Digging the Chasm - Sermon

A sermon by Rev. Barb Lemmel and Rev. Mitchell Hay Gospel Lesson Luke 16:19-31 Now there was a certain rich man, and he used to don a purple robe and fine linen and make merry every day in splendid fashion. And a certain destitute man by the name of Lazarus had been laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to have his hunger sated with the things falling from the rich man’s table; and instead, the dogs came and licked at his sores. And it happened that the poor man died and was carried off by the angels into the Vale of Abraham; but the rich man also died and was entombed. And lifting up his eyes in Hades, being in torment, he sees Abraham far off and Lazarus in his vales. And calling out he said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he might dip the tip of his finger in water and might cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this flame.” But Abraham said, “Child, remember that you received your good things during your life, and Lazarus in the same way the bad things; and now he is comforted here and you are in torment. And, besides all that, a great chasm has been firmly fixed between us and you, so that those wishing to pass to you from here cannot, nor may anyone cross over from there to here.” And he said, “Then I ask you, father, that you might send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers; thus he might bear witness to them, so they might not also come to this place of torment.” But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them.” But he said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone should go to them from the dead, they will change their hearts.” But he said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded even if someone should arise from the dead.”