“Between you and us a great chasm has been fixed…”
Chasms. Us and them. Rich and poor. The past and the future. Fear and hope. Scarcity and abundance. We live in these paradigms. Since coming into ministry, and even more so since the first conversations I had with Bishop David about the possibility of becoming the Canon here, these chasms have been on my mind. These paradigms of division. So it seems beyond appropriate that my first sermon as your Canon is on chasms.
In Luke’s gospel account, the Rich Man is pleading with Abraham to save him from the torments of Hades, and yet Abraham refuses him. His response is that there is a great chasm between those in heaven and those in hell which cannot be crossed. But how did this chasm start?
According to the gospel reading (Luke 16:19-31), it was because the rich man ignored Lazarus. He ignored his illness. He ignored his begging. He ignored his need. Because Lazarus was essentially invisible to the rich man, the chasm was created. The rich man’s CHOICE to ignore Lazarus created the chasm. It wasn’t by happenstance...it was a choice.
In seminary I was introduced to the writings of Gustavo Gutierrez, a Latin American theologian. Guiterrez believed that stories of the gospel highlight Jesus’ relationship with the poor as a way to remind us how to love one another. For Guiterrez, it could be said, the chasm between the rich man and Lazarus should have never existed to begin with, and yet, this is the condition in which the story is set, and it is the condition in which we find ourselves all too often--separated, segregated, and isolated. We know this chasm in our personal lives, in our communities, and in the history of this diocese.
One of the blessings I had while serving as the Rector of St. Mark’s in Hood River was that I got to be the priest to Ed & Patti Browning. Now for some of you, that name may not mean anything...and that’s ok...but for those of you who remember ...Ed was the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church before Frank Griswold, who preceded Katherine Jeffert-Shori...at least one of those names should be familiar to you. :)
By the time I arrived at St. Mark’s, Ed was older, living out his retirement with Patti on their blueberry farm, enjoying their dogs and grandchildren. He wasn’t the church rock star that he had been in his younger days. But his commitment to narrowing, if not eradicating, that chasm never waned, and it was held under the banner “no outcasts”.
When Ed was installed as the 24th presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, he said, “There is a pain beyond these cathedral walls which most of us can barely comprehend”. This “pain” that Ed talked about is the result of the chasm that we have created between “us” and “them”, the chasm between the privileged and the marginalized, between the hungry and the ones who eat the sumptuous feast, between the visible and the invisible.
The experience of that chasm has been felt here in this diocese. It is a real, tangible feeling of pain.
But friends, there is good news.
I came here to be with you and with Bp David because I see that there is a hope of healing that chasm. Not so that we can do things the way they were done before, but so that we can move forward with a sense of love, abundance, and joy. I believe that the Good News of this story of the rich man and Lazarus for us is that we are in a unique position to not only heal that chasm, but change the landscape of our little corner of the world so that these kinds of chasms cease to exist. We do this through redefining who we are--a people called to be agents of change in making our community a better place, whether that’s through the Yellow Bag ministry, being good stewards of our environment, tutoring a child, feeding the hungry, or visiting someone in prison. And we don’t do it alone...the chasm cannot be healed by one of us...it will take all of us, as well as our brothers and sisters across ecumenical and interfaith lines.
We, right here, in this moment, at St. Anne’s, in this diocese, we are called to be healers and companions. And we do it out of a place of love. We love one another not because it’s easy, but because it’s our calling as disciples and because it opens us to the possibility of experiencing God’s love more fully. When we heal the chasm, we are working to eradicate that pain that Ed Browning spoke about. Or, as Guiterrez explained, “…as church people…an attitude of service presupposes sensitivity to listen to others…[it] inspire[s] us to incarnate the great values of the reign of God in our history”.
So, I want to end by sharing this prayer with you today:
God of Abraham, Moses and the prophets, your covenant binds us as sisters and brothers: help us to overcome the scandal of invisibility, the fixed chasm of indifference and to recognize you in the wounded among us; through Jesus Christ, the Builder of Bridges. Amen. (adapted from Prayers for an Inclusive Church)