The Great Gulf Between
THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God."
If one were only allowed to choose a single verse from the New Testament to sum up what this season of Trinity is all about, well, then 1st John chapter four verse seventeen would be an excellent choice. "Beloved, let us love one another." What other than growing in charity towards others and love of God is of greater concern to a Christian? I ask you. Why poor yourself into studying scripture if love be not the product of your labor? Augustine says, "Whoever…thinks that he understands the divine Scriptures or any part of them so that it does not build the double love of God and of our neighbor does not understand it at all."
Why pain your knees by constant prayer and intercession if conversing with God leads not to charity towards your neighbor. St. Paul says, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." And what of your faith if not accompanied by love? Again, St. Paul, "and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." You see, beloved, your faith without works is dead faith.
You say you love God because he first loved you; but "if a man say, I love God, (says St. John), and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" And John is speaking to us Christians: that our genuine love of God is evidenced by how we love one another. Is this not the very command of our Lord Jesus Christ? to love one another: "just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." By this… meaning, that by loving, you become identifiable to the world around you. Or, you remain hidden, just another face in the crowd.
Who are the true sons and daughters of God? Those says St. John, "who are born of God." And how would anyone know? Well, by love. John says, "everyone who loveth is born of God and knoweth God." But He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Thus, scripture consistently speaks of two kinds of people in this world: those who love God and are known by him and those who do not love nor do they know God.
To know God is to be loved by God, for he loved us first. He who truly knows God knows forgiveness. And anyone who has truly been forgiven by the love of God must respond in love: just like the sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet with her tears and washed them with her hair. Of whom our Lord lovingly declared to his dinner hosts, "Therefore I tell you, because her many sins have been forgiven, she has loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." He who loves knows this God. He who does not love knows not God. We either love God and our neighbors, or we love the world and ourselves. And there is a great gulf fixed between these two.
"AND Jesus spake a parable unto them, saying, There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores."
The gulf between the children of God and the children of the world is as stark as the outward conditions of the two main characters in Jesus' parable: a certain rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. The rich man wears the finest clothes, lives luxuriously in a palatial home, and feasts nightly on the best foods. On the other hand, Lazarus has no home to speak of but lies outside the rich man's gate. He wears nothing but tattered rags, his body covered with sores. His poverty is only equaled by illness and weakness: he is so weak that he cannot push the unclean dogs away from licking his sores. Day after day, Lazarus lies at the rich man's gate in hopes of feasting on the crumbs from the rich man's table.
Cut to scene two. Lazarus is now in Abraham's bosom and the rich man in torment. He pleads with Abraham to have mercy, requesting for Lazarus to "dip the tip of his finger in water" to come and ease his torment with one small drop of water." But Abraham denies his request, "But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed."
Why did judgment come upon the rich man? Was he guilty of being rich? No, being rich isn't a condemnable offense. After all, Father Abraham was an extremely wealthy man. Was it because he owned fine clothes or lived in a mansion? Or was it because he dined sumptuously on the finest foods? No crime here either. Could we not level these very charges against Solomon or David? Jesus said, "Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him... What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, comes evil" and these defile a person.
What came from within the rich man was hard-hearted contempt for the poor and luxurious squandering of material goods upon himself: these are but the running sores that witness to the insidious plague within the rich man. He had knowledge of Lazarus and his circumstances. He knew the sickly beggar was at his gate, passing by him day in and day out. And yet, he failed to love because he could not see. Self-absorption impaired his ability to see... to see anyone but himself.
The apostle tells us that "He that loveth not knoweth not God." He did not know the unseen God of heaven because his eyes were hard fixed on the visible world and all its so-called riches. Therefore, he who believes not in an invisible world of righteousness and truth and spiritual joy must place his hope in things he sees, acquires, handles tastes, and smells. Therefore, love is directed away from heaven and towards himself.
At the heart of all misdirected love is the sin of unbelief. We love as we believe and believe in what we love. So again, contempt of the poor, disregard of those in need, self-absorption, and material excesses are but symptoms of the root issue of un-belief. He who believes not in a God who delights in mercy and loving-kindness, who rewards the merciful and punishes the unmerciful, will, in time, withdraw compassion from his brothers, either to put more money in his barn or to have more to spend upon his lusts.
This was the rich man's and the fount from which flowed all his other sins: that he believed not in the Divine heavenly world which is only apprehended by faith—a world not merely beyond the grave—but a kingdom of truth and love existing even now, right in the midst of this cruel and selfish world. And so, Jesus' intends not to teach us this morning on the dreadful consequences which will follow on the abuse of wealth and on the hard-hearted contempt of the poor but on the fearful consequences of unbelief, of a heart, set on this world, and refusing to give credence to that invisible world and the God who inhabits it, here known only by faith, until by a miserable and too late experience the existence of such has been discovered; as in the case of the rich man. His eyes were finally opened. He realized the gulf between two loves, between the love of God and love of the world, but it was too late.
And what about Lazarus? Was it his poverty that summoned the angels to carry him into paradise? Well, perhaps his name helps unlock this question, for the name Lazarus means "God is my help," and by employing this specific name to the poor man, Jesus is telling us that it is faith that saved the man from the same torment as the rich man. For named "God is my help" had surely placed his trust in the God of Abraham, and it was this his faith, and not his poverty, which brought him into Abraham's bosom.
His outward poverty was a manifestation of another poverty, an inward poverty of spirit and humility. He was a man in need of God, a beggar in need of a savior, not only from a life of miserable poverty but from the torments of eternal judgment as well. So, whether rich or poor, every man, woman, and child must see their need for God and trust in those certain riches found only in him. And having the knowledge of being loved by God, see the needs of others, and love them as well. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," says the Lord, "for theirs is the Kingdom of God" (Mt 5:3).
Today we are reminded that while we are in this world, we need to listen to the Lord who speaks through the Sacred Scriptures and live according to his will, for "it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment." And here, especially as we embark on this season of Trinity tide, let us take to heart once again to love one another as Christ loves us.
By love, we know that we are children of God. By love, we know that we are beloved of God. By our love, the world sees, though dimly, the invisible God of heaven. And by fulfilling the commandment given us by Christ, we remain in the blessed fellowship of the Trinity, the Author of our salvation who gave his life to bridge the great gap between our loving the world and loving God. Amen+
