For me, preaching is an exercise in “translating” texts into our context. For me, that means looking at what is swirling around me and others at the moment and seeing what scripture, particularly the lectionary texts, have to say in that context. Ann Ward started me thinking about the chasm within the story about Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31 and readers of this blog will naturally find some of those “chasms” talked about here. The most powerful thing Ann wrote was,
How big was the gap/distance between the rich man at his table and Lazarus at the gate? Surely not so great as the eternal divide that existed later. Yet it was a distance the rich man allowed, or welcomed … until he was on the wrong side of the chasm.
We actually build chasms between people in our society and work to be on the “right side” of those. Jesus isn’t on that side.
- Race
- Class
- Communities (gated to keep people out)
- Sexualities
- Red/Blue political affiliation
Even churches build those chasms.
It will be interesting to see how this shapes out for Sunday
Pondering Pastor
