Public theologian and activist, Shane Claiborne, says, “I think one of the things that we’ve found is that through our…the cultural patterns of our world that teach us to separate ourselves from the poor or from suffering, what we find out is that we end up being some of the wealthiest people in the world but also some of the most lonely and depressed and hurting people. Because what we are created for is to love and to be loved. And when we gate ourselves out, and we lock people out, and we build picket fences and gated neighborhoods and walls around our countries to lock the alien and the poor and the stranger out, we find ourselves in a place where we’re really separate from God and from those who God is so close to on the margins.

“The model of the incarnation is that Jesus moved into the neighborhood. Jesus entered into the struggle, was born in the middle of genocide, and struggled through poverty and pain even up to the point of the cross. And that’s the model that we are called to follow.

This morning’s scripture reading comes from the Gospel of Luke chapter 16 versus 19 through 31 from the Common English Bible:

“There was a certain rich man who clothed himself in purple and fine linen, and who feasted luxuriously every day. At his gate lay a certain poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. Lazarus longed to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Instead, dogs would come and lick his sores.

“The poor man died and was carried by angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. While being tormented in the place of the dead, he looked up and saw Abraham at a distance with Lazarus at his side. He shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I’m suffering in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received good things, whereas Lazarus received terrible things. Now Lazarus is being comforted and you are in great pain. Moreover, a great crevasse has been fixed between us and you. Those who wish to cross over from here to you cannot. Neither can anyone cross from there to us.’

“The rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my father’s house. I have five brothers. He needs to warn them so that they don’t come to this place of agony.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets. They must listen to them.’ The rich man said, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will change their hearts and lives.’ Abraham said, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, then neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’”

For the Word of God in scripture, for the Word of God among us, and for the Word of God within us we say…Thanks be to God.

Public theologian and activist, Shane Claiborne, says, “It’s really, really difficult to understand that there is a God who is good when everything around us is so ugly and broken. And it’s hard to understand that there is hope and life after death when so many people are going, ‘Well, is there life before death?’ and ‘If God really loves me, then why are my kids starving to death?’ And the incredible thing I think a lot of us have felt is, as we throw those questions up at God and we say, ‘God, why don’t you do something about the masses of our population that are living in poverty?’ we felt God say, ‘I did do something. I made you.’

“And for some strange reason, God’s plan for salvation for the world is obviously Jesus. But the wild thing is that…maybe one of the greatest mysteries of our faith is that as Jesus left the disciples, he said, ‘And now I’m am going to the Father, but you will do the same things I’ve been doing, and you’ll do even greater things that these because I’m leaving you the Spirit.’ That we are to continue to be God’s mystical body…that God has no other [tangible] hands but ours, no other feet but ours. And the strange thing is that our God does not want to change the world without us.”

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of John chapter 14 verses 12 through 17 from the Common English Bible:

I assure you that whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. They will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father can be glorified in the Son. When you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion,[a] who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be with you.

For the Word of God in scripture, for the Word of God among us, and for the Word of God within us we say…Thanks be to God.