Streams of Mercy

We’ve all seen Lazarus. He lies on a pile of newspapers outside a shop doorway, covered with a rough blanket; sometimes he’s sitting near the local Wal-Mart holding his “will work for food” sign; sometimes he’s walking down the highway with his “need food, money, or whatever else” sign, hoping to thumb a ride; sometimes he’s a sad little man in our community walking here and there, always ending up right where he started.

We’ve all seen Lazarus. Sometimes he’s a little child coming to school on a cold winter morning without a coat; sometimes he’s the young single mom, with babies in tow, holding up the line as the checkers work with her WIC checks to buy food for her children; sometimes he’s the elderly woman pushing a grocery cart holding all her worldly goods to the window at a fast food restaurant, coming in for the breakfast they have for her each morning, ever keeping a watchful eye on her cart as she eats; sometimes he’s a neighbor struggling with health issues, determined to stay in her home, clinging to her dignity and independence, even as all is slipping away; sometimes he’s the grandmother struggling on her meager Social Security check, to care for her grandchildren whose parents have abandoned them for drugs.

We see Lazarus all over the world on the nightly news: people of all races, male and female, old and young, Christian, Jew, Muslim and on and on. We see Lazarus every day of our lives, in all times and in all places. But do we really see him? Do we really see him, or do we miss him, and failing to see him, pass on by?

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus presents us with the great moral challenge of seeing and then making visible, the invisible suffering of the world. The parable challenges us not simply to share wealth, but to become attentive to the poor and suffering persons who are among us. If Jesus was on the side of the poor, and we are followers of Jesus, then we, too, are called to be on the side of the poor and bless them, not just with words but also with deeds of mercy and loving- kindness, giving of ourselves on their behalf, like Jesus himself.

This parable speaks to the deep truth that things are not the way God intended. Jesus teaches that all of our lives are caught up with one another in ways that have consequences now and consequences into eternity. If we truly see each other, perhaps that can be the start of living in a way that acknowledges the truth: that we all belong to one another and we all belong to God, in this life and in the life to come.

Giving thanks for the witness of scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit in all of life giving us a vision of the Kingdom of God and helping us live into its fullness.

Elizabeth