Worship
Service for September 28, 2025
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Those who dwell in the shelter of the Most
High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
P: They will say to the Lord, “God is my
refuge and fortress, the one in whom we trust.”
L: Those who dwell in the shelter of the Most
High will abide in the refuge of God’s wings.
P: They will not fear the terror of the night
nor the arrow that flies by day.
L: “Those who love me, I will deliver,” says
the Lord.
P: O Lord, we call to you now. Show us Your salvation.
Opening Hymn – Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven #478/1
Prayer of Confession
Gracious and generous God, You
lavishly bestow the gift of Your love.
Forgive us, we pray when we don’t see or recognize Your gifts for what
they are; when we think we have somehow earned or are entitled to Your generosity;
when we take what You give and beg You for more; when we hoard our gifts and do
not hear the mournful cry of those around us; when our desire for more plunges
us into ruin and destruction. Teach us
the ways of godliness, and grant us a spirit of contentment, that we may be
grateful for Your provision and share the gifts You give with others. As we are blessed by You, so may we be a
blessing to others, in the name of Your matchless gift, our Savior Jesus Christ. AMEN. (Silent
prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: People of God, do not set your hopes on
the uncertainty of riches, but rather on the richness of God, who provides us
everything for our lives and enjoyment.
Be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share.
P: In the name of Jesus Christ, we are
forgiven. AMEN
Gloria Patri
Affirmation of Faith/Apostles’
Creed
I believe in God the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the
third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on
the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge
the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the
resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
You have called each of us, gracious
God, into relationship with you. As we
grow and change, your words continue to challenge us, to confront us, to judge
us, to love us. Thank you for the gift
of your Holy Word to us in our lives.
You have
called each of us in your Word-Made-Flesh self, who was willing to bear the
reproach of those in authority in order to serve the least, the last, and the
lost. He spoke your healing, redeeming,
gracious words into reality. Thank you
for that gift of Your Word in our lives.
You
continue to call to us in the needs of those around us; and so we offer our
prayers for all who are in any way burdened, disillusioned, or suffering. Hear our prayers of concern for the world,
for the establishment of peace, for the ease of suffering and pain from
drought, disease, political strife and conflict. Reach out now to our own country and its
leaders. Allow them to be wise in
decision making and compassionate to those in need.
Lord,
hear our prayers for those near at home and their relationship with you. Allow them to feel your presence and know
your amazing grace. We lift up in prayer
to you this day….
Also hear
these prayers, those quiet prayers of the heart, as we pray to you in silence….
Hear us
now, O Lord, as we pray together; …Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by
Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give
us this day our daily bread. Forgive us
our debts as we forgive our debtors. And
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and
the glory, forever. AMEN.
Hymn – How Great Thou Art #467/147
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Psalm 91
Second Scripture Reading – Luke
16:19-31
Sermon – The Great Chasm (based on Luke
16:19-31)
In doing some reading and research on this passage today, it
was intriguing to me to find the sermons of so many of the old-timey preachers
from several generations ago or those current ultra-conservative
revivalists. This passage is perfect for
them. It feeds their need to shout and
yell at the people in their congregations about the results of their
unbelief. It gives them a perfect
passage to talk about the wages of sin and the benefits of heaven. They can preach until they sweat. They can start off slowly and work into a
frenzy, their voices soft and slow in the beginning and then gradually building
momentum and gathering steam until they are shouting out the proclamations as
they claim come directly from God.
The story of Lazarus and the Rich man is a perfect Hellfire
and Brimstone story. But the problem
is, I’m not a Hellfire and Brimstone preacher and this passage isn’t a parable
about Heaven and Hell. Jesus doesn’t
intend to give us some literal explanation of what happens after we die in this
parable. No, the parable is about the here
and now.
I
can’t stand here in this pulpit pointing fingers and yelling at you for not
believing, even if I thought you didn’t believe and were doomed to an afterlife
in hell. But, I can’t rebuke each and
every one of us, myself included for not following the demand that Christ puts
forth in this parable.
Let’s go
a bit deeper in what Jesus was trying to tell his listeners in this story. Some stories are outrageous exaggerations in
order to make an opposite point. Perhaps
the chasm isn’t really an unbridgeable gap between heave and hell in the afterworld. The chasm that Jesus is pointing out is the
one right here on earth, now. The chasm
between the rich and the poor; the chasm between the privileged and the
oppressed.
And
that chasm can be overcome. It can be crossed. We can build a bridge. We often talk about building bridges between
divides. And we don’t just talk about
that. We do it all the time. Of all people in the world, Pittsburghers
should know and appreciate something called a bridge. I’ve read that we have more bridges in the
Greater Pittsburgh area than any other city in the world.
If you
think about them, bridges are pretty miraculous structures. They make for shortcuts; they connect what was
separated; they provide for safe passage over dangerous terrain. And they make great metaphors. We talk of “bridging” divides between people,
cultures, classes, and conflicts. Bridges
make things possible. Things that were before,
impossible.
Although
the action of Christ’s parable here in Luke is set in an imaginary afterlife,
the chasm could have been bridged in this life. The rich man could have reached
out to Lazarus, the starving man at his gate. Clearly, Lazarus had reached out to him —
begging for food — wanting just some scraps. Anything. But nothing happened in return. No hand reached back; no food was shared.
A poor
man can’t build a bridge by himself. The
reciprocal responsibility fell to the rich man. Some empathy at least? A little food? A coin tossed in his bowl? No. The
rich man ignored Lazarus in favor of his own pleasures. He might not have even noticed him. If he did, he probably thanked God that he
wasn’t the man with bleeding sores at the gate.
This
is yet another version of “eat, drink, and be merry.” The chasm widened and no
bridge was built. The parable, however,
isn’t ultimately about two particular men, one in heaven and the other in hell
and how they got there. They stand in
for larger “characters,” whole classes or communities of the poor and the rich.
It speaks to the barriers and boundaries
we erect between poverty and plenty. The parable is about the chasms we live
with — and those that we ignore. It is
about us and the chasms of injustice we walk past every day.
I
could name a whole list of contemporary chasms, but one of them is the climate
crisis. We don’t really like to talk
about it, too much. And during Jesus’
time, the environment wasn’t a central issue in the divide between rich and
poor. For Christ’s listeners, the rain
fell on the just and unjust; drought or a good growing season impacted the
whole community; good weather and natural disasters played no real favorites.
But
now, the chasm between the poor and the rich is caught up in this global
crisis. Most westerners don’t really
think about climate change as a crisis. We
don’t generally notice it because wealthier nations can more easily mitigate
its effects. If it is hotter than usual,
we crank up the air conditioning. We
still can mute the impacts of a warming world through minor personal changes
and technologies. Our wealth creates an
illusion of continued comfort — and we ignore what we don’t experience.
But
poorer and impoverished nations — even less well-off communities in wealthy
countries — are already suffering with the consequences of a shifting, more
hostile climate. Increased and new
diseases, water and food shortages, loss of homes and farmland are occurring on
a massive scale. Poverty means fewer
resources to adapt to these changes, and little support when disaster strikes.
People lose their livelihoods; people lose their lives.
And
all of it, if is helping to fuel another global crisis — immigrants and
refugees. We aren’t the only country
impacted greatly by the immigrant and refugee crisis. It isn’t a simple problem. It is extremely complex as the poor and
displaced are forced to move simply to survive.
We,
the developed countries, are the rich man. The refugees, the less wealthy countries, are
Lazarus at the gates.
So,
what are we doing? Most of our nations
have decided to lock the gates — and reinforce walls — when we should be
building bridges in lots of different ways.
Bridges aren’t generally one-way structures. People pass over them in both
directions. Unfortunately, we’ve made
the chasm deeper and harder to breach.
We
could still cross over to help. We could
still reach out and join hands with those reaching toward us. But, unfortunately, that’s not the spirit of
these days in most developed nations. Far
too many have decided on a politics of the rich man, to feast in comfort and
luxuriate in privilege, while we thank God we aren’t like the poor.
We are
living the parable of Lazarus and the rich man right now. Not just here in the US, but globally, as well. Sometimes we get caught up in hearing about
our own national news that we lose sight of what’s happening around the world. And this little parable told by Jesus is a
version of our own world today. Perhaps it’s
a bit more prophecy than parable.
I think most of us understand full well what we’re being
told in this story. The challenge is to
take what we now know and translate it into action whenever and wherever
possible. We need to look around and see
the many different faces of Lazarus that surround us – impoverished persons who
need our material expressions of support and encouragement. They’re everywhere. We just need to open our eyes to see
them. If we don’t, Christ clearly
suggests, we’ll receive exactly what is due us.
Jesus spends more time talking about money and how it keeps
us from God or on how it should be used than on any other topic. The real issue is about our purpose and
mission in life – it’s not about gaining happiness through storing up wealth,
or gaining heaven by being able to purchase our way in, or about having the
most number of special gadgets and toys.
No, our purpose and mission in life is to use our resources to do good in the world.
It is our job and our calling to show the
world, Christ. To be the arms and legs,
feet and hands of Christ. And we’ve done
a very poor job of it. It’s about time
that the church start acting like Christ, so that the world can find God again.
Or one
day — and that day may not be far in the future — there won’t be a bridge that
can reach over the chasm. Because chasms
can simply become too wide.
However,
we can make different choices. Can we
imagine a politics that embraces Lazarus? In the parable, Lazarus could have saved the
rich man when both were alive — if only the rich man had reached for the poor
man’s hand. And that is the story’s
central truth: The only way of healing is together.
AMEN.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
God, our refuge and fortress, our deliverer and
protector, we thank You for the gift of our salvation. Bless now these gifts that we offer back to
You, the gifts of our resources and the gifts of our hearts. Use these gifts so that others may come to
know the abundant life You offer. AMEN
Closing Hymn – Lord, Make Us More Holy #536
Blue Hymnal
Benediction –
People of
God, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and
gentleness. Fight the good fight. Take hold of eternal life. To God, who dwells in unapproachable light,
and to Jesus Christ, the blessed Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of
lords, and to the Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and forever. AMEN
Postlude
