Sermon: Pentecost 16, Luke 16:19-31
September 28, 2025
Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church
Pastor Jonathan Linman
Certain phrases from our Sunday readings can ring out like a gong, grabbing our attention. We do well to pay attention to those moments and explore the spiritual energies of passages that have deep resonance for us.
In today’s gospel reading, this is the portion of the passage that captivated me in the recounting of the interaction between Father Abraham and the rich man who died and wanted relief from his torment in Hades: “Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.”
A great chasm has been fixed. Even though the rich man could see Father Abraham and Lazarus and talk with them, the gap between them was unsurmountable. Let the image of a great chasm soak in for a moment. Maybe even picture in your mind’s eye, the Grand Canyon…. Then apply that image to the chasms of our times and human circumstances….
There are great chasms in our nation today, so wide that people seemingly cannot cross over, keeping us divided sometimes even in our own families and among neighbors in our own communities. Here are some of the chasms of our day:
Wealth inequality: super rich vs. everyone else; Red state vs. Blue state; Republican vs. Democrat
Urban vs. Rural; the West and East Coasts vs. the so-called Fly Over States
Fox News vs. MSNBC
Those with a college education vs. those without such educational attainment
The silo echo chambers we lock ourselves into while others lock themselves into theirs….
What happens “In Real Life, in person vs. life online
Generation vs. generation
Preoccupation with our self-proclaimed identities which then rob us of a sense of common, shared humanity
Racial divides: white vs. dark skins; Gender divides: men vs. women and then also folk who are trans
Evangelicals and Pentecostals vs. Mainline Christians
Family members who for whatever reasons are estranged from one another, and may not even speak with one another anymore
And there are no doubt more chasms that you can name….
These differences can be so profound as to be seemingly insurmountable. So, the image of the great chasm conveyed in today’s gospel story is poignant in describing our current time in this nation and world.
It all seems so final and hopeless. And current events reinforce the sense of the insurmountability of so many of the chasms between us. We get a sense of that hopeless finality in how today’s gospel story concludes: “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” Not even something miraculous will make a difference it seems….
Where’s the good news in this story from Luke? I daresay, we need to look elsewhere in the Gospel of Luke for that good news….
And dear people of God, there is good news and I believe that it is ultimately found in the conclusion to the story in chapter 18 about the rich ruler who turned away from Jesus because of Jesus’ exhortation that he sell his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. That’s when Jesus gave a message in keeping with what we also heard in today’s lesson: “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:24-25)
Those who heard this became exasperated and exclaimed: “Then who can be saved?” That’s when Jesus offered up the good news that is life-saving for us in overcoming the insurmountability of our chasms today: “What is impossible for mortals is possible for God.” (Luke 18:26-27)
While it was impossible for the rich man in today’s story to cross the fixed chasm to connect with Lazarus and Father Abraham for relief, it was possible for God in Jesus Christ who did indeed rise from the dead, bridging the chasm between life and death. It is Jesus Christ who, having died, descended to the place of the dead, as we confess in our creeds. I dare say, Jesus Christ, in that descent into hell, found people like the tormented rich man and by grace and forgiveness rescued them from their agony. What’s impossible for us mortals is possible for God in Christ.
As we heard in today’s reading from 1 Timothy: Our Lord Jesus Christ “is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominions. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15b-16)
The author of 1 Timothy praises Christ Jesus, because in his divine victory, the greatest of chasms, that is, the grand canyons between life and death, sin and virtue, have been crossed on the cross and in the empty tomb.
And what Christ did once and for all two millennia ago, Christ does again and again amidst the chasms of our lives and times today.
Jesus Christ bridges the chasm between life and death for us in the waters of baptism, raising us to new life in Jesus.
Jesus Christ bridges the chasm between heaven and earth in the holy food of the Eucharist, giving us a foretaste of the eternal feast to come.
Through such means of grace, God in Christ does the impossible in waking us in faith to the possible with God when so many things still seem impossible to us….
And in faith, God in Christ calls us to cross over the chasms of our day as well reaching out to those estranged from us. God in Christ calls us like the prophet Amos to shout a prophetic word across the gaps between rich and poor to call for a reduction to income inequality – “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches…. But are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.” (Amos 6:4, 7)
God in Christ beckons us to cross the chasms of our day and gives us what we need to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness” when so many do the opposite to keep wide the divides between us. God in Christ encourages us to “fight the good fight of the faith… taking hold of the eternal life to which we were called.” (cf. 1 Timothy 6:11b-12)
God in Christ gives us the word we need in “commanding the rich not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (cf. 1 Timothy 6:17). And with courage we instruct the rich “to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.” (cf. 1 Timothy 6:18-19)
And thus, through such prophetic ministry, we further Christ’s work of doing the impossible and crossing the chasms of our day, bringing healing balm in our bitterly divided time.
God in Christ help us to cross over today’s chasms by the power of the cross of Christ working in us and our ministries. Christ Jesus, help us to mend the breaches. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Amen.
