Luke 16:19-31 (A story Jesus tells of a rich man who has everything, and a poor man at his gate who has nothing and with whom the rich man shares nothing. The poor man dies and finds himself sitting beside Abraham at the table of the heavenly feast; the rich man dies and finds himself in Hades, looking up at Abraham and Lazarus. The [formerly] rich man begs Abraham to let Lazarus come and give him a drop of water, and Abraham says, "My child, in life you had everything and Lazarus nothing; and now there is a chasm fixed between you and us that cannot be crossed.")
I Timothy 6:6-19 (Closing advice to an early church leader -- remember what the treasure and riches of the kingdom of God are: not money or worldly success, status or security, but living the life of God's love for all the world.)
As someone who lives a fairly sheltered and comfortable life in a comfortable community, I'm struck by the chasm that's fixed between the rich man and poor man in Jesus' story.
Who determined there would be a chasm between the two? That it would be uncrossable? And when did the digging of the chasm begin?
Recently our church received notice of this year's CityKidz Big Dream Banquet. (Thursday, November 10 if you're interested). We know CityKidz. It's the ministry with children and families living in poverty in the inner city, and this year the key speaker at the banquet is one of the first children who started with CityKidz 23 years ago. She's going to speak about how she has broken the cycle of poverty with the help of CityKidz.
In her life the chasm has been crossed -- she has crossed from a place of perpetual poverty, to a place of hope, opportunity and achievement.
The chasm between between those who have everything and those who have nothing, is not uncrossable from her side.
Is it as easily crossable from our side?
Some of our members drive in to the inner city to volunteer at CityKidz. Others contribute an annual sponsorship. Once a year we observe CityKidz Miracle Sunday in our worship to raise more support. For a few years some of our members drove in to an inner-city warehouse to wrap Christmas presents for the children on one of the CityKidz bus routes.
What other ways do we find across the chasm between rich and poor in our part of the world?
Or across other chasms and divides that exist in the world?
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