Gap

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

September 29, 2019

21 Proper C

          “Mind the gap” is a phrase used in England to remind people to be careful as they step off the subway onto the platform.  “Mind the gap” is a lovely British way of saying “watch your step.” However, “mind the gap” seems to have implications beyond getting off the train.  I am reminded of phrases like “Mind your manners.”  “Mind the gap” seems to ask us to tend to the gap, or pay attention to the gap, or be mindful of where we put our feet.  The request is a call to attentiveness more than a warning.  Being mindful of the gap allows us to bridge the distance between one surface and another, to overcome the gap rather than ignoring the distance and suffering the consequences.

          Both the reading from Jeremiah and Jesus’ parable about the rich man and Lazarus seem to be about minding a gap. In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, Lazarus spent his days lying at the gate of the rich man’s house, covered with sores, hungry and humiliated. The rich man spent his days dressed in purple and fine linen and feasting sumptuously. When they both die, the roles are reversed and Lazarus has the far better life in Hades than does the rich man, who wants Lazarus to wait on him. When the rich man can get no relief for his misery, he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his father’s house to warn his five brothers of their fate. But Abraham says no. "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." The rich man’s sin was that he ignored Lazarus lying at his gate, if he ever really saw him to begin with. The rich man ignored the vast gap between himself and Lazarus.  Moses and the prophets have a good bit to say about how the poor are to be treated. The book of Deuteronomy makes numerous provisions for the poor, and the Psalms are full of references to the way God will lift up the poor and crush the oppressor. The rich man may have ignored Lazarus and the gap between the two men, but God was most certainly aware of both Lazarus and the distance of that gap.

           This morning, in the passage from Jeremiah, we hear Jeremiah make what appears to be a run of the mill real estate agreement. The details of the agreement are a bit foreign to us. Jeremiah has the right of redemption by purchase to the land being sold by his cousin Hanamel. The right of redemption is something like first right of refusal, although in the case of right of redemption the land stays in the family. We are given every little detail of the transaction, so between those details and the fact that God endorses this transaction, this real estate agreement looks to be in Jeremiah’s best interest.  However, the property is a very bad piece of real estate and Jeremiah is actually in prison. Jeremiah has told the people of Judah, his own people, that God is using the Babylonians, the enemy, to punish the people of Judah for their sins. Those sins were things like worshiping foreign gods and ignoring the poor in their midst.  For his efforts, Jeremiah has landed in jail.  The real estate is a bad investment because the Babylonians will soon invade Judah and completely destroy Jerusalem. Jeremiah’s property will be destroyed, abandoned, and worthless. But God tells Jeremiah to put the deeds to the land in an earthenware jar where they will last a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land." Despite all evidence to the contrary, and in the midst of impending disaster, God calls Jeremiah and the people to hope in a future that is better than their current situation or the immediate future. 

What do Jeremiah’s real estate transaction, and the story of Lazarus and the rich man have to do with minding the gap? In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, and through out the gospels, Jesus calls us to see those whom the world ignores or simply does not see. Jesus calls us to open our eyes to see the need around us. Sometimes that need is obvious, like a man lying at the gate, covered with flies and having his wounds licked by wild dogs seeking blood. Other times the need is less obvious and far easier to ignore.  Who, in our own community, does not feel like a fully valued participant?  Who has needs that we cannot see because we do not look?  Or on a larger scale, have we become so numb to gun violence that we no longer hear the cries of those who have been wounded and see the tears of those who have lost loved ones?  When we mind the gap, we see the people God sees, and create a bridge to travel the gap. 

Jeremiah’s real estate transaction reminds us that God sees hope where we see disaster. Just as God saw hope in Jeremiah’s purchase of land that would soon be destroyed, God calls us to mind the gap between the hope God sees and places where the world sees failure and would give up. We mind the gap when we invest time and resources in children who struggle to learn, or those who feel totally overwhelmed by life, or when we, like Greta Thunberg, decide there is something one person can do to make a difference in the enormous problem of climate change.  God calls us to see and work for hope where the world sees disaster or refuses to look at all.   

Who do we not see because we are afraid to look?  Where do we fail to mind the gap between despair and hope?  Today we hear God call us to open our eyes and look carefully at the world around us. God challenges us to see those that God sees but the world does not, and, despite any impending disaster, to invest in God’s hope for the future. God calls us to mind the gap.

                                                          Amen