October 26, 2025, Consecration Sunday
Luke 16:19-31
Introduction
Railroad tracks, the other side of town, membership dues, exclusive communities, HOA’s, border walls… it seems there is always a gate between the rich and the poor; the haves and the haves-not. It’s even in today’s Gospel reading. On one side of the gate a rich man lives in splendor. He’s well dressed in expensive clothes and sits at his bountiful table and feasts every day. A poor man named Lazarus lays on the other side of the gate. He’s dressed in sores and dog spit. He’s hungry and would gladly eat the scraps that fall from the table, but the table is on the rich man’s side of the gate.
A fitting text for this Consecration Sunday, don’t you think? Afterall, this is already and uncomfortable day, so why not go all in and preach a text says to abide by God, Moses, the prophets and Jesus (who is telling this story), and don’t be like the rich man or we will end up in the flaming agony of Hades.
On its surface that’s what it seems this text is getting at. But this text does more on Consecration Sunday than warn us about the flaming agony of Hades. It makes us look at ourselves and consider—at a deeply spiritual level—both our richness as well as our poverty. This text makes us reevaluate our choices, our priorities, our actions, and the direction of our lives. It makes us look at the gates of our lives and see which gates are open and which gates are closed.
Move 1
For 2025 the U.S. government has defined poverty for a single individual, one Lazarus, as an annual income of less than $15,650. (For a family of four it is $32,150). For our government that is the gate that separates the rich man from Lazarus. And by that standard I am a rich man. How about you? Are you a rich man or a rich woman? And if you are, how do you feel about today’s Gospel and what happens to the rich man? Does it make you feel a bit uncomfortable? Maybe a bit twitchy and anxious?
This story is supposed to make us uncomfortable, twitchy, and anxious, but not for the reasons you might think. I don’t think this Gospel is about an arbitrary dollar amount that separates the rich from the poor. I don’t think it means the poor go to heaven and the rich go to hell. I don’t think it is about rewarding the poor and punishing the rich. And I don’t think those who have an annual income of $15,649 or more are destined for the agony of flames simply because of their income.
And if anyone thinks my exegesis of this text is inaccurate that’s fine. But I will expect you to reduce your annual income to $15,649 by filling out a pledge card that blesses God’s ministries here at First Christian Church. And while any preacher would love to get that kind of pledge card, please know I certainly do not want anyone to reduce their income to such—the world doesn’t need more poverty.
Today’s Gospel goes deeper than what will happen to us after we die. Today’s Gospel is about how we live today. Jesus is telling us that how we live today has an impact and consequences for tomorrow. And not just for ourselves but for others too. Jesus is asking us, regardless of our income, to face the wealth and to face the poverty in ourselves.
Move 2
Lazarus doesn’t just represent poverty in the world; he also represents the rich man’s impoverishment. That’s one reason why we set gates between the rich and poor—we don’t want to look in the eyes of Lazarus and see ourselves. If we did, if we ever truly saw impoverishment in the world and in ourselves, it would ask something of us—demand something of us. This text goes beyond just poverty. This text is teaching us that our choices matter; our priorities set a direction for where we are headed; our actions shape what is becoming of us and our core values guide these actions. Isn’t that what we see in the rich man in today’s Gospel?
Jesus is warning us that today’s gates become tomorrow’s chasms. At some point the gates we use to shut out parts of ourselves, or exclude another, become the chasm that not only separates us, but confines and isolates us. The chasm that now separates the rich man from Lazarus is not new. And it’s not God’s judgment or punishment of the rich man. The chasm has always been there. It’s a part of the rich man’s core values and actions, and it’s a reflection of his impoverishment.
Look at all the ways we set gates between ourselves and others; between rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless, black and white, gay and straight, Muslim and Christian, immigrant and citizen, or any other like divisions. Those gates are not a condition of circumstances or categories. Those gates are a condition of the human heart. The gate that becomes a chasm always exists within us before it exists between us. It is a symptom of our impoverishment. We can make more than $15,650 in a year but still be impoverished because of the gates and the chasms. And yet, we are rich because of the gates. Uh, oh. That’s a paradox! When something is both one thing and another. We are rich because of the gates. And we are impoverished because of the gates.
Move 3
What do you think would have happened if the rich man had abided by Abraham, Moses and the prophets before he died? What would have happened if he had taken a spiritual dive in all he was taught and knew, and opened the gates up to Lazarus and said, “I actually have an idea of what you’re going through.”
Now take that idea of what would have happened to, and with, the rich man and Lazarus, and ask yourself, “What if I did that? What if I opened the gates between me in the other, and remembered what it was like when I was in such a place?” And I don’t mean financially or physically—although some here can probably do that. I’m talking about when we were spiritually impoverished. When no one was there to hear our cries. When no one would open the gates to us.
What if the rich man would have opened his gate to Lazarus? What if we open the gates? What if we open the gates of compassion and concern for others, generosity and sharing, healing and wholeness, forgiveness and reconciliation, justice and peace, vulnerability and love? What would happen? What would that take? What would it mean for your life? What would it mean for the life of this church? What would it mean to the lives that are then touched?
I suspect it would change a lot. Change the way we pray. Change how we care for one another. Change the depth of our relationships, the significance of our lives, and what we hope for the future.
And because opening the gates would bring about such, the idea of doing so implores us to look at our life and intentionally ask ourselves: What are the closed gates in my life today? What gates are separating me from others? What is impoverishing me today? It might be fear, anger, resentment, jealousy, indifference, guilt, grief, old wounds, loneliness, cynicism, prejudice, or a thousand other things. By opening our gates, by spanning the chasms, we become richer beyond our wildest dreams because we will have left behind what had impoverished us in the first place.
Conclusion
I’ll admit… I got to a point in my sermon prep where I realized this wasn’t a very good sermon for Consecration Sunday. I’ve gotten dangerously close to something I loathe— emotional manipulation. I fear I have created an emotionally manipulated message via a not so well-guised guilt trip. A guilt trip of telling you, you are rich and need to follow Jesus by not being so rich and give your money to God’s church—namely this church.
But that’s not at all what my aim has been. So please know… On this Consecration Sunday, when we make a pledge of our monetary support for the ministries of the church in the coming year, I don’t want anyone to make a pledge rooted in guilt or shame. Rather I want us to know that our pledges are rooted in “something spiritual.” And that “something spiritual” is faith in the truth that when we come together as a church and be the church God has called us to be, our call is to open gates, to span chasms, and live as Christ lived. To be any other way is to miss the spiritual and divine connection with God because our gates have been kept closed.
And to be clear… I know every one of you has opened wide your gates. I am not trying to make anyone feel like they haven’t, or haven’t done enough. I’m trying to remind us that it’s easy to close the gates and let the chasms widen more and more—that’s what the world today tells us, and shows us, to do. Which means we have to constantly be challenging ourselves about who we are. Are we the rich person in this story? Or are we Lazarus?
And we figure out who we are when we ask ourselves…
Do I need to open any gates today in order to experience true wealth and abundance, to discover my true identity and worth, to live with true meaning and significance? What gates does First Christian Church of Stow need to open to live with true meaning and significance?
I hope we will take a moment to ask yourself these questions, and then listen—listen deeply, and hear our gates being rattled. Every day our gates are being rattled. Lazarus is rattling your gate and my gate—he’s rattling the gate of this church.
What are we going to do? Are we going to open the gates? Are we going to keep the gates open? Or aren’t we? What are we going to do with the gates of our lives? Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, October 26, 2025, Consecration Sunday
God of infinite grace and mercy, we gather before you today, drawn by the stark and challenging truth of your word that reminds us there are gates and chasms that often keep us in comfortable abundance and blinded to the “Lazaruses” at our gates.
Forgive us for the times our hearts have hardened, and our hands have remained closed. Forgive us for being distracted by our own blessings and failing to recognize the suffering in our community and in the world around us. Forgive us we pray, and then turn our eyes from our own self-interest toward the needs of our neighbors, especially the neglected, vulnerable, and forgotten.
Cultivate in us a spirit of faithful generosity, so we can invest our time, talent, and treasure into your kingdom and your vision of what the world can be.
Inspire us to serve you and your church with a joyful and open heart, not counting the cost, but counting the blessings and the lives impacted by giving freely as we have received freely.
Empower this church to throw open our gates so your compassion and grace spill out.
Further our efforts to be your hands and feet in this world, spanning the chasms we have created and building bridges of your love through our service, permitting the example of Christ, who gave all, to move us from complacency to action.
Holy God, challenge us to see the opportunities for service all around us, and know we can make a difference when we allow you to guide us to use the gifts you have given us to serve others as you have served us.
So fill us with your Holy Spirit, that our consecrated commitment to you, and to this church, may be a reflection of gates being flung open to your boundless love.
May you hear now the prayers from our hearts as we lift them to you in this time of Holy Silence.
We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, who came to seek and save the lost, who lives and reigns forever and ever, and who taught us to pray, saying, “Our…”