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| The Rich Man and Lazarus |
One of the summers of the years I was in seminary, I attended a 30 day residency at Mercy Center in Burlingame, CA., a place of solace and spiritual learning. It is a retreat center and a monastery, owned and run by the Sisters of Mercy.
One day, one of the leaders was giving a talk, when she made a slip of the tongue. She meant to say sexually transmitted diseases but accidentally said, “spiritually transmitted diseases”! We all burst out laughing.
Needless to say, her teaching moment was over!
But it makes you wonder. Are there “spiritual diseases”?
I think there most definitely are, but these days they are usually not referred to in spiritual or religious terms. Rather, they are usually in the jargon of psychology, sociology, political science, and or medical terminology.
What might be some of the spiritual diseases of our world, today’s society?
Spiritual blindness, entitlement, shallowness, lack of awareness, spiritual deafness, arrogance, pride, “affluenza”, conspicuous consumption, greed, vanity, oblivious to one’s blessings, spiritual laziness, sloth, apathy, ridicule, rage, wrath, jealousy, envy, lack of empathy and compassion, narcissism, addictions… the list goes on!
Now hold onto this thought as we explore the scripture readings for today...
Today’s gospel passage in Luke is the parable of the rich man and a poor man. Let’s take a look at the deeper aspects of what this lesser known parable might teach us…
The parable tells the story of two men, one, a rich man who lives in luxury and comfort, oblivious to the suffering of others. The other, named Lazarus, poor, starving and laying outside the rich man’s gate. Lazarus dies and goes to heaven. Then the rich man soon dies and he goes to Hades.
Suffering and now in hell, the rich man asks Father Abraham if he can send Lazarus to warn his brothers, who live like he did, in extravagance and blind to the suffering of others. He does not want them to wind up suffering in Hades, like he is now.
And what does Abraham tell him? If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they listen to Lazarus or anyone who rises from the dead.
So, what’s the spiritual lesson? Is this parable saying that having money or wealth means you are going to Hades?
The rich man has a spiritual disease; he was spiritually blind! And lacked empathy and compassion for the suffering of others. The rich man was aware of Lazarus's presence, laying at his gate. He even asked Abraham for him by name, yes he even knew his name! But when he was alive, he never stopped to help him.
It was not his wealth or money that sent him to Hades, rather it was his spiritual disease, his spiritual blindness and deafness to the suffering of others in the world.
And so I ask you, what is it we are not seeing or hearing? What are your spiritual blind spots?
Are we even aware we may have them?
It is not easy, I know. How can we see what we can’t see? Not just about the world and other people, but about ourselves? How can we see more? How can we spiritually grow, raise our awareness, go deeper?
When I was making the transition from being an ordained Minister with the United Church of Christ to becoming a priest in the Episcopal Church, the first step in the long and arduous process was meeting with a group of people at my home Episcopal Church, my "Discernment Committee".
One man asked to me, “Laura, what is it you are not seeing?”
His comment really hit me. My first thought was, “What? What? How can I see what I cannot see?” But I kept hearing his question over and over in my mind.
But he was right, I had “blind spots”, spiritual blind spots!
I began to pray for God to help me see more, to help me grow and see what I could not see!”
It did not happen overnight, but amazingly over the next few years, all kinds of things came into my awareness that I had never seen before! It took a whole lot of years and work to get to a much deeper level of awareness!
I am not saying I have "arrived". Growth, awareness and learning never ends! But it does require work. It takes humility. It takes being open and willing to listen. And more.
Spiritual diseases. We may have one or two of them, to varying degrees... and in all their variety...
God speaks through many people; our friends, our family, colleagues, perhaps even a brief comment by someone behind you in the grocery store check out line! God speaks everywhere!
But, are we listening?
Let us pray…
Lord help us in our spiritual blindness, to see what we cannot see, to hear what we cannot hear, open our eyes and ears and hearts … help us to grow in the spirit… and to see, hear and feel your presence in all things.
Amen!
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