Invisible Ones
Jesus tells his disciples a story about a dishonest property
manager, concluding: “No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will
either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”[i]
Some Pharisees evidently are among his disciples, and they
ridicule him. He calls attention to their love of wealth and reminds them of
what prophets like Moses and Amos have warned in the past: those who lounge
around on beds of ivory, eating the finest foods, drinking the finest wines,
will be the first to go into exile, and all their “revelry” shall cease.[ii]
Then, like any self-respecting rabbi, he tells yet another story, this time
about a rich man who dressed in the finest and latest fashions, and feasted “sumptuously”
every day, and a poor man named Lazarus who lay outside the rich man’s gate,
covered with sores, who longed to eat just whatever falls from the rich man’s
table - the scraps the dogs would eat before going out to the gate to lick poor
Lazarus’s sores.
Both men die. Lazarus is carried away to be with our Father
Abraham, and the rich man descends to torment in a flaming pit. He sees Lazarus
with Abraham and begs for Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool his dry,
hot tongue. Abraham says, no. You had your chances to use your wealth on behalf
of others like Lazarus and others who suffer every day just outside your gate.
As a result, there is now a great chasm set between you and them which no one
can cross. Then please, send a Lazarus to warn my brothers so that they don’t
make the mistakes I have. No, like you, they have Moses and the Prophets. They
ought to listen to them. No, but if you send someone from the dead to warn them,
they will listen. Abraham said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and
the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the
dead."[iii]
We may have noticed a few things. Poor, suffering Lazarus
has a name, while the rich man does not. Lazarus represents those who Moses and
the Prophets call widows, orphans, and resident aliens – a phrase in Hebrew
literature of the day that means all those who are without resources. Those who
tend to be what bluesman Charlie Musslewhite calls “the invisible ones” [iv]
- those homeless, poor, and destitute people we often tend to walk on by. Our
nameless rich man represents those who gather more and more wealth, possessions
and resources while Lazarus sits right outside their door remains invisible.
Despite all the commandments from Moses and the Prophets to care for all those
without resources no matter who they are or from wherever they may come.
In one sense, Amos and Luke seem to raise the question: Just
how many “invisible ones” must there be before a nation realizes it is already
in exile?
This past week we have been blessed with an example of just
what Jesus is getting at in this all-too-common story. Some 50 immigrants, many
escaping the brutal Communist regime in Venezuela, and in the U.S. legally
seeking asylum, were picked up and place on planes courtesy of the Governor and
people of the state of Florida, flown and dropped off on the island of Martha’s
Vineyard. They had been promised to be sent to Boston where there were to be
jobs and shelter awaiting them, but alas, there they were on a small island
they knew not where.
Without hesitation, members of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
in Edgartown on the island, joined by other resident volunteers, offered them food
and shelter for a few days while a more appropriate solution could be found on
the mainland. It seems the commands of Moses, the Prophets, and the invitation
of Jesus to “follow me,” is alive and well at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church. This,
in fact, is why churches exist at all – to sustain a faithful understanding of
what it means to follow Jesus, and to live accordingly – what it means to love
God and love Neighbor.
It is quite simple, really. The story means to convey the
urgency for all of us to render the invisible ones visible, and to meet their
needs with compassion and respect. This is what it means to be people of faith.
There is nothing to believe. Rather, the life of faith, the spiritual life, calls
us to love God and love our neighbor. And as Jesus constantly reminds us to
sing, “all are neighbors to us and you.”[v]
Everything one needs to know in this little story of life
itself is that “Lazarus” is always lying at our doorstep, and if we would pay
attention to Moses, the Prophets and Jesus, we would know just what to do – how
to respond to any and all who are in need, no matter who they are, or from wherever
they have come. For all of us one day, at one time or another, will be Lazarus
ourselves.
The question the story asks the Pharisees and all of us is: Will
we be like the rich man? Or, are we ready to follow Jesus? God bless our sisters
and brothers in Christ in Edgartown, Massachusetts, for reminding us who we are
and whose we are. We are those people called to love God and love our neighbor –
especially those like Lazarus, the invisible ones of all kinds, who are at the
gate and just outside our door every day. Amen.
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