Ruts to Chasms; Let's Try Bridge Building

16 Pentecost, Cp21, September 25, 2022 

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
1 Timothy 6: 11-19 Luke 16:19-31

Lectionary Link

The German philosopher Nietzsche used the metaphor of a "rut" to illustrate things which people came to regard as their social truths.

Truth or truths are well-worn metaphors, continually returned to and thus attaining the force of being treated as the "objective"  pattern of things from the beginning.

What might we call a big rut?  It would be a chasm or a grand canyon.  In geology we know that such chasms are formed by countless years of wind and water erosion.  They don't happen overnight.

Jesus told a parable about a rich man and about the truth of his life which became the final truth of his afterlife.

The love of money became the root of the evil of this rich man's life.

As people we are all born as equal people and in our tradition we believe that each person has dignity because the very GPS signal of God's image is upon all people.

We are made for union with God and there is to be no chasm and not even a rut of separation from the love God.

But when humanity becomes inwardly alienation from our divine GPS signal, we live in a separation from God which might be a rut or a canyon.  And we begin to project this rut of division upon our social relationships.

We begin to separate into all kinds of human division into factions of we and they, us and them.

With the practice of the truth of division the small ruts of division can become the long term erosive practices which result in great chasms existing between people.

Jesus was a profound economic philosopher.  He told the parable of Lazarus and the rich man to expound upon his economic philosophy.  He observed that the economic disparity between people can become the everlasting character of separation of people; it can become what people are known for in their afterlives.

Joe McDollar died and what does he become forever known as?  He's the one who built such a financially disparity between himself and the poor, that his greedy reputation will never be erased.  He fixed the chasm between himself and poor Lazarus forever.

There is a further discouraging reality about the experience of the resurrected Christ which is revealed in this parable.  The words of the parable of Jesus suggests that even if a poor man like Lazarus could return from the dead, even such resurrection, would not convince the people of wealth who were busy building their canyons of separation from the poor people of the world.

It may be a shock for us to know that the words of Jesus suggests that even the resurrection would not be irresistible in overcoming the chasm of separation between rich and poor.

The history of humanity shows that the chasm of separation between wealthy and poor has become permanent in human life even in so-called Christian cultures which have freely proclaimed the resurrection.

As we know, from the story of another Lazarus from John's Gospel, who died and who was resuscitated by Jesus, the knowledge of resuscitated life did not prevent the death of Jesus by those builders of the grand canyons separating people from each other.

What should this parable of Jesus teach us?  It should shows us that even such knowledge or promulgation of the resurrection may not be effective in overcoming the great chasms of separation in the human community.

It also should be an invitation to us to be bridge builders.  Where ruts of division have formed through the separating practices of people, we need to be bridge building.  We need to fill the valleys of separation with soil of love and kindness.  We need to resist the tendencies for ruts of division to become the permanent chasms of separation.

Let us respond to the resurrection life of Jesus to be bridge building people of love and justice today as we live respecting the dignity of each person.  Amen.