We have here a parable of two men who died at about the same time. And that is just about where the similarities between the two men end. For both in life and in death, they were very different. One was poor; the other rich. One was hungry; the other ate sumptuously. One was homeless; the other lived in palatial surroundings. One went to heaven; the other…

If it is true, as someone once said, that Jesus spoke in parables to make the people think, then this is a model parable. Why? Because, like many of Jesus' parables, it has a topsy-turvy ending. An ending that made the people who heard it in the first century, and that makes us in the twenty-first century, say, "Huh?" The rich man loses and the poor man wins? That's not how it is in life!

Since the Bible story is something we all love to hear, let's review the story. One man may have no name, but he lived the life of the rich and famous. He apparently had everything anyone could want. Fine clothes – in purple and linen. Elegant, gourmet meals. Probably many servants who kept his home functioning smoothly. At least two faithful dogs, maybe more. An elegant home – perhaps a mansion – that needed a gate to afford him privacy and to keep the riff raff out. By almost any standard, on the surface at least, life couldn't have been better. What's more, even with death, he was treated well, for he had a proper burial, very likely with the most expensive coffin money could buy.

Not so for Lazarus. This poor man had nothing. His clothes were probably ragged and torn. His skin was covered with some kind of infection. It was an infection that very likely wept, because when the rich man's dogs wandered in his direction, they licked the man's sores. He had no home, not even a hut, to go home to. The only place he could find to sleep was outside the gate of the rich man's house. He was always hungry, always hoping to get some of the food that fell from the rich man's table. And that wasn't enough to keep him alive. When he died, probably of disease and starvation, only the angels noticed.

And lucky for him that they did. For it was in their deaths that the fortunes of the two men were reversed. Carried away by the angels who attended his death, Lazarus was taken to be in the bosom of Abraham. The rich man, on the other hand, found himself in another place, nowhere near Abraham. Instead, he was in Hades, (hay-deeze) looking beyond a great, insurmountable chasm, to see the old man who once lay at his gate, sitting at Abraham's side. Imagine his surprise. Surely, if he thought about it at all, he would have expected things to go the other way around.
After all, the theology of the day was in favor of the rich man, for the people believed that if you were wealthy, if you had good material fortune, you were in God's good favor. But if you were poor, if you were sick, or otherwise faced with some of life's difficult challenges, you were out of favor with God. In either case, God gave you what you deserved. Perhaps this sounds familiar to some of you, for it is a belief that many people still hold today.

However, as the story unfolds, that theology is not affirmed. We learn that the rich man's life on earth was not matched in his afterlife. In death, he knew no riches, no sumptuous food, no mansion. Instead, he knew only the agony of flames – hardly what he expected after his luxurious life. So, it is understandable that when he saw Lazarus at peace with Abraham, he cried out for help. "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."

Although the rich man obviously knew Lazarus somewhat, because he recognized him and called him by name when he saw him, there is nothing in the early part of the story that indicates that he mistreated the beggar. It is possible that Lazarus occasionally ran errands for him, or did small tasks that needing doing around the mansion. The rich man certainly felt comfortable enough asking that he perform this comforting service.
Alas, Lazarus did not go to ease the man's agony. He couldn't. Instead, addressing the man as "Child," Abraham gently explained that things were different now. In life, the rich man was the one who had good fortune, but it was now time for Lazarus, whose name, by the way, means, "God helps," to have a turn with the good life. Besides, even if he wanted to go quench the rich man's agonizing thirst, there was this great chasm that neither he nor Lazarus could cross.

It's interesting that the rich man did not press the issue. Instead, for the first time in this story, he showed concern for someone other than himself and asked Abraham for a favor. Apparently accepting the fact that it was too late for him to reverse his own situation, he asked that someone go to his five brothers and warn them about the consequences of their life style. Evidently, although Abraham did not state it outright, the man correctly connected his present location in Hades with the way he had lived while on earth and he did not want his brothers to have the same fate. If someone were sent to tell them what had happened to their brother, they might change their ways. If they received a warning about what might happen to them if they continued to live as they presently lived, they could reconsider. Otherwise, they too might end up in a place of torment.
But Abraham said it wasn't really necessary to send a warning. The man's brothers already had what they needed; they had the law of Moses and the prophets. That was warning enough; if they listened to them, they would be fine.

But the rich man knew his brothers; they were very much like him. So he admitted to Abraham that the brothers would probably not change their ways unless someone came to them from the dead to give them what for. He was afraid that, left on their own, with only the scriptures as a guide, the brothers would continue living as he had. In purple gowns and linen robes. Eating sumptuous feasts each day. Ignoring the poor, who, hungry and homeless, lay outside their gate.

It seems that Abraham understood human nature better than the rich man did. "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets," he predicted, "neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." So, no one went to the brothers, and the chasm in their lives probably got wider and wider. And that is where the story ends. The rich man in Hades, Lazarus in heaven, and the fate of the brothers up in the air.
Often, when we listen to the parables of Jesus, either consciously or unconsciously we try to identify with one of the people in the story. But in this instance, it is hard for us to identify with either one of the two men. It is difficult to imagine being as wealthy as the rich man in all his opulence or to being as catastrophically devastated as Lazarus in all his misery. We simply do not live as either one of them did, although to be honest, every one of us is more like the rich man than Lazarus.
As compared to many, many people in the rest of the world, we are all rich. Several years ago, at the Annual Meeting of the Maine Conference, musician Brian Sirchio (Search-eeo) told a story about a man he met on a mission trip to Haiti. Something the man had said to Brian made Brian ask him, "Do you think I am rich? I'm not rich."

"How many meals a day do you eat?" asked the man who lived where much of the population is constantly hungry.

"Three, most of the time," Brian answered, uncomfortably beginning to understand where the conversation was going.

"Anyone who is lucky enough to have one meal a day is rich," the gentleman gently reminded him.

We're not as rich as the man in the story, but we're rich enough. We may not have purple gowns, but most of us have far more clothing than we need. We may not eat sumptuously every day, but we eat well. Too well, in many instances. On the other hand, though some of you know what it means to be poor, probably none of us knows the kind of misery that Lazarus knew.

Considering that we can't really identify with either the rich man or Lazarus, who is left? The brothers. The rich man wanted his brothers to be aware of what happened to him so they could turn their lives around and live differently. He wanted them to understand how important it is in life to avoid creating a chasm that cannot be crossed. It's unlikely that as he lived his affluent life that he ever thought much about the consequences of his life style. He sincerely wanted his brothers to understand what he had not understood.

Now, lest you think that it was the man's wealth that created the chasm, take note. Nothing in this story directly insinuates that it was his riches that put him in Hades. In telling the parable, Jesus did not say that the rich man refused to give a meal to Lazarus, or that he refused to care for the man's sores. The problem was more likely that he didn't even notice that Lazarus was a neighbor in distress.

It was more the rich man's ignorance, his blindness that was his failing. He didn't see a neighbor in need. Although Lazarus was in his own front yard, he didn't really know him, or care about him. He wasn't at all aware of who Lazarus was, of what he needed. Although he knew him by name, the rich man did not really know Lazarus, because he did not respond to his hunger, or his homelessness, or his ill health. And if he didn't care for a close neighbor in such great need, he didn't care for anyone.

If he had only known what would happen, he might not have let the great chasm between him and Lazarus develop. For, the truth is, it was while he was on earth, not after his death, that the chasm got bigger and bigger. It was as he lived with so much wealth and served his own desires while another died of starvation that his chasm expanded more and more. If he had been aware of what his self-centered living meant, he might have paid closer attention. He might have shown some concern, given some love to this neighbor at his gate and his neighbors beyond.

Unfortunately, he could not send his warning to his brothers. He could not warm them to open their eyes and hearts, to look to the scriptures and think about how they lived. But, it is not too late for you and me. We too have the law of Moses and the prophets. Throughout this weekend, the clergy and delegates of the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ have been meeting at Sunday River to conduct the business of this conference. The theme of the weekend has been, "Listen, Learn, Love…God is still speaking." How appropriate it is, then, to listen again to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, for it reminds us of what God calls us to do. Brothers and Sisters throughout the Maine Conference, we must close the great chasm in our own lives. We are called to listen to and learn from the scriptures. For not only do we have Moses and the prophets, but we also have the one who has risen from the dead who calls us to love one another and our neighbors as ourselves.

Listen, learn love…God IS still speaking!

                                           Written by Rev. Anne Roundy, Commission for Spiritual Life