preachers, I was
the only one who was preaching on this parable. As
I was reading a blog from Diana Bass this morning,
she reminded me that parables are great exaggeration sometimes when
(06:01):
we're sort of dense, that we need exaggeration, and Jesus
knowing his disciples like us, sometimes they didn't quite get it.
We go through extreme measures to try to get them
to understand it. And over the years we've struggled with
this parable, often thinking it's about eternal life and what
(06:22):
we should do and shouldn't do to get there. But
you see, the great chasms that's there is not about
the afterlife. It's about right now, that the chasm is
so great we can't cross it. Well, modern folks that
we are, and thanks to engineers, we have built some
(06:43):
really good bridges that cross chasms. Yet it does seem
sometimes that the greatest chasm of hunger and poverty and
refugees is the hardest one for us to cross. In Montana,
there's a community called stock Farm. It's a community that
(07:08):
is gated that has come and brought some wealth to
the area, but just outside the town's boundaries so they
would not be obligated to pay tax to the town. Now,
some would describe stock Farm as a ghost ranch because
there's not a lot of folks there all the time.
(07:28):
They come in for a long weekend of skiing and
they go out. They come in for the summer to
enjoy a bit of respite of the wind and being there. Yes,
some in that community have benefited. They have been able
to get employment there at stock Farm in its gracious
(07:51):
dining rooms open only to those who are golfing. But
the jobs that stock Farm offers our minimum wage. Yet
there's a move at stock Farm where they are pressuring
the town to expand its airport so that jets might
(08:14):
be able to land, to lengthen the runway so they
can get there easier and use their own private jets. Now,
some would say, who live at stock Farm, the town
is just being stopborn. They don't want to advance. But
(08:39):
an airport expansion would increase the tax dollars needed on
a town where the wealthy would never pay. It would
ask them to carry the burden of what it means.
But villages like stock Farms, they are there with their gates.
(09:00):
You can't get in without the code or without an invitation.
And then if you still don't quite look the part,
the person attending the gate making minimum wage calls that
family and says, is this person really someone you invited?
And yes, the gate's open. If not, they are turned away.
(09:23):
But you see, sometimes it's not about gates and fences.
Sometimes it's about heritage and prejudice and understanding. Perhaps, think
of the island off the South Carolina coast where historically
was owned by people of Africa and Jamaican descent. After
(09:45):
the Civil War, Andrew Johnson pardoned the white folks who
had done some of these things. But now the issue
isn't necessarily about wealth, it's about access. For you see
on that island, it's two cemeteries where folks have come
(10:08):
to bury their dead, where folks have come to remember
they're dead, and each may to clean the cemetery. Now
these cemeteries are for are those families who weren't who
were want slaves or descendants of slaves. But as more
property has been sold, new families come in. And it's
(10:31):
been said, many of our new neighbors come in. They're
about the friendliest group of people you meet and want
to meet until they get settled. As soon as they're
settled in income the gates and the locks, and they
don't want to speak to you anymore. These gates have
went up on these semi private, semi public roads. It's
(10:53):
hard to tell where one starts another, but gates have
went up and families that used to could go to
cemeteries are locked out. Originally they would provide gaycodes to
those families and to funeral directors. But this past spring,
as one family arrived, the code no longer worked, and
(11:17):
the excuse was they trample the grass around the cemetery.
There are great chasms in our world. There are those
places where there is in great need of hospitality. If
you've been reading along with us practicing our faith, there's
(11:40):
an entire chapter about hospitality. Sometimes the hospitality may be
providing the code to get in. Perhaps that chapter reminds
me most of the story I just told you about
the Pasada coming to our home. There's different traditions of
how the Pisada rolls out, but it's a story about
(12:00):
hospitality and welcome. The Holy family you see presents to
us as they travel, a story of hunger, a story
of no place to lodge and nowhere in the case
in Syracuse, for Ernie to west to rest his weary bones.
(12:25):
For Ernie wasn't a beast of burden, because Ernie had
grown so old, just carrying himself was a chore. But
you see, as Christians, as we think about Pacada and
hospitality and how to bridge these chasms. It begins with
how can we make a difference and being hospitable to
(12:49):
one another. It's not just about when we enter the
doors of this place, but how we have been so
graciously welcomed and hospitable to one another that when we
leave we've been practicing inside how to be hospitable in
the world. In the book, it says each Christian community
(13:09):
must struggle to find ways of creating facada where all
can become to give and receive. For often we looked
at those who are more disadvantaged than us as that
really this is your fault. If you just pull yourselves
(13:29):
up by your bootstraps, life would be so much easier.
As I've said to some communities before, is have you
ever tried to grab hold of your bootstraps and hang
on and try to stand at the same time. If
you can do it, please come and demonstrate, because the
bootstraps usually aren't that long, that you can pull yourself
(13:52):
upright again. But it is to learn about the need
to learn about what makes one hurt. It's about bridging
that chasm, not of some afterlife when it will all
be glory and glory after all. It's about how creating
(14:14):
that glory and joy right now for us, my friends,
crossing gates and gaps and chasms, welcoming the stranger and
being hospitable is. To welcome a stranger is to acknowledge
that a person is a human created in the image
(14:38):
of God. Are you willing to bridge the chasm, to
mind the gap, and to welcome God's image into your life,
your home, and your church.
The second scripture this morning is from Luke sixteen, verses
nineteen through thirty one. Jesus said to his estiples, once
there was a rich person who dressed in purple and
linen and feasted splendidly every day. At the gate of
this person's estate lay a beggar named Lazarus, who was
(00:24):
covered with sores. Lazarus longed to eat the scraps that
fell from the rich person's table, and even the dogs
came and licked Lazarus's sores. One day, poor Lazarus died
and was carried by the angels to the arms of
Sarah and Abraham. The rich person likewise died and was
(00:46):
buried in hades in torment. The rich person looked up
and saw Sarah and Abraham in the distance and Lazarus
resting in their company. Sarah and Abraham the rich and cried,
have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip
of his finger in water and cool off my tongue,
(01:07):
for I am tortured by these flames. But they said,
my child, Remember you were well off in your lifetime
while Lazarus was in misery. Now Lazarus has fine consolation
here and you have found torment. But that's not all
between you and us. There is a chasm. It is
(01:28):
so that people who might wish to come to you
from here cannot do so, nor can anyone cross from
your side to us. The rich person said, I beg
you then to send Lazarus to my own house, where
I have five siblings. Let Lazarus be a warning for them,
so that they may not end up in this place
(01:48):
of torment. But Sarah and Abraham replied, they have Moses
and the prophets. Let your siblings hear them. Please, I
beg you, said the rich person, if someone would only
go to them from the dead, then they would repent.
If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets. Sarah
(02:10):
and Abraham replied, they won't be convinced even if someone
should rise from the dead. Here in's the reading.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
For six years, the Holy Family would stop at our house.
The Holy Family, along with their donkey Ernie, would find
their way to us now with the youth group at
the church. But every December, in the darkness pre arranged,
(02:50):
they would come knocking at our door. We'd open it
and they say, hi, George and Kelly. Someone who'd hand
us a script. They would begin their lit me and
then we will respond, there's no room for you, for
we are busy, for we are eating dinner. And we
usually were please go somewhere else, and then they would respond,
(03:11):
and then they would say, we wish you a merry Christmas,
and they would trot off to the house across the street.
Ernie would climb on board for his transportation back to
the stable, and the rest of the youth would pour
into the family's house across the street for a celebration
of Christmas. Now that's all well and good. Now the
(03:36):
children the youth would go next door because one of
the youth lived across the street and their family would
always host them with cookies and things, and it was
a fun thing. But we were remembering the pasada of
the Holy Family's journey of coming back and forth. But
it always got me a little bit that we were
(03:58):
the last stop before they would get something to eat. We,
like everyone else from our church community who lived in
the neighborhood, this procession of the Holy Family would go
to them and finally come to us, and we would
all say no. The first year we said, perhaps we
we'll offer them some apple cider. We'll offer them some fruits,
(04:20):
and the youth leader said no, no, no, don't do that,
for they're going to be getting cookies soon. But it's
still was like someone was sort of taking a knife
and sticking it in me and twisting it, because I
could always see the laughter and joy as they were
about to enjoy the Christmas festivities. Oh how those times
(04:48):
bring great memories to me. But we live in the world.
Even though George and I were not dressed in per
and linen, probably jeans and T shirts or sweatshirts, it
still reminded me each year that we had it pretty good,
(05:10):
that we were well thought of for the Holy Family
even to think they'd visit us. But it always troubled
me that we would slam the door in their face
and resume with dinner. The parable of the rich person
(05:34):
in Lazarus is one of those that troubles preachers. Yesterday,
at a meeting where there were other preachers, I was
the only one who was preaching on this parable. As
I was reading a blog from Diana Bass this morning,
she reminded me that parables are great exaggeration sometimes when
(06:01):
we're sort of dense, that we need exaggeration, and Jesus
knowing his disciples like us, sometimes they didn't quite get it.
We go through extreme measures to try to get them
to understand it. And over the years we've struggled with
this parable, often thinking it's about eternal life and what
(06:22):
we should do and shouldn't do to get there. But
you see, the great chasms that's there is not about
the afterlife. It's about right now, that the chasm is
so great we can't cross it. Well, modern folks that
we are, and thanks to engineers, we have built some
(06:43):
really good bridges that cross chasms. Yet it does seem
sometimes that the greatest chasm of hunger and poverty and
refugees is the hardest one for us to cross. In Montana,
there's a community called stock Farm. It's a community that
(07:08):
is gated that has come and brought some wealth to
the area, but just outside the town's boundaries so they
would not be obligated to pay tax to the town. Now,
some would describe stock Farm as a ghost ranch because
there's not a lot of folks there all the time.
(07:28):
They come in for a long weekend of skiing and
they go out. They come in for the summer to
enjoy a bit of respite of the wind and being there. Yes,
some in that community have benefited. They have been able
to get employment there at stock Farm in its gracious
(07:51):
dining rooms open only to those who are golfing. But
the jobs that stock Farm offers our minimum wage. Yet
there's a move at stock Farm where they are pressuring
the town to expand its airport so that jets might
(08:14):
be able to land, to lengthen the runway so they
can get there easier and use their own private jets. Now,
some would say, who live at stock Farm, the town
is just being stopborn. They don't want to advance. But
(08:39):
an airport expansion would increase the tax dollars needed on
a town where the wealthy would never pay. It would
ask them to carry the burden of what it means.
But villages like stock Farms, they are there with their gates.
(09:00):
You can't get in without the code or without an invitation.
And then if you still don't quite look the part,
the person attending the gate making minimum wage calls that
family and says, is this person really someone you invited?
And yes, the gate's open. If not, they are turned away.
(09:23):
But you see, sometimes it's not about gates and fences.
Sometimes it's about heritage and prejudice and understanding. Perhaps, think
of the island off the South Carolina coast where historically
was owned by people of Africa and Jamaican descent. After
(09:45):
the Civil War, Andrew Johnson pardoned the white folks who
had done some of these things. But now the issue
isn't necessarily about wealth, it's about access. For you see
on that island, it's two cemeteries where folks have come
(10:08):
to bury their dead, where folks have come to remember
they're dead, and each may to clean the cemetery. Now
these cemeteries are for are those families who weren't who
were want slaves or descendants of slaves. But as more
property has been sold, new families come in. And it's
(10:31):
been said, many of our new neighbors come in. They're
about the friendliest group of people you meet and want
to meet until they get settled. As soon as they're
settled in income the gates and the locks, and they
don't want to speak to you anymore. These gates have
went up on these semi private, semi public roads. It's
(10:53):
hard to tell where one starts another, but gates have
went up and families that used to could go to
cemeteries are locked out. Originally they would provide gaycodes to
those families and to funeral directors. But this past spring,
as one family arrived, the code no longer worked, and
(11:17):
the excuse was they trample the grass around the cemetery.
There are great chasms in our world. There are those
places where there is in great need of hospitality. If
you've been reading along with us practicing our faith, there's
(11:40):
an entire chapter about hospitality. Sometimes the hospitality may be
providing the code to get in. Perhaps that chapter reminds
me most of the story I just told you about
the Pasada coming to our home. There's different traditions of
how the Pisada rolls out, but it's a story about
(12:00):
hospitality and welcome. The Holy family you see presents to
us as they travel, a story of hunger, a story
of no place to lodge and nowhere in the case
in Syracuse, for Ernie to west to rest his weary bones.
(12:25):
For Ernie wasn't a beast of burden, because Ernie had
grown so old, just carrying himself was a chore. But
you see, as Christians, as we think about Pacada and
hospitality and how to bridge these chasms. It begins with
how can we make a difference and being hospitable to
(12:49):
one another. It's not just about when we enter the
doors of this place, but how we have been so
graciously welcomed and hospitable to one another that when we
leave we've been practicing inside how to be hospitable in
the world. In the book, it says each Christian community
(13:09):
must struggle to find ways of creating facada where all
can become to give and receive. For often we looked
at those who are more disadvantaged than us as that
really this is your fault. If you just pull yourselves
(13:29):
up by your bootstraps, life would be so much easier.
As I've said to some communities before, is have you
ever tried to grab hold of your bootstraps and hang
on and try to stand at the same time. If
you can do it, please come and demonstrate, because the
bootstraps usually aren't that long, that you can pull yourself
(13:52):
upright again. But it is to learn about the need
to learn about what makes one hurt. It's about bridging
that chasm, not of some afterlife when it will all
be glory and glory after all. It's about how creating
(14:14):
that glory and joy right now for us, my friends,
crossing gates and gaps and chasms, welcoming the stranger and
being hospitable is. To welcome a stranger is to acknowledge
that a person is a human created in the image
(14:38):
of God. Are you willing to bridge the chasm, to
mind the gap, and to welcome God's image into your life,
your home, and your church.
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