16 Pentecost/Year C/Sept 25, 2022

Amos 6:1a, 4-7; Psalm 146; Luke 16:19-31

As I sat outside on a bench a couple of weeks ago on the Sea walk, in front of the church, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with thoughts of gratitude: I looked all around me at the beauty, thankful for God’s creation, thankful for the home I live in, thankful for all the daily blessings I enjoy, thankful for the work God has given me to do, thankful for my family and church family, thankful for the food that nourishes my body, thankful for the choices that are available to me every day to enrich my life and the lives of others…Thankful for the many ways in which I see signs of God’s love and blessings all around me, every day…

Then my thoughts turned to consider another person in my community, sitting on a bench just a few feet away from me, and I wondered if he was thinking along the same lines as I was, counting his blessings on this glorious sunny day in Sitka… But, this is what I heard him say, instead: I can’t help but be overwhelmed by all the sorrows and troubles in my life. I look all around me, and I don’t see that beauty you talk about. When I look around me, I see the busy street and sidewalk, with cars and people passing me by. I have no home to be thankful for. I have no money to spend as I please. I have no job, no family to go home to. I don’t have a church family. I often go days without a meal. I haven’t been offered the same choices as you have. Nobody will talk to me…they just turn the other way and pretend they never saw me. It’s hard for me to believe and hope in the God you proclaim gives justice to those who are oppressed, food to those who hunger, sets the prisoners free, opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down, cares for the stranger and sustains the orphan and widow.

It’s hard for me to see signs of God’s blessings around me. I feel abandoned by God and others.

So here we have two very different views of one’s life from the bench on the Sea walk… sitting just a few feet from one another… yet, at the same time…so distant from one another…

And you know what…There’s nothing uncommon about this scenario…

This is the stark reality of life in our communities: locally, nationwide, and worldwide. There are people among us who believe that they see signs of God’s love and blessings in their lives every day, and there are those who are left wondering and lamenting day after day why God has abandoned them…why God’s people have abandoned them…and left them leaning at the gate by themselves, longing to satisfy their hunger, with mere scraps of attention and love from those who pass them by…

We have people living right next door to each other…just a few feet away it seems, but the “chasm” is great as noted into today’s gospel reading. And the gap between the rich and the poor, continues to widen…we continue to abandon Lazarus at the gate…instead of reaching out our hand in love to lift him up…

How can this be? Here, now – in the 21st century? We have more than enough riches and resources in this world to share with each other, to ensure that all of God’s children are fed, clothed, sheltered, have access to quality health care and educational opportunities…

We have more than enough Love to go around, God’s Love, to share with one another, so that no-one is ever left behind, and abandoned at the gate…

We have more than enough gifts and talents and love to share as the body of Christ, here in the church, and with all those we meet in our everyday lives…small, little acts of love and kindness that each of us can offer to another person…a simple glance and smile at someone as you pass each other on the street, an invite to someone to come sit on the bench with you on the Sea walk, an invitation extended to someone to come to church with you, to experience the mystery and fullness of God’s love and grace made known to us in the way of love and life that Jesus is calling us to; a phone call or note to an elder, caregiver, parents raising up children in these uncertain times; take some time to learn about ways you can help support folks in our community who are struggling or feeling abandoned and take the first step to reach out a helping hand to them…small acts of love and kindness can make a big difference in helping to bridge the gaps that separate us and divide us into categories of “them and us”…

In God’s kingdom, in the family of God, in the dream of God…there is no them or us…It’s simply “Us”, all of us… all of us together, in all our diversity - loving God, loving our neighbor, caring for one another, encouraging one another, reaching out a hand and lifting up one another to receive the fullness of God’s grace and love…in this life and in the life, yet to come.

Let me close with this short story attributed to Mother Teresa who is well known for teaching us about reaching out to care for the most vulnerable among us with small acts of love…

*(Book: In the Heart of the World: Thoughts, Stories, Prayers - Mother Teresa)

One day I visited a house where our sisters shelter the aged. This is one of the nicest houses in England, filled with beautiful and precious things, yet there was not a smile on the faces of these people. All of them were looking toward the door.

I asked the sister in charge, “Why are they like that? Why can’t you see a smile on their faces? (I am accustomed to seeing smiles on people’s faces. I think a smile generates a smile, just as love generates love.)

The sister answered, “The same thing happens every day. They are always waiting for someone to come and visit them. Loneliness eats them up, and day after day they do not stop looking. Nobody comes.”

Abandonment is an awful poverty. There are poor people everywhere, but the deepest poverty is not being loved. The poor we seek may live near us or far away. They can be materially or spiritually poor. They may be hungry for bread or hungry for friendship.

They may need clothing, or they may need the sense of wealth that God’s love for them represents. They may need the shelter of a house made of bricks and cement or the shelter of having a place in our hearts.

Let us pray:

HYMN at the conclusion of the Sermon: MHSO #105 - We are all children of the Lord

We are all children of the Lord, young and old, big and little.

We are all children of the Lord, let us live in harmony!

Many names, many faces, many lands, many places,

but through time and through spaces, we are one humanity.

We are all children of the Lord, one by one, all together.

We are all children of the Lord, just like one big family.

Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992), adapt. from the anthem "Children of the Lord"

Sermon: Rev Julie PLatson

St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church

Sitka, AK